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Recently, I read a story about Abraham Lincoln visiting a woman who was
ready to die. Lincoln went there as a Lawyer, but he, also was there as a
Pastor. The woman wanted a will drawn up. She used the words, 'I want to put my
worldly affairs in order before I die. I've already taken care of my heavenly
affairs, and now I want to put this life's affairs in order.'
This story caused me to think; have I done everything I wanted to do before
I die? Do I have my entire worldly things in order? Well, there is one thing I
want to do before I die, and that is to leave something to this world before I
go on to life eternal. I want to put down in writing the greatest thing that
ever happen to me in my 65 years of life (as of posting of this website.) Like all stories,
there is a beginning, so lets start there.
Chapter one "In the beginning."
I was born in a place called Town of Lake, in Wisconsin, which
is now part of Milwaukee. I was born to common parents, who were of the working
class. My father was a machine repairman at Allis Chalmers. My mother was a
mother & a housewife most of my life. She did work for awhile when times got
hard.
My dad was a big, strong man who would get mean once in awhile. He got into
some trouble when he was young, drinking and fighting mostly. I was afraid of
him when I was growing up, though he only hit me twice that I can remember. He
would take me into bars with him and give me beer to drink even though I was
only twelve years old. If anybody would say anything to him, he would say, 'He's
my kid and I'll raise him the way I want to.'
My dad would come home from work drunk once in awhile. Boy, did my mom get
mad at him. She was a small woman, but she didn't take a back seat to any one.
She stood right up to my dad, even though he was twice her size. I remember one
time; she got so mad at him, that she broke a glass milk bottle over his head.
All he did was shake his head and go to bed.
I remember when I was a teenager I talked back to my mom. She got what I
call a flogging whip. At one time it had 9 leather straps, but there was only
two left. When she hit me, the two straps that were left, broke off. I made a
mistake and started laughing at her. She was so mad she hit me with the wooden
handle. Both my parents believed in discipline. My parents disciplined me but I
was also loved. I was raised in a home where the family was a unit that stuck
together. I also had a sister that was two years older than myself. We were
raised Roman Catholic.
When my mother married my father, he was divorced from his second wife. My
mother was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for marrying my father, but
that didn't stop her from raising my sister and I in her faith. My father died
three months before my mother did. Right after my father died my aunt (my
mother's sister) came with a priest to take my mother back into the church. I
thought to myself what a bunch of hypocrites. From that time on, I was really
turned off on religion.
Chapter 2: Life in the U.S. Air Force.
I went into the Air Force when I was seventeen. While I was in the military
I found myself picking up some of my father's bad traits, like drinking, and
fighting. I found myself getting into so much trouble; I almost got kicked out
of the service. I found myself in trouble every time I turned around. I was
court marshaled several times, in fact, I ended up in the stockade or doing
extra duty for all the trouble I had gotten into.
While I was stationed in Japan I got drunk and fell asleep with a cigarette
and started the barracks on fire. Because of this, I was sent from Japan to Iwo
Jima. This didn't do any good. While I was there I ran a bus off a mountain road
while drinking. I got court marshaled again. I had to pay for the bus and do
some extra duty.
There was one thing that happened to me while I was in the Air Force that
was actually funny when I look back on it. I was stationed inAbilene Texas on a
SAC Base and was assigned to delivering fresh baked goods to all the mess halls
on the base. I remember leaving the bakery early one morning and thought to
myself, before I started my deliveries that it would be a good guy and take some
fresh sweet rolls out to the guys on the flight line. We were right in the
middle of a base alert. Instead of driving down the flight line, I drove down
the back road behind the buildings. I was driving a 2 1/2-ton truck with a high
box on the back. It had racks for the bakery. I thought I would drive down to
the end of the road, turn around and deliver the goods as I came back. Little
did I know that the box on the back of the truck was to high for the low phone
wires. I was cutting down all the phone wires as I went. I looked in my rearview
mirror and saw all these people chasing me. I stopped the truck and got out. I
ended up standing at attention while all these officers chewed me out for
cutting off everyone's communication right in the middle of a base alert. Even
when I tried to do good, I would screw up.
When I finally got out of the Air Force, I had as many stripes as I had when
I went in. None. I had one of the officers who Court Marshaled me ask me if I
was working for the enemy. He said even a professional saboteur could not have
done as much damage as I did. I guess the Air Force was glad to see me go.
Chapter 3: Life after the Air Force.
I bought a motorcycle and became an outlaw. I don't want to go into
details, but will just say, I did some things that were very bad and I am not
very proud of them..
I found a girl I really loved, and ended up getting married back in 1960.
As of today, we have been married 37 years, have 6 children and 7 grandchildren.
Our first 20 years of marriage were very hard years. We both drank, and were
drunk most of the time. We even bought a bar, which was called "The Office".
It was party time all the time. Besides alcohol, drugs came into the picture. It
was party time again. All this time, the kids were getting the picture of life.
Just for the record, my wife never did drugs, but I did.
There was a point in my life when I found myself doing so many things wrong
that I didn't want to live any longer. One night after I closed the bar, I
remember drinking a quart of booze, and taking a bunch of pills. I was alone in
the bar with the light out just waiting to die. The next thing I remember was
waking up in a hospital bed. My wife found me and got me to the hospital. They
pumped my stomach. While I was in the hospital I talked to a shrink. He told me
I had a problem. I told him he was nuts.
When I got out of the hospital, I knew I couldn't go on living like I was
doing. I knew I would be dead in a very short time. I did have some time in my
life where I really enjoyed myself. I loved to fish. Just to get out in a boat
on a lake where it was peaceful and quiet. That was the answer, I would pack-up
and leave all my troubles behind.
Well, that is what I did, I took my oldest son, one of his friends and
headed up north. I ended up in Minnesota on the Mississippi River. We fished the
river with setlines and sold the fish to make a living. We did all right
financially but I was back to my drinking and getting into trouble again
The only thing I brought with me when I left Milwaukee was my Jeep, (which I
owed lots of money on). A bunch of us were out drinking one day, just partying
and having a good time, when all the fun came to a halt. One of my drinking
buddies and I fell out of the Jeep doing 55 miles per hour. I was still playing
the tough guy, because after sliding down the highway (lots of road burns), I
sat down in a ditch and had another can of beer. The fellow that was driving my
Jeep ended up in Jail. My other buddy and I ended up in the hospital. It seemed
like my life was going in a circle. I was right back where I was when I left
Milwaukee. (On the road to destruction, self-destruction).
To make a long story short, I lost the Jeep; the finance company came and
got it because I wasn't making payment. I did go and get my buddy out of jail; I
lied and told the Judge we weren't drinking until after the accident.
By this time, the wife and I had been separated about 3 or 4 months. I
didn't know at that time, but her life was going in the same direction, as mine
was, (nowhere). She came up for a visit to see the kids. (By the way I had all 6
kids living with me in a one-bedroom cabin). I met her at the bus station, and
when she got off the bus she was on crutches because she was in a motorcycle
accident. There we stood, looking at one another, her on crutches and me with
road burns all over my body. (I had to sleep on silk sheets for a long time). We
sat down in a bar with a beer to talk about our problems. Sounds like we were
going in another big circle. Well, we decided to try to get our life back on
track and make a life for the kids and ourselves. This is the point in my life
where things started to change. Not because I changed them, but because I had a
life changing experience.
Chapter 4: Life Changing.
We lost everything in Milwaukee, the business, the house, the car, the
camper, the motorcycle, etc. But this didn't matter; we wanted to start over. We
were renting a house in Reads Landing on the Mississippi River. Things seemed to
be going well when all of a sudden my whole world seems to come to an end. I
lost my job and my old car threw a rod. I couldn't pay the rent and we were
getting evicted, I had no food in the house to eat, it was 22 below zero and I
ran out of fuel oil. I guess you could say we hit the bottom. My whole family
(the six kids, wife and I) were all sleeping in one room of a very cold house.
We had a mattress on the floor and we all slept together with our coats on
because we had only one small electric heater to keep us from freezing.
I can remember waking up one morning and going out of the only warm room in
the house and getting down on my knees and praying. (Something I never did). I
prayed, "God, if you are out there, you are the only one that can help us."
That was the first time in my life that I felt totally helpless. My kids were
cold and hungry and I could not do a thing for them.
I walked into town (which was about 3 miles) to see if someone would help
us. The first place I went was the bank. I went right in and asked to talk to
the president. I sat down with him and told him the truth. I told him I had
nothing and how much I needed help. For some reason he helped me by giving me a
small loan. He said, for some reason he knew I would pay back the money..
I then went to a Realtor right around the corner from the bank. I did the
same thing, and told the truth. The Realtor said he had a house (with heat and a
fireplace) I could move in until I could find a place.
We moved in and got some grocery. Right after that I got a job and we
started to get back on our feet. All this happened so fast that my head was
spinning. I thought maybe there is a God after all who does hear our prayers and
helps us.
Chapter 5: The Real Thing.
This event in my life was just the start. I wanted to know more about this
God who answers prayers. When we left Milwaukee and left everything behind we
also left an Old Bible I had bought for my mother when I was in the Air Force.
That was the only thing I wanted from my past. My daughter's friend was going to
Milwaukee and I asked him to try and find out if he could get that Bible for me.
When he got to Milwaukee he found the house boarded up. Kids had gotten in and
vandalized it. He pulled off some of the boards from one of the windows and got
in. He found the whole house torn up. He went to the place where I told him the
Bible would be. There it was untouched and just waiting for him. He picked it up
and took it back to his brother's place in Minneapolis. The Bible sat in the
cities for about a month. It drove me nuts so I had to go up there and get it.
When I got it I started to read. Something I had never done before. I
wanted to know who God was. After trying to read it for awhile I found that I
could not understand it very well, so I asked a fellow at work (whom I knew read
the Bible all the time), if he could help me understand it. He told me to go
home and start reading from the beginning. I told him I did start from the
beginning. No, he said, not the beginning of the Bible, but the beginning of
John's Gospel.
When I got home I did what he said, I opened the Bible to John's Gospel and
the first thing it said was "In the Beginning". I read until I got to
chapter 3, and then it seemed as if the Lord was talking to me when he was
talking to Nicodemus. He told him that he had to be born again. And Nicodemus
asked the Lord how? He said, "how can a man when he is old enter into his
mother's womb and be born again." You know, if I were there I would have
asked the same question. I was thinking of my life and what a mess I made of it,
and how wonderful it would be if I could start all over again and do it right
this time. But this is not what the Lord was saying. Jesus was saying, that we
needed to be born from above not below. When man was born the first time he
inherited something called sin. In the book of Romans it is written, "For
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, " We were born wrong
the first time that's why we must be born again. The rest of that verse says "…so
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." You see, I sure made
a mess of my life, now I needed the Lord to take charge and give me the life
that is full of right things and not the wrong things that I inherited from my
first birth. It all seemed so easy. I started to think back to when my mother
sent me to Sunday school. I was taught that you had to do good to get to heaven.
I wrestled with this thought for some days, but I keep going back to John's
Gospel.
Now getting back to John's Gospel, the Lord takes Nicodemus back to the Old
Testament to explain how to be born again, (or born anew). He said, "As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up". Back in the book of Numbers chapter 21 is where the Lord quoted
this scripture. The story goes that when the people spoke against God and
against Moses the Lord sent poison snakes among the people, and that when the
snakes bit them they started to die. The people came to Moses and asked him to
pray for them and ask God to take away the snakes. But God did not do that, He
told Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole and to tell the people who were bit
by a snake to look to the bronze snake and they would live. Do you see the
parallel in the two stories? To be born again one must look to Jesus (the Son of
Man) on the cross for salvation. I still found it to easy. I kept going back to
Dale at work. He was the fellow that told me to read John's Gospel.
Well, one day something happened, I can remember the very moment I put my
faith in the finished works of Christ on the cross, it was Sept. 10, 1979. I
remember the very spot I was standing, when I was born again. I was standing by
a machine in the machine shop and I made up my mind, I had nothing to lose I
would just trust in Jesus. So I said to God, "OK God, I am going to trust
in your Son for my salvation. I am going to stop trying to be saved, and I am
going to start trusting." The new man whom was born from above replaced the
old man that messed up my life. What took place that very moment was 2
Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." I
was a brand new baby in Christ that very moment.
Chapter 6: What to do now?
I came home that night and told my wife what had happened. She thought I
went off the deep end. She said, "Now you have religion." You tried
everything else so what is one more thing."
I started getting together with other Christians for Bible studies and
worship services. It wasn't long and I asked my wife if I could take the kids
with me. She had no problem with that as long as she didn't have to go. She was
still hitting the bottle heavy. In fact I was finding bottles hidden all over
the house. She was even hiding them in the back of the toilet. One day I told
her that the kids were going to be in a Christmas play and asked if she wanted
to go to see them, and she did. The people at the chapel were so friendly to her
she made the comment when we got home that she felt loved, and that it felt more
like a family than any other church she went to. She started going with me once
in awhile.
We were having Gospel meetings at the library and I invited her to come,
praise God she came. The message was on Romans 10. The verses the Holy Spirit
used to speak to her heart were 9 & 10. "That if thou shall confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has
raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. For with the heart man believe
unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
She was saved at that meeting, but she was not saved from her drinking problem.
At that time I didn't realilize that the Lord was going to use her drinking to
teach me another lesson in trusting Him.
We started to have problems with our marriage again. We were always
fighting about her drinking. Every time I would find her bottles I would break
them. One day I got down on my knees and told the Lord, "Lord she belongs
to you now I can't help her any more. I am just going to love her like you do
but you have to take care of her problems." After getting off my knees I
felt a peace about what I had done. From that time on, I didn't say any more
about her drinking. I just loved her and let the Lord deal with her. It wasn't
very long and the Holy Spirit went to work on her. She had so much conviction
that she finely gave up the bottle, and smoking.
She is now a new woman that God is using greatly. She is a blessing to
everyone in the chapel. She has the gift of giving, and she gives of herself
like no one I know. When she goes to be with the Lord, she will surely be missed
by all.
I was forty when I came to know the Lord, and my wife was in her thirties.
We feel we wasted most of our lives not serving the Lord now we want to make up
for that. If there is anyone who is living the life-style we lived and you want
out, God has the answer. We are living proof that Jesus' saves. Saves live, save
marriages, save families. He is the Savior.
By the way, he saved most of my children and grandchildren also. And the
Holy Spirit is working on the rest of them. God is always answering our prayers.
In closing, my wife says "Praise God!" And I say "Amen!"
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