I am just a plain simple Christian and this story is about my journey. I accepted the Lord at the age of 8, sitting in a tree house with my neighbor and was baptized shortly after. I didn’t learn much theology from the pulpit but learned a lot from the old classic Christian Hymns. My life was normal, but I lost interest in church as a university student because I perceived it was full of hypocrites. I was not interested in the Bible either as it seemed to be full of rules I was always breaking.

But God got my attention through Campus Crusade for Christ when I heard for the first time Bible prophecy and that God had a plan for my life. With that new understanding and through a series of events I decided to go to Bible School and learn more about God’s plan for my life.

I planned to go to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Yet in the church I was going to I met a young, engaged couple who were working for Moody at the Alive Pavilion at Hemisphere 68 the World’s Fair held in San Antonio, Texas. The Alive Pavilion showed Moody Science Films. They asked me to volunteer to stand on the midway, give a little spiel and invite people in to see the many fantastic films they were showing. As I got to know them over the summer, I found out that they graduated from a fantastic Bible School in Canada and that I really should go there.  

Canada and that school sounded fascinating, so I applied there. They just forgot to tell me that this large, non-denominational Bible school was an intensive training ground where students from all over the world attended to prepare for missionary work. I had only read two books in the Bible so almost everything was over my head. But the teachers were patient and caring and the students accepting. See one of the school’s graduate’s documentaries called Peace Child which shows what the school’s training was for and why it was so intense.

In my second year, my father died in a car accident. I became distracted and struggled to finish school. God’s promises were working for others but did not seem to be working for me.

Since many of my friends were Canadian, I went to Great Falls, Mt. to work for the summer and spent many of my free days going to Canada to spend time with them. At the end of that summer, I worked at Pioneer Ranch Camps with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in Alberta, Canada. One of my friends’ dads asked me to come to Canada and work for him. He sponsored me, gave me a job, and had his staff fill out the paperwork necessary to immigrate. This was only to be temporary in my mind. As an American, I checked with my military draft board to see if there would be any problem in going to Canada to live and work. Because I had received a very high lottery draft number, they said it would be no problem.

Finding my own faith

God was gracious as I was struggling with what the Bible said and what I was experiencing. However, prophecy was so powerful that I could not deny the Bible and so I shared Jesus consistently, picking up hitchhikers everywhere I went. On the dash right in front of the passenger I had a Dymo Tape label with the words, “Ride At Your Own Risk…I’m Leaving At The Rapture.” This became a great conversation starter.

A certain hitch hiker I’d met 5 years previously searched for me and found me in the remote part of British Columbia where I was working and still struggling with God’s plan for my life. He was determined to tell me that after praying with me to receive Christ back when I had picked him up, he’d gone to Bible school and was about to enter the mission field. After that brief encounter we lost contact and I never saw or heard from him again.

I decided to return to Bible school to find my own answers to my struggle. At last, I got it in the story of John the Baptist asking Jesus if He really was the Messiah, because John had focused on the part of the prophecies that focused on Christ setting the captives free and there he was, stuck in prison. (See Isaiah 35:5-6).

⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: ⁵ The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. ⁶ And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Jesus’ answer Matthew 11:4-6.

Essentially, God was saying to John and to me through His Word: “Take your eyes off the things I’m not doing and put your eyes on what I am doing, and you’ll be blessed by the way I’m working my program.” Then by faith, I understood and accepted that God’s dealings are not always the way we think they should be.

I then planned to go to the mission field in Ecuador. One of my teachers saw an article in the paper about the first Advanced Emergency Paramedical Care training program in Canada, training medics to not only work in cities but also remote locations in Canada. It was one of the first in all North America but was unique and longer in training to work those remote locations which could be hours and plane flights away from hospitals and doctors. This seemed like a great skill set to gain for the mission field.

God’s plans and my plans

During my time of schooling, I was speaking at Christian camps and checking with my pastor about the content of the messages. Each time I came in, I had to pass a young, cute receptionist. I dated her for a while and then I started to have strong feelings for her, that frightened me, and I was sure she felt the same. I was encouraged to be married by the mission board I was going with because the culture I was going to did not understand a young man my age being single. But I was just a short time away from missionary candidate and linguistics school. Getting married would set my schedule back at least a year, if not longer.

I expressed my concern to my pastor looking for an answer to my situation and he counseled the unthinkable, saying she was a gift from God. She still is a gift to me 40+ years later.

While adjusting to married life, I injured my back twice while on the job as a paramedic resulting in surgery, which took my dreams of working in the jungles and mountains of Ecuador off the table. But God has blessed my life with many other ventures. 

A place for faith-sharers & new believers

In this season of my life, I want to try to talk to people daily – people I might only see once, so I want to make an impact on their lives for Jesus. My wife and I had this website built to be able to help people find sound Biblical answers to their questions, get good Bible teaching, and understand how to choose and know a solid Bible-preaching church when they find one.

Please feel free to share this site with anyone.