1 00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:04,360 My name is Jim Fishera, my wife's over here, Maureen, we, 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:06,760 we've been attending here for about 3 months. 3 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:10,200 We sit in the back. So you probably haven't seen 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:14,920 this much, but pastor had asked me to share a little bit about 5 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,600 the, the Jesus movement back in the early 70s. 6 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:22,720 And I was fortunate enough to be a part of that and, and then 7 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,360 share my testimony how I became a Christian. 8 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:30,080 And in the, in the picture here, you see, you see this big tent 9 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,200 and you may have seen it on TV or watching the video. 10 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:37,640 It's, it's the first, it's the beginning of Calvary Chapel back 11 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,560 in Costa Mesa. And I was lucky enough to go 12 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,000 there very shortly after the tent. 13 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,120 But before I go any further, let me just have a word of prayer. 14 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,320 Father God, thank you so much for opportunities. 15 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:52,720 Thank you for your word that you've just shared with us today 16 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,480 that we do have a responsibility and that's to use those gifts as 17 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:59,880 as you've given us bless this time. 18 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:02,960 Now, Lord, open our hearts, open our ears and we'll give you all 19 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,760 the glory even though they're testimony what I did, but it's 20 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,680 all for you, God, it's all for you and we praise you for that 21 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:15,440 in Jesus name, Amen. So like I mentioned, my wife and 22 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,080 I started coming here. We we've been married 50 years 23 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:24,160 this year. We have 3, two children, we have 24 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:26,880 5 grandchildren. Our children are grown, we have 25 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,360 5 grandchildren and we're going to have a great grandchild in 26 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,120 the spring. So we're we're really excited 27 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:36,760 about that. And again, before I get into my 28 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:38,400 kiss and this is not going to be a preaching thing. 29 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:39,960 I'm not a preacher, I'm not a teacher. 30 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:44,200 I'm just an ordinary churchgoer that has had a lot of 31 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:45,920 experiences over the last 50 years. 32 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,880 Then my brother went to church a couple months ago and he said 33 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,360 those priest, he says, I don't know why I'm here. 34 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:55,720 And the priest said to him, if you don't know why you're here, 35 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:59,680 you probably shouldn't be here. And it kind of, it kind of was a 36 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:01,960 strange thought. So when you think about this, 37 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:03,800 why are you here? Why am I here? 38 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,400 Well, physically I'm here because friends invited us to 39 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,440 come here. And that's how church grows. 40 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,280 You invite people to come. You invite people to, to, to, to 41 00:02:13,640 --> 00:02:15,680 know Christ or to know your church. 42 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:19,040 And that's what's neat. The Margie and, and Gary Blair 43 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,160 invited us. We've we've known for about 6 44 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:23,880 years and they just kept inviting us to come to church 45 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,920 with them. And we did a couple months ago. 46 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,520 And that's another whole story about the different churches 47 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:36,640 that I've gone to. But we are here to learn about 48 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:41,120 God, the Bible study today, learn about what what we're 49 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,640 supposed to do with the gifts that we have and we're expected 50 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:46,640 to grow and serve. And if I can just share 51 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:51,560 something real quick here in Ephesians, Paul says it was 52 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:55,800 given some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be 53 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,760 evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. 54 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:03,520 And we know what what they're required to do, but they're 55 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,120 there to prepare God's people for the works of service so that 56 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:11,400 the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach the unity 57 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,760 and faith in the knowledge of the Son of God and become 58 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,720 mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of 59 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,080 Christ. So Paul's telling us that we got 60 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,120 to keep doing things until we become mature. 61 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,760 How long is that going to take? Well, in God's time, we don't 62 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:30,560 know because we don't know how long it's going to take. 63 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:31,480 We can't. Yeah. 64 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:36,160 The apostles thought they were going to see God soon, but soon 65 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:41,000 the goddess who knows? So, but we are expected to grow 66 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,840 and serve. My wife and I were high school 67 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:45,640 sweethearts. We we went to high school 68 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:50,640 together and when I graduated, I was a year older than her. 69 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,360 So when I graduated, I moved to California. 70 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:57,720 I went to visit my sister for a while and then and then I 71 00:03:57,720 --> 00:03:59,720 actually moved there. Maureen stayed back to finish 72 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,200 high school and then nursing school. 73 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:05,000 But when I was out there, I met this guy, his name was George, 74 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,640 and he liked basketball. I like basketball. 75 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:10,800 He liked, he came from New Jersey, I came from 76 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,000 Pennsylvania. So we kind of hung around. 77 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,800 So we had many questions about different things. 78 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,560 Being Catholic, I had a lot of different questions about that. 79 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,520 And George questioned my Christianity, which was very 80 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:25,800 strange to me because I've never had anybody do that. 81 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:28,680 And I said, well, I'm a Catholic, so I'm a Christian. 82 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,160 And he proceeded to tell me the difference between a Catholic 83 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:35,600 and a Christian. And that was pretty neat because 84 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:41,120 I always thought if you were, if you believe God, that you were 85 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:43,560 going to go to heaven. That's it, need to believe God. 86 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:46,400 But there was much more to it, as I find out later on. 87 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,000 He invited me to a church. Now, this church wasn't a church 88 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:53,160 like this. It wasn't a building. 89 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,680 It was a park. It's called Church in the Park. 90 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:02,680 And they had a park in Covina, CA and the trees were all around 91 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,200 and that's where the church was. The people were the church and 92 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:07,600 they just happened to meet in the park. 93 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,200 They were a bunch of young people, I mean hippies. 94 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,920 We were we were all young high school and college age kids. 95 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:20,000 And the church was called agape. And you probably know what agape 96 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:21,160 means. It's God's love. 97 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:26,840 And how it all started was there was this crazy Gray haired 98 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:32,440 bearded guy that would preach after a a rocks band called 99 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:39,120 Agape would play in Hollywood, CA and they were playing before 100 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:40,840 a group called Love song. I don't know if you've ever 101 00:05:40,840 --> 00:05:44,000 heard of love song but pretty popular group from Calvary 102 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:50,200 Chapel. And Agape was a iron rock. 103 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:51,960 I can't remember the Hard Rock band. 104 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,440 It was very it was very loud. The following where they, they 105 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:59,280 were hippie guys, hippie girls and, and Rahm would give a 106 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:02,120 message after that. And sooner or later they all 107 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:08,640 ended up at Calvary at Agape Church in California, in, in 108 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:13,960 Covina, CA at this park. And we're talking 200 and 5300 109 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:18,080 young kids at this park. And our pews weren't like 110 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,600 chairs. We brought sand chairs. 111 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:22,840 You remember the old sand chairs. 112 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:26,280 They would sit real close to the ground and everybody had their 113 00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:32,320 little chalice and we broke bread and drank grape juice for 114 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:34,440 a communion. And it was just different than 115 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,680 anything else. But I wasn't a Christian. 116 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,480 I didn't. I just remember I just had met 117 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,800 this guy George, and he took me there and I was amazed. 118 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,680 And he said, hey, Jim, let's go down to this Christian band. 119 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:53,680 So we drove down to Costa Mesa and shortly after the tent, they 120 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:57,240 had the brand new building built and believe it or not, they were 121 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,880 already outgrown that building. The Jesus movement in Southern 122 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,240 California around that time was growing so fast I couldn't keep 123 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,120 up with it. And it was exciting. 124 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:12,480 It was, it was big. It was more than more than you 125 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:15,080 can imagine. It was is Martin and I went to a 126 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:22,400 we went to a a church just this past Christmas and our 127 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:24,200 sister-in-law said, you want to go to church? 128 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:27,200 We said sure. And so we go to church with them 129 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,760 and they were having 13 services for Christmas. 130 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,200 Sounds like a lot, right? The better part is the church 131 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,440 held 2000 people. So is there still a Christmas? 132 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:39,800 Is there still a movement going on? 133 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,640 Yeah, it's going on throughout the whole United States. 134 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:45,320 The Jesus movement is alive and well. 135 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:47,000 Now some of these churches are different. 136 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,600 We walked in there and I said to Maureen, I says, something's 137 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:51,640 wrong. I don't see anybody carrying the 138 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:55,400 Bible. So again, you have to discern 139 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:57,720 what's going on. I'm getting off track here. 140 00:07:57,720 --> 00:07:58,680 Do it. I'm sorry about that. 141 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:04,320 But so anyway, we go into church in a park and Georgia invites me 142 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,960 to this Calvary Chapel, and I'm listening to this music and it's 143 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,280 wonderful. It's just a neat country 144 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,880 Christian music. And there's this guy after the 145 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:17,560 music's on. Chuck Smith was the pastor of 146 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,200 Calvary Chapel and he had this way of talking. 147 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,040 His, his voice was so calm and so nice and he had this smile on 148 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:26,920 his face. And after the music was on, 149 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:30,040 he'd, he'd do a little message and then he'd do an altar call 150 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:32,919 and, and I could just, I can hear his words now, you know, 151 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:35,840 all right, if you believe and you know, you want Jesus to be 152 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:40,159 in your heart and go on and on. And he said, just slip up your 153 00:08:40,159 --> 00:08:42,679 hand. And then he'd say I see you, 154 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:44,680 then I see you and I see you and I see you. 155 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,080 And at the end of this day, I, I at the end of the service, a guy 156 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:49,920 would look at me and all these people would look at me like, 157 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:51,720 did he make a decision? Did he make a decision? 158 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,680 Then? No, I didn't I, I said the band 159 00:08:54,680 --> 00:08:56,320 was good, the drummer was awesome. 160 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:59,440 But that's, that's, that was as far as it went. 161 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,160 So we went there quite a few times, probably 6 or 7 different 162 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:04,640 times and it was always the same. 163 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:08,440 I enjoyed music, it was fun. I got to see an afterglow. 164 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:10,680 They had a afterglow meeting after one of the services 165 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:11,880 checked it an agree and it was too much. 166 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:19,360 But while this all happened, I was working in a Body Shop and I 167 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:24,280 hurt my back and my boss said to me can you ride this late? 168 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,360 Can you ride this lady home? I said sure and I'm crawling out 169 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:29,280 from this car and I'm really in pain. 170 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:31,440 And she looked at me and she says can I pray for you? 171 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:35,040 Now that was really strange coming from a Catholic bracron. 172 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:38,200 No one ever prayed for you. She put her hands on me and she 173 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:40,800 prayed for me and I felt really strange. 174 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:45,120 I mean, just it was just it felt funny to me again, I haven't 175 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:49,320 accepted Christ yet. And so I drove her home and in 176 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:52,480 turn, she had this really nice car and she said I'll never 177 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:56,080 drive it over 25 mile an hour. And I thought, no, I'm going to 178 00:09:56,080 --> 00:10:01,000 it was a 390 Ford Galaxy 504 speed and going on the going on 179 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:02,840 the freeway. I went through the gears. 180 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:05,880 I got on the Turnpike or on the freeway and suddenly blew the 181 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:09,240 motor up. So you learn, you learn lessons 182 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:17,440 when you're a kid. So after all this, you know, I 183 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:19,040 got to, I got to see some really neat songs. 184 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,680 If you, if you know any of the Marinatha groups back, back in 185 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:26,280 Calvary Chapel, love song was very popular and the other one 186 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,600 was called the way and they'd have one song. 187 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,840 And if you ever get a chance, look up the song called Can it 188 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,440 be? By the way, a friend of ours 189 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:39,040 from Agape actually wrote that song and his his group had 190 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,000 disbanded. But it's a really, really neat 191 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,160 song and it gives you an idea of the music back then. 192 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:49,440 So now we get into the good part here where where the Bible study 193 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,880 one day and I have a Bible, but I I read it, but I don't 194 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:56,360 understand a word. I have absolutely no idea what 195 00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:00,840 it says. And we're Bible study one night 196 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:08,280 and Ron Turner at Agape and Ron Turner's doing a message on the 197 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:12,120 gospel of Mark. And when he gets to the asking 198 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:15,200 the apostles to come and follow him and he talked to Andrew and 199 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:21,320 he talks to James and John Simon and he says come, follow me. 200 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:25,320 And it was interesting to me that they would just stop what 201 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:27,640 they were doing, pick up and follow him. 202 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,760 And I guess God was working on me at that point. 203 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:36,960 When Ron did his altar call, his was a little different than 204 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,800 Chuck Smith. He, he made you stand up, not 205 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:41,960 just raise your hand, you know, he says, if you make this 206 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:46,640 decision and during his prayer, my words were ahead of his 207 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:48,440 words. That's the only way I can 208 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:53,280 explain it. And, and then he said, if you 209 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,120 made the decision to follow Jesus, I'd like you to stand up 210 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,400 and, and show the rest of the church and, and, you know, 211 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:02,640 confessed in front of everybody. And I couldn't stop myself from 212 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:04,920 standing. And that was a, that was a 213 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:07,000 neatest thing. And it, it changed my life 214 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:09,440 forever. And that was 1974. 215 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:11,680 So it's been quite a few years since then. 216 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:16,200 And then the fun starts. What are you going to do with 217 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,680 what God has given you to do? We all have gifts. 218 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,200 Unfortunately, you know, I haven't used all mine because 219 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:26,480 it's full potential. I know that. 220 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:31,000 And I, I, I, I asked for getting this a lot, but I've had some 221 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:37,640 great times different churches. We didn't we finally left agape. 222 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:40,920 Maureen and I actually got married in a in a small church 223 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,200 in California. Our parents, neither one of our 224 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,080 parents have ever seen a wedding outside of a Catholic Church. 225 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:49,040 And we decided we're going to give it all. 226 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:51,920 We're going to share our testimony going going church. 227 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:57,600 Well, one of us did, Maureen, I was a blubbering idiot. 228 00:12:57,680 --> 00:13:01,720 I'm a very emotional person and I, I really couldn't say a whole 229 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:07,160 lot other than and, but it was, it was important to us to share 230 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:10,760 with them what it was to be a Christian and not just going to 231 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:13,640 a Catholic Church because that's what you always did on Sunday. 232 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:19,840 So we got married there. I got to get into the, a little 233 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:23,640 bit about the, the, the progression after accepting 234 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:27,040 Christ They had with in agape, they had what they call a new 235 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:30,040 Christian Bible study. And it was the, the book of 236 00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:33,160 first John and it was taught by different groups. 237 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:37,680 Now there was again, I don't know, maybe 5 or 6 different 238 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:40,680 groups of five or six different people all going at the same 239 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:42,680 time, because that's how many people are coming to Christ 240 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:44,960 constantly and, and during this movement. 241 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:49,640 And so the FMS were doing this and the FMS were the future 242 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:51,960 ministers. And I think of that when I, when 243 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,800 I see some of these folks here that are really into moving on. 244 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,800 Now, the future ministers were part of the of the church that 245 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:05,160 they were either felt called to be a missionary or a minister or 246 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:09,520 a teacher or a leader. And funny, there was 12 of them. 247 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,560 And I guess Ron had figured it out that way. 248 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,240 But I got a call from Ron after doing my Bible study, after my 249 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:20,280 first John Bible study, I got a call from Ron to say, hey, 250 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:23,440 there's this guy that likes cars and he's kind of a loner. 251 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:26,560 His name's Tom Lockwood. You, you think you could, you 252 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:28,120 know, just talk to him and see what he's doing? 253 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:29,640 I thought, yeah, I could do that. 254 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:34,360 So talk to Tom. And we paint very good friends. 255 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:36,480 He was in our wedding along with George. 256 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:42,520 And George had taught me that you need to have a paw and a 257 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:45,600 Timothy in your life. You have to have someone you can 258 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:49,640 look up to and and talk to. That would be George for me was 259 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:53,640 my Paul and then I was going to be Paul, not knowing it, but I 260 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:54,960 was going to be the Paul at the pawn. 261 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:59,320 And and I think that's important where you have somebody that you 262 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:04,800 can turn to to ask questions to and then someone else can come 263 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,720 and ask questions to you. And that's how we grow. 264 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:15,440 The next important thing was the evangelism after after you did 265 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:19,480 the, the, the lessons in first John, we had evangelism cast 266 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:22,360 glasses. And the reason I am so excited 267 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:25,200 about that is smiling about that is I actually got to talk to a 268 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:28,640 girl that never knew who Jesus was. 269 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:31,520 Didn't you know? You think about that with the 270 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:34,800 way things are now, everybody has had to heard about Jesus. 271 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,560 Well, this girl knew that there was a Christmas, but they had no 272 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:41,160 idea what it was about. And I got to share with her and 273 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,960 I invited her to church. I never saw her again, but we 274 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,600 would go to different parks. We would play ping pong at 275 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,680 different places. I'm going to get a hold of head 276 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,520 of myself here. And then there was this one girl 277 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,760 at church that asked for prayer for her husband. 278 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:02,120 She had just had twins and her husband wasn't a Christian and 279 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:06,040 his name was Doug. I prayed every day and every day 280 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,880 and every day and every day until Doug had made a decision. 281 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:14,480 And Doug and I and Tom became very, very good friends. 282 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:18,840 We became ping pong friends. Like I said, we would go to 283 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:21,840 different community centers and play ping pong with different 284 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,400 kids and share. And it worked out pretty good 285 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:27,800 that way. And Doug was, was a great kid. 286 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,160 Again, we're talking and I'm having this flashback now. 287 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:36,480 Doug, you can picture the Beach Boy, long blonde hair, good 288 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:40,080 looking guy, built perfect. You know, it was, it was pretty 289 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:48,080 cool. Now I'm praying before I read my 290 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,760 Bible and things are coming very clear to me and I'm able to 291 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:56,920 understand it and I give glory to God for that because I don't 292 00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:58,400 read much. This is this is about the only 293 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:02,000 thing I ever read is, is my Bible and I don't read it 294 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,319 enough. And I know that and I, you know, 295 00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:12,400 I, I fully understand that. The next thing is you heard a 296 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:16,119 verification Bible study it for your kids or vacation Bible 297 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:18,640 school. We had what they called ACR. 298 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:23,400 It was all church retreat. Everybody from the whole church 299 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:29,600 went to A to a retreat and was our, our Covina church, this the 300 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:32,800 Salt Lake City church. And then there was another one 301 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:35,840 in Saugus, CA And we would all get together. 302 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:41,560 And I think we have a picture of that of the of the the might 303 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:45,360 have been the bottom one. I'm sorry, but it's a you get a 304 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:47,720 good kick out of the the good looking guys there and good 305 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,320 looking guys and girls there. But we would go to this place 306 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:52,240 called Forrest Home Christian Conference Center. 307 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,800 And I'm trying to be quick here, but Forrest home Christian 308 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,800 concert Center was was made by lady, her name was Henrietta 309 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,840 Mears. She was from amazingly Hollywood 310 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:07,880 Presbyterian Church, Ohio. No. 311 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:14,520 And she started this place. People like Billy Graham went 312 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:18,160 there. Bill Bright, if you, if, if you 313 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:21,000 I'm no, I'm dropping names, but you might not know who they are. 314 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:26,120 But Billy Graham, he kind of reached out to church people and 315 00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:28,840 spread the word. Bill Brights reached out to 316 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:33,640 college people and like this guy that had just done this now. 317 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:39,320 And Bill Bright also wrote the four spiritual laws and he, 318 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:42,480 these were tracks that we used to pass out the people back in 319 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,040 the day. He also started the thing called 320 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:49,760 Athletes for action. Now, another quick story is in 321 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,240 our, in our church at Agape, we would also have an athletes in 322 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,680 action, but we went to prison and because we were all sports 323 00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:00,960 guys, we decided we're going to play basketball with them and 324 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:03,120 that would go good. And we talked to him afterwards 325 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:05,520 about Christ. And then we play softball with 326 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,480 them. And we talked to him after about 327 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,400 Christ and. And then one day we decided 328 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:11,520 we're going to play football with them. 329 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:16,680 And that happened one time. We won and we weren't going to 330 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:19,960 play ever again. But it was it was an exciting 331 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,560 time to share with people that really. 332 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:28,480 And this was a what I want to try to say this, the prison was 333 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:30,000 top notch. Pardon me. 334 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:32,680 Yeah. Maximum, maximum security 335 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:34,280 prison. So we had to, you know, take 336 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:37,240 everything off. And it was quite exciting. 337 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:47,000 I got baptized at Forrest Home and I also learned to sing a 338 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,520 song called How Great Thou Art. They had a they had a room there 339 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:51,480 that every time you entered the room, you had to sing How Great 340 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:54,760 Thou Art. So obviously that's my favorite 341 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:57,120 song. But this is on the left is Ron 342 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:59,040 Turner. On the right is another one of 343 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:03,200 the pastors we had Ernie. And and that was me when I had 344 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:12,040 to hear a long, long time ago. The next thing that it was 345 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:15,200 important was we went to Bill Bright's retreat center. 346 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:18,520 And there after learning a little bit about the word and 347 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,840 the different things that Christians could do, I decided, 348 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:25,320 I'm going to pray and pray and pray and I'm going to move the 349 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,000 mountain. I thought, you know, that's what 350 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:28,880 you're supposed to be able to do. 351 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:30,480 You have to have enough faith to move the mountain. 352 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,560 And they also wanted to speak in tongues because that's what they 353 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,920 did at Calvary and neither happened. 354 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,680 I, I prayed a lot. I spent a long time there 355 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,360 reading. And a couple a couple months 356 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:48,400 ago, they were doing a thing here about the James where he 357 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:51,200 talked about and if the Lord wills you will do this and that. 358 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,560 I was studying that chapter. And that's when I decided that 359 00:20:55,120 --> 00:20:56,760 Maureen was the girl I wanted to marry. 360 00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,560 And it was very important time for me. 361 00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:03,640 And I remember it vividly on that sitting on that grass on 362 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:11,320 that mountain. Well, time wise, how we done. 363 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:18,400 I'll keep going just for a quick couple things about our our 364 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:19,960 children. We, we moved back from 365 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:23,600 California to Pennsylvania here and we had to find a new church 366 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:30,040 and we ended up at a Calvary Baptist Church and it was a very 367 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,600 good time. A lot of good things happened 368 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,320 there. Our children were we, they were 369 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:39,680 born while we were there and grew up there, took them on 370 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:44,280 mission trips. Neat things happened there until 371 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:48,000 neat things didn't happen there. I had AI was a Deacon at that 372 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:55,040 time and we just started a, a boys brigade and we got a new 373 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:58,560 leader for the education committee. 374 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,520 And this lady decided that we weren't going to have any boys 375 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:03,120 brigade anymore because they didn't have anything for the 376 00:22:03,120 --> 00:22:05,440 girls. So she quit the boys brigade. 377 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,480 And my infinite wisdom, I said, OK, well, if you're going to do 378 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,400 that, I'm just leaving. So we left that church for very 379 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:15,880 poor reasons. We went to another church that 380 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:20,840 our girls were going to at this time and in Mckeesport and it 381 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:23,680 was a good church. Nice church is good preaching. 382 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:28,000 We got to meet some good people there and comes Easter time 383 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:31,480 who's sitting in front of us, but the lady that quit the boys 384 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:36,400 brigade from the old church. And I was very upset. 385 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,040 And then before I said something I shouldn't, I said we're just 386 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,960 not going to go there anymore. Then the girls start playing 387 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:45,000 basketball and softball and baseball on Wednesday nights and 388 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,400 Sundays afternoons and we kind of didn't go anywhere for a 389 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,560 while. My buddy said, well, you going 390 00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:52,440 to meet this guy? He's really good. 391 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,280 He's at a Methodist Church and I said a Methodist Church. 392 00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:57,960 He says, yeah, you got to meet him. 393 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:00,640 So we met him. We ended up staying there for a 394 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:02,440 long time and got, got involved there. 395 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,880 I was singing in the band and in the praise group and leading 396 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,840 prayer and just having a good time and praying for the pastor 397 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:13,800 daily. And and then they moved them 398 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,480 just, you know, just the way things happen with the Methodist 399 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,000 Church. So we went with them. 400 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,520 And then the, the, the stuff happened with the Methodist 401 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:24,280 Church. Then he decided he needed to 402 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:26,200 leave there and we decided we need to leave there. 403 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:30,280 And now we have no church again. And it was. 404 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:36,120 So the reasons we left were my own reasons. 405 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,680 And I, and I apologize and I, I pray to God for forgiveness, 406 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,960 that too many times we just walk away from God. 407 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,800 But the neat thing is he never walks away from us. 408 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:50,320 He always says it's OK, just do what? 409 00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,200 Just do what I ask you to do. And the only way we can do what 410 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:57,680 he asks us to do is to know what he wants us to do and then 411 00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,360 follow through with what he wants us to do. 412 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,600 But more importantly, just give him the glory for everything we 413 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,840 do Do. So with that, I'm going to stop 414 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,360 and thank you for this opportunity. 415 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,040 Hopefully we'll be here for a long time. 416 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,640 We love this church. The I have two two things to say 417 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:20,200 real quick about church, please. We walked in and I said, how 418 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,280 does a church this size support 2 pastors? 419 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:25,000 And again I'm thinking, OK, there I am. 420 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,880 I'm finding excuses again. But when I saw somebody come up 421 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:35,920 and ask for prayer and, and pastor say, OK, I need to call 422 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,720 the deacons up to pray for them, that was it. 423 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,840 That's church, that's church. You don't have a guy that's 424 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:44,320 leading you. I mean, you have a guy that's 425 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,600 leading you, but you don't have a guy that's taking control of 426 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,000 the whole situation. And that's a neat to see. 427 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:53,280 That's really neat to see. So continue doing good and I 428 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:54,240 thank you for your time.