Afterword

The church in Casper, Wyoming, was successfully revived, and within one year we went from having our church property in foreclosure to being debt free. One of my converts in Casper became the new pastor of that church when I later moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

During the next forty years of ministry, I was instrumental in pioneering twelve new congregations and I served as pastor of one of them for 15 years. My ministry carried me into all 50 states and to 42 countries, on 5 continents.

As different doors of opportunity opened, I was ordained into three major denominations: Church of God, Assemblies of God and the Southern Baptist Convention. In each of them, at various times, I served as a church planter, pastor, evangelist and denominational leader.

In my ministry, I served in rural areas, small towns, sprawling suburbs, and inner-city ghettos. I ministered to the homeless and to the affluent; the weak and the powerful. I stayed in dirt floored bamboo huts in third world countries and twice I was a guest of the President of the United States at the White House.

Now, with much encouragement from friends and family, and the help of my beautiful wife, Karen, I have shared this story of my beginnings. I trust it will serve as a record of the classical Pentecostal church as I once knew it, and that it will also be a glimpse into the mind and making of a young man who grew up Pentecostal.