++++My home church was the Roxalana EUB Church of Dunbar, West Virginia. In the early years of my remembrance, we had church in a basement because the upper part of the church was unfinished. I remember some fiery services at that church in the basement. I especially remember Preacher Kiff who parted his hair in the middle. When he got “fired up,” the hair on both sides of the part would bounce up and down. Although I considered Preacher Kiff an old man, he died in a country pulpit at an age that was less than fifty years. It was at Roxalana in the basement that I remember going to the altar to pray with the older folks. It was a wonderful time for a young boy. Eventually, the upper story was finished and the church moved upstairs. There are some that say that we became “church happy” after that.

(Rev. and Sister Allen were influentual in my life. They would often break bread with us in our home. I used to attend revivals as a teenager with brother Charles Teets. As far as I know, Brother Teets is still living and preaching in Marland not far From Terra Alta, West Vierginia.)

++++In April of 1951, at the “Good News Club” that a lady gave of her time to conduct in a home after school on Tuesdays, I gave my heart to the Lord. Forty-seven years later, after some heady experiences in the Lord and some equally traumatic downhill slides, the grace of God has this unworthy man still in the hollow of God's hand. At the age of about fourteen while at Church Camp, I received a call to the ministry. But it would be 23 years before I would be licenced to preach.

++++During my senior year of high school, my father lost his job at Fletcher Enamel of Dunbar when the company shut down and put its employees out on the street. Dad managed to land a low paying job as caretaker of the Girl Scout camp “Ann Bailey,” and we moved to Caldwell in Greenbrier County West Virginia. After spending the summer and fall there, I joined the Army and soon found myself in Germany where I was stationed for thirty-one months during which time the Berlin Wall was built and the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred.

++++After nearly two years of boredom and keeping my “nose clean,” I went in the opposite direction. The boy who grew up in church began to need to have the ceiling spinning in order to go to sleep. And, the more I drank, the worse it became. Even during this low period, I had my Bibles. I had the Bible that had been prsented to me by the Roxalana E.U.B. Sunday School when I graduated from high school, and I had my Gideon New Testaments. One of these was an old tan cloth-covered testament that my father had recieved when he was stationed at Schofield Barracks at White Plains, New York just after World Wat I while he was in the Navy. The other testament was the one I had picked up in the chapel one Sunday Morning during basic training at Fort Know. After Sunday tht I had picked that testament up, I spent the following Sundays while I was there on KP. I also had my photo albium with family pictures in it. These things kept the situation from getting a whole lot worse. Finally my term expired and I headed home on the steamship U.S.S. Patch. I had my last beer in Washington, D.C., but I had a terrible time with the cigarettes. I had too much respect for my mother to either drink or smoke near her. I thought that I had hid my smoking from her, but, a few years later she said, Okey, you’re not smoking those old cigarettes again are you?” You just cannot hide much from a good mother.

++++One of the first things that I had seen when we arrived at Caldwell in July of 1959 was the Caldwell Pentecostal Holiness Church. I said, “Hey look! There’s one of these holy roller churches!” But, while I was in Germany, both my mother and father began attending this church. When I came home just in time for Christmas 1962, I put my suit on and attended church on Christmas Sunday. Mom already had several girls picked out for me. One of these girls was playing the piano the first Sunday that I attended. It was Christmas Sunday and I had to pass right by her as I went back to class. I was paying so much attention to her that I almost fell into the Christmas Tree. That girl soon left for Texas and I soon met the girl that the Lord had picked out to be my wife.

++++My courtship with Carolyn Grimes was a frustrating thing because she was so shy. It didn’t help that her first impression of her was of my large “King ears.” After a month or so of this frustration, I gave up and went fishing saying to myself, “I am going to marry this girl and so it will work out somehow.” That fall fallowing my return home, I enrolled in West Virginia State College below Charleston. Seeing that I had left, Carolyn got on the ball and invited me to her house for Thanksgiving. After a whirlwind romance, I gave her a ring in January. But, tragedy had struck when my father died of cancer in December. Carolyn’s father had been killed in a terrible auto accident in July of 1962.

++++My mother and I returned to Dunbar just after Christmas, but I returned to Caldwell nearly every weekend. Finally Carolyn and I were married in November of 1964. In conjunction with our marriage, we started attending the new Charleston PH Church that was being founded my Walter Lee Wood Jr. In early 1965, we became charter members of that church. Those early years at the church were wonderful years. I finally began to answer my call to the ministry and preached my first sermon in 1966. But, I wasn’t ready even then. Even though I was Sunday School Superintendent, a trustee, a deacon, and a mission worker had no idea of what the grace of God was and I was trying to do these things all by myself. It was during this time that, while studying for my mission worker’s license, I was baptized in the Spirit with the “Speaking in Tongues” in the back seat of my 1962 corvair. Despite this, a year or so after Walter Lee accepted the Roanoke Church, I quit. I rationalized that my home church at Roxalana would use me, but they had nothing for me. I finally moved from Dunbar to a farm in Mason County and said that I would have my own church up on the hill. What nonsense!

Then, God struck me down. I injured my back while working for the Post Office and spent more than five weeks on the kitchen floor unable to move without experiencing horrible pain. And, since I was running from God, there sere no Christians around to comfort me. This time of rebellion is probably the darkest personal time of my life. Finally, after being allowed to get up and work again, my wife began campaigning for a return to Greenbrier County. I could say that this was partly brought on by the outlaw neighbors that we had around us and partly out of homesickness on her part. But, in reality, it was the Lord bringing me back to the place where it would be possible for me to serve Him again. I told my wife, “I’ll go back to Caldwell, but I’m not going back to that church (PH). Despite those words, I have missed few services since that time.

++++Having returned to Caldwell and having joined the Church where I eventually became a deacon, I, with the encouragement of Pastor Russell Spence, began to pursue the ministry once more. While studying the Book of Romans under B.E. Underwood, I finally began to understand grace. I joined with the Virginia Conference in 1977 as a licenced minister and was ordained in 1979. My first pastorate was at Second Creek which was a wonderful church. From there I went to the Peniel Church, south of White Sulphur Springs, where I have served now for nearly eighteen years. ++++Pastoring has been a bittersweet experience. Although I have some wonderful highs, I had never cried as an adult, not counting the death of parents, until I began to pastor. On the mornings before the funeral of someone especially close to me, I have shed tears into my shaving cream. At other times, sorrow has come because the imperfection of the saints. But, it has been an experience that I would never trade for the life that I had before. The love that God has for me has carried me. Along with the Love that God has shown me, I have had the loyalty of my wife who has been a good “pastor's wife.” In addition, I have had the fellowship of my fellow ministers both brothers and sisters.

++++In February of 1995, life hit another hard place. Carolyn was diagnosed as having breast cancer. That first day was a terrible time for our entire family. But, it was at this time that the love of God and the love and support of my fellow Christians was manifested. Unable to pray myself, I went to my brothers and sisters in the Lord. They held us up in intercession to the Lord, and we were blessed. Although we lost a breast, and we mourned that, my wife and I have become closer than ever. I cannot say enough for the Brothers and Sisters that, over the years, I have come to love greatly. And, I cannot say enough for the mercy and love of God who not only saved us but give us a place to serve in His Kingdom. He not only did this for us, but he will also do this for you. If we can say, and be true to what we say, “Not our will but Your will be done” he is faithful and true to keep all that he has promised. Won’t you open your arms and say, “Here I am Lord.”