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Speaker 1: Life audio, and as clear as day, God spoke to

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Speaker 1: my heart and said, preach the Gospel. The thing I

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Speaker 1: had feared was happening. The thing I did not want

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Speaker 1: to do, I was being asked to do. But strangely

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Speaker 1: I had a courage and a boldness to do it.

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Speaker 1: You know, the Bible says, we live our lives like

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Speaker 1: a story that's been told. Our life is like a movie.

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Speaker 1: Of course, we're the main character, and it has its

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Speaker 1: ups and downs, it has its highs and lows. And

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Speaker 1: as you look back, as you get older, you realize

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Speaker 1: that often there is a pattern to what happened to

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Speaker 1: you in your life. As scripture says, the lines have

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Speaker 1: fallen in pleasant places. And I can certainly see that myself.

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Speaker 1: As I look back in my own life, I can

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Speaker 1: see how God it has handed me the earliest days

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Speaker 1: of my life. So some of you know my story,

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Speaker 1: some of you know parts of my story. I want

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Speaker 1: to tell it to you in the proper sequence and

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Speaker 1: sort of explain how God worked in my life. So

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Speaker 1: I was born in nineteen fifty two. Doesn't that sound

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Speaker 1: long ago? Yes, I was born in the fifties. Elvis

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Speaker 1: was king, Marilyn Monroe was the number one movie star

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Speaker 1: and Dwight Eisenhower was the President of the United States.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't planned. My mother, a beautiful lady named Charlene,

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Speaker 1: had me out of wedlock. She couldn't wait to get

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Speaker 1: out of her home. She was raised by her parents

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Speaker 1: Stella in Charles McDaniel in Arkansas, and my mother was

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Speaker 1: a beautiful young girl and couldn't wait to escape her childhood,

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Speaker 1: even though it was a very nice childhood. According to

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Speaker 1: my other aunts, they went to church every Sunday. They

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Speaker 1: went to church Sunday night, they went to church Wednesday night.

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Speaker 1: You might say my mother had a drug problem. She

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Speaker 1: was drug to church, drug here, drug there, and she

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Speaker 1: didn't like it. My mom was a rebel, so her sister, Willie,

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Speaker 1: my aunt Willie, helped her packer suitcase and she escaped

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Speaker 1: and entered into her first marriage. I wasn't born yet.

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Speaker 1: And sometime after that first marriage, she had a fleet

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Speaker 1: with some sailor in Long Beach, California, and she got pregnant.

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Speaker 1: I'm so thankful she didn't abort me. That could have

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Speaker 1: happened very easily. But she carried me to Termine. I

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Speaker 1: was born and on my birth certificate was the name

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Speaker 1: of my biological father, or who I thought was my

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Speaker 1: biological father and later found out was not at all.

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Speaker 1: Get to that later. So my mother was going from

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Speaker 1: marriage to marriage, from relationship to relationship, if you want

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Speaker 1: to call them that. And she was a men magnet.

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Speaker 1: I remember, even as a little boy, wherever I went,

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Speaker 1: men were drawn to my mother. They would even come

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Speaker 1: up to me and say, is that your mom introduced

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Speaker 1: me to her, which is kind of weird actually. And

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Speaker 1: so I lived for a time with my aunts and uncles.

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Speaker 1: I did a couple of stints in military school, Southern

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Speaker 1: California Military Academy. It no longer is there. It used

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Speaker 1: to be in Signal Hill and Long Beach, California. The

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Speaker 1: reason that's not there is I burned it to the ground.

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Speaker 1: Not really, it just was torn down eventually. But I

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Speaker 1: spent a good part of my childhood living with my grandparents,

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Speaker 1: the very parents my mother was rebelling against. Actually it

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Speaker 1: was a very stable environment. My grandmother was the greatest

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Speaker 1: cook of all time, as she did Southern cooking like

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Speaker 1: there was no tomorrow. You know, you have all the

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Speaker 1: great things that Southerners loved to eat, like fried chicken,

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Speaker 1: and the black eyed peas, and collared greens, greens and okra,

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Speaker 1: and she would make cornbread from scratch, and then what else?

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Speaker 1: She made so many other things, mashed potatoes, of course,

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Speaker 1: But the crown jewel of Mama Stella's cooking was her biscuit.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what she did how she did it.

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Speaker 1: In fact, when she was getting older, I had my

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Speaker 1: wife Kathy watched her. I said, watch mam Sella make

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Speaker 1: the biscuit, so we don't lose the secret of this biscuit.

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Speaker 1: But no one could make them quite like she did.

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Speaker 1: My grandfather was a very strict disciplinarian. He'd use the

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Speaker 1: belt on me. I don't remember being exceptionally rebellious, but

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Speaker 1: they made sure that I had a lot of respect.

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Speaker 1: Funny little things you remember from your childhood. They would

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Speaker 1: go to bed at night and my grandmother would take

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Speaker 1: her teeth out, her false teeth and put them in

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Speaker 1: a little glass of water. And I'd look at that

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Speaker 1: and I was slightly traumatized by it. I remember playing

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Speaker 1: with those little Tonka trucks. They were made out of

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Speaker 1: metal in those days. Now they're made out plastic. But

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Speaker 1: I remember that there was a portrait of Jesus hanging

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Speaker 1: on the wall of our front room, and I would

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Speaker 1: often find myself just looking at it, thinking about it.

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Speaker 1: I was drawn to Jesus at an early age. Also

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Speaker 1: below that portrait of Christ was a floor furnace, and

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Speaker 1: it had a grate on the top, and I remember

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Speaker 1: putting my little green army men. They would come in

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Speaker 1: little bags, a whole bunch of them, and I would

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Speaker 1: set them there and let them melt. I'd get in trouble.

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Speaker 1: That's probably when my grandfather would use this built on me.

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Speaker 1: But another interesting thing living there, I was very lonely.

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Speaker 1: I really missed my mother, But I didn't really like

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Speaker 1: living with my grandparents that much. I wanted to be

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Speaker 1: with my mom, and I'll tell you why in a moment.

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Speaker 1: But at night I would pull the covers over my

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Speaker 1: head and I would talk to an imaginary character that

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Speaker 1: I made up on my little kid and his name

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Speaker 1: was mister Nobody. Or I got this idea, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: but I would talk to mister Nobody and I would

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Speaker 1: pour out my heart to him. I would tell him

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Speaker 1: what was scaring me, what I was hoping for, And

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Speaker 1: in reality, I think in my way without knowing how

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Speaker 1: I was trying to talk to God. Coming back to

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Speaker 1: my mother, the reason I wanted to be with her

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Speaker 1: was not because I wanted her to take care of me,

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Speaker 1: but more because I felt like I needed to take

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Speaker 1: care of her effectively. I was the only consistent man

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Speaker 1: in my mother's life. All these other men came through

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Speaker 1: a revolving door. They came, they left her. But I

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Speaker 1: was always there for my mom. And even though I

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Speaker 1: was a little boy, in some ways, I was more

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Speaker 1: like the parent in the relationship than she was. She

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Speaker 1: was parental at times and would take care of me,

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Speaker 1: but many times she was not. She was an alcoholic

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Speaker 1: I would call a raging alcoholic. She would drink to

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Speaker 1: excess every single night and either pass out or get

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Speaker 1: into a fight with one of the guys she was

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Speaker 1: with at the time. And when I see a fight,

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Speaker 1: I don't just mean an argument. I mean it would

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Speaker 1: come to blows, things thrown around. She would slap these guys,

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Speaker 1: some of them would slap her right back. And that

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Speaker 1: was pretty much every night at my house. I would

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Speaker 1: be laying in bed, she was gone. She would come home.

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Speaker 1: I would hear the eyes dropped into the little glasses,

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Speaker 1: some boozebean poured, talking maybe quietly, then the voices get raised,

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Speaker 1: Then the argument starts, then the screaming starts, and finally

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Speaker 1: it stops. And I would always go and check on

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Speaker 1: her and make sure she was okay, make sure she

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Speaker 1: got into bed. And it was a tumultuous and honestly

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Speaker 1: an awful childhood. But I had this weird I want

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Speaker 1: to call it weird, because it was great, really optimism

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Speaker 1: that things were going to get better. And I think

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Speaker 1: that was put in my heart by God. You know,

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Speaker 1: the Bible says God has placed eternity in our hearts.

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Speaker 1: Here's a story that illustrates that optimism. One morning I

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Speaker 1: got up for Christmas. We had this artificial white tree

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Speaker 1: and it had one of those slowly turning color wheels

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Speaker 1: you ever see those, you know, putting the color on

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Speaker 1: the tree. The room smelled of booze and smoke. So

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Speaker 1: a little boy walked out. You know, you're generally excited

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Speaker 1: on Christmas morning, and I saw my mom passed out

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Speaker 1: from drinking all night on the couch, and I looked

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Speaker 1: at that funky little tree in my drunken mother, and

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Speaker 1: I just thought, it's got to get better than this,

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Speaker 1: and it did, it did, but it was a hard life.

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Speaker 1: She had this one bachelor guy that she would go

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Speaker 1: to in between her husband, so whenever she broke up

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Speaker 1: with a husband, she would go stay with him. And

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Speaker 1: I remember going to his house and I'd sleep out

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Speaker 1: on the couch. And let's just say, to put it delicately,

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Speaker 1: I was exposed to things a little child shouldn't be

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Speaker 1: exposed to. I saw things a little boys shouldn't see.

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Speaker 1: And all of this was a part of growing up.

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Speaker 1: And weirdly enough, this was normal to me. Now there

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Speaker 1: were some pluses. I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted.

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Speaker 1: So my favorite go to me and at that time

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Speaker 1: was Hamburger, French fries, Vanilla mall. I still actually like

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Speaker 1: a Hamburger, French fries and a Vanila mall. So every

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Speaker 1: night I would get a Hamburger, French fries and Vanila Mall. Now,

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Speaker 1: no responsible parent would ever let their child eat that

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Speaker 1: every night, but because nobody cared, I ate what I wanted.

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Speaker 1: There was a little restaurant near our house that was

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Speaker 1: called a snack shop. Later it came to be called Cocoas.

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Speaker 1: Now they've turned it into a place called rubies. But

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Speaker 1: every night I would get the hamburger, French fries, vanilla malt.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes I didn't have money, so I'd scrounged around the house,

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Speaker 1: find a cord of there, find a dime over there,

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Speaker 1: over here, get it all together, cobble my finances together,

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Speaker 1: and then go buy my hamburger, French fries and vanilla malt.

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Speaker 1: But I had friends that, you know, they would eat

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Speaker 1: with their parents every night, and they envied me, and

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Speaker 1: I envied them. They would say, oh, Greg, we wished

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Speaker 1: to could eat what you eat. That sounds so amazing.

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Speaker 1: But I kind of wanted their life. And I had

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Speaker 1: this one friend. I would go and visit him and

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Speaker 1: his family and I would eat with his family. And

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Speaker 1: I didn't even like the food they ate, but I

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Speaker 1: would do it just because a family was such an

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Speaker 1: unusual thing to me. And this is what I really

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Speaker 1: longed for. I longed for a family for myself. So

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Speaker 1: these are some little glimpses of my childhood. Here's something

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Speaker 1: I find interesting. My mother effectively always seemed to marry

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Speaker 1: the same guy. Now, they were different guys with different names,

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Speaker 1: but they were so similar. They hung out in bars,

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Speaker 1: they were wanna be rat pack guys. You know what

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Speaker 1: I mean by the rat pack Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,

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Speaker 1: Sammy Davis Junior. That was their vibe. And my mom

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Speaker 1: was drawn to that kind of guy, and they all

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Speaker 1: let her down. But in the midst of it all,

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Speaker 1: she met a guy that wasn't like any of them,

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Speaker 1: and his name was Oscar Lourie. Instead of having his

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Speaker 1: shirt unbuttoned a few too many buttons, he was more

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Speaker 1: buttoned down. He was more East Coast preppy. He was conservative.

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Speaker 1: He was a moral man. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what my mother saw on him. I

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Speaker 1: remember my mother getting Oscar to start drinking and smoking,

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Speaker 1: and and remember, even though a little boy, I thought

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Speaker 1: she was corrupting him. But here was what was unique

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Speaker 1: about Oscar. He's the only man of all the guys

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Speaker 1: my mom married and actually treated me like a father

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Speaker 1: she'd treat his son. He loved me, He disciplined me,

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Speaker 1: he taught me things. He put me on an allowance

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Speaker 1: which I had to earn by doing chores. He also

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Speaker 1: was an attorney by trade, so he was a hands on,

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Speaker 1: responsible father. He would get down and play with me.

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Speaker 1: I remember I had this one little slot car set.

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Speaker 1: It was so cool, and you know, you have the

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Speaker 1: little controls that were very popular in my childhood, and

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Speaker 1: I remember the cars had little lights that lit up,

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Speaker 1: and he'd play it with me. All the other guys

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Speaker 1: my mom was married to never had any interest in me.

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Speaker 1: They didn't want to talk with me, they didn't want

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Speaker 1: to hang out with me. But he was like a dad,

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Speaker 1: and I called him Dad. And he's the only man

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Speaker 1: of all the men my mother married that adopted me,

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Speaker 1: and he gave me his last name, Glori, which I

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Speaker 1: still carry very proudly to this day. So you can

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Speaker 1: imagine the shock when I got out of school in

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Speaker 1: New Jersey one day. It was brisk, as I remember,

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Speaker 1: and our family car was loaded up with luggage and

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Speaker 1: my mom says, get in the car. We're leaving. And

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Speaker 1: I said, where are we going. She said, we're going

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Speaker 1: to Hawaii. I said, where's Dad. She said he's not coming.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't see my father oscar for the rest

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Speaker 1: of my childhood. So we get on this plane. It's

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Speaker 1: a long flight, obviously, from the East coast all the

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Speaker 1: way over to Hawaii, and we'd land there on the

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Speaker 1: island of o Wahoo. What a contrast from New Jersey

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Speaker 1: to o Wahoo, the blazing bright sun. And here's another

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Speaker 1: guy that she has found and is going to marry.

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Speaker 1: And he was like all the other guys she had

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Speaker 1: married in the past, but maybe he was an elevated

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Speaker 1: version in a way, because he was quite wealthy. He

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Speaker 1: owned a little bar called Davy Jones Locker underneath a

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Speaker 1: hotel there right there on Waikiki Beach. And in this

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Speaker 1: bar was a large plate glass window that looked into

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Speaker 1: the swimming pool, and it was one of those old

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Speaker 1: school kind of tiki bars, very dark. I remember he

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Speaker 1: had a fish tank with seahorse in it, of all things,

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Speaker 1: and some very interesting characters. They weren't really worried about

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Speaker 1: enforcing the laws back then. I would sit at the

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Speaker 1: bar talk to all the patrons. I would go and

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Speaker 1: swim in the pool, and when it was lunchtime, they

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Speaker 1: would put a note up against the window, your lunch

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Speaker 1: is ready, and I would dry up and come down

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Speaker 1: and guess what I ate? Hamburger, French fries, vanilla malt So.

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Speaker 1: In many ways, that was a pretty happy part of

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Speaker 1: my childhood living there in Waikiki Beach. All the celebrities

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Speaker 1: would come in. If there were somebody, they would show

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Speaker 1: up at Davy Jones Locker. I remember Johnny Weismuller, who

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Speaker 1: played Tarzan, came in. I remember him picking me up

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Speaker 1: and holding me in the air. The Duke was also

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Speaker 1: someone who was a familiar face. Any celebrities if they

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Speaker 1: were in town, they would come to Davy Jones Locker.

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Speaker 1: So there was the husband who walked called Eddie, and

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Speaker 1: the beautiful Charlene at his side. Pretty good life all

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Speaker 1: things considered. I would hang out on Waikiki Beach and

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Speaker 1: there were the beach boys there. I don't mean the band,

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Speaker 1: but that's what they called, the local Hawaiian guys who

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Speaker 1: would take the tourists out in the outrigger. So I

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Speaker 1: became friends with all of them, and I remember they

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Speaker 1: would give me free rides on the outriggers where the

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Speaker 1: tourists did all the paddling. So I enjoyed that part

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Speaker 1: of my childhood. So remember going to school barefoot? You

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Speaker 1: can do that over there, and I like that too.

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Speaker 1: But things turned ugly because Eddie was a big drinker

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Speaker 1: along with my mother, and they would get in the

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Speaker 1: biggest of all her fights. One time we were living

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Speaker 1: in a beautiful home with a huge plate glass window,

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Speaker 1: and I don't remember what they threw through it, but

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Speaker 1: they smashed the entire window. The police were there, all

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Speaker 1: the neighbors were watching. I was kind of embarrassed, you know,

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Speaker 1: by all these things that were happening. But one little

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Speaker 1: ray of light in the middle of it was my

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Speaker 1: little dog, Nicki, a little black poodle that I had

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey and I brought her with me to Hawaii.

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Speaker 1: So I love this little dog. I always had Nikki

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Speaker 1: the little poodle to talk to, and she had sort

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Speaker 1: of replaced mister Noboddy. And so at night when there

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Speaker 1: was fighting and screaming, I have my little dog. And

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Speaker 1: I remember one night they woke me up, like it's

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Speaker 1: really late. They wake me up and someone says, drunkenly, Greg,

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Speaker 1: Nicky is dead. And I thought they said, Micky. That

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Speaker 1: was a friend of my mother, And I said, oh, no,

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Speaker 1: that's so sad. They said, no, Nicki, your dog is dead.

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Speaker 1: And I was devastated because it kind of felt like

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Speaker 1: she was the only friend I had at that time.

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Speaker 1: And one of the drunk people left the door open.

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Speaker 1: You said, great, don't say drunk people. No, I'll say

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Speaker 1: drunk people. I was raised around alcoholics, and I think

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Speaker 1: a lot of times people want to say, oh, this

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Speaker 1: is a disease and people have no control over it.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't buy that line of thinking. These

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Speaker 1: are people that choose to drink, they choose to live

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Speaker 1: this life, and I've seen the worst elements of it.

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Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons I don't drink at all today.

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Speaker 1: I don't drink alcohol. I've only seen the destructive power

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Speaker 1: of it in the lives of so many people. But

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Speaker 1: I digress back to what happened. So Nicky, my dog

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Speaker 1: died and I was devastated by that. And so one

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Speaker 1: night my mother got into a fight with Eddie. And

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Speaker 1: he was a big dude, very large. He said that

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Speaker 1: when he was in World War Two, he was in

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Speaker 1: a tank and a grenade exploded and he had shrapnel

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Speaker 1: in his leg, and that's why he was angry all

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Speaker 1: the time. I don't know if that story was true

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Speaker 1: or not, but he said it. And so one night

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Speaker 1: he got into a fight with my mother and I

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Speaker 1: was in the other room and I heard a loud

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Speaker 1: thud and I came out my mother was lying on

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Speaker 1: the floor in a pool of blood, and I remember

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Speaker 1: he was holding a wooden statue of Don Quixote. Those

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Speaker 1: are very popular back then. I don't know why, but

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Speaker 1: he hit her with this heavy wooden statue. She was

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Speaker 1: lying on the floor unconscious, and I remember what he

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Speaker 1: said to me. He said, go to bed. It's only ketchup,

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Speaker 1: ketch up. I knew what blood looked like. So I

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Speaker 1: climbed out the window and went over to a neighbor

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Speaker 1: and the police were called, and so we left Eddie.

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Speaker 1: We returned to California. And so now I'm a young,

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Speaker 1: younger man. I'm getting ready to enter my middle years

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Speaker 1: and soon my teen years, and all of this upbringing

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Speaker 1: is starting to affect me, and I'm becoming cynical and

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Speaker 1: I'm becoming hard. And then I turned into just a

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Speaker 1: a little juvenile delinquent. So we moved to Newport Beach, California.

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Speaker 1: That's where I spent most of my childhood. I went

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Speaker 1: to elementary school there, middle school, in high school. Now,

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Speaker 1: at this phase of my life, in the fifth grade,

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Speaker 1: the sixth grade, I'm kind of a troublemaker. Now when

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Speaker 1: I say juvenile delinquent, I'm not hurting anybody, but I

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00:19:27,764 --> 00:19:34,165
Speaker 1: just I create chaos. I became quite the jokester, the prankster.

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Speaker 1: I like to make people laugh. I was starting to

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Speaker 1: draw cartoons at this point, a lot more, creating my

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Speaker 1: little cartoon adventures. And I had one teacher. He was

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Speaker 1: a really good guy. His name was John Robinson, and

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00:19:50,445 --> 00:19:53,924
Speaker 1: he really liked his class. He really taught us well.

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Speaker 1: But I wanted to see how far I could push

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Speaker 1: the envelope with him, so I made up a nickname

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Speaker 1: for him. I started calling him toilethead. I'm not proud

341
00:20:02,965 --> 00:20:08,324
Speaker 1: of this, get it, John, toilet toilet heead. It's very bad.

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Speaker 1: So he'd be like writing something on the blackboard and

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00:20:10,725 --> 00:20:13,445
Speaker 1: we would say toilet head. He'd turn around. Who said

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00:20:13,445 --> 00:20:15,644
Speaker 1: that would I'll just sit there. He'd go back to

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Speaker 1: writing on the blackboard, toilet head. This just went on

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Speaker 1: and on, and you know what that guy did. One day,

347
00:20:22,965 --> 00:20:26,124
Speaker 1: he took me in front of the class, pulled me

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Speaker 1: over his leg, and spanked me. It was the best

349
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Speaker 1: thing he could have possibly done. I was so humiliated.

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Speaker 1: I never called him toilet heead again. And then I

351
00:20:36,084 --> 00:20:39,884
Speaker 1: actually became closer to him. But anyway, I digress. So,

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00:20:40,284 --> 00:20:44,764
Speaker 1: hearing of my antics in this classroom, the principal called

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Speaker 1: me into his office and said, you know, you've got

354
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Speaker 1: to stop. And I just kept doing it. And then

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Speaker 1: they decided they were going to expel me from this school.

356
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Speaker 1: And my mother showed up and said, if you expelled him,

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Speaker 1: I'll sue you. So I stayed at the school. There

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Speaker 1: was one teacher that had a classroom right next to

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Speaker 1: mister Robinson, and hearing of the abuse that I would

360
00:21:06,965 --> 00:21:09,205
Speaker 1: hurl at him and the way I would misbehave, she

361
00:21:09,284 --> 00:21:12,205
Speaker 1: once said to her entire class, I'd like to take

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Speaker 1: Greg Glory, bury him up to his neck in the sand,

363
00:21:16,165 --> 00:21:20,325
Speaker 1: out on the blazing sun, and have ants eat him alive.

364
00:21:20,524 --> 00:21:23,724
Speaker 1: All the kids told me this after class. Actually, when

365
00:21:23,764 --> 00:21:25,445
Speaker 1: I heard that, I kind of thought that was cool.

366
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Speaker 1: I thought, well, wow, that's quite a compliment. In a way,

367
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Speaker 1: it wasn't a compliment. But so I graduated from middle

368
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Speaker 1: school and then I went to high school, and still

369
00:21:37,764 --> 00:21:41,164
Speaker 1: I was a problem, spending a lot of time in

370
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Speaker 1: the vice principal's office for discipline issues. Now at this point,

371
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Speaker 1: I'm fully into art. In fact, I was a cartoonist

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Speaker 1: for the school paper, and I have one cartoon where

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Speaker 1: there's somebody waiting to see the vice principal and they're

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Speaker 1: a skeleton with cobwebs hanging off of them, and someone says,

375
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Speaker 1: the vice principal will see you. Now, that was my life,

376
00:22:02,844 --> 00:22:06,524
Speaker 1: sitting outside waiting to see the vice prince getting in

377
00:22:06,604 --> 00:22:11,204
Speaker 1: trouble again. Well, this is the sixties, and so my

378
00:22:11,324 --> 00:22:15,125
Speaker 1: friends would drink and party. So I started partying with

379
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Speaker 1: my friends. I remember we'd drink six packs of beer,

380
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Speaker 1: and I would drink vodka and orange juice. It's called

381
00:22:23,324 --> 00:22:26,444
Speaker 1: a screwdriver. That's what my mother drank. And I remember

382
00:22:26,604 --> 00:22:30,204
Speaker 1: hanging out with them in Palm Springs partying, and I

383
00:22:30,324 --> 00:22:34,084
Speaker 1: was realizing, I'm living my mother's life, and I don't

384
00:22:34,205 --> 00:22:37,884
Speaker 1: want to live this life. I knew that was not

385
00:22:38,405 --> 00:22:42,284
Speaker 1: the right way to live. But the drug things coming now.

386
00:22:42,324 --> 00:22:44,564
Speaker 1: I Now you have to understand, drug culture is quite

387
00:22:44,564 --> 00:22:48,925
Speaker 1: different than it is today. Today. People take drugs to escape,

388
00:22:49,725 --> 00:22:55,565
Speaker 1: they take drugs to numb their senses. But back then,

389
00:22:55,764 --> 00:22:59,324
Speaker 1: we thought drugs had the answers, and we were following

390
00:22:59,365 --> 00:23:03,404
Speaker 1: the pipe pipers of our generation, people like the Beatles

391
00:23:03,405 --> 00:23:07,644
Speaker 1: and others who are saying, you know, turn on, you know,

392
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Speaker 1: Timothy Leary, sort of this self made guru of the

393
00:23:11,365 --> 00:23:15,244
Speaker 1: day would say turn on, tune in, drop out, and

394
00:23:15,324 --> 00:23:18,044
Speaker 1: we believe this stuff. We didn't know any better. So

395
00:23:18,125 --> 00:23:23,404
Speaker 1: I started experimenting with marijuana and smoking it, and I

396
00:23:23,484 --> 00:23:25,765
Speaker 1: started doing it every now and then. Then I started

397
00:23:25,804 --> 00:23:28,725
Speaker 1: doing it a couple times a week. Then I started

398
00:23:28,764 --> 00:23:32,684
Speaker 1: doing it five days a week, and so I became

399
00:23:32,764 --> 00:23:37,604
Speaker 1: fully committed to becoming a hippie and a druggie because

400
00:23:37,645 --> 00:23:39,444
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to find the answers I

401
00:23:39,484 --> 00:23:43,044
Speaker 1: was looking for. Interestingly, all my art was going downhill.

402
00:23:43,165 --> 00:23:45,564
Speaker 1: You can even see it reflected in the drawings they did.

403
00:23:45,804 --> 00:23:49,165
Speaker 1: At that time, it felt like my personality was disappearing.

404
00:23:49,844 --> 00:23:52,084
Speaker 1: And the people I was hanging around, they were a

405
00:23:52,125 --> 00:23:54,524
Speaker 1: bunch of low lives. I thought these but I didn't

406
00:23:54,564 --> 00:23:57,644
Speaker 1: care because I wanted to change my identity. So I

407
00:23:57,764 --> 00:24:01,965
Speaker 1: literally transferred from cronodom Or High School. And this is

408
00:24:02,004 --> 00:24:06,004
Speaker 1: a school with a lot of affluent young kids attending there.

409
00:24:06,244 --> 00:24:09,804
Speaker 1: Actually there would be porsches in the parking lot. You

410
00:24:09,844 --> 00:24:12,124
Speaker 1: know that some of these kids would drive because they

411
00:24:12,165 --> 00:24:15,645
Speaker 1: had rich parents. So I transferred from Crono TOMR High

412
00:24:15,645 --> 00:24:18,404
Speaker 1: School over to Harbor High School, and the reason I

413
00:24:18,484 --> 00:24:21,564
Speaker 1: did this was because I heard they were really lenient

414
00:24:21,725 --> 00:24:24,725
Speaker 1: over there, and no one knew me and I wasn't

415
00:24:24,725 --> 00:24:28,164
Speaker 1: being sent to the vice principal's office over there. So

416
00:24:28,244 --> 00:24:31,124
Speaker 1: I made friends with a bunch of low lives and

417
00:24:31,244 --> 00:24:33,445
Speaker 1: I thought, I'm going to become a new person. So

418
00:24:33,725 --> 00:24:37,725
Speaker 1: understand I transferred from one school to another school to

419
00:24:37,804 --> 00:24:42,725
Speaker 1: become a different person. I wanted to change. I had

420
00:24:42,725 --> 00:24:45,404
Speaker 1: the right idea, I was going about it in the

421
00:24:45,405 --> 00:24:48,645
Speaker 1: wrong way. But God had a better plan. So when

422
00:24:48,645 --> 00:24:51,764
Speaker 1: I get to Harbor High, my friends said, Greg, we

423
00:24:51,885 --> 00:24:54,605
Speaker 1: got to tell you we have a lot of Jesus

424
00:24:54,645 --> 00:24:58,405
Speaker 1: freaks on this campus. My reaction was, what Jesus freaks?

425
00:24:58,445 --> 00:25:02,565
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, these weird Christians. They talk about Jesus all

426
00:25:02,564 --> 00:25:06,725
Speaker 1: the time and stay away from them. And I remember saying,

427
00:25:07,044 --> 00:25:09,364
Speaker 1: the last thing you'll ever see is Greg Glory becoming

428
00:25:09,365 --> 00:25:13,284
Speaker 1: a Jesus freak. And I meant it. And so I

429
00:25:13,324 --> 00:25:15,484
Speaker 1: was just hanging out with my friends. I was getting

430
00:25:15,604 --> 00:25:19,925
Speaker 1: high every single day, and I was taking LSD now

431
00:25:20,084 --> 00:25:22,924
Speaker 1: on the weekends. Coming back to LSD, I had a

432
00:25:22,965 --> 00:25:25,644
Speaker 1: bad trip. If you saw the Jesus Revolution film, you

433
00:25:25,725 --> 00:25:29,165
Speaker 1: remember that scene where my characters in that vanity runs

434
00:25:29,205 --> 00:25:32,924
Speaker 1: down the street screaming and he's hallucinating. That actually happened

435
00:25:32,965 --> 00:25:36,084
Speaker 1: to me. And when I was hallucinating, I looked up

436
00:25:36,084 --> 00:25:37,925
Speaker 1: my face in the mirror and I saw my face

437
00:25:38,044 --> 00:25:41,244
Speaker 1: melting off, and I saw a skull, my skull, this

438
00:25:41,324 --> 00:25:43,165
Speaker 1: is what I thought I was seeing. And I heard

439
00:25:43,165 --> 00:25:46,324
Speaker 1: a voice saying, you're going to die. So that really

440
00:25:46,365 --> 00:25:48,845
Speaker 1: scared me, and I knew I didn't want to live

441
00:25:48,885 --> 00:25:51,684
Speaker 1: that drug life. It's weird. It was sort of like

442
00:25:51,844 --> 00:25:54,845
Speaker 1: finding my way to christ was like process of elimination.

443
00:25:55,365 --> 00:25:57,804
Speaker 1: Even before I became a Christian, I knew what I

444
00:25:57,885 --> 00:26:00,244
Speaker 1: didn't want to do anymore. I didn't want to live

445
00:26:00,284 --> 00:26:02,644
Speaker 1: the life of my mother and drinking and smoking and

446
00:26:02,685 --> 00:26:05,204
Speaker 1: all that. Now I'm discovering I don't want to live

447
00:26:05,284 --> 00:26:08,564
Speaker 1: this drug life either, because I'm seeing what it's doing

448
00:26:08,604 --> 00:26:11,764
Speaker 1: to me and what it's done to others. And so

449
00:26:11,885 --> 00:26:14,404
Speaker 1: one day I'm walking across my high school campus and

450
00:26:14,484 --> 00:26:16,645
Speaker 1: I see one of my friends talking to this girl,

451
00:26:17,645 --> 00:26:20,405
Speaker 1: and something about this girl caught my eye. Now it's

452
00:26:20,445 --> 00:26:22,804
Speaker 1: not that she was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen,

453
00:26:22,885 --> 00:26:27,244
Speaker 1: but she was attractive, but there was something else about her.

454
00:26:27,405 --> 00:26:30,684
Speaker 1: Her name is Chrissy, And so I walked up. I

455
00:26:30,764 --> 00:26:32,924
Speaker 1: was waiting for a break in the conversation because I

456
00:26:32,965 --> 00:26:36,044
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to this girl. So as they're talking

457
00:26:36,165 --> 00:26:38,844
Speaker 1: and looking at him and looking at her, and I

458
00:26:38,925 --> 00:26:42,484
Speaker 1: noticed she has her notebook for school, a textbook for

459
00:26:42,564 --> 00:26:44,884
Speaker 1: a class. And then I see something that shocked me.

460
00:26:45,365 --> 00:26:49,004
Speaker 1: She had a Bible and I realized she's a Jesus freak.

461
00:26:49,084 --> 00:26:52,244
Speaker 1: I the oh, no, what a waste of a perfectly

462
00:26:52,365 --> 00:26:55,924
Speaker 1: cute girl. Why would she be a Jesus freak? So

463
00:26:56,044 --> 00:26:58,965
Speaker 1: finally there's a break in the conversation. I introduced myself.

464
00:26:59,004 --> 00:27:02,085
Speaker 1: Nothing came of that, No, oh, I'm Greg whatever. And

465
00:27:02,165 --> 00:27:06,445
Speaker 1: so a couple of days later, I'm I'm walking across

466
00:27:06,524 --> 00:27:11,164
Speaker 1: my high school campus and I'm kind of looking for Chrissy,

467
00:27:11,365 --> 00:27:15,125
Speaker 1: like where is she? Is she with those Christians? And

468
00:27:15,604 --> 00:27:18,845
Speaker 1: I see them on the front lawn and they're singing

469
00:27:18,965 --> 00:27:23,524
Speaker 1: songs about Jesus. I'd never seen them all together like that.

470
00:27:23,885 --> 00:27:25,804
Speaker 1: And there's a reason for that. I found out later

471
00:27:26,604 --> 00:27:31,124
Speaker 1: after reading Lonnie Frisbee's autobiography, that they normally meant in

472
00:27:31,165 --> 00:27:34,004
Speaker 1: the science room for Bible studies, and Lonnie would come

473
00:27:34,044 --> 00:27:37,004
Speaker 1: from off campus. He was a pastor at Caffrey Chapelain

474
00:27:37,084 --> 00:27:40,405
Speaker 1: and teach them. But the air conditioning broke that day

475
00:27:40,405 --> 00:27:42,844
Speaker 1: and it was a hot day, so they decided to

476
00:27:42,885 --> 00:27:46,085
Speaker 1: meet outside. That's so amazing because I wouldn't have gone

477
00:27:46,084 --> 00:27:48,925
Speaker 1: into a room. I wouldn't even have known where to go.

478
00:27:49,645 --> 00:27:52,205
Speaker 1: But because around on the front lawn, I'm walking along

479
00:27:52,284 --> 00:27:54,925
Speaker 1: and I see them out there, and so I sat

480
00:27:55,004 --> 00:27:57,684
Speaker 1: down far enough away where I wouldn't be thought of

481
00:27:57,844 --> 00:28:01,564
Speaker 1: joining them, but close enough where I could eavesdrop, because

482
00:28:01,604 --> 00:28:04,484
Speaker 1: I always was an observer of people, you know, trying

483
00:28:04,524 --> 00:28:07,804
Speaker 1: to figure people out. And I looked around, and you know,

484
00:28:07,885 --> 00:28:10,444
Speaker 1: I wanted to dismiss them all as crazy people. But

485
00:28:10,484 --> 00:28:12,884
Speaker 1: the problem was there were a couple of them that

486
00:28:12,925 --> 00:28:15,244
Speaker 1: I knew from before, a couple of them and I

487
00:28:15,365 --> 00:28:18,445
Speaker 1: used to party with, and I knew their life had changed.

488
00:28:18,524 --> 00:28:21,965
Speaker 1: I knew, in other words, they were normal people who

489
00:28:22,004 --> 00:28:25,205
Speaker 1: had become Jesus freaks. And that intrigued me. But there

490
00:28:25,284 --> 00:28:27,644
Speaker 1: was Chrissy too, and I'm sort of looking at Christy

491
00:28:27,804 --> 00:28:31,164
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at the other kids and taking it

492
00:28:31,205 --> 00:28:34,004
Speaker 1: in as they're singing songs about Jesus, and for the

493
00:28:34,084 --> 00:28:36,885
Speaker 1: first time it thought crossed my mind an alien thought,

494
00:28:37,125 --> 00:28:40,405
Speaker 1: and the thought was simply this, what if it's all true?

495
00:28:40,645 --> 00:28:43,245
Speaker 1: And what if what they believe is real? I thought

496
00:28:43,285 --> 00:28:45,725
Speaker 1: there's no way. And the reason I said there's no

497
00:28:45,805 --> 00:28:48,765
Speaker 1: way is because all the things I'd been exposed to

498
00:28:48,885 --> 00:28:52,124
Speaker 1: is a child made me so cynical and hard. I

499
00:28:52,285 --> 00:28:54,125
Speaker 1: just thought, no, this is too good to be true.

500
00:28:54,125 --> 00:28:56,405
Speaker 1: And then that thought comes back, what if it's all true?

501
00:28:56,565 --> 00:28:58,325
Speaker 1: I thought, no, there's no way it could be true.

502
00:28:58,885 --> 00:29:01,485
Speaker 1: Then this guy gets up to speak. Lonnie Frisbee Off.

503
00:29:01,485 --> 00:29:05,485
Speaker 1: You saw the Jesus Revolution film. There was an amazing

504
00:29:05,604 --> 00:29:09,245
Speaker 1: portrayal of him by actor Jonathan Rumy, who pleads Jesus

505
00:29:09,685 --> 00:29:15,125
Speaker 1: on the chosen And so Lonnie, the real guy, stands

506
00:29:15,245 --> 00:29:17,765
Speaker 1: up and he starts speaking. Now, the first thing that

507
00:29:17,844 --> 00:29:21,045
Speaker 1: strikes me about him is he looks like Jesus. His

508
00:29:21,165 --> 00:29:25,005
Speaker 1: hair is long, he's got the beard, and I'm going, wow, okay,

509
00:29:25,084 --> 00:29:27,685
Speaker 1: look at this guy. He kind of reminded me of

510
00:29:27,765 --> 00:29:31,565
Speaker 1: that portrait of Jesus on my grandmother's wall. I'm seventeen

511
00:29:31,645 --> 00:29:36,245
Speaker 1: years old at this point. And he begins to talk

512
00:29:36,325 --> 00:29:40,844
Speaker 1: and I don't remember what he said except one statement.

513
00:29:41,205 --> 00:29:43,725
Speaker 1: Not often is the case, isn't it had so many

514
00:29:43,725 --> 00:29:46,885
Speaker 1: people say, Oh, I heard you preaching, and I came

515
00:29:46,925 --> 00:29:48,805
Speaker 1: to christ and I said, what was I talking about?

516
00:29:48,925 --> 00:29:51,084
Speaker 1: I don't know what the topic was, but you said

517
00:29:51,125 --> 00:29:53,725
Speaker 1: one thing. And it's always like this, one little thing

518
00:29:53,765 --> 00:29:56,684
Speaker 1: to get people so often, And that's how it was

519
00:29:56,725 --> 00:29:59,684
Speaker 1: with me. Lonnie said, Jesus said, you're for me or

520
00:29:59,725 --> 00:30:02,724
Speaker 1: against me. So I looked around at the Christians at

521
00:30:02,805 --> 00:30:06,805
Speaker 1: Jesus Street. He said, thought there definitely for him. I'm

522
00:30:06,805 --> 00:30:09,725
Speaker 1: not one of them. Does that mean I'm against Jesus?

523
00:30:10,045 --> 00:30:14,125
Speaker 1: In fact, as much as I knew, I believed in Jesus,

524
00:30:14,765 --> 00:30:16,645
Speaker 1: you know, when I was in trouble, I called out

525
00:30:16,685 --> 00:30:19,685
Speaker 1: to Jesus. He was my god of choice. I didn't

526
00:30:19,685 --> 00:30:22,925
Speaker 1: know anything about him, but I did believe he existed

527
00:30:23,125 --> 00:30:27,885
Speaker 1: somehow somewhere. I just didn't know how to come into

528
00:30:27,885 --> 00:30:30,925
Speaker 1: a relationship with him. So you're either for me or

529
00:30:31,005 --> 00:30:34,565
Speaker 1: against me, therefore him, Wait, does that mean that I'm

530
00:30:34,604 --> 00:30:36,844
Speaker 1: against him? Then I thought, I don't want to be

531
00:30:36,885 --> 00:30:40,045
Speaker 1: against Jesus. And then Lonnie said, and if you want

532
00:30:40,045 --> 00:30:42,725
Speaker 1: to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life, get

533
00:30:42,805 --> 00:30:44,644
Speaker 1: up and walk up here, and I'll pray with you.

534
00:30:44,725 --> 00:30:47,285
Speaker 1: And a little bunch of kids got up and walked forward.

535
00:30:47,685 --> 00:30:50,684
Speaker 1: I hung my head down, thinking there's no way I

536
00:30:50,725 --> 00:30:54,045
Speaker 1: would ever do that in a million years. Next thing,

537
00:30:54,084 --> 00:30:56,525
Speaker 1: I knew I was up there. I don't even remember

538
00:30:56,725 --> 00:30:58,965
Speaker 1: walking up there, but I was there. And so there

539
00:30:58,965 --> 00:31:01,845
Speaker 1: I am standing with these other kids and he starts

540
00:31:01,885 --> 00:31:05,725
Speaker 1: his prayer. I remember that a girl in my rye

541
00:31:05,485 --> 00:31:10,685
Speaker 1: I praise this prayer and she is weeping. Another person

542
00:31:10,885 --> 00:31:14,644
Speaker 1: on my left, after praying their prayer was laughing with joy,

543
00:31:14,725 --> 00:31:19,445
Speaker 1: and I felt absolutely nothing. And I thought, it figures

544
00:31:20,045 --> 00:31:23,844
Speaker 1: God skipped me. You know, God said no. And I thought,

545
00:31:23,965 --> 00:31:26,205
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm the religious type. I don't even

546
00:31:26,205 --> 00:31:29,845
Speaker 1: think this would take with me. Well it took all right,

547
00:31:29,885 --> 00:31:33,285
Speaker 1: but it took a little time. So this is a Friday,

548
00:31:34,084 --> 00:31:37,604
Speaker 1: and we had plans for the weekend, and our plans

549
00:31:37,604 --> 00:31:41,204
Speaker 1: were to go into the Artica Mountains and smoke some

550
00:31:41,285 --> 00:31:46,325
Speaker 1: weed and take Lleste. So now I'm a Christian, I thought, okay, whatever,

551
00:31:46,525 --> 00:31:49,684
Speaker 1: let's go do what we're gonna do. So I have

552
00:31:49,765 --> 00:31:54,604
Speaker 1: my little baggy filled with marijuana, a little pipe, and

553
00:31:54,685 --> 00:31:57,164
Speaker 1: I felt like I wanted to be away from my friends.

554
00:31:57,205 --> 00:31:58,525
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be with them. I said, I'm

555
00:31:58,525 --> 00:32:01,205
Speaker 1: gonna go sit by myself. And I sat on a

556
00:32:01,285 --> 00:32:05,364
Speaker 1: rock and I'm filling my pipe with weed, getting ready

557
00:32:05,604 --> 00:32:09,245
Speaker 1: to smoke it. And that same still small voice I

558
00:32:09,245 --> 00:32:14,165
Speaker 1: had only heard hours before spoke to me again and say,

559
00:32:14,485 --> 00:32:17,045
Speaker 1: did you hear an audible voice? Greg? Not that I recall,

560
00:32:17,645 --> 00:32:21,445
Speaker 1: but as clear as day, something said to me, you

561
00:32:21,445 --> 00:32:25,805
Speaker 1: don't need that anymore. And I sensed God was talking

562
00:32:25,844 --> 00:32:31,205
Speaker 1: to me, and I thought, I said, God, if you're real,

563
00:32:32,005 --> 00:32:34,364
Speaker 1: I don't know how to come into a relationship with you.

564
00:32:34,765 --> 00:32:38,444
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do next, but I'm gonna try.

565
00:32:38,765 --> 00:32:41,124
Speaker 1: And I took my bag of weed and threw it,

566
00:32:41,165 --> 00:32:44,124
Speaker 1: and I took my pipe and I threw it. And

567
00:32:44,165 --> 00:32:46,325
Speaker 1: then I go back to school on Monday and some

568
00:32:46,405 --> 00:32:48,684
Speaker 1: guy sees me from a distance and he yells up,

569
00:32:48,765 --> 00:32:52,644
Speaker 1: Brother Greg. Who is this guy? Brother Greg's calling me

570
00:32:52,725 --> 00:32:55,164
Speaker 1: brother Greg. I don't even know him. He runs up

571
00:32:55,165 --> 00:33:00,685
Speaker 1: to me, Bro, Praise the Lord. I'm thinking, okay, whatever, Bro,

572
00:33:00,965 --> 00:33:02,965
Speaker 1: praise God. I didn't even know how to react to

573
00:33:03,125 --> 00:33:06,965
Speaker 1: language like that. Hey, Bro, I saw that you came

574
00:33:07,005 --> 00:33:09,965
Speaker 1: to Christ the other day. I'm kind of defensive. Yah yah,

575
00:33:10,125 --> 00:33:14,124
Speaker 1: what he goes, Bro? I got you a Bible listen,

576
00:33:14,285 --> 00:33:16,325
Speaker 1: I want to give you this Bible. And he gives

577
00:33:16,365 --> 00:33:20,884
Speaker 1: me this big bible, all beat up, very used, with

578
00:33:21,005 --> 00:33:23,965
Speaker 1: popsicle sticks glued together in the shape of a cross.

579
00:33:23,965 --> 00:33:26,525
Speaker 1: Now remember I'm a designer, I'm an artist. This is

580
00:33:26,604 --> 00:33:34,325
Speaker 1: like esthetically offensive. But I said, oh thanks, okay, yeah, bro,

581
00:33:34,844 --> 00:33:37,765
Speaker 1: read the Word of God, read it, okay. I just

582
00:33:37,765 --> 00:33:41,005
Speaker 1: wanted this guy to go. I thought, guy's crazy, And

583
00:33:41,045 --> 00:33:43,005
Speaker 1: now what do I do. I have this giant Bible.

584
00:33:43,045 --> 00:33:45,604
Speaker 1: So I had this coat, and I remember it was

585
00:33:45,645 --> 00:33:50,444
Speaker 1: a thick cordroy coat, sort of Dwardian style that was

586
00:33:50,645 --> 00:33:53,725
Speaker 1: popular back then. I tried to put it in my pocket,

587
00:33:53,765 --> 00:33:55,884
Speaker 1: but my pocket was too small, so I ripped my

588
00:33:55,925 --> 00:33:57,885
Speaker 1: pocket to put the Bible in there. I didn't want

589
00:33:57,885 --> 00:34:01,325
Speaker 1: to be seen carrying a Bible. See, I hadn't accepted Christ,

590
00:34:01,604 --> 00:34:04,604
Speaker 1: but I wasn't ready to be known for that yet.

591
00:34:04,885 --> 00:34:07,205
Speaker 1: So I go to my friend's house. Now my friend's

592
00:34:07,205 --> 00:34:12,165
Speaker 1: house is walking distance from our school and we would

593
00:34:12,205 --> 00:34:14,805
Speaker 1: literally go there every day at lunchtime and get high.

594
00:34:15,125 --> 00:34:17,085
Speaker 1: So I hadn't seen these guys since I made that

595
00:34:17,205 --> 00:34:20,045
Speaker 1: commitment to Christ. So I walk up to the house

596
00:34:20,085 --> 00:34:22,045
Speaker 1: and I think I can't walk into the Bible. So

597
00:34:22,085 --> 00:34:25,445
Speaker 1: I pulled the Bible out of my jacket pocket, and

598
00:34:25,485 --> 00:34:27,405
Speaker 1: he had a planner in front of his house, and

599
00:34:27,445 --> 00:34:30,085
Speaker 1: I kind of shove it in the bushes and I

600
00:34:30,125 --> 00:34:33,845
Speaker 1: walk in, Laurie, where are you been nowhere? What have

601
00:34:33,845 --> 00:34:37,325
Speaker 1: you been up to? Nothing? Hey man, we got some

602
00:34:37,485 --> 00:34:40,765
Speaker 1: acapulcal gold. You want to smoke it? Acapolca gold was

603
00:34:41,445 --> 00:34:43,885
Speaker 1: a strain of marijuana back in those days, and normally

604
00:34:43,925 --> 00:34:49,444
Speaker 1: I had have been like yes. And my reaction was no, no, No,

605
00:34:49,845 --> 00:34:52,605
Speaker 1: I don't know. I do not want to smoke anything.

606
00:34:52,965 --> 00:34:55,765
Speaker 1: What's wrong with you? Nothing's wrong with me? Why are

607
00:34:55,805 --> 00:34:58,965
Speaker 1: you acting so word? I'm not acting weird, very defensive.

608
00:34:59,605 --> 00:35:01,885
Speaker 1: So what was happening was I am now a child

609
00:35:01,925 --> 00:35:04,965
Speaker 1: of God, But I don't know how to react to

610
00:35:05,005 --> 00:35:07,565
Speaker 1: all these I know I don't want that stuff anymore.

611
00:35:07,885 --> 00:35:10,525
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, the front door bursts open

612
00:35:11,085 --> 00:35:15,805
Speaker 1: and this guy's mother is holding my Bible with popsicle

613
00:35:15,845 --> 00:35:18,924
Speaker 1: sticks in the shape of a cross. She says, who

614
00:35:18,965 --> 00:35:21,565
Speaker 1: does this belong to? Every eye in the room went

615
00:35:21,605 --> 00:35:24,125
Speaker 1: to that Bible, and then they went to me. Somehow

616
00:35:24,165 --> 00:35:28,125
Speaker 1: they connected the dots. I said, that's mine. What is that?

617
00:35:28,325 --> 00:35:31,525
Speaker 1: Lourie it's a Bible. What it's a Bible? What it's

618
00:35:31,565 --> 00:35:34,805
Speaker 1: a Bible? And one of my friends actually said, oh,

619
00:35:34,845 --> 00:35:36,925
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord, brother, Greg, are we going to be

620
00:35:37,045 --> 00:35:40,125
Speaker 1: Christians now? And I said no, I'm going to hit

621
00:35:40,205 --> 00:35:41,845
Speaker 1: you in the mouth, so shut up. You know, I

622
00:35:41,845 --> 00:35:43,885
Speaker 1: hadn't read the Bible yet, so this is all new

623
00:35:43,925 --> 00:35:46,605
Speaker 1: to me, and so I take the Bible and they

624
00:35:46,645 --> 00:35:50,805
Speaker 1: start mocking me, making fun of me, and it was

625
00:35:50,845 --> 00:35:53,805
Speaker 1: actually a really good thing because I saw them for

626
00:35:53,845 --> 00:35:57,045
Speaker 1: what they were and I left. Okay, those are not

627
00:35:57,085 --> 00:36:00,725
Speaker 1: my friends anymore. But these Christians they're a little too extreme,

628
00:36:00,845 --> 00:36:03,445
Speaker 1: especially the guy that yelled at me and gave me

629
00:36:03,525 --> 00:36:06,045
Speaker 1: the Bible. I don't want to hang out with them either.

630
00:36:06,245 --> 00:36:09,645
Speaker 1: I'll just do this solo all by myself. But soon

631
00:36:09,725 --> 00:36:11,965
Speaker 1: I found myself going to their meetings because I was

632
00:36:12,085 --> 00:36:14,725
Speaker 1: drawn to it and I wanted to learn more. And

633
00:36:15,365 --> 00:36:17,765
Speaker 1: I'm starting to get a little more comfortable. And then

634
00:36:17,805 --> 00:36:21,005
Speaker 1: this guy comes out of the blue. Never met this guy,

635
00:36:21,125 --> 00:36:24,165
Speaker 1: never even saw this guy. His name was Mark. He goes, hey, Greg,

636
00:36:24,205 --> 00:36:26,765
Speaker 1: my name is Mark. Yeah, hi Mark, you know I

637
00:36:26,805 --> 00:36:29,045
Speaker 1: want to take you to church with me. I said,

638
00:36:29,125 --> 00:36:32,245
Speaker 1: oh no, that's okay. I go to the little Bible

639
00:36:32,285 --> 00:36:34,405
Speaker 1: study here at school. No, I want you to come

640
00:36:34,445 --> 00:36:37,325
Speaker 1: to church with me. It's called Calbrey Chopel. I said, no,

641
00:36:37,605 --> 00:36:39,525
Speaker 1: I don't really want to go. He goes, yeah, where

642
00:36:39,525 --> 00:36:41,325
Speaker 1: do you live? I need your address? So no, I

643
00:36:41,365 --> 00:36:44,445
Speaker 1: don't want you to take me to church. That's okay, No,

644
00:36:44,525 --> 00:36:46,365
Speaker 1: where do you live? The guy wouldn't take no for

645
00:36:46,405 --> 00:36:49,765
Speaker 1: an answer. He was persistent and the best way possible.

646
00:36:50,005 --> 00:36:52,925
Speaker 1: Next thing I know, Mark's in front of my house

647
00:36:53,125 --> 00:36:55,485
Speaker 1: and we're driving to church. So we get to church.

648
00:36:55,565 --> 00:36:58,845
Speaker 1: Now the discomfort I felt around this little group of

649
00:36:58,925 --> 00:37:03,525
Speaker 1: Christians is now multiplied one hundred times because Calbrey Chapel

650
00:37:04,125 --> 00:37:08,005
Speaker 1: is in the throes of the Jesus movement. Packed out,

651
00:37:08,205 --> 00:37:12,245
Speaker 1: kids sitting in the floor, kids sitting and overflow outside,

652
00:37:12,525 --> 00:37:16,285
Speaker 1: people everywhere. I literally walked up to the entrance and

653
00:37:16,325 --> 00:37:19,125
Speaker 1: I thought, I don't want to go in this place.

654
00:37:19,405 --> 00:37:22,205
Speaker 1: Let me explain. It was almost like there was too

655
00:37:22,245 --> 00:37:26,205
Speaker 1: much love there. In fact, some girl I didn't know

656
00:37:26,765 --> 00:37:29,365
Speaker 1: comes up to me, throws her arms around me, Praise

657
00:37:29,405 --> 00:37:31,364
Speaker 1: the Lord. I love you, brother. I'm thinking I don't

658
00:37:31,405 --> 00:37:34,445
Speaker 1: even know you. Now. Let me explain. My mother never

659
00:37:34,685 --> 00:37:38,045
Speaker 1: hugged me. She never said she loved me, so it

660
00:37:38,165 --> 00:37:43,445
Speaker 1: was alien for me to express anything loving to anybody.

661
00:37:43,485 --> 00:37:46,645
Speaker 1: I felt love for people. I loved my mom. I

662
00:37:46,685 --> 00:37:50,364
Speaker 1: took care of her, but I never verbalized it. So

663
00:37:50,405 --> 00:37:53,085
Speaker 1: they have a stranger saying I love you. I was like, oh,

664
00:37:53,685 --> 00:37:56,525
Speaker 1: And so I was relieved to find the place was

665
00:37:56,525 --> 00:38:00,125
Speaker 1: packed and there was no seat. There's no seats. And

666
00:38:00,205 --> 00:38:03,045
Speaker 1: someone in the front row who goes to my high

667
00:38:03,085 --> 00:38:06,005
Speaker 1: school recognized me and says, Grant, come on up here.

668
00:38:06,045 --> 00:38:07,404
Speaker 1: So the next thing, I know him in the front

669
00:38:07,485 --> 00:38:11,445
Speaker 1: row and okay, So I'm just standing there and they

670
00:38:11,485 --> 00:38:15,085
Speaker 1: start singing songs together, songs I'd never heard before, but

671
00:38:15,125 --> 00:38:17,805
Speaker 1: they were beautiful songs, and I was kind of caught

672
00:38:17,885 --> 00:38:20,045
Speaker 1: up in it, going wow, I've never seen anything like

673
00:38:20,125 --> 00:38:23,325
Speaker 1: this before. And then the preacher comes out and it's

674
00:38:23,325 --> 00:38:25,965
Speaker 1: not Lonnie, who I thought was cool and I kind

675
00:38:26,005 --> 00:38:29,005
Speaker 1: of related to him. It's this guy. They tell me

676
00:38:29,085 --> 00:38:32,925
Speaker 1: his name, Chuck Smith. He's actually the pastor of the church. Now,

677
00:38:33,005 --> 00:38:35,205
Speaker 1: Chuck looks like wait, it looks like one of your

678
00:38:35,245 --> 00:38:38,445
Speaker 1: teachers at school, or maybe the principal. I had an

679
00:38:38,445 --> 00:38:42,845
Speaker 1: issue with authority figures. I resented them. I was always

680
00:38:43,005 --> 00:38:45,845
Speaker 1: defiant of them, and Chuck walks out, and I was

681
00:38:45,925 --> 00:38:48,805
Speaker 1: kind of like a brother, here we go an adult figure.

682
00:38:49,245 --> 00:38:51,725
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear what some adult has to say.

683
00:38:52,205 --> 00:38:54,485
Speaker 1: But there was something different about Chuck. He sat in

684
00:38:54,525 --> 00:38:57,405
Speaker 1: a stool and he opened his Bible up, read it,

685
00:38:57,445 --> 00:39:00,245
Speaker 1: and started teaching from the Bible. Next thing, I knew

686
00:39:00,245 --> 00:39:02,364
Speaker 1: it was really enjoying it. And I was hearing things

687
00:39:02,445 --> 00:39:07,245
Speaker 1: that never heard before. And the next week I was

688
00:39:07,285 --> 00:39:10,125
Speaker 1: at church on my own, and I was at church

689
00:39:10,245 --> 00:39:12,964
Speaker 1: as many times as I could go. I couldn't get enough.

690
00:39:13,005 --> 00:39:16,485
Speaker 1: Now I'm over that discomfort and now I'm like, I

691
00:39:16,525 --> 00:39:19,205
Speaker 1: want to know everything I can know about this. So

692
00:39:19,725 --> 00:39:21,685
Speaker 1: Mark would take me home to his family and they're

693
00:39:21,685 --> 00:39:25,085
Speaker 1: a very sweet Christian family, and I remember one night

694
00:39:25,125 --> 00:39:28,605
Speaker 1: after dinner, we're talking and they mentioned the rapture and

695
00:39:28,645 --> 00:39:31,285
Speaker 1: I said, what's a rapture? They said, oh, that's when

696
00:39:31,405 --> 00:39:34,165
Speaker 1: Christ comes to us. And they tell me about the rapture.

697
00:39:34,205 --> 00:39:37,445
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe this, well this could happen, and I'm

698
00:39:37,485 --> 00:39:39,605
Speaker 1: hearing all these things for the first time. It was

699
00:39:39,645 --> 00:39:44,005
Speaker 1: so exciting for me and so exciting to me. And

700
00:39:44,085 --> 00:39:47,405
Speaker 1: now I can't get enough. And now I'm starting to

701
00:39:47,525 --> 00:39:52,765
Speaker 1: grow spiritually. So I'm still in high school and I'm

702
00:39:52,805 --> 00:39:55,645
Speaker 1: sitting in my art class and the teacher says, can

703
00:39:55,685 --> 00:39:58,125
Speaker 1: we have an assignment for you? You have to draw

704
00:39:58,165 --> 00:40:01,205
Speaker 1: a comic book. Well, that's all I did was draw

705
00:40:01,245 --> 00:40:05,005
Speaker 1: comic books and create comic adventures, and I've done a

706
00:40:05,045 --> 00:40:07,844
Speaker 1: lot of that. But then I thought, well, now I'm

707
00:40:07,845 --> 00:40:11,045
Speaker 1: a Christian, maybe I should do a Christian comic book,

708
00:40:11,605 --> 00:40:14,165
Speaker 1: you know, and try to express my faith. Because back

709
00:40:14,165 --> 00:40:16,924
Speaker 1: in those days, they would give out little booklets called

710
00:40:17,005 --> 00:40:21,685
Speaker 1: tracks trcts, okay, and many of them were kind of

711
00:40:21,725 --> 00:40:25,965
Speaker 1: like these hellfire and brimstone tracks and meant to scare people.

712
00:40:25,965 --> 00:40:28,765
Speaker 1: And I even remember reading a couple of them before

713
00:40:28,805 --> 00:40:31,725
Speaker 1: I was a Christian and laughing at them and dismissing them.

714
00:40:31,925 --> 00:40:34,645
Speaker 1: I thought, I want to do a little track that

715
00:40:34,725 --> 00:40:36,964
Speaker 1: someone won't throw away when you give it to them.

716
00:40:37,485 --> 00:40:39,884
Speaker 1: It might be a little bit fun, but I want

717
00:40:39,885 --> 00:40:43,285
Speaker 1: to put the Gospel in it. And so I drew

718
00:40:43,365 --> 00:40:46,885
Speaker 1: this out and I turned it in and then I thought,

719
00:40:46,925 --> 00:40:48,885
Speaker 1: I'm going to go over to Chuck Smith's house and

720
00:40:48,925 --> 00:40:50,725
Speaker 1: see if he wants to print this. I don't know

721
00:40:50,725 --> 00:40:54,245
Speaker 1: where I got the audacity to go to Chuck Smith's

722
00:40:54,325 --> 00:40:57,365
Speaker 1: house and do this. But I did it. So I

723
00:40:57,405 --> 00:41:00,445
Speaker 1: walk over, I knock on his door. Chuck answers, hello, Hi,

724
00:41:00,565 --> 00:41:03,205
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Laurian. I go to your church and I'm

725
00:41:03,245 --> 00:41:07,325
Speaker 1: a cartoonist and I just did this drawing and it's

726
00:41:07,365 --> 00:41:09,525
Speaker 1: based on one of your sermons that you gave last

727
00:41:09,565 --> 00:41:12,805
Speaker 1: Sunday that we talked about the woman at the well

728
00:41:12,845 --> 00:41:15,405
Speaker 1: on John for and drinking of the living water. And

729
00:41:15,445 --> 00:41:18,365
Speaker 1: so the title of this little book that is living Water.

730
00:41:18,685 --> 00:41:20,525
Speaker 1: And I thought, I don't know, you might want to

731
00:41:20,525 --> 00:41:23,045
Speaker 1: print it. And Chuck looked at it and said, could

732
00:41:23,085 --> 00:41:25,605
Speaker 1: you reformat this? And he told me the size to

733
00:41:26,125 --> 00:41:28,325
Speaker 1: format it in. So I went back and readrew it

734
00:41:28,365 --> 00:41:31,485
Speaker 1: again to fit the size, and it was printed. And

735
00:41:31,525 --> 00:41:36,005
Speaker 1: I was so excited when it was first published. I

736
00:41:36,045 --> 00:41:38,964
Speaker 1: think we printed I don't know, maybe a thousand, maybe

737
00:41:39,085 --> 00:41:42,205
Speaker 1: ten thousand, and we started giving them out. They disappeared

738
00:41:42,245 --> 00:41:44,885
Speaker 1: so quickly. Then we went and printed more than it

739
00:41:44,965 --> 00:41:48,565
Speaker 1: was one hundred thousand, and then it became a million.

740
00:41:49,005 --> 00:41:50,925
Speaker 1: So I just got a letter now. Actually it was

741
00:41:50,965 --> 00:41:54,485
Speaker 1: a comment in my social media and a young lady

742
00:41:54,605 --> 00:41:57,045
Speaker 1: who was living in Guam, she was ten years old.

743
00:41:57,685 --> 00:42:01,245
Speaker 1: She said someone gave me one of your living water tracks,

744
00:42:01,685 --> 00:42:03,925
Speaker 1: and I read it as a ten year old, he

745
00:42:04,005 --> 00:42:06,565
Speaker 1: gave my life to the Lord. It is now fifty

746
00:42:06,685 --> 00:42:09,765
Speaker 1: five years later and they were still walking with Jesus.

747
00:42:09,805 --> 00:42:12,765
Speaker 1: And I heard a lot of stories like that about

748
00:42:12,805 --> 00:42:15,725
Speaker 1: how God used this little track. So that was my

749
00:42:15,885 --> 00:42:21,045
Speaker 1: first entrance into sharing my faith. I never aspired to

750
00:42:21,085 --> 00:42:24,565
Speaker 1: be a public speaker. I was more I love to

751
00:42:24,605 --> 00:42:28,045
Speaker 1: do art. I like to work behind the scenes, so

752
00:42:28,205 --> 00:42:31,045
Speaker 1: this was not something I ever considered, like, maybe I'll

753
00:42:31,085 --> 00:42:33,525
Speaker 1: become a preacher one day. As a matter of fact,

754
00:42:34,445 --> 00:42:36,325
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, we'd hang out a big

755
00:42:36,365 --> 00:42:39,125
Speaker 1: crona beach down in Newport Beach and there was some

756
00:42:39,165 --> 00:42:41,925
Speaker 1: preacher that would come down and yell at us kids.

757
00:42:42,445 --> 00:42:45,365
Speaker 1: I remember he was dressed head to toe in black.

758
00:42:45,445 --> 00:42:50,205
Speaker 1: He had a black brimmed hat, black coat, black pants,

759
00:42:50,725 --> 00:42:54,085
Speaker 1: and I remember he'd be sweating, telling us to repent

760
00:42:54,125 --> 00:42:56,925
Speaker 1: of our sins. And I thought, as I stood there,

761
00:42:57,005 --> 00:43:00,285
Speaker 1: my t shirt, my board shorts, why would anyone do this?

762
00:43:00,885 --> 00:43:02,725
Speaker 1: Why would you want to stand out in the sun

763
00:43:02,765 --> 00:43:06,005
Speaker 1: and yell about Jesus? You know, So the thought of

764
00:43:06,045 --> 00:43:10,685
Speaker 1: me becoming a preacher was not an appealing thought. But

765
00:43:11,085 --> 00:43:13,045
Speaker 1: one day when I was down at the beach, I

766
00:43:13,165 --> 00:43:17,405
Speaker 1: was given sort of a glimpse into my future. Okay,

767
00:43:17,445 --> 00:43:20,565
Speaker 1: so I'm a new Christian at this point, I've drawn

768
00:43:20,605 --> 00:43:24,725
Speaker 1: the living Water track. I've never preached a sermon. In fact,

769
00:43:24,805 --> 00:43:27,205
Speaker 1: I had the fear of preaching this sermon. I had

770
00:43:27,205 --> 00:43:29,405
Speaker 1: the fear that I might be in line at a

771
00:43:29,485 --> 00:43:32,485
Speaker 1: market and God would say, preach the Gospel, and that

772
00:43:32,605 --> 00:43:35,285
Speaker 1: was so terrifying to me. I was talking to people

773
00:43:35,285 --> 00:43:38,525
Speaker 1: about Jesus, I was sharing my faith out and about

774
00:43:38,565 --> 00:43:42,885
Speaker 1: wherever I went. But I think that calling was coming

775
00:43:42,925 --> 00:43:45,525
Speaker 1: on my life, and I wasn't quite aware of it yet.

776
00:43:45,885 --> 00:43:49,125
Speaker 1: So there was a baptism down there at Pirate's Cove,

777
00:43:49,925 --> 00:43:52,925
Speaker 1: and somehow I got my times mixed up and I

778
00:43:53,005 --> 00:43:56,445
Speaker 1: missed the baptism. And so there was some kids sort

779
00:43:56,485 --> 00:43:59,725
Speaker 1: of hanging around still in little groups. And there's one

780
00:43:59,765 --> 00:44:02,125
Speaker 1: little group of kids and they were singing and playing

781
00:44:02,125 --> 00:44:04,685
Speaker 1: guitar or someone had a guitar and they're singing. And

782
00:44:04,725 --> 00:44:08,365
Speaker 1: so I sat down with them and my heart starts beating,

783
00:44:08,525 --> 00:44:11,285
Speaker 1: like I need to share something from God's words, something

784
00:44:11,365 --> 00:44:14,085
Speaker 1: i'd read that day. Remember, I'm not a preacher, I'm

785
00:44:14,085 --> 00:44:17,285
Speaker 1: not a pastor. Not a teacher, just a Christian going

786
00:44:17,325 --> 00:44:19,685
Speaker 1: to church. But I thought I need to share what

787
00:44:19,765 --> 00:44:23,365
Speaker 1: I learned from Scripture. So when the song ended, I said, hey,

788
00:44:23,485 --> 00:44:25,805
Speaker 1: I had something I wanted to share with you. And

789
00:44:25,885 --> 00:44:28,685
Speaker 1: I just shared my little thought from the Bible. And

790
00:44:29,285 --> 00:44:31,525
Speaker 1: after I was done, I remember thinking, Oh, Lord, I'm

791
00:44:31,605 --> 00:44:34,085
Speaker 1: so thankful I obeyed you. That's so great you let

792
00:44:34,085 --> 00:44:36,924
Speaker 1: me do that. Oh yes, Lord, use me in any

793
00:44:36,925 --> 00:44:39,245
Speaker 1: way you want to use me. And while I'm talking,

794
00:44:39,845 --> 00:44:42,725
Speaker 1: a couple of girls joined our group, and one of

795
00:44:42,765 --> 00:44:46,405
Speaker 1: them leaned over and said, hey, Pastor, could you baptize

796
00:44:47,125 --> 00:44:49,285
Speaker 1: these girls? They missed the baptist and I said, I'm

797
00:44:49,325 --> 00:44:53,085
Speaker 1: not a pastor. I I can't baptize someone. Oh okay,

798
00:44:53,565 --> 00:44:56,165
Speaker 1: And then I just sensed the Lord leading me to

799
00:44:56,205 --> 00:44:59,245
Speaker 1: do it. I thought why not. I said, well, I

800
00:44:59,285 --> 00:45:03,405
Speaker 1: guess I could baptize you. Okay, let's go. So we're

801
00:45:03,485 --> 00:45:05,805
Speaker 1: leaving Big Corona Beach. Now we're making a way over

802
00:45:05,925 --> 00:45:08,205
Speaker 1: the Pirates Club. You have to climb over these rocks

803
00:45:08,725 --> 00:45:10,924
Speaker 1: and then you go down these steep stairs and you're there.

804
00:45:11,485 --> 00:45:14,245
Speaker 1: So we're making our way over there. And so I

805
00:45:14,285 --> 00:45:16,245
Speaker 1: have this little group of like, I don't know, maybe

806
00:45:16,325 --> 00:45:21,045
Speaker 1: fifteen maybe twenty people following me, and I'm thinking to myself,

807
00:45:21,085 --> 00:45:23,925
Speaker 1: how did I get myself into this? Like what am

808
00:45:23,965 --> 00:45:27,925
Speaker 1: I doing? I don't even technically know how to baptize somebody.

809
00:45:28,445 --> 00:45:30,805
Speaker 1: And so we're walking along and we climb over the

810
00:45:30,885 --> 00:45:33,325
Speaker 1: rocks and we go down to the beach and the

811
00:45:33,405 --> 00:45:36,005
Speaker 1: kids are standing in front of me, and I look

812
00:45:36,125 --> 00:45:38,205
Speaker 1: up and people are up on the rocks and they're

813
00:45:38,245 --> 00:45:40,885
Speaker 1: looking like they're looking down at me. And I looked

814
00:45:40,925 --> 00:45:43,125
Speaker 1: up at him, and as clear as day, God spoke

815
00:45:43,205 --> 00:45:46,245
Speaker 1: to my heart and said, preach the gospel. The thing

816
00:45:46,485 --> 00:45:49,445
Speaker 1: I had feared was happening. The thing I did not

817
00:45:49,525 --> 00:45:51,925
Speaker 1: want to do, I was being asked to do. But

818
00:45:52,005 --> 00:45:56,125
Speaker 1: strangely I had a courage and a boldness to do it.

819
00:45:56,885 --> 00:45:59,245
Speaker 1: And so I just said, well, you're up there watching,

820
00:45:59,365 --> 00:46:01,925
Speaker 1: probably wondering what we're doing down here. We're going to

821
00:46:02,005 --> 00:46:05,444
Speaker 1: baptize these girls because they put their faith in Jeez.

822
00:46:05,485 --> 00:46:07,404
Speaker 1: This is the next thing, you know, I'm telling them

823
00:46:07,645 --> 00:46:10,245
Speaker 1: how to put their faith in Jesus Christ. And then

824
00:46:10,325 --> 00:46:12,965
Speaker 1: next thing, you know, I'm literally saying and if some

825
00:46:13,005 --> 00:46:15,085
Speaker 1: of you up there want to come down here and

826
00:46:15,125 --> 00:46:17,485
Speaker 1: give your life to Christ, come on down and some

827
00:46:17,565 --> 00:46:21,005
Speaker 1: people came and I prayed with them, and it's almost

828
00:46:21,045 --> 00:46:23,884
Speaker 1: like I stepped outside of myself and I was saying

829
00:46:23,925 --> 00:46:27,005
Speaker 1: to myself, what are you doing? Who do you think

830
00:46:27,045 --> 00:46:30,725
Speaker 1: you are? You're not Billy Graham. This is crazy, But

831
00:46:30,965 --> 00:46:33,885
Speaker 1: I'm still doing it well while I'm thinking these thoughts.

832
00:46:33,885 --> 00:46:36,805
Speaker 1: And so I take the girls into the water, and

833
00:46:36,845 --> 00:46:39,245
Speaker 1: literally I didn't know how to baptize a person. I

834
00:46:39,365 --> 00:46:42,645
Speaker 1: never stopped and you know, really looked at the technique

835
00:46:42,685 --> 00:46:47,405
Speaker 1: of it. But I managed to baptize them and the

836
00:46:47,445 --> 00:46:51,045
Speaker 1: others that had prayed. And I left the beach that

837
00:46:51,205 --> 00:46:54,525
Speaker 1: day thinking Wow, God, thank you so much for all

838
00:46:54,565 --> 00:46:58,085
Speaker 1: of that. And I remember thinking, I wonder if I'll

839
00:46:58,125 --> 00:47:00,844
Speaker 1: ever do that one day. I was sort of like

840
00:47:01,005 --> 00:47:03,325
Speaker 1: giving a glimpse into my future. You know, like when

841
00:47:03,325 --> 00:47:05,085
Speaker 1: you go to a movie and you watch a trailer,

842
00:47:05,605 --> 00:47:07,405
Speaker 1: and a lot of times the best parts of the

843
00:47:07,445 --> 00:47:09,965
Speaker 1: film are in the trailer. In other words, a trailer

844
00:47:10,005 --> 00:47:12,405
Speaker 1: is better than the movie. It's sort of like I've

845
00:47:12,445 --> 00:47:15,645
Speaker 1: was shown a trailer of my future, like this is

846
00:47:15,685 --> 00:47:18,925
Speaker 1: what you're going to do one day. But it didn't

847
00:47:18,965 --> 00:47:21,685
Speaker 1: happen immediately. In fact, it didn't happen for a little

848
00:47:21,725 --> 00:47:25,365
Speaker 1: bit of time, but I was given a glimpse into

849
00:47:25,405 --> 00:47:28,885
Speaker 1: what I would ultimately end up doing, which was preaching

850
00:47:28,925 --> 00:47:34,325
Speaker 1: the Gospel and teaching the Bible. So listen, God wants

851
00:47:34,365 --> 00:47:37,605
Speaker 1: to use all of us. Some of us are called

852
00:47:37,645 --> 00:47:40,925
Speaker 1: to be preachers, others are not. But we're all called

853
00:47:41,365 --> 00:47:46,285
Speaker 1: to share our faith. We're all called to discover, cultivate,

854
00:47:46,365 --> 00:47:49,725
Speaker 1: and develop the spiritual gifts that God has given us

855
00:47:50,085 --> 00:47:53,685
Speaker 1: and use them for His glory. And everyone has something

856
00:47:53,805 --> 00:47:57,245
Speaker 1: to do. And I want to encourage you to say, Lord,

857
00:47:57,525 --> 00:48:02,205
Speaker 1: use me. You know there's a great evangelist from days

858
00:48:02,245 --> 00:48:05,924
Speaker 1: gone by and his name was Dial Moody and said

859
00:48:05,925 --> 00:48:09,765
Speaker 1: this to him, and it really challenged him. The guy said, Moody,

860
00:48:10,445 --> 00:48:12,725
Speaker 1: the world has yet to see what God can do

861
00:48:12,885 --> 00:48:15,805
Speaker 1: in and with and through the man who is totally

862
00:48:15,885 --> 00:48:19,125
Speaker 1: committed to him. And Moody said, I want to be

863
00:48:19,205 --> 00:48:22,605
Speaker 1: that man. Would you be that man or that woman

864
00:48:23,445 --> 00:48:26,085
Speaker 1: and say, Lord, here I am, send me here, I am.

865
00:48:26,205 --> 00:48:29,884
Speaker 1: Use me. If you're faithful in the little things, God

866
00:48:29,925 --> 00:48:34,165
Speaker 1: will open up greater opportunities for you. I remember early

867
00:48:34,245 --> 00:48:37,325
Speaker 1: on when I was getting in a taste of preaching

868
00:48:37,445 --> 00:48:41,085
Speaker 1: and was very anxious to get started. I went into

869
00:48:41,165 --> 00:48:45,205
Speaker 1: Chuck Smith's office, and I said, Pastor Chuck, I want

870
00:48:45,245 --> 00:48:47,325
Speaker 1: to do whatever I can here at church, however you

871
00:48:47,365 --> 00:48:50,085
Speaker 1: can use me. I want to serve the Lord. And

872
00:48:50,405 --> 00:48:55,045
Speaker 1: Chuck said, okay, Greg, well go see Pastor Romayne. And

873
00:48:55,125 --> 00:48:57,965
Speaker 1: I was hoping Chuck might say, oh, preach on Sunday morning.

874
00:48:58,005 --> 00:49:00,765
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was thinking, but so I

875
00:49:00,845 --> 00:49:04,805
Speaker 1: met Pastor Romayne. Pastor Romayne used to be in the

876
00:49:04,845 --> 00:49:09,845
Speaker 1: Marine Corps and his job was to get recruits into

877
00:49:09,885 --> 00:49:14,885
Speaker 1: shape to proper marines. And so I said, hi, Romayne.

878
00:49:14,965 --> 00:49:18,445
Speaker 1: Chuck sent me to see you, and I told him

879
00:49:18,485 --> 00:49:20,525
Speaker 1: I want to serve the Lord and do whatever I

880
00:49:20,565 --> 00:49:23,845
Speaker 1: can for God's glory. And said, okay, here, give me

881
00:49:23,885 --> 00:49:27,005
Speaker 1: a broom. Start sweeping under that tree, and when you're done,

882
00:49:27,325 --> 00:49:30,365
Speaker 1: go over into the bathroom and clean those toilets. And

883
00:49:31,005 --> 00:49:33,885
Speaker 1: I think Romayne knew exactly what Chuck was doing. And

884
00:49:33,925 --> 00:49:36,845
Speaker 1: basically I did free janitorial work for them for a

885
00:49:36,925 --> 00:49:40,085
Speaker 1: little while. But I was okay with that because I

886
00:49:40,285 --> 00:49:43,245
Speaker 1: just like hanging around the church. But what they were

887
00:49:43,325 --> 00:49:46,925
Speaker 1: looking for was will this kid be faithful in little things?

888
00:49:47,165 --> 00:49:50,005
Speaker 1: Because if you won't be faithful in little things, why

889
00:49:50,045 --> 00:49:53,125
Speaker 1: would God give you greater things to do. So I

890
00:49:53,125 --> 00:49:57,325
Speaker 1: remember sometimes they would leave for lunch. The pastors are

891
00:49:57,525 --> 00:49:59,525
Speaker 1: all go to lunch, and they would allow me to

892
00:49:59,565 --> 00:50:03,445
Speaker 1: sit in the office and answer the phones and offer

893
00:50:03,485 --> 00:50:08,005
Speaker 1: a counsel and prayer. I'm probably around twenty years old

894
00:50:08,005 --> 00:50:11,005
Speaker 1: at this point, nineteen or twenty. So someone would call

895
00:50:11,805 --> 00:50:15,005
Speaker 1: and Hi, this is Calvid Choppel, and yes I have

896
00:50:15,085 --> 00:50:16,885
Speaker 1: a question, and I would do my best to answer

897
00:50:16,965 --> 00:50:19,525
Speaker 1: their questions, and then the pastors would come back and

898
00:50:19,925 --> 00:50:21,925
Speaker 1: get off the phone. Greg. You know, so I just

899
00:50:22,085 --> 00:50:25,805
Speaker 1: literally hung around waiting for something to do. And one day,

900
00:50:26,685 --> 00:50:29,045
Speaker 1: I don't remember if it was Romayne said to me, Greg,

901
00:50:29,085 --> 00:50:31,885
Speaker 1: we need a new doorknob for the church, for the

902
00:50:31,925 --> 00:50:34,685
Speaker 1: front door of the office. Go and get a doorknob.

903
00:50:34,805 --> 00:50:37,965
Speaker 1: Here's some petty cash. I felt like there was an

904
00:50:38,005 --> 00:50:41,045
Speaker 1: omission from God. I went down to the hardware store

905
00:50:41,085 --> 00:50:44,005
Speaker 1: and to understand, I'm not a mechanical person. I'm not

906
00:50:44,085 --> 00:50:47,045
Speaker 1: good with the most basic things. Remember, I didn't have

907
00:50:47,085 --> 00:50:49,285
Speaker 1: a dad growing up, so I didn't know anything about

908
00:50:50,245 --> 00:50:53,285
Speaker 1: common things that guys learned about from their dads. And

909
00:50:53,365 --> 00:50:56,325
Speaker 1: I never knew there were so many doorknobs one could buy.

910
00:50:56,885 --> 00:50:59,845
Speaker 1: I didn't take the time to measure the whole or

911
00:50:59,885 --> 00:51:03,125
Speaker 1: what kind of hardware I needed to buy. I'm literally,

912
00:51:03,165 --> 00:51:05,725
Speaker 1: God give me wisdom, which doorknob do I buy? You know?

913
00:51:05,765 --> 00:51:07,765
Speaker 1: And I finally bought one. I went back. It was

914
00:51:07,805 --> 00:51:10,445
Speaker 1: a wrong doorknob. But you know, it was just being

915
00:51:10,485 --> 00:51:12,725
Speaker 1: willing to do whatever needed to be done. So when

916
00:51:12,725 --> 00:51:16,525
Speaker 1: someone would call and say, yeah, we need somebody to

917
00:51:16,645 --> 00:51:20,285
Speaker 1: do a Bible study and a convalescent home like three

918
00:51:20,365 --> 00:51:23,405
Speaker 1: hours from here, can you send someone? Those are the

919
00:51:23,525 --> 00:51:26,805
Speaker 1: jobs I got. I got the jobs the pastors didn't

920
00:51:26,845 --> 00:51:31,844
Speaker 1: want to do. Another time, someone said, someone wants one

921
00:51:31,885 --> 00:51:34,045
Speaker 1: of the pastors to come and speak at this mental

922
00:51:34,085 --> 00:51:39,005
Speaker 1: institution to the people there, and so I got that job.

923
00:51:39,445 --> 00:51:43,805
Speaker 1: And there was this little Bible study happening up in Riverside. Now.

924
00:51:43,845 --> 00:51:46,525
Speaker 1: It was started by Lonnie Frisbee when he was still

925
00:51:46,565 --> 00:51:48,845
Speaker 1: with Calvin Choppel, but he had left at this point,

926
00:51:49,285 --> 00:51:53,005
Speaker 1: and this study was quite big. It was at Episcopalian

927
00:51:53,085 --> 00:51:56,645
Speaker 1: church called All Saints Episcopalian Church, and it was being

928
00:51:56,725 --> 00:52:00,245
Speaker 1: passed off from pastor to pastor. One pastor would do

929
00:52:00,285 --> 00:52:02,365
Speaker 1: it one week and then another would do it the

930
00:52:02,405 --> 00:52:06,245
Speaker 1: next week, and it was shrinking and getting smaller. And smaller.

931
00:52:06,565 --> 00:52:09,045
Speaker 1: So one day the pastors are talking in the room

932
00:52:09,085 --> 00:52:11,125
Speaker 1: and I was in the back room with them. I

933
00:52:11,205 --> 00:52:14,045
Speaker 1: was not on staff. I just hung around. In fact,

934
00:52:14,125 --> 00:52:15,924
Speaker 1: i'd set up my drawing board and I was doing

935
00:52:15,925 --> 00:52:19,725
Speaker 1: freelance graphics to support myself, giving new meaning to the

936
00:52:19,845 --> 00:52:23,565
Speaker 1: term starving artists. But I would do whatever needed to

937
00:52:23,605 --> 00:52:25,965
Speaker 1: be done. And one of them said, well, who's going

938
00:52:25,965 --> 00:52:27,885
Speaker 1: to All Saints this week? And one said, well I

939
00:52:27,925 --> 00:52:30,045
Speaker 1: went there last week, and the other said I'm going

940
00:52:30,045 --> 00:52:33,325
Speaker 1: there next week. Well who's going to go? Well, Greg,

941
00:52:33,365 --> 00:52:37,405
Speaker 1: why don't you go? I was like okay. So I

942
00:52:37,445 --> 00:52:41,645
Speaker 1: got in my car, my trusty little Corvert, not Corvette Corvert.

943
00:52:42,685 --> 00:52:46,725
Speaker 1: Corvets were cars that a guy named Ralph Nader wanted

944
00:52:46,765 --> 00:52:49,925
Speaker 1: taken off the road because they were so dangerous. They

945
00:52:50,005 --> 00:52:52,844
Speaker 1: put the engine in the back and they crumpled up

946
00:52:53,365 --> 00:52:55,885
Speaker 1: in a collision. I knew the shrim experience when I

947
00:52:56,245 --> 00:52:59,485
Speaker 1: rented a car and pretty much crumpled up the front

948
00:52:59,525 --> 00:53:03,045
Speaker 1: of my Corvert. But anyway, I would drive my Corvet

949
00:53:03,165 --> 00:53:06,525
Speaker 1: with retread tires, you know, would retread tire. That's when

950
00:53:06,525 --> 00:53:09,365
Speaker 1: you take a tire that's going bald and you put

951
00:53:09,405 --> 00:53:11,885
Speaker 1: a tread on the outside, you glue it on and

952
00:53:11,925 --> 00:53:15,965
Speaker 1: these retreads would come off my tires. Console anyway, driving

953
00:53:16,005 --> 00:53:19,525
Speaker 1: my little corvet up to Riverside and I show up

954
00:53:20,285 --> 00:53:25,085
Speaker 1: and I go up to some older gentleman and I said, Hi,

955
00:53:25,085 --> 00:53:27,725
Speaker 1: I'm from Calviy Chupple. I'm here to speak tonight. My

956
00:53:27,805 --> 00:53:31,725
Speaker 1: name is Greg Loory said, no one told me someone

957
00:53:31,805 --> 00:53:34,325
Speaker 1: was coming from Calviy named Greg Lory. Yeah, well, no,

958
00:53:34,445 --> 00:53:38,085
Speaker 1: I'm the guy, and I'm going to speak. And he says, well, no,

959
00:53:38,205 --> 00:53:40,445
Speaker 1: I don't think so you're not going to speak. No

960
00:53:40,685 --> 00:53:43,844
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to speak. Why don't you just go sit there?

961
00:53:45,085 --> 00:53:48,605
Speaker 1: I sat there as a little humiliating, and he realized

962
00:53:48,605 --> 00:53:50,805
Speaker 1: nobody else was coming, because indeed I was the guy.

963
00:53:50,885 --> 00:53:55,205
Speaker 1: Says okay, you can speak this one time. So I

964
00:53:55,285 --> 00:53:58,685
Speaker 1: got up and I spoke. It went quite well, and

965
00:53:59,645 --> 00:54:02,485
Speaker 1: so well in fact, that he said one should come

966
00:54:02,525 --> 00:54:05,085
Speaker 1: back next week. And then I went back next week.

967
00:54:05,125 --> 00:54:07,884
Speaker 1: And none of the other guys wanted to take this

968
00:54:07,925 --> 00:54:12,005
Speaker 1: thing over. So I just kept going, and before I

969
00:54:12,165 --> 00:54:15,645
Speaker 1: knew it, it was growing from a Bible study into

970
00:54:15,685 --> 00:54:18,885
Speaker 1: what really was a church. I didn't go to planet

971
00:54:18,885 --> 00:54:22,205
Speaker 1: a church. It was never my hope to become a

972
00:54:22,285 --> 00:54:25,005
Speaker 1: pastor of a church. In fact, I thought my calling

973
00:54:25,045 --> 00:54:27,965
Speaker 1: would be to be an evangelist and to travel around

974
00:54:28,285 --> 00:54:30,805
Speaker 1: and speak, because I was doing that already at this

975
00:54:30,885 --> 00:54:33,085
Speaker 1: point with some of these Christian bands. They would play

976
00:54:33,085 --> 00:54:35,445
Speaker 1: and I'd speak, So I thought that's what I'll do,

977
00:54:36,325 --> 00:54:38,565
Speaker 1: And to be a pastor of a church was not

978
00:54:38,725 --> 00:54:42,805
Speaker 1: something I really aspired to, but people were calling me pastor.

979
00:54:42,965 --> 00:54:46,325
Speaker 1: So I started looking for someone to take this new

980
00:54:46,405 --> 00:54:49,005
Speaker 1: church over, and I couldn't find anybody, and it just

981
00:54:49,365 --> 00:54:52,445
Speaker 1: dawned to me that God is calling me to be

982
00:54:52,485 --> 00:54:56,884
Speaker 1: a pastor and an evangelist. So that became the church,

983
00:54:56,925 --> 00:55:01,005
Speaker 1: and I'm still pastoring today fifty years later, called Harvest

984
00:55:01,045 --> 00:55:06,965
Speaker 1: Christian Fellowship in Riverside. So I didn't start church intentionally,

985
00:55:07,885 --> 00:55:11,325
Speaker 1: but it was indeed one of the first startup churches

986
00:55:11,445 --> 00:55:14,125
Speaker 1: out there. But if you look at my life, as

987
00:55:14,165 --> 00:55:17,765
Speaker 1: I said earlier, that passage that says the lines have

988
00:55:17,885 --> 00:55:22,605
Speaker 1: fallen in familiar places, one thing led to another. God

989
00:55:22,765 --> 00:55:25,925
Speaker 1: was directing me from the earliest days of my childhood

990
00:55:26,605 --> 00:55:29,485
Speaker 1: when I sat on my grandmother's home and stared at

991
00:55:29,525 --> 00:55:32,885
Speaker 1: that portrait of Jesus, to the day when I was

992
00:55:32,965 --> 00:55:36,765
Speaker 1: called to preach the Gospel of Jesus. So I hope

993
00:55:36,805 --> 00:55:39,805
Speaker 1: this encourages you, and I hope that you will pray

994
00:55:40,325 --> 00:55:43,725
Speaker 1: that God will use you, and that you'll discover His

995
00:55:43,925 --> 00:55:45,165
Speaker 1: plan for your life.