When I was about 8 years old, my mother had to go to a hospital for having depression and (what was called then) a mental breakdown following the death of her father. She was there for about 6 months. My Aunt came to stay with us (my sister and I) during the day while my dad worked on the farm. My aunt taught us how to pray at meals and that children's prayer of "Now I lay my head down to sleep and asked the Lord for my soul to keep".She also read from the scriptures.

We loved our aunt. A few years later my aunt finally went to the doctor about a lump that she had had on a breast since she was 18 years old. It was starting to give her problems and discovered it was cancer. She had surgery which caused the cancer to spread everywhere except her vital organs. She lay bedfast with my grandmother faithfully taking care of her for 7 years.

We would visit her about once a year about State Fair time as my dad could get away from the farm for a few days. At first, I was asking mom about what was going to happen to Aunt Mildred when she died. I loved her very much and was concerned. Then, I started being concerned where I would go when I died. Mom said, "Darrell don't worry, when you die you will go to Heaven because Jesus died for man's sins." From that time until the Lord converted me I really was not concerned about dying and hell again.

We didn't ever go to church. Well, my sister did with some schoolmates that lived down the street. She would go with them on Sundays and Wednesdays. My dad lost his leg in a grain auger accident in 1959, I was in the 6th grade. The pastor kindly came over to visit my mom and dad when he got out of the hospital. It seemed very natural for him to do so. But, as he was heading out the door, (I will never forget)he turned around and told my dad that if my sister was going to continue to come to his church that he needed to start giving regularly to their church, rather than the quarter or fifty cent piece she was putting into the plate. Well, that stopped my sister from attending church.

I did attend a couple of weddings of two of my cousins, but other than that, I never stepped foot into a church besides breaking into one that was only used for funerals out by my cousin's farm.

When I was about 18, my girlfriend, later to become my wife, took me to my first worship service. We were engaged and she said her pastor would not marry us unless we came in to talk so he could be sure I was a Christian. We went and I thought I had passed the pastor's test. He agreed to marry us. Later I would find out that I really fooled him or he discovered that my bride to be wasn't a believer either.

We honeymooned on the way from Nebraska to Homestead, Florida two weeks. We had no interest in going to church, at least I didn't. I was in the Air Force but worked part time for a crane operator. He was always asking me to come to their church and talked to me about religious things but it made no sense and I resisted, labeling him a religious fanantic.

I was reassigned to Kunsan Korea for a year. My wife stayed in Nebraska close to her parents with our first daughter. I worked with a young man in the munitions storage facility who went to chapel every Sunday and helped in the chapel during the week. He didn't goof off but was taking extension classes because he wanted to be a doctor. He also was from Nebraska and probably returned to Omaha, Nebraska. He was one that I looked too as being a Christian and held to his beliefs. This did not wake me up either to spiritual things but these experiences would later help me to see that there were real Christians out there.

After leaving Korea in 1971 and being discharged from the Air Force, we moved to Mesa, Az. so I could start as an apprentice with the Carpenters Union in a warm climate. We bought our first home in 1973. Shortly after moving in, my wife knew something was missing in her life. She cried out to God to somehow show Himself to her, if He was there and real. Shortly after on a Good Friday, Associate Pastor Hathaway was going house to house to share the Lord with whoever would let him.

My wife answered the door. He was a Baptist pastor and Janet felt comfortable to let him in. She had gone to a Baptist church when she was younger but wasn't a Christian. That day, she says she found what she was looking for. She started going to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, sometimes on Wednesday night and even Thursday visitation night. One visitation night, she did not go and I received a knock on the door. It was two deacons from that church. My wife took our 3 year old daughter into the bedroom and I didn't see them again until these deacons were ready to leave. I had been raised in a one room school house for 3 years and then a small elementry school in town. Both of those schools had plays at Christmas and Easter every year about the birth, death and ressurection of Jesus Christ. We also had prayer every morning in school. So, when these men talked to me about who Jesus was and what he had done, I had no problem believing in what they were telling me. I had not been raised in a church or even attended a worship service, except for the one Easter service that my wife, to be, took me to.

I started attending church with my wife more. The Pastor asked me to come on a Saturday to supervise 10 or 12 guys to get alot of repair and construction work done around the church property. He had found out that I had my own construction business. Saturday, I showed up with my tools, and laid everything out for the 10 or 12 guys who never showed up except for a cabinet man who was also waiting for his promised help. We both discussed, even if we had been told by our unbelieving friends that they would be there to help, they would have been there. Well, about 10am the pastor shows up and seeing the two of us, said "Oh, I completely forgot to call the men and tell them to come". I thought, this really takes the cake. I don't need any of this kind of Christianity. I quit attending church which discouraged my wife and she also quit going. Oh, the pastor came around one Saturday to try and smooth things over, I was polite but wasn't going back.

Next, Janet ran into some friends that we use to play cards and party with. The wife had also had a similar experience with the Lord as my wife. She invited us to her church, and we went. The three pastors greeted us that morning and made us feel very welcome. The youngest pastor invited us to a small group Bible study which lasted through the summer. We studied the book of James. That was the first time in my life that I really started opening up the Bible to read it and study it. The sermons on Sunday started to make sense and on one particular Sunday, through the preaching of the Word of God, I knew that I really beleived in Jesus Christ as MY Lord and Savior. He was no longer just a historical figure.

The scripture says in Romans 10:17- Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and message is heard through the Word of Christ. I believe that is what happen to me, someone finally got me into the book (The Bible) where I really heard the message of salvation. it was a message of real faith in Jesus Christ dying for me, covering my sin with his crushed body and shed blood, for a proud wretched sinner as I. The Lord got me into a place where the Holy Spirit could take the Word and change my Heart. A biblical heart is one's mind, emotions and will. God changed my mind, emotions and will during that time to give me a desire to start turning from my sin and honoring Him.

Well, I knew God had done something in me, so, what was it. I found that answer in the Gospel of John, Chapter 3 and verse 3. Jesus says that one cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born again. What does that mean, you ask? You see I was born a sinner because of the sin of Adam and Eve, my parent's sin passed on to me and my own sin. Jesus goes on to say that we were born a product of physical parents to have physical life, which we didn't choose, but it will take each one of us to be born spiritually from above (God-the Holy Spirit) to have true spiritual life and enter The Kingdom of God.
This is how God used men, women, and circumstances in life to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to me, I was not looking for him.

Please contact me if I can be of help to you in your struggle in finding the true answers of this life now and for eternity.

In Christ's service,

Darrell