WINDOWS IN TIME

I grew up in West Covina, California along with my two sisters and an older brother.  We all attended private Catholic school in the sixties.  My mother and father were also raised Catholic in California.  I had a good upbringing but with semi-strict parents.  My siblings did well in their studies, but I fell behind in most subjects.  I struggled with reading difficulties and attention challenges.  At the age of ten, my teacher had me stand up and read to the class.  I couldn’t seem to follow the words in the sentence and started to stutter.  My teacher immediately put me in the corner in front of the whole class.  From then on I became the class clown. Which, of course, was a form of protection for myself.  This set me up for failure and low self-esteem.  I did go to college for four years, but never graduated.  All I wanted in life was to please my dad so he would be proud of me.  I carried that idea most of my adult life.

Finally in 1995 I hit the wall.  I lost my job due to drugs and was fired by my boss, and even lost one of my dear friends for the same reason.  We were all a little emotional!  The end of 1995, in December, I hit my ‘rock bottom’.  I finally was ashamed… so much so, that in my tears I asked God not to let me die a drug addict.  Later that night I had a dream which motivated me to call a one-eight-hundred number for help.  So I went to my first twelve-step meeting on January 15th, 1996 and have been sober ever since.  I remember walking in to the meeting, opening the door and listening to the Holy Spirit saying: “Let’s go!”  These verses also spoke to me:

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. – Colossians 3:3

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17 

God put wonderful believers in my path to guide me and give me living examples to follow, just like how the Apostle Paul says to us “Imitate me.”  I was asked to join a men’s Bible Study with Elder Bill Pierce, Steve Hicks, Russ Kimmel and Jim Tennies.  I regularly met with these wonderful souls as they guided me for twelve years until I started to mature in Christ… I’m a slow learner… did I say that already! 

In 1998, I was invited to go to a Local State Prison called California Men’s Colony.  There I was helping a group of men, teaching about purity for fifteen years.  This was a very difficult task that seemed unrewarding.  In 2014, I was chosen to serve in the prison chapel and eight months later I was the only free staff doing all of the Pastor’s role.  My Reverend was retiring later that year and he wanted me to take over, so I preceded to get the necessary paperwork in order and was licensed by ABC Church and ordained by my Wednesday night Bible Study.  What an honour this has become!

I’m sorry for writing this much, there is a lot more I left out that the Lord has miraculously done for me and to me.  I will finish with this:

Three years ago, I had a woman contact me and was looking for her biological father.  She started to name people that I knew and then sent me a link to Ancestry.com  The link included a DNA match of my sister Jenee who was on this site a few months prior.  Needless to say, I was shocked when this women contacted me that day.  The next day, I jumped out of bed and cried tears of joy that I had been forgiven by that woman… which I found out is actually my daughter Rachelle, born November 3rd, 1979.  We talk a couple of times a week now and last year I got the best gift of my life… Rachelle sent me a card on Father’s Day and even called me ‘Dad’!  Thank God Almighty for healing our broken hearts.

❤️‍🩹

To my daughter Rachelle, son-in-law Mike and grandson Alex:

I Love You Guys!