Because you asked me to continue, I shall. Now we will enter a place that will challenge your faith but I assure you it is all true.


I was so full of rebellion, but in time, He got my attention. Though God is so merciful, and forgiving, people like me were heading toward a rude awakening. Not only had He sent a celestial angel to rouse me into the work, but terrestrial as well.
I was growing tired of the nightlife and wild women. My so-called friends and I had already put the Jack Daniels distillery on second shift.

A time when visiting my mother she told me," Son! That rope has a knot at the end, and God will let you sink just so far before dealing with you." Again her words were never truer. I started dating a girl I knew from school and we both become serious about marriage and settling down. She wanted children and I was not against the idea, and on the 4th day of April 1959, we said our wedding vowels before God and started our journey down the river of no return.

One night while laying under the stars, I told her how God was calling me into something I was afraid of. The last thing I wanted was to be a preacher and I doubted she would want to be married to one, but on the opposite, she thought it was the right thing to do and relished the idea. I argued the point of her being raised a different belief in God and had never experienced seeing miracles performed but only read about them.

I was working at a job clearing 45 dollars a week, and between paying rent and necessity, it left very little to buy groceries. God had done it. He had me right where He wanted. Gasoline was eleven cents and food was also cheap compared to this day.

We had no money for anything and she was expecting our first child. Again, it placed me in a position where I would turn to God for help. He had heard me promise to yield several times and this time, He was letting me feel how the rubber meets the road. With a child coming and we renting a small house, I needed to make more money. He had pushed me into a position where I even thought of re-enlisting in the army. However, that idea quickly left as soon as it came.

Mother was faithful in her visits, she knew how it was for a young couple starting out and would always have the right words to say. The scriptures sometimes covered my mind, especially Proverbs 28-13. "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy."

My wife, (Mary), and I knew we needed God to move for us but getting Him to do it would be hard. It meant giving up worldly pleasures and spending more time in His word and a prayerful atmosphere which at the time we settled for going to church and listening to a Hell- Fire Brimstone messages.

Neither of us was ready for what God had for us. Mother was our pillow of faith. Although I had seen and heard many supernatural things, I still had my moments. My flesh fought hard against the spirit of God, preaching to me meant some vain shouting person who condemned a small group of people.

I could never see Jesus doing this. He was gentle and never condemned anyone, not even the woman caught in adultery. He was much more. He is a Teacher, Prophet, Evangelist, Missionary, Pastor, all five rolled up in one, with love being the main source.
My mother revealed that love and it was refreshing to be near. She had more of a patient role than Job. She knew I would one-day yield to my calling. And It was like the Holy Spirit telling her everything I was doing wrong. In later years I knew it was, but she was obedient and never said a word.

We visited several churches and grew tired of listening to condemnation. One was against owning a TV, another if a woman cut her hair she was doomed. Every denominational church we attended was down on something we had done in our past, but we were not guilty of those things anymore. We had laid those things aside, and besides, we no longer could afford them.

My mother was attending the same little church she had attended when first coming to Arkansas. They believe in the Bible and the laying on of hands for healing or anything a person was in need of. I had seen God perform several miracles in that place and a person could feel the love of God which I knew He was.

The pastor and I were good friends and not one time did he try and sway me to get things right, He knew my raising and it would be a matter of time the Lord would handle things but it took a few years. I was to go through some more rough times before it happened.

My first son was born eleven months after Mary and I married and people were counting with their fingers. Fifteen months later, my second son was born and we needed to make more money and a bigger place to live. Mary said we had almost loved ourselves away from the breakfast table.

I was almost twenty-five lacking six months. I had placed an application for work with the state police and another with Greyhound Lines Inc. With both, a person needed to be twenty-five but was willing to waver six months for having my military behind me. Greyhound offered more money and the State Police much less. They both called me for an interview and I took Greyhound. What an interesting step in life, God laid before me.

Greyhound sent me to their driving school in Dallas. Though I had driven everything the Army had to offer and considered myself a good driver, Greyhound would rather have someone who had never driven anything so as to teach them their way.
I must say, truck drivers and others, I saw get washed out of training because they could not stop old habits. Out of several pupils from many parts of the country, only a handful of us progressed.

My big moment came to the morning I was to take my first load of passengers from Dallas Texas to Houston. Of course, it was a check ride and the safety manager sat directly behind me.
I drove as I was taught and even stopped for a passenger and cut what was known as a cash fair to Marlin Texas, a place about twenty miles down the road. Knowing the safety man was taking notes, I was nervous as Tomcat meowing the blues in some dark alley.

When we reached Marlin, I made my stop and the safety man left me saying, "Take her on to Houston, you can drive a bus." It was like someone getting slapped on the back of the neck and glad when they stopped.