Raised in a nominally Christian home I was a overly shy and timid kid that was always sick. At age 11 at summer Church camp I was saved and become a new person. No longer shy, but outgoing. No longer sickly but healthy I knew the scriptures were true. I served as an active member of our youth group and even began to teach younger children but received no real encouragement from an elder or pastor so I became bored.
Upon entering college I began attending the Baptist church and again was very active and even got to preach often at the Wednesday services. Still no real encouragement to make a full commitment came from those who should have seen the desire to serve. Consequently I quit going to services altogether when I went into the service near the end of the Korean War.
After the service I returned to college, got married and obtained a master's degree in Geology. As we moved around from uranium mining to geophysical work in west Texas to oil exploration in southern Louisiana we drifted from church to church and I served as a teacher, and quite successfully as a youth department director. Then as God's calling began to assert itself upon me I began to teach directly from the Bible and address the issues that affected the young people. That traditional church promptly dismissed me from their congregation for preaching and not teaching their printed literature. Totally disillusioned I quit church altogether. No one seemed to care, it was all just social correctness.
The backsliding soon revealed to me that I was a failure as a father and husband. I had neglected to convey my love of the Lord and His way to my children or to my wife, and the business/ success was hollow and unsatisfying.
One of my brother's had been shot down in Viet Nam and on a plane to meet him at his release in San Antonio, TX. I was very distressed. The man in the seat next to me offered to pray for me. I thought "he must be a nut, but how does he know I need prayer?" To avoid confessing my distress I let him pray for me and miracles began to happen. Upon my return home I looked that man up to see what was the difference in his prayers and mine. He witnessed to my wife and I about the Holy Spirit.
Later after moving to Houston, Texas that incident on the airplane led us back to Church to try one more time to connect with God. We confessed our failures as sin (John 1:19 & Rom. 10:9-10) and my wife and I invited Jesus to be the Lord of all our life, not just someone we knew about, and He came in. Jesus gave us back our children, delivered my wife from depression, and me from boredom and a nervous stomach, our children from rebellion and blessed us with many miracles. Our entire family soon received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and became dedicated Christians from that day 'till this.
I began attending the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship meetings and experienced the anointing in ministry that finally took away my boredom!
God has saved us physically from certain death during a terrible car wreck: he restored our finances to being debt free and has enabled us to financially aid dozens of missionaries beyond our tithe. Our entire family began ministering to the sick the lame, afflicted, poor, disturbed, depressed, lost, deceived and foolish, and ministering with power and wisdom as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit.. We have become as II Timothy 2: 15 says," having studied to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth". He is able! Praise the lord!
Since that commitment both of our daughters have gotten Master's degrees in theology and been ordained as well as have their husbands. Our son is faithful to his church and leads bible studies in his home. I have been blessed by the Lord to be ordained in two different churches and to minister in several foreign countries and many states. I'm personally sure he will remain faithful and allow us to be a servant to those in need to the end of our days. Ps. 92:14 says, "even in old age they shall bear fruit"...and Is. 46:4 "even in old age I shall carry you"!
God gave guidance many times in my business. When a study that was to be given to the president was delivered to me a month late I realized my boss was purposely trying to cause me to fail in my job. I was furious. I asked God for permission to express a little righteous anger and knock his teeth out! God's answer was "why don't you pray for him?" I didn't want to! I wanted revenge! But under conviction for my behavior I began to ask God to help me want to pray for him. God suggested I should feel sorrow that he was afraid of my talents showing him up and that I should just pray for his assurance. The final outcome was That God granted me favor with him and with the president of the division. That man came into my room and confessed his crimes to me and asked my forgiveness. God then showed me how to do the job that man had sabotaged and as a result the president gave me his job and him a better one! Glory to God's name.
On a plane to Bolivia to negotiate an exploration contract God had me seated next to a Dutch woman who could not stop crying because she had lost her husband. God allowed me to speak to her with my limited German vocabulary and she was comforted and relieved. Only later did I learn that the Dutch language was not German and that she did not speak German. He is able to do exceedingly above all that we know to ask!
At the meeting with the Bolivian officials God granted my team such favor that what ordinarily would take four days was accomplished in one day! We were astonished! One of my associates asked if that was my God again-they knew, even though I did not preach to them! But we were stuck in Bolivia for 3 more days because of our visas and our reservations.
God had a plan. Back in the hotel I began to pray and seek the Lord. I felt there was a reason god wanted us to stay. I felt compelled to fast and study the word until we left.. The day we were to leave I was awakened by the spirit early and led to pack and send my luggage ahead to the airport. An unusual tug in my spirit led me onto the street and directed me to a store where I saw a woman with a terrible wound of some sort being wrapped in gauze. God said "stop here and wait, I am going to heal her when you pray for her." I said." God I don't speak Spanish! ", But he said Go, almost audibly. The person putting the bandage on her arm left the store and I went over and motioned to her. As she came over to me she put the arm very gingerly upon the counter and I just reached over and touched her elbow with one hand and her fingertips with the other and said," God of mercy and love, I pray you heal this woman now as you have sent me to prove your love to her and to me". She jumped back and screamed and began to unwrap her arm that was totally normal now and showed no signs of the wound. A voice said to me "leave quickly now, they will want to build a temple to you and I don't want that and neither do you. I want you to always be able to say,' If God has to reach halfway around the world to get the right person to minister to you he can and he will!"
There have been many such astonishing, and yes, miraculous events in our lives since that commitment to let Jesus be the Lord of our lives. And I know that I know that the scripture I quoted earlier in Psalms 92 about being fruitful even in their old age is certainly true and that God will be with us to the very end of time, " the same yesterday, tomorrow and forever".
I will always be grateful to the full Gospel Fellowship and it's successor Business Men's Fellowship for allowing me to pray and minister without hindrances. It is a great training ground with many opportunities to serve God. I hope anyone reading this will join or visit a chapter somewhere soon. If you can't finds one, start one. You will be blessed to let Jesus and the Holy Spirit into your business too.