The Calling--The Lighthouse On The Corner Ministries

The Calling

By Ed Crabtree, Rev. ULC
©2002 The Lighthouse On The Corner Ministries

Our inspiration for entering the service of God began with a rather curious visit from a Baptist minister. We had visited his church on several occasions and finally a time slot became available that was convenient for both his schedule as well as ours and the three of us were able to meet at our home for a friendly visit, coffee, and prayer. During this visit we expressed our feelings about our search for a new church to join as the last congregation we had belonged too was lead by the minister who had performed our wedding ceremony, and who had counseled us prior to our marriage as we both had been previously married. This man so inspired us with his insight into the bonds of matrimony as well as the messages he delivered each Sunday, that when we finally learned that all the while he was counseling us he was also having an affair with his daughter-in-law, we were deeply hurt and lost. This feeling of disassociation arising from this unfortunate situation was what led us upon a search for a new church home.

We shared this experience with the visiting Minister from the new church that evening, as well as other aspects of our lives. Just before our visitor led us in prayer at the end of his visit, he dropped a bombshell on us that I would have never dreamed of. He looked us both straight in the eye and said, “You both have the Know, don’t you?” Meaning that he recognized that we both had a certain degree of psychic ability. He then turned to me and remarked “it’s strong in you,” but then turning, he said to my wife, “you are REALLY blessed (with the ability.)” This observation, coming from a Southern Baptist minister, the pastor of a small church in the ultra conservative rural Ozark Mountain region of Missouri, the very heart of the so called Bible belt, absolutely astonished us. I ask you, just how many Ministers from the mainstream of Baptist conservancy do you know that would admit that he acknowledged psychic ability much less say this to a couple that was more or less strangers to him?

Then finally during the prayer at the end of his visit, he asked God not only to bless us, like any good minister would do during prayer at the end of a visit with one of his congregation, but he then asked the Lord to make our home a “Shining Light House On the Corner, A Beacon Reaching Out Into The Darkness.” This request of God seemed at the time to be merely his use of symbolism in asking our Lord to bless our home, but much later we realized it was more.

A few nights later, Ann arose from her sleep and drawn to the front door by some strange feeling, she opened the door and looked out into our front yard and by some strange combination of shadow and light, a near perfect cross of light was projected upon the grass. This event was a deep spiritual experience to Ann, one that at first terrified her as if it was a message telling us to leave that place, but later she realized that it was a sign of what path we should follow.

During the next few weeks we attended this new church on a regular basis, at least what would be considered regular for us, the typical 11:00 to Noon service on Sunday morning. I was so inspired by this Minister I even expressed the willingness to volunteer at the church school and share my knowledge of the Internet with the students possibly helping them to develop the computer skills necessary to utilize the Internet and build online ministries. I even donated an old Apple computer that I had purchased for the purpose of resale on Ebay to the church. This particular machine although archaic at the time was still in great demand by elementary educators as there was an outstanding amount of educational software still available for it. I mean I was fired up and ready to work for the Lord, I thought I had finally found a home church in which I could get involved. However this minister for some reason failed to take advantage of my talents and willingness to volunteer, and my wife and I have always been of the opinion that when we get a bright idea, if that idea works out then it was God’s plan for it to succeed, if not then obviously the opposite would be true. Then there was several weeks in which this church had guest speakers that delivered messages that just didn’t quite seem right, neither my wife nor I could quite seem to put a finger on it so to speak and we felt something that told us to peacefully drift away from this particular congregation, and one lesson we have both learned the VERY hard way, is that when that voice speaks you had better heed the advice. I’m not saying that the holy sprit told me that there was anything wrong with that particular church, just that it wasn’t meant for us to attend there any longer. So as I write this, nearly three years have passed since that time and we have been lead down a rather interesting path, one that has had many interesting events that when viewed objectively from a non-spiritual standpoint might only be considered coincidences but when viewed from the perspective of one with an open mind and a heart that knows the glory of God and has seen the power of his work and felt his hand move as well as having been shown the power of sin and Satin, I am now compelled to share with you more of this story of how I came to join into service for the Lord.

In My Beginning.

A dozen days into the month of December in 1957, a fierce snowstorm threatened to bring travel to a halt throughout most of the rural areas of north central Kentucky. This storm blanketed the roads of the region with snow nearly deep enough to prevent one old country Doctor from arriving at the home of one his patients in time enough to assist her in giving birth to the third and last child she was to be blessed with. Three days before her forty-first birthday, my Mother gave birth to me, my Father who was sixty-nine years old at the time and my older sister, who was nineteen and married to a sailor that was away at sea, along with that kindly old country Doctor were all there in that small but comfortable house in Mittchelsburg that snowy Kentucky evening. My other sibling, a brother, along with his wife and child was stationed in Germany proudly serving our country in the U.S. Army.

For all practical purposes, I was raised almost as if an only child, my Brother and Sister both having attained adulthood, married and left home to start families of their own. I was fortunate in one way to have parents that some might say were old enough to be my grandparents, as they offered me an outlook on life along with family values and principals, a step out of time with those lessons that most of my generation were taught by their parents. Another situation that affected my childhood development was the fact that I had two stay at home parents, as they say in this modern day, since my Father was a retired railroad worker and Mother a housewife.

With both parents in the home on a daily basis, I was blessed with an upbringing that few of my peers can relate too. Many in my generation came from families that to survive financially, needed a two-person income, with both parents working and leaving the children in someone else’s care. I personally have no memory of ever experiencing what it is like for a child to be taken to a babysitter or day care provider save for two instances, one in 1963 when Mother took Dad to the hospital after his first heart attack, and the other when she left me with a family friend in April of 1967 when Dad was hospitalized due to a stroke that he failed to recover from.

Dad being of advanced age knew that the days were numbered in which he would be able to impart to his youngest son the wisdom he had accumulated over a lifetime. Only now can I fully appreciate the moral lessons and Fatherly advice he hurriedly dished out to me during those brief 10 years from my birth and until his death. The above factors and the situation evolving from the fact that Mother never remarried and remained a housewife, supplementing the meager pension Dad left us by babysitting and working odd jobs from the home, until after I graduated from school, are the basis for the unique outlook and demeanor that I have had instilled in me.

One morning in the final days of the month of April, 1967, as was her custom, my Mother awoke me so that I might get ready to go to school, on this particular morning I noticed a sense of consternation almost panic in her voice and actions. As soon as I was up and dressed she told me that she thought Dad had suffered a stroke and I would have to fend for myself that morning as she was otherwise preoccupied getting Dad ready to go to the Doctor. On my way to the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal I passed through the living room where Dad was sitting on the sofa. He been nauseous and due to the severity of the stroke unable to control his bodily functions and had threw up on himself and the furniture.

While Mother tended to him and tried to clean up the mess before the ambulance arrived, picking up my bible from the coffee table, Dad opened it and unable to speak he motioned for me to come to him. Mother grabbed the bible away from Dad before the vomits he had all over him could spoil the holy book. However before she got it from Dad, he pointed to a scripture and he was trying to draw my attention to it as if to convey some message to me, I was able to see just enough before Mother took it from him, that he had opened the bible to the New Testament as the lettering was in the red print signifying a quote of our Lord Jesus Christ. Although I failed to see what he was attempting to show me, it is a beautiful memory that I have of Dad, his last and final act as a Father, trying to impart some bit of knowledge or message to me before his death later on that day.

Seventeen years came and went, as did my Mother, her life being taken in an untimely automobile accident in 1984. Shortly after Mother’s death, my sister called me and I could tell from the sniffles and the tone in her voice she was obviously shaken. She told me to get my bible and open it to Matthew 28, this I did and there between the pages of the gospel according to Matthew, was a small shard of paper. I read aloud the note that was in my Mother’s handwriting to my sister who was waiting on the other end of the phone. The note simply said “I will be with you always, read Matthew 28:20.” It was then that my sister told me that she had found a similar note in her bible. The question we both had for each other was when did Mom have the opportunity to write and insert the notes in our bibles, and could it be that this was the passage that Dad was trying to show me shortly before he died? Was this beautiful and simple act of love by a Mother for her children just that, a simple act, or was there more? Was Mother trying to imply that in death she would remain a guardian angel watching over us? Read on before you decide.

My second and also current wife Ann, was acquainted my Mother, and unbeknownst to me, had been a business associate several years prior to the time that Ann and I first met. Although we had become casual acquaintances in 1988, it wasn’t until after my first wife and I had divorced and she (my first wife) had remarried that Ann and I started dating in 1990.

One day while Ann and I were dating, she noticed the large bible on my coffee table, bound in white leatherette, but through 33 years of ageing the white had evolved into a beautiful patina of an off-white ivory color. I explained to her that the Bible had been purchased for me before my birth and before anyone had any knowledge of what gender the child that my Mother carried in her would be. I went on to explain how Dad had tried to convey his final message to me with this same bible, but I for some reason forgot to tell her of the note from my late Mother that was still stored where I found it between the pages of the gospel according to Matthew. ;

Just before our wedding day, Ann asked if she could carry this Bible down the isle with her. She explained that she felt drawn to this Bible for some reason, that it held some great spiritual significance to us. Of course I agreed as Ann and I share a special relationship, one that transcends the normal realm into that of the spiritual, a bond so close that from the very start of our journey through life together, was one of those relationships that normally comes from a lifetime spent side by side, a bond in that you become so close that you often know what the other is thinking, and can complete a sentence spoken by the other before he or she can get out of their mouth, a relationship so close that you both say the same thing at the same time so often that the phenomena becomes routine.

So on that day when I turned and with great expectation watched my love, the beautiful soul mate that I had prayed that God would finally deliver unto me, a woman that would love me unconditionally, through sickness and health, for richer or poorer, approach me carrying that same old Bible with a single rose, my Mother’s favorite flower, down that isle. It was then that something very special happened. It was as if the entire church filled with light, and although our bodies were anchored in the real world our awareness our souls transcended to a higher plain. Looking deep into each other’s eyes our souls touched and we exchanged wedding vows on both the plain of reality but also in that surrealistic spiritual plain that only we two occupied on that wonderful day. The glow of that light blanketed and surrounded us rendering us totally oblivious to the existence of our guests and families. We continued somehow in this altered state brought on by joy and love until we started opening the gifts our friends had showered upon us. The first gifts we exchanged were those we had bought each other, we each had purchased a card to accompany the gifts we had purchased and on opening the cards we both simultaneously thought we had each opened the wrong card, we thought we had accidentally opened the card intended for the other, so we exchanged cards. You see quite by accident, we had both purchased identical greeting cards. Coincidence, possibly, but this is just one of the examples of how close we had become.

A short time later Ann confided in me of this dream that she had had the night previous, in which my Mother had appeared to her. Ann had been quite fond of Mother and thought of her often, even telling me of some of the times that the two of them had conducted business together, so it didn’t seem unusual to me for Ann to have a dream about my Mother, at first. Ann told me of how in the dream Mother had said to her, “I will be with you always.” I was totally shocked, as I had never told Ann of the situation regarding the note Mother had left in my bible, so with tear filled eye I recounted the story of the note. The strange part of this tale is that Ann at this point in our relationship had not had the opportunity to peruse through my bible and find that note that I had left where I found it and it remains to this day. So was there something more to the simple act of a Mother writing a note to her children and leaving it in their bibles to be found at some future date? Was there something to the compelling urge Ann felt to include that old Bible in our wedding, as if that was her way to include my late parents. Although secular observers might find some logical explanation for this situation, we prefer to believe, my Mother who was also fond of Ann, along with my Dad and others that played such an important part in our lives, continue to watch over both of us, to this very day.

Although her parents both worked outside of the home in her early days, Ann was entrusted to the care of her paternal grandparents while her folks were at work, until such a time as she was old enough not to need a babysitter. This close association with older family members has been a blessing to both my wife and I. A blessing that many of our acquaintances have commented on, saying that we both seem to have an aura or wisdom commonly found in those folks far beyond our years.

This bond with our elders has been of an especially spiritual significance to Ann, as her various grandparents have appeared to her in her dreams.

Shortly after moving, Ann’s Mother was in need of an important document that was vital in order to conclude a business function, so Ann assisted her Mother in a frantic search through everything that had been unpacked as well as those boxes of belongings that remained to be sorted through and placed in appropriate locations in the new home. As the search progressed they both became more and more frantic as the possibility of finding the document grew dismal. Finally, they were forced to give up as everything, all the boxes, every closet, drawer, container, anything might have the document there in, had been thoroughly and carefully searched to no avail.

That night, as in dreams she had often had over the years since his passing, Ann’s grandfather appeared to her. She tells of finding herself in a park, so beautiful that the landscaping cannot be adequately described. And there on a bench is her grandfather who always motions to her to sit down beside him in order that they might visit. He often reminds her not to touch him for if she does the vision will end and fade away, but he always offers her hope that the events in her daily life will change for the better or at times, warnings of impending personal disaster. In this particular dream he told her the exact location of the missing document.

Sure enough, on later examination, as instructed, Ann went to the closet in her Mother’s home and removed the box, her Mother protesting that she personally had thoroughly searched that particular box and resented Ann’s intrusion into her personal belongings. However Ann was undaunted by her Mother’s complaints and she reached into the container and produced the missing document. Shocked beyond disbelief, her Mother demanded of Ann just how did she know to go directly to that particular closet, remove that particular box, and instantly produce the correct paper. When Ann told her of the visit with her grandfather, her Mother cried, you see that by finding that particular paper they would be able to conclude this particular business and without the vital document, Ann’s Mother was at a loss as to what they would do, the nature of the business being that important to the family.

Since our marriage, I have learned through numerous personal experiences that when Ann says she has had a visit with grandpa we had better heed the advice she has been given through these visions.

One day Ann was telling me that her paternal grandmother appeared to her in a dream, this seemed unusual to me, as the elderly lady was still alive unlike the other visitors that Ann frequently encountered in her dreams. Ann described to me how her Grandmother met with her in that same familiar park where Ann has encountered other friends and relatives that have left this world. Her Grandmother was holding a flower, which she placed in a stream and together they watched it gently float away. With a look of genuinely being at peace with herself, Grandmother then smiled at Ann and turned and walked away. The next day the news of Grandmother’s passing reached us.

Again there might be a logical, rational explanation for these phenomena, but could it be that the departed are looking over us and guiding us? Or is it just Ann’s subconscious manifesting her deep attachment to those that had such an influence on her personal life?

Recently I was told that in the past I had a tendency to always be too skeptical and at times lacking in faith, as there had many occurrences in my life that I had tried to over analyze, times when I tried to follow more seemingly rational reasoning and relied on more conventional established precedence to guide me in my decision making process, instead of following that “voice” calling upon me to heed it’s advice. In retrospect, I realize now that there has been many times in which I did follow this “voice,” occurrences that I tried to explain as coincidence, “gut” instinct, or just common sense, situations that proved to be beneficial to me by following this unseen voice. However I also now realize that far too often I did have a lack of faith when I tried to use the secular sciences to explain the feelings of deja-vu, the premonitions, the dreams, nightmares, or visions if you will, that I have been given and the situations of life I have found myself in.

Many times I tried to reach out for what seemed like rational explanations for the situations I have found myself in, situations that years later proved to be a revelation or a lesson that has deep spiritual implications to me, situations that I now know that I had to witness or be shown in order to develop my growth and spiritual education. I now know that I have been led by that unseen voice, that unseen spiritual entity along a path with many vistas, not unlike the three Ghosts of Christmas that took Ebenezer Scrooge on his metaphysical journey and revealed unto him aspects of his life and possible future if he failed to heed their advice and change his ways, in that fictional classic “A Christmas Carol.” Many things I have been allowed to witness without having to personally experience the pain, despair and suffering that most people have to experience first hand before fully appreciating what God has given them.

Countless times I have by chance met someone, who led me to another person and a situation that I have learned great lessons from. It was one of these type scenarios that from which I ended up serving my community in a volunteer fire and rescue unit. A situation that allowed me to see first hand how drinking and driving are not compatible. Many a night we were called upon to extricate victims from wrecked automobiles, many a night I saw real life nightmares of maimed bodies intertwined with alcohol and twisted steel.

Over the years, far too many of my close friends and relatives fell victim to the misuse of drugs and alcohol, and although as a young adult I was with these same individuals at parties, and like many, I too tried whisky and over the ensuing years have even been known to periodically have a social drink, not heeding that unseen voice that has warned me that my family is one of those prone to alcohol addiction.

For almost thirteen years I tried to remain true to the wedding vows I exchanged with my first wife. I stood by her through the terrible time in which she succumbed to the addiction to prescription drugs. I remained true to her while she spent months confined to psychiatric facilities, I worked a full time job and then sought part time employment or started work at home businesses in order to pay for the mounting mental related expenses. I watched as she, unable to deal with the mundane realities of routine life, sought to escape through mind altering drugs to a place in her own mind where she was able to find an imaginary lifestyle in which she could enjoy an existence of grandeur that she thought she was entitled to in the real world but that our finances could not provide for. Material possessions were her only desire, to shop until she dropped, then escape the real world into that drug induced fantasy. Finally realizing that all I was to her was a means to obtain what she most enjoyed material items and her drugs, I started having problems with depression. I didn’t feel right about suing for divorce due to my upbringing and moral convictions, and for more than a year dealt with the concept of taking my own life as an escape from what had become to me an unbearable situation, one in that I was letting her take me down a path to certain destruction. My own physical as well as mental health was rapidly deteriorating, it was during these dark hours that I had to personally deal with cancer. Finally through prayer I was guided once again and made decisions that I hope were correct, and I did ask for a divorce. Apparently I made the right decisions as within days of our separation, she had found another and within less than six months was remarried. If divorce is a sin, I ask God for forgiveness. But I think it was his plan for me to witness the 13 years of trials and tribulations, if for no other reason to develop a deeper appreciation for life and for the soul mate he was to finally lead me too, my second wife, Ann.

Addiction to drugs and alcohol, despair, depression, tragedy, death, all these things I have seen with great personal sadness, through the experiences of others, thoughts of suicide, cancer and near fatal afflictions I have personally experienced. And how I was spared from this demise, when I could just have easily fallen victim and been made to suffer the same consequences that my associates have, to me this is a sign that God has spoke to me through that “voice” and told me to avoid drugs and alcohol. Why was I spared from addiction when so many of my close associates fell victim? Why did that unseen voice speak, and that unseen hand guide me away from destruction?

Never in my life have I filed a tax return in which the adjusted gross income totaled to more than that figure referred to as the national poverty level. Although I came from a family of modest means and having experienced great financial difficulties arising from medical expenses and other problems throughout my entire adult life, I have never felt poor. Many a time there was and probably yet will be in the future when the cupboard is bare, but I am yet to know the pain of hunger. Although I have had life threatening medical problems even cancer, and have faced death so closely that I crossed over to the other side to see the beauty of that level of existence and for a brief moment was even reunited with my late parents, but for reasons known only to him, God brought me back. Many a time the situation at hand seemed hopeless and at that final hour, that last darkest moment, God has provided a means for physical or financial survival, never providing more than necessary but enough to meet the immediate need. So again I find myself in that position of asking the Lord, what have I ever done to enjoy the good fortune he has bestowed upon me. I am reminded of that country ballad in which the lyrics ask, “Why me Lord, what have I ever done to deserve even one,,,,,” of the blessings I’ve known.

As a teenager, there were times in which I would go out and just drive the roads through the rural countryside near my home, just to think, just to have something to do, just to try to come to terms with the questions I had regarding my own existence. Many times I would stay out far past the point of mental awareness and physical exhaustion and wake up the next morning, at home safe in my bed, with no idea of how I got there, my last memory of being out there behind the wheel of my old beat up pickup truck somewhere on one of those rural country roads. Did I become so fatigued that some subconscious instinct guided me safely home leaving me no conscious memories of the event? Or was it the hand of God? I now know the answer to that question, but I will leave up to you the reader to reach your own conclusion, however I have faith that it was power of God that brought me safely home. And many times in the course of daily personal business I have been driving through town and country, and that unseen voice, that feeling of electricity that makes the hair on the back of you neck stand up, alerted me and I narrowly avoided collision with another driver. On the occasions that I failed to heed that warning, I have been involved in minor “fender benders” in which someone rear-ended or backed into me. In those situations I heard the warnings but couldn’t see any apparent signs of danger, so I didn’t react and follow the admonition and seemingly out of nowhere appears some other driver who slam dunks my car. In retrospect, had I heeded the warning of impending danger, took action and followed the voice; my automobile would have gone undamaged.

Over the years I have secretly confided in my all time best friend, my wife Ann, that I felt this unusual calling to join the ministry and service of God. But I also told her of my feelings of being inadequate for this duty, my questioning of the voice and this ministerial calling, feelings of not being a good enough Christian to lead by precept and example any congregation that I might someday be called on to serve. I have also had such reservations about those who would seem to be false prophets, serving in the name of God only for their own financial gain, Not wanting others to think of me and judge me guilty of those same faults I have witnessed in other people that claim to be serving God, but for all appearances seem only to be serving their own interests and greed for money and lust for power, hiding behind a façade of piety and preying on those who are truly devoted to the Lord. So for all these years I have failed to heed that voice, that calling.

Then one day that strange course of events that I have so often experienced and written about above, a chain of events in which I was lead from one person to another that lead me on to yet another person and situation, as it has done so often in the past, occurred once again. I was visiting with a gentleman who in conversation told me of the Universal Life Church and that they would do free online ordinations, and to top it off the ULC was a legally recognized church body in my state, so that anyone ordained online over the Internet could perform those ceremonies and affairs reserved for ministers. I was astounded, I couldn’t believe this situation existed, so I went home, logged onto the Internet and thoroughly checked it out. I even went so far as to call the local Circuit Clerk’s office as well as various offices at the State level and discovered that it was all true. So I read the terms of agreement on the ULC website and without thinking of the possible ramifications I pointed the computer mouse and clicked away. I was at that moment an ordained minister.

Then the first of two thoughts hit me. One of the great moral lessons that my Father had tried to instill in me before his passing was to always keep my word to God and my fellow man. And I realized that when I pointed and clicked away at that computer screen on the ULC website, that I had indeed given my word that I would follow the church’s doctrine that of always doing the right thing. And all those events throughout my life flashed before my eyes in which I had raised my hand and gave my word that I would do right, as a child when I joined the Boy Scouts I swore I would follow the moral guidelines of the scouts, as a man when I joined the Masonic Fraternity I raised my right hand, my left on the Holy Bible and repeated the same vows to God and mankind that so many men from common laborers to heads of state have also pledged to support, all the times since I was a child that I stood at attention with my right hand over my heart and recited the pledge of allegiance, and so many other times in my life that I gave my word to God and man to do what was right. It was then that I realized that by clicking on that submit button on that web page that I had once again promised God and my fellow man that I would follow a simple moral commandment, that of doing what was right. Maybe some would say that I take these things and myself too seriously, but I really do try to take serious, abide by the pledges I take.

Then the second thought hit me. If God was as I suspected indeed trying to tell me all these years that he wanted me to join into his service, and that was why he has lead me down the pathway of life and revealed to me good and bad, provided me with enough but never more than I needed, rescued me from danger, comforted me in times of sorrow, brought gladness to my heart by showing me simple things of great beauty and horrific sadness when he allowed me to witness the despair of others. What if this was God’s way of saying “alright Ed, if you won’t do as I say and join the ministry one way, I’ll make you a minister anyway before you realize what you have done.” It has been said so often said that God works in mysterious ways, is it possible that he created a situation that I would ask to join the ministry and give my word and become a minister, before my self doubt and lack of faith could prevent me from doing so and becoming a servant of the Lord, ordained by man via the Internet but called by God?

Since that night that I pointed my computer’s mouse cursor to that submit button, I have watched the various sites on the Internet where other people tell of a similar calling, it’s as if all over the world, God is calling just plain folks to his ministry. Touching their hearts to spread the word that peace, tolerance of other’s various ideologies and theologies, to witness by precept and example by walking in the light, might touch their hearts and minds and souls and lead them to Christ by choice and not by force or other coercion. To open minds and hearts that so much of the diatribe that we are confronted with daily is just propaganda designed to get us to follow down a path that those that serve some evil existence would like for us to follow in order to serve their master, a path to assured destruction and damnation. Is it possible that we have been called to post letters and web sites in the Internet, information that can possibly reach untold millions, information that will stir hearts and minds to realize the promise of the Gospels? Is this not in one sense similar, a twenty-first century version if you will, of the letters wrote by the Disciples to the ancient churches telling of Jesus’ ministry? Only time will tell if these new Internet based ministries are indeed God’s plan, however even if we only touch but one heart, one soul, and win a single person over to God’s service, then has not all our efforts been worthwhile?

You be the judge, if your heart is open to the infinite possibilities of God’s plan, the glory of his works and the power of his message, and that God does indeed work in strange and mysterious ways, then you can understand why I have wrote this essay and why I am now a minister in the grand and glorious service to our lord God.

Please take a moment to objectively review your own life experiences, is it possible that you have heard that voice, felt that righteous hand trying to protect you from danger, like a loving parent trying to point you along the right pathway? Did you heed the advice? Or like a rebellious child did seek your own self determined path? Would your life have been different had you listened? Will you now open your heart to Christ and follow his teachings, love your fellow man, let the virtues of faith and patience guide you through your daily existence? Will you join those of us who have felt God’s presence prepare our friends and brothers for the triumphant return of his Son, Jesus Christ?

May Brotherly love prevail, may peace be with you and may God guide you forever, Amen.