Category: Thankful

I was born in 1957 after my mother was told she would have no more children (she earlier had two miscarriages). Later, in 1968, my father and I were in an automobile and struck by a fully loaded train, causing the car to flip over several times. We were miraculously unharmed, though the car was totally destroyed. In 1977, I completed my first Way Ministry Foundational Class and have since enjoyed learning and applying Biblical keys and principles as taught in the ministry’s series of Biblical classes. What I have learned has proven to be the mainstay for my successful navigation through life.

The Bible (God’s Word) clearly teaches that we have an adversary whose mission is simply to steal and to kill and to destroy; in absolute contrast, the Word further instructs that we can live a life that is more than abundant through Jesus Christ (John 10:10). Despite the fiery darts from our adversary, we can overcome and collectively dismantle the works of the adversary through the power of the holy spirit within. Having the ability to clearly discern God’s goodness from the evilness of the adversary causes me to be profoundly thankful for The Way Ministry, which has the heart to research and teach spiritual truths with unparalleled boldness and accuracy.

In this context, it would be wonderful to live a life absent any attacks after being born again, but as the saying goes, we are not promised a rose garden! I know this all too well as I was confronted with a dire health situation in 2014. With the inexhaustible prayers and help from my fellow Way believers, I can say, “The Word works!” And I’m LIVING proof.

I reflect on my life since birth and can clearly see God’s unbounded divine mercy and grace. The Way Ministry’s teachings, Biblical resources, and programs have given meaning to my life and have offered me a clear pathway to best demonstrate my thankfulness through serving the one true God as enabled by the wonderful works of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

If not for The Way International’s Board of Directors, their energized ministries, and their faithfulness to God and His household, my life would be adrift, absent a chart and compass to God’s heart and will for my life. For The Way International’s ministers, Staff, and faithful believers I offer my deepest prayers of thankfulness to God.

In closing, my wife and I are wholly committed to the Word, and we strive to serve God, as recorded in Ephesians 4:2-4:

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.

In 1983 I had lived twenty-three years of my life. After being discharged honorably from the United States Air Force, I had fear as to what would become of my life. I met some wonderful people known then as Word Over the World Ambassadors, who were witnesses for Christ. They invited me to a fellowship and I attended. The first teaching that I ever heard was on believing rightly according to the rightly divided Word of God. My mind was set free from the prisons that had been holding me back and down throughout my young years. Life had new meaning for me, and I started loving and living for the one true God. My outlook on what could be accomplished was limitless.

Since then I have worked on believing for the best, not settling for just good enough. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13) led me into the United States Marine Corps. I am always learning and growing in God’s household, falling down and being shown how to overcome through my walk in right believing, striving to stay focused and just “stand.”

I have fellowshipped in this ministry for the past thirty-five years. Many individual accomplishments have come to pass over the years. Some of the greatest ones are receiving my bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences and sustainability cum laude (with honors); building a log cabin on a lake from my own design and then selling it for $178,000. This was enough to pay off $88,000 in debt and purchase the land where my wonderful wife and I now reside and where we just finished this year building a second cabin. My wife and I also started a new barbeque sauce business and opened a hair and nails salon. We have plans to attend flight school to receive our private pilot licenses, and I have my own business as a licensed Maine guide.

The most enjoyable accomplishment in my life of walking in right believing is operating as a Bible study group coordinator, reaching out and teaching others how to believe rightly and walk with God as I have learned to do over these past thirty-five years. Matthew 6:33 has been my spiritual compass, keeping me on the right path, and I Thessalonians 2:13 says it best, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

Boy, do I have a story to tell! When I was twenty-two years old I was strung out on drugs, on the doorstep of being homeless, and without a reason to live. I began praying to God for help and quit the drugs cold turkey. God provided me with strength, and within two weeks I was witnessed to by a WOW (Word Over the World) Ambassador.

With great gratitude and appreciation for the Word delivering me, I decided at the age of twenty-three to go out WOW. That year as a WOW Ambassador helped establish godly principles in my life which I have held onto for over thirty-five years—such as reading the Word and praying daily, not to mention the boldness it helped me establish in witnessing. If only I had the vocabulary and the time to express how totally grateful I am for those initial years.

With the abundance of the Word and the deliverance that I saw, I decided to go out WOW a second year. During that year, I witnessed to my wife, who has been by my side for over thirty years. We’ve been living debt-free for over twenty years. We have two children, and they are both serving as household fellowship coordinators.

We live on the Pacific Coast and just went down to visit our daughter, her husband, and our granddaughter in Tennessee. A high point of each day on our vacation was when my five-year-old granddaughter and I would get into the Word and pray in the mornings. If I was not awake, she would tap me on the shoulder, wanting me to get up to read and pray with her! Though the miles keep us apart at this time, the Word continues to cause our hearts to be knit together in love. I am truly thankful for the Word I have learned in The Way Ministry. I now have a life worth living.