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Who is Lewis Atchley? I am a man who has worked at a thousand jobs and stayed with none: After a year or so, on the job, my mind would start screaming: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What does this all mean? Is this all there is to living? Who the hell is Jesus and what has he to do with me? I had heard about Jesus since my childhood: my grandparents were ordained ministers and I did not believe one word they had to say about church and Jesus: it all sounded like whistling in the dark as one walks past a graveyard to me.
As church and Jesus sounded like whistling in the dark to me; all industrial business was based on lies, stealing, and slavery to me: I went to work for an electronic company: they had designed a product that for years they couldn't get to work: they gave it to me and said: "Make it work." I did: The company made millions off that product: I got a "Good job" and a handshake. Another time the company sold a product to the US Navy but the operations manual was not ready and the company was close to losing the contract with the Navy: a tech-writing company wanted $30.000 dollars to write the manual plus they wanted six months to do the job. My boss came to me with an arm full of engineering notes and asked me if I could write the manual for them that they needed it: yesterday --I did not know at this time that they had talked to a tech-writing firm -- I took the notes and went immediately home: this was around 1pm in the afternnon: I worked the rest of the day and all night on the manual: the next morning I handed it to my boss: completed: ready to be printed for the Navy. He said, "Thanks." When I found out about the tech-writing thing I asked my boss how much did he think I would get for saving the company's ass: again: He said, "Oh, you work for the company and anything you do belongs to the company -- I thought you understood that: yeah, right. I left electronics shortly afterwards: tore up my degrees: and never looked back.
Who the hell is Jesus and what has he to do with me? My mind was on fire: I never had a moment of inner mental peace from the first time I heard Jesus name [around 4 or 5 years of age] and I belonged no place and to no one: I just ran and ran and ran: away from myself: away from Jesus: away from the world: "beam me up Scottie I ain't fittin' in here!" I was "lucky" I was born with great physical strength and my "mindless" body carried me through all the physical abuse I could pile on it: I would pick fist-fights I had no chance of winning: because at this time I could feel nothing: except when a fist was pounding my face to a bloody pulp: oh! "To Feel" even if it is only a physical blow to the face: is most precious: just to feel: something.
Ijoined the Navy: Then my physical health broke: I had been born with defective kidneys and did not know it -- as I was born with it: I thought the pain in my back was natural. I spent the next 4 years in and out of the VA Hospital in San Franciso, California; they tried with some 15 to 20 operations to save my kidneys: they saved a portion of the left kidney and removed all other.
During the last operation on my kidney I got a staph infection: it ate away all of my right side: from under my arm down to my hip and from my spine to my navel; the staph was eating long tunnels all through my body: it was at this time that the doctors told me I was dying: That night I had a radio on and this preacher came on and said that if any of us were sick out there to just put our hand on the radio and ask Jesus to heal us: yeah: right: I put my hand on that radio and swore to God that if he let me live I would do anything He wanted me to do.
On rounds the next morning the doctors stopped by my bed and removed my bandage: The doctor gasped: "Look at that: there is new flesh in the bottom of all that rot: it is a miracle: that new flesh was not there last night when we made our rounds".
The paragraph above sounds like a lot of preacher crap: huh? But it is true and on record at Ft. Miley Veterans Hospital in San Franciso, California. Go ahead: Explain it away: it doesn't make a damn to me; it is your life: do with it what you want.
For the next 17 years I was on the run again: from church to church to church and from university to university to university: what the hell did Jesus want from me! I couldn't find a church I could believe in: I couldn't believe their dogmas and then read Jesus teachings in the Bible and stay sane: finally after getting doctorates in: metaphysics: philosophy: theology: pastoral counseling: Jesus gave me my answer: A One-To-One Ministry for people like me: who do not care what the Truth is or where the Truth leads: as long as it it the Truth. Enough with lies: they stink.
I have spent the last 18 years developing the One-to-One Ministry and I am no longer on the run: I have found my peace: That is what Jesus wanted with me all along: to give me peace.
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