Trying desperately to carry shade with me, an umbrella was strapped to the support rack of my backpack as progress walking across the Southern California desert under the searing heat was made one dusty step after another. This chapter of life was not something I ever expected to experience after my life had been changed by a life threatening encounter involving dealing with drugs, organized crime and contact with sincere co-workers in the Navy. My life was rapidly beginning to smell of smoke and fire, many people could see my course heading to oblivion but few had words to say. Of the few I met there were two categories, those considered religious nuts who were a detriment to whatever they were trying to sell, and then there were the rare, the precious and genuine who seeing how terrible my life was, were so stunned that words escaped them by the tears welling up in their eyes when they spoke a message with profound vividness.

I remember the time just before my honorable discharge, as military officials noted my uneasiness with repairing communication equipment designed to facilitate deadly communications for their fighter jets. This unusually budding conscience was noted by fellow technicians who expressed an honest concern for my well being with actions before words were ever spoken. When the day came for me to hear them speak, I was ready with my usual threats and rejection. It was weeks before that I witnessed the tears welling up in their eyes, yet their words were a simple sincere communication, “ Michael, we notice what you are involved with and where your life is heading and we just want to say that we are worried. The way you are going is away from God and we strongly suggest that you consider giving your life to Jesus Christ and let God save you from a terrible future. With all the grace of an industrial paper shredder, I told them to take their religion and get lost.

I knew little about the Bible but I thought my education with Christianity was thorough as I recall the days when my Catholic neighbor did things with religious icons and table top statues that not even an acid head like me would even think of. He cured me of any taste for religion and was used by the enemy of my soul to plant seeds of hate and distrust of religion that has been a blessing in some ways, yet during those years near the end of my military career, those seeds became somewhat of a blade placed on an eternal jugular vein.

Not long after these kind co-workers gently warned me, a night arrived when powerful forces involved with mass production and purification of cocaine sought to enlist my services. Coming to the housing I shared with three other Navy buddies, these people who were eager to use my knowledge of chemistry for their diabolical ends, made me a subtle offer. It was all very simple, I purify cocaine for them or they will slowly disassemble the least important parts of my body required for the task they sought to facilitate. Fear filled my life like a flood and their wording left me no other options. However, being a bit hypertensive by inheritance, I also suddenly felt I was being pushed toward an edge which compelled me to fight or run. Since I had nowhere to run, I exploded in a violent action by standing up and pointing to the door they came through and telling them to, “ Get out of my house!! ” They moved suddenly and directly for the door with the fat lead character turning to pause and ask, “ May we leave this coke here for you to work on? ” I yelled back with words of a vocabulary I no longer employ, “ Take your @$#!? and get out NOW!! ” They left the house, with me slamming the door behind them.

So there I was all alone, having organized crime come into my house, revealing who they were, what they wanted and left me with a serious threat that soon began to eat away at my confidence regarding my ability to go outside the house or even remain in this world. Shortly after organized crime left, one by one my house mates returned from their various evening activities. Like wise, one by one I shared the story regarding what happened while they were out. After sharing the story with each house mate, I watched each one turn white as a sheet and suddenly vanish with their respective vehicles. Now, I was fairly certain that none of my house mates were religious except the last one who came home. His name was Mike and rode a motorcycle like one of the other house mates; however, unlike the other house mates, he tried to help me by suggesting an escape. He said, “ I know! Just get on the back of my bike and we will take off. ” I said, “ That sounds like a good idea, but what if they shoot at me? ” His response was photographically imprinted in my mind. He looked at me then turned to look at his bike which was still warm sitting in the open garage, then he turned back to look at me with fear in his eyes. As he looked at me, he said the following, “ Wow man I ' m really sorry about this but I have to go now! ” He turned and ran to his bike and took off leaving me completely alone in that house on that terrible night.

Being all alone, I shut the doors with growing fear. In that fear, I called the police to report the incident figuring I might enlist their protection. They listened to my story, asked me to repeat it for other officers to hear then replied, “ We are busy people and don ' t appreciate your prank phone call jokes. Do something worth while and never make a call like this again! ” They hung up thinking I had made up the whole story. Not even the police would respond.

That feeling of being trapped in a corner began to return. It was that same fight or flight issue but now there was nothing to fight with as all my friends had left me and the police think I was making a prank phone call. Likewise, there was no place to run because the people associated with the organized crime visit made it clear that they would come back for me or I would go to them; there was no running away. What could I do in such a situation?

I went to the kitchen and felt weakness from fear. I couldn ' t stand up so I fell to my knees and almost wanted to crawl into a fetal position. On my knees my mind raced and many thoughts went through my head. I thought, “ No one cares about the mess I ' m in. What will I do? Who cares at all about my death? ” Then among those thoughts was one about the warning given to me by the only people who had shown any sincere concern for my life. The faces and the tears of a Navy service man from my work center came to my mind. I remember what he said regarding being concerned about the way my life was going and his suggestion that I let Jesus Christ and God control my life; after which they never troubled me again.

In that moment all my hate and distrust about religion came to mind along with the hypocrisy I had spent twenty-five years witnessing. However, with my life on the line only one thing shown through like a clear star and that was his unfeigned wordless concern expressed a few weeks before he and his buddy said anything. I bowed my head and said the following fumbling words in a shaking mumble, “ God I don ' t know if you are real or a fairy tale but if you and Jesus are real, I need your help right now. ” In one single moment all fear vanished like someone lifted a cover off a grave to let the light shine in. I couldn ' t explain it! It was amazing as all my fears were completely and utterly gone. A few moments later my phone rang with a call from a friend who was an associate professor I knew from the University of California San Diego . He was an extraordinarily tall thin fellow whom I introduced to a woman who was extremely frustrated with life because she was so tall that she towered over all her dates. When they met it was discovered that he was only a few inches taller than she, and it was like love at first sight. He called to say that he was having a get together and wondered if I would like to come to his house? With incredible enthusiasm, I said, “ Yes of course! ”

His name was Professor Richard Sites and everyone called him Dick. He arrived at my house and picked me up with the gal I had introduced to him. As they began to drive back to his house they asked me how I was doing. In my new found peace and excitement about what happened when I asked Jesus to help me, I babbled on with excitement about what God had done for me. They didn ' t quite understand what I was talking about as the whole issue with the evening ' s preceding events was unknown to them. I just went to their home and they asked if I would like anything. Ultimately I asked for the unusual. Requesting of them, “ May I take a shower? ” As I showered, it felt like some kind of baptism and cleansing I could not clearly express to my hosts with their mysteriously timed phone call.

The next day I returned to the house where my Navy buddies were shocked to see me alive and there at the house where the people from the cocaine event could find me. My buddies asked me, “ Aren ' t you afraid they will come to kill you? ” I told my buddies what happened to me when I asked Jesus Christ to help me and how all fear has vanished. ” I went on to say, “ It is amazing you must ask Jesus to help you also! ” And with this began the very first statement regarding my witness to what Jesus Christ can do to save anyone from death and fear. This all happened thirty-four years ago and my daily story has not changed. All that I do, write and say is for the purpose of exposing darkness and making the Light of Christ Jesus known.

Within three weeks of my conversion which took place alone in a kitchen in Mira Mesa California, I was invited to teach a class of high school students at La Jolla High School . This job would become the definitive mission given to me by God for His ultimate purposes. I have been a teacher since that day. So, on one day I was a maker of street drugs doing things that brought organized crime into my life and the life of my friends, to that of being a school teacher for young people.

Knowing only that Jesus saved my life and brought me to the knowledge of God is all that I know. I heard about the Bible that has the story of God and Jesus so I found a Bible and leafed through it briefly; as I did, I saw the words of Jesus saying, “ Sell all that you have and give to the poor then go into the world and preach the Gospel. ” I read this and did my best to do what it said. I sold everything and got a backpack, sleeping bag and tent; packed it all up and began a walk across the United States that has since taken me around the world, to life in another country, to service to the Korean people and their students and back to the U.S.A thirty two years later having met my wife from Korea .

Having been worked over by a very unique and mysterious intervention of God ' s Holy Spirit during my eleven years in Korea , I had no idea for what reason I was sent there nor did I understand why my walk across the United States after my spiritual rebirth took so long. It is clear that God had a special purpose for separating me from the U.S.A during that time.

Though many years have passed, I still love and miss the children I have taught. I still enjoy photography which for a time I had to put on the shelf. I know that I went from life in the Navy dabbling in recreational pharmacology to that of a hiker and teacher of children and my life in a tent with my sleeping bag which I still sleep with to this day. I have no idea what the Lord has in store as I ' m always ready to put my tent back up, but with my wife, it ' s not as easy as once it was nor is it fair for the Lord doesn ' t call everyone to live in the desert and arctic wildernesses in a tent.

However different my call to give my life to Jesus may be, one thing remains the same. For each and every child He saves out of this world of sorrows and death, He gives a story that relates the powerful and dynamic moment that His Holy Spirit comes into a true believer ' s life. After two years of being back in the United States , I have given up my search for Christians or those who claim to be as I Am. What I look for now are two things, a story of their personal conversion experience, and the proof of being forgiven of sin by being washed clean in the Blood of the only acceptable sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Also I looked for proof which asserts belief that the Bible is God ' s inspired communication to mankind and by this I mean the parts of Holy Scripture that Jesus Himself made reference to, as well as those letters that testify of Jesus Christ ' s on going work after His resurrection in the life of His Church .

Having moved from my life in a tent to the recent triplex pictured in this writing, I in no way subscribe to a health and prosperity Gospel but I am confident that Christ ' s desires to be magnified in our lives whether we be rich or poor . After the Lord ascended He poured out His Holy Spirit and with it came associated spiritual gifts by which His Church operates lives and functions as many organs of the body . The gift the Lord has given me is known by the Lord and by those of His church whom He desires that they know. By this gift it is revealed many who claim to be Christians yet have not the promised Holy Spirit which is a token of genuine salvation by which His believers are sealed unto the day of redemption . Only by a miracle of God does He make known to me those with whom the Blood of His Son is found on the door posts and lintels of their heart . Those who serve the prince of this world belonging to the apostate do not speak to me about forgiveness for only God can forgive sins .

I have run the race I have kept the faith so please do not trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ .

.