Finding My Way Home - A Christian Testimony

This book has been written mainly to share with others what the Lord has done for me. These pages describe key events from my youth and explain how I grew up in a good home with good parents, in an average family environment. Nearly everything about my early life had been ideal. I had lived in a fairly small town, during what had seemed to be a fairly good period in our nation's history - the Fifties and Sixties! As I approached my teen years, the future looked bright, except for one very important fact! I did not know the Lord as my Saviour. Because of that, my whole existence from a spiritual perspective was totally backward and undone. Shortly out of the starting blocks of life, everything for me quickly went awry!

My life did eventually come back into order, but only after several years of difficulty and trouble. In the first part of this book, I share some of those troubles, along with my finally coming to the Lord. In the second part of this book, I explain how God miraculously turned my whole life around. What He did for me in December 1967, and the months following, had so great an impact on me and everything about me that I have not been the same since. In presenting some of my post-conversion experiences, the hope will be that others might also see the genuine joy that comes from knowing and serving God. Hence, this text is not intended to be a work about me, and certainly not one in which my goal is to be exalted or credited in any way. This book is about the Lord, about His mercy and His goodness, and also about how He can and does rescue the perishing. In short, what He has done and continues to do for me, He can and will do for others.

In all, I have spent much of my free time over the past seven years either directly researching or actually writing this book. During that period, I have had the help and encouragement of many. In grateful appreciation, I would like to specifically thank some of those friends who have most encouraged me in this effort. They are Tom Blackwell, Marilyn Johnson, Robert Landrum, Sue Bevan, Norm Reece, John McCunniff, Betty Harmon, Rob Huffman, Sheri Lutman, Sharon Stewart, Julie Settle, John Shields, Bill McAllister, Dan Cook, Jim Stone, and Ken VanScoy. I would like to thank the men in my Friday morning Christian Fellowship group who have been such a great encouragement. They are Norm Reece, Tom Blackwell, Jim Martino, and Chris Harrington. I would like to thank those who have faithfully helped me to edit this manuscript and to really get this whole book into a final, presentable format. These people are Sue Bevan, Sheri Lutman, Rob Huffman, my wife Linda and our daughters Debbie, Pam, Melody, and Crystal. Finally, I would like to thank and express my genuine appreciation to five individuals who specifically counseled me concerning my writing techniques. Because of these five, this entire work should be much more readable. They are Phil Zaccagni (now deceased), Warren Walters, Gary Goodman, Barbara West, and Sue Bevan.

A final thank you must be extended to my Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the new life which I received from Him in December 1967, I am grateful that He has given me the knowledge and ability to even attempt this work, and I am pleased for the peace which I have felt over these past seven years as I have taken on this labor of love. In a few moments, my part in all of this will be done, and I will then turn this whole project over to the Lord. From that moment on, how far this book goes and before whose eyes it comes will be a matter of His business, not mine. Through it all, though, may Christ be the One who gets all the honor and glory for what He has done and continues to do in the hearts and lives of those who trust Him.