My mother started me in church when I was only two weeks old. She was a good and Godly mother.

Mom and my teen class Sunday School teacher spent many hours in prayer for this one selfish, sinful boy. I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.....   but was only a boy. I was severely running from God. I knew that God was wanting my servanthood, but I wanted to be my own man. I didn't want to answer to anyone.

When I was only a child of seven and eight years old, I had all the neighborhood kids on our back porch on Sundays, and I was telling them about Jesus. I would tell them what I learned in Church that morning.

But I later ran, and ran, and ran,,,,    from God.  From the one who could give me something to live for.

When I turned 19, I had been running for about five years. Running hard. Defying any form of authority over me. But again, I had two little grey haired ladies praying for me. Mom and my Sunday School Teacher from my early teens.

I would occasionally go to church.....   just for my mother. It certainly wasn't for me, or so I thought.

I recall sitting in that SS Teacher's class when I was eighteen. I was in the corner, and as many teens would do, I leaned back into that corner. I suppose that it was a self-imposed safety measure.  No one could slip in behind me and lay hands on me and pray for me.
But God isn't limited by walls.

As I sat there, I do remember what she was teaching on Ephesians 4:11.  "And he gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers." Well, to my surprise, when she said, "...pastors and teachers..." I felt this hand place on the crown of my head. I was in the corner and God laid his hand on me.

Again I ran, and I ran hard. I had just turned 19, and I figured it was time to leave home. I thought I didn't need family. I could live alright on my own.

I began to search out all I could find on "witchcraft," "satanism,".....    anything that I could find on the occult. I was turning to Babylon.

I was interested in the mystical powers. I wanted that kind of power.  But God was so gracious and merciful. He would keep my access to these things at a minimum......     and I thank God for that. Why He even kept me from what everyone was into at the time.  DRUGS!  He wouldn't allow me to do them. Actually, I though the junkies were strange. They acted and talked funny and I was to sophisticated for that, so I thought.

Then in 1972, I found myself sitting in a church in Hagerstown, Maryland. I have no idea what Pastor AJ Barrett was preaching about.  But something was happening inside me. Then an alter call was given, and the next thing I knew was I was at the left end of that alter,,,,   weeping before God.

I gave my all to Him that Sunday night at about 9:15 pm on December 3, 1972. Though I don't remember what the message was baout, I will never forget that date.

I though I was a man, and I men were not supposed to weep, but there I was.  And as I look back on that night, I realize that God was taking the child out of me, and replacing it with a man. God was making a man out of me. It takes a man to admit his sin. It take a man to turn away from his desires, and give in to God's will. It takes a man to weep tears of repentance.

I have found that I now have far more power than I had ever imagined.  More than any scrawney, little dirtball imp of a devil.

Though I knew God was wanting me to preach and teach (I consider myself a teacher with anointing rather than preacher), I finally gave in totally to God's direction, and began really studying the Word.  I began teaching in the Sunday School. Then after five years, I went into the ministry.

I began in the ministry in 1985 and served for five years as a Youth Pastor in two churches in Maryland. I then moved to Arkansas in 1991 and there served in several churches.

In one I served as youth pastor and then as Associate Pastor after joining the fellowship of the Fundamental Pentecostal Assembly as a licensed minister.

While in my five year pastorate I recieved my Ordination with the FPA. Also while there, I helped found Chosen Pathway Ministries, a ministerial fellowship.

When I got saved, I would never have believed that all this would have come to me, but God indeed does work in mysterious ways.

Oh, to tell others about Christ. There's no better thrill.

For more on PoPs and his Testimony, please click here.
You will see how God still protects, leads, heals, guides and teaches.
And He does it for us, because he loves us so much. Cheer up!
Someone else HAS been through it.