Occupation: Factory Worker (Now with the Lord)

    I was born on a farm north of Rockford, Michigan; the 8th of 9 children — 5 girls and 4 boys. When I was 5 years old, my dad went into the hospital for an appendicitis, and died there. My dad was buried right on my 6th birthday. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Holy Bible, Hebrews 9:27). "Prepare to meet thy God." (Holy Bible, Amos 4:12) Are you prepared? I was not. Those were difficult years for us.

    Shortly, my eyesight was hurt by two incidents. The first was when I was 6 years old, and fell into a stove. The second was the next year, when a bunch of us children were racing to an apple tree. I did not see them duck under a barbed wire, and I ran right into it at eye height. "And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." (Holy Bible, John 9:39) Have you missed seeing some-thing very important before you?

    Both of my eyes were cut, but even more trouble was coming. One very hot day, when I was 7 or 8 years old, I was laying out on the porch, and fell asleep. I woke up unable to move. I had suffered a sun-stroke. "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (Holy Bible, James 4:14)

    About 2 years after my dad died, my mother remarried. It was in the days when liquor was outlawed in our country, but my step-dad made his own brew and sold it. He would make us boys carry barrels of water upstairs for his brew. He had it up there, so no one coming in would smell the fermenting mixture. Later, we had to carry it back downstairs for him to boil on the stove — where he then distilled it through coils into bottles. He tested whether the liquor was okay by lighting a small amount of it on fire, and then watching the color of the flame. "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." (Holy Bible, Proverbs 23:31,32)

    I grew up seeing many men fight, and drink so much, that they would pass out. "They have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again." (Holy Bible, Proverbs 23:35) "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." (Holy Bible, Proverbs 20:1)

    My stepfather drank away two farms, and I was out on my own at a young age. I was eventually taken in by a family and given a job on their farm. It was there that I met my wife-to-be. We were later married, and God gave us 4 precious children.

    One day we were invited to go to some meetings that a missionary was holding at a church. I did not sleep much that night, because I learned that I was headed straight for hell. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Holy Bible, Revelation 20:15) Is your name written in that book? I knew that mine was not.

    The next night, we went back to church, and both my wife and I prayed and asked Jesus to save us. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Holy Bible, Romans 10:13) "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Holy Bible, Acts 16:31) Have you repented of your sin and asked Jesus to save you?

    We later moved, and a neighbor asked if he could take our children to church. I said, "No, because I will take them myself." Are you going to church faithfully with your family? "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." (Holy Bible, Hebrews 10:25)