The Experience of Elder Ronald DeMena, a Man of God

Preface

This is a record of some main points of my life as it relates to GOD and His Son Jesus Christ. It is dedicated to my immediate family and close brothers and sisters in the Lord, whom might be interested in how GOD has directed my ways. My unwanted birth was on August 13, 1937, when the country was recovering from the great depression. My father’s name was Andrew, mother Helen, and an older sister Gloria, and younger brother Andrew Jr.  At present, I have been married to my loving wife Charlotte, for fifty-eight (58) years, we have two children, a son Ronald Jr., and daughter Pamela, between them we have five grandsons. From Ronald Jr. his three sons are, Ronald III, Gary, and Nial, and from Pamela her two sons are, Walter, and Timothy. So far we have four great grandchildren, Anna, Camden, Madelyn, and Dani.

Vengeance

The first recollection of anything of a negative nature was at the age of five (5) years old. My parents had enrolled me in a kindergarten class at the State Teachers College in Jersey City, New Jersey. During our play session, in the recreation area, there were these large 8″ sq. play blocks. While standing on one of the blocks, a Jewish class mate, named Stanly, deliberately kicked it from under me. As I fell, my chin hit another block, causing my teeth to bit down on my tongue, almost biting it off. The blood started gushing everywhere, the teacher saw what had happened quickly took a towel put it into my mouth as she ran me to the Principal’s office. Being so young at the time it’s hard to remember how the bleeding was stopped. My mother came and took me home and had a doctor look at me. The doctor wanted to stich my tongue, but my mother wouldn’t let him. What I do remember is lying on the couch at home in pain, drinking nourishment through a straw and swearing to get even with Stanly, the Jewish boy that

kicked the block from under my feet. The point is, how early does hatred begin in a person’s heart, at five years old which I was or at birth? The only answer that it can be, is that the spirit of man is ageless, and is wicked from his youth up, truly we are fashioned in iniquity and conceived in sin. Man does know between good from evil, even before they start walking and talking. When you think of it, one of the first words out of our month is rebellious in nature. NO! A couple of years later the day of vengeance came to pass. When an opportunity arose for me to beat the snot out of that Jewish boy, Stanly. Not only that, it was right in front of his father as he egged his son on, to no avail. When you think about it, isn’t this how wars start, the lack of forgiveness for an offence. We think that wars begin with a large group of people, our nations, but real it begins out of the hatred within each of our hearts.

Hatred and War

From that point on it didn’t take much for me to get into a fight. Of course my father egged me on, just like that Jewish boy’s father did. From that point on my father began teaching me to be good was bad and to be bad was good. The early period of my life was during the Second World War. Hatred was on everyone’s’ heart and mind. Against Hitler and the Germens, the Japanese, Franco the leader of the Spanish and of course Mussolini the leader of the Italians.  They all stood against most of the rest of the world. Also behind closed doors thrown into the mix was, the Jews, Blacks, and Puerto Ricans. In my house there wasn’t to many people that weren’t hated. Even in the churches, were peace was supposed to be taught, most supported the war efforts, and hatred for the enemy was normal, and right, even though Jesus taught us to love our enemy. In spite of this somewhere along the way it came to me that I shouldn’t hate anyone just because someone told me to, unless of course someone hurt me personally.

At the age of nine (9), a friend of mine decided that we should start smoking cigarettes. Just before lighting up, the though came to me that I should do it against my father.  For that is the one thing he had told me not to do. As we sat there, ready to have our first cigarette, Satan, the devil spoke to me. He said, “Don’t do it against your father only, but do it against GOD.” So my first puff on that cigarette was an act of rebellion against GOD and my father. You did notice that it was Satan that spear headed my rebellion, as he does with all of us, especially against God and His Christ Jesus. Satan’s main goal is to bring death to mankind any way he can.

A Voice

When twelve, I overheard my mother ask my sister, Gloria which was two (2) years older. She asked her if she wanted to go and witness a friend of the family’s daughter, get water baptized. I was sitting on the steps that went upstairs to our bedrooms, my Mom and sister was in the kitchen. My sister replied, no, but something inside of me said that I Should go and see the water Baptism. So I asked my mother, if it would be alright for me to go? Of course she said, it would be alright, and she told me where the Church was located. The day of the Baptism came, which happened to be on a Saturday afternoon.  Of course I had to dress for the occasion, so putting on the only suit I had, a white shirt and a black necktie, and my one and only pair of shoes. I now was ready to go to the Church, of course there was the final touch, a pack of cigarettes. The Baptist Church was a good distance away, too far to walk, so I took the Westside Ave bus, which would drop me off across the corner from the Church. Of course, it was needful for me to get there early enough, so I could have a smoke before I went into the Church. After having the cigarette, into the Church I went. Being early still there wasn’t anybody in the Church yet.

While entering and walking down the aisle I saw the baptismal, it was behind a large piece of glass with the wall pained like a river bank. I could see the water line about halfway up the glass. It really looked quite nice the way they had it fixed.

Sitting down in a pew, about halfway down, was when the Spirit of God spoke to me and said “You must be baptized to be saved.” I replied what? The Spirit of God spoke to me again, “You must be baptized to be saved.” I really didn’t have a clue what this meant. I was only twelve, and hadn’t had any Bible teaching to speak of. So I sat there with my ears open, waiting to see if it would be explained, exactly what was going on, and why they were being Baptized? The service began with a few hymns, then the Minister went into the baptismal pool. One by one the young people came into the pool, dressed in white gowns, and were put under the water, and left the baptismal. All the while I was

listening very carefully to see if the Minister was going to explain what was taking place, but he never did. After the service was over, everyone got up and left the Church. When leaving I decided that I would ask the Minister what was this baptismal all about? There was a need for me to understand what

the Spirit of God had said to me, “You must be baptized to be saved. When outside, the Minister was talking with a woman from the church. So I stood about three feet away, waiting until they had finished talking. After a few minutes standing there, the Minister happened to have noticed me, turning and looking right at me, angrily said, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?” I replied nothing, and walked away, still thinking to myself, what does it mean, you must be baptized to be saved.

Family Life

From a young child there wasn’t much of a family life for my sister and me. My father was only concerned about his bookmaking, off track betting, which was illegal at the time, or the New York Yankees baseball. He happened to have been a college baseball pitcher while in college. So whenever the race results or a baseball game was on the radio, it was shut up or go to your room. The front for his bookmaking business was an Ice Cream Parlor and Candy Store.

He had his father and another person working for him, while he handled the bookmaking. Even though he had a fistful of money, we never saw any of it to speak of. My mother only had one good outfit to ware, the rest of the time she wore a house coat. Other than on Sundays if we went for a ride in the car, or when my mother left me with my father at the store, I didn’t see much of him. For he told our mother that he wanted us in bed by the time he came home from the store. The only time he paid any attention to me was when in a street fight with the neighborhood kids, especially if it was in front of his store. Whenever we went out as a family, usually on a Sunday in the car, I always ended up getting slapped or yelled at for something. Even though he loved baseball, my father never took me out to teach me how to catch, throw, or hit a baseball. Also he had played tennis while in college, and yes he went to the trouble of buying me and my sister tennis rackets. But only took us out once to teach us, and never again, the rackets laid under the bed and rooted. Our home wasn’t a happy place, and definitely God and his Christ didn’t have a place there either, except at times my mother would seem religious. It was during a hot summer day, while walking along the Boulevard in Jersey City, heading to where I would hang out, that God spoke to the spirit of my mind. He said, “That the Sun causes cancer and that there is a world as great as you see in the Heavens, inwardly in everything.” Today we know that this is true, even within our human body there are more half-cell helixes then stars in the heavens. Just think that each half helix has five different chemicals on each one of them that gives it purpose in your body. Also I just read in the Decision Magazine an article by Kevin DeYoung that stated that there are more molecules of H2O in ten drops of water then stars in the heavens, what do you think about that.

Later on my father sold the business, so he could use the money to make his fortune betting on race horses. That didn’t end up to well, he lost all of his money, yes we were broke. My mother never let him forget it either, every supper time she would reminded him how stupid he was. I remembered over and over again praying that they would get a divorce so the fighting would stop. There wasn’t much for me at home so the only place I found any type of friendship or peace was the street. All in all, that wasn’t so great either, many times I found myself alone, never really fitting in there either. I did have a soft spot for those kids that were weak or had mental difficulties, and would come to the aid if they were picked on. Due to the money situation, there was never an allowance or any money to buy an ice cream or soda pop like the other kids. At first I would carry groceries for elderly women. Then as I got older, on occasion was able to make money setting up bowling pins or selling newspapers at night on street corners and in bars. Money being so tight at home I would give most of my money to my mother. Therefore, my mother didn’t mind how late I stayed out at night if I was making money. One time when setting up pins during a bowling tournament, which started at 8AM, leaving the house at 7AM, Sunday morning, I finally got home at 6AM Monday morning. Of course as usual most of the money was put on my mother’s dresser to help with the bills.

You could say that gambling ran in the family, for that was one of the ways for me to make extra money, so I could buy my smokes, wine and beer. Most of my gambling was limited to card, dice and shooting pool. My mother did try on occasion to get me on the right track by involved in the local Episcopal Church, but she wasn’t very successful. By the age of fifteen, I was pretty much set in my ways, running with a street gang called the Royals. Thou on this one occasion when attend the Episcopal Church, with my mother, on Easter Sunday. I heard the words of Jesus Christ read from the Bible by the Priest, Rev. MacWilliams, “You must give up your life in order to find it.” I could understand very clearly the giving up part, but not the finding it. These words did find a place deep within my heart, and would be acted on some 16 years later. The typical life of most teenagers in Jersey City N.J., was one of, hatred, fighting, lust, drunkenness, and the spirit of death.  Things haven’t changed much, it was so back then and so it is today. The only thing missing was the use of drugs, except for New York City.

Called

So much for this Church stuff, back to hanging out on the street corners with the Royals. It was just after Christmas when I was 15 years old, that my grandfather, my mother’s father died.  He was found dead sitting on a crib in New York City, he had a heart attack while out looking for work as a dock builder. He was a heavy drinker which seemed to go along with the trade as a dock builder. I really thought he was bound for hell, because of the way he lived. The family story about him, was that the KKK was going to tar and feather him, for he was caught messing around with a 15-year-old girl, from his Bible class which he taught in the Lutheran Church in Indiana. Let’s face it we all know we were on our way to hell, and we really didn’t care. Going to heaven or being good wasn’t even a vague idea. It was on a rainy winter night just after his death that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to me. I was heading down to hang with some of the gang that evening. On the way I took the street that the Episcopal Church was on. As I got to the Church I said to myself that its really to nasty out to hang on the corner. Why not instead, go into the Churches basketball court and shot some baskets and then go home. It had been several years ago, when I was around ten years old, that we used to play basketball on the court behind the Churches Sanctuary. Knowing were the key was kept, I let myself in, and made my way up the back stairs to the basketball court, picking up a ball and turning on the court lights as I went. As I stood at the entrance of the court, with the basketball in my hand, waiting for the mercury vapor lights to come fully on. The Spirit of the Lord said to me, “Go into the sanctuary and pray.” Then saying to myself, I got nothing to pray about. The Spirit of the Lord said again, “Go into the sanctuary and pray.” Then thinking about it while standing there, I said to myself, ok! I will go in and pray for my grandfather, which I believed was on his way to hell. Then pulling up the large garage door that separated the basketball court and the church sanctuary, I went in to the sanctuary two pews deep, knelt down and started to pray. It was Just then when I heard a voice behind say “Ronald serve me.” I know it was Jesus, my reply was, “I don’t know?” Jesus spoke again, “Ronald serve me.” I replied. No!  I want my drinking, smoking and women. Then getting up off my knees, I left the church and went home. This request by Jesus Christ never did leave my heart or mind, and I would think about His request often. I didn’t share it with anyone until after I was married.

A Friend

It was while I was still in High School, when I had gone out of my way to help a fellow classmate Thomas Ramsey, who just happened to be black.  We became close friends. The situation that secured our friendship, was during our Mechanical Drawing Class, which for me made sense and was quite easy to do. On the other hand, Thomas was having difficulty with understand how to read the architectural scale, and correctly size the drawings. So I decided to help him. For some reason our teacher took offence to the fact that I was helping Thomas. The teacher told me if I continued to help Thomas, he would lower my grade, from an “A” to a “B”. Of course, being me, I disregarded the teachers threat.

Due to this, Thomas not only turned out to be a close friend, but also my protector. Just to give you an idea about Thomas’s reputation, he was considered one of the bad cats in the school. With very little revocation he would cut you with his seven-inch blade which he always carried. So let me tell you what happened later on that put Thomas’s friendship to the test. I was going with a girl named Patricia, Pat for short, which had friends on the other side of town from where we lived. To get to her friend’s house you had to pass through an all-black section of town, that run along Jackson and Ocean Av. in Jersey City. On this particular night, when Pat was over visiting her friends, I went there to find her, to question her about her going out with some other guy, for we were going steady. Of course we got into a fight about her cheating on me. It ended up with me telling her where to go. Leaving her friend’s house, just a little bit angry, to say the least, for I was just plain mad. One could say I had a death wish, so you really didn’t want to get in my way that night. On the way home as I went along Jackson Av., passing through the black section of town, I came to the corner of Jackson and Orient Av. Looking across Orient Av., standing on the opposite corner was a group of five black teenager boys.

Therefore, in my present state of mind I wasn’t about to make a left turn and go up Orient Av. to avoid them. Instead reaching into my pocket and pulling out my switch blade, snapped it open, and walk right into the middle of the group of them. I was ready this night, to start cutting and slashing and let the blood run.

Then I heard a familiar voice saying, “DeMena you are f—-en nut, get your white a– out of here.” That voice was no less then Thomas Ramsey, which you can clearly see, literally save my butt.

God only knows what would have happened that night, if it wasn’t for my friend Thomas. Several years later after we were out of high school and I was married with a kid. I ran into Thomas on Orient and Bergen Av. He was all dressed up in a suit, white shirt and tie, carrying a Bible. So asking him how he was doing, he said great, I got religion.  I said, “That’s nice”, not know what that really meant, I went on my way. Looking back on things that happened that night, I can see God’s hand involved in keeping me safe by using Thomas another saint of God to be. For we were both to be redeemed through His Son Jesus Christ the Lord.

Guardian Angels

Even though at the age of fifteen, having walked out on Jesus Christ. GOD and His Son wasn’t done with me, nor was Their protection removed from me, as you can see what happened through my friend Thomas. Some of our gang members had turned 17 and 18 years old and we all became involved with working on cars and motorcycles. One of the cars was a model “T” Ford and needed a 6-volt battery, which we didn’t have. I just happened to know where there was another model “T” Ford parked, so telling the guys that I would go and steal its battery. That night I got one of the gang members to go with me as a look out. So we both went to were the car was parked. Then crawling under it, on the driver’s side were the battery was kept in a metal case under the front seat. While unbolt the case to get at the battery, an Angel of the Lord spoke to me, saying. “Ronald, do you know that you could go to jail for doing this.” I replying, yes. Then the Angel asked me, “Would you go to jail for Jesus?” This completely freaked me out, so then immediately getting out from under the car, I got my friend telling him we need to get out of here, never telling him why.

When getting back to the gang, my look out told them that I had seen the owner of the car coming, which he had assumed. Around the same period of time during a cold winter night, around 11PM, five of us was standing in a doorway drinking Gin. One of the guys, Jack who was 18, said I’ll go and get my car, and we will go to a bar in Lodi, where we will get served, and is open until 3PM. The legal drinking age in New Jersey was 21 years. The oldest one was Jack, which like I said was 18. As I stood there an Angel of the Lord said, “Ronald don’t go.”. While pondering what the Angel said, the Angel said again, “Ronald don’t go.” Just then Jack pulled up in his car, and yelled out the window lets go. This time I remained in the doorway by myself as they went on their way. That night at the bar in Lodi, N.J. they got into a fight with a couple of the men from the bar. Both of the men ended up in the hospital near death from their betting. Jack who was the oldest ended up doing jail time for the assault. Just think if I hadn’t listened to the Angel that night what part would I have played?

While discussing Angels being involved in my life, there was another time after I was married, when an Angels spoken to me. It was related to me driving Charlotte’s grandmother, Emma off at her sisters, Florence house to baby sit. Then I was to take her sister, to a Funeral Home back in Jersey City. The Angel told me that I would have accident during the journey. So when starting out I was very careful all the way to Florence’s, house, and dropped Grandmother Emma. At this point the thought of an accident left my mind. We got as far as the traffic circle a mile from Florence’s house that the accident occurred. Then there was the time of a more personal nature when an Angel spoke to me. I would stop at a local Gin Mill, called Kay Hills a block from our apartment, and would have two or three shots and a few beers, some times more. At a Christmas Party at work, before this happened, I had got so drunk that one of my co-workers had to carry me home. This one day when leaving the local Gin Mill, an Angel of the Lord said to me, “Ronald you know that you can become an Alcoholic.” I replied, this time, yes I know. From that point on I stopped going to the Gin Mill, and limited my drinking to one or two social drinks with friends, never to get drunk again. Thank you Lord for I was much better for it. Then another time involving a car when sitting on my coach at home in Perth Amboy, N.J. The situation was that the next morning I was to catch a ride with a co-worker to drive into New York City to work overtime the next day. The Angel told me as clear as day that I would have a tire blowout on my car. I dismissed it from my mind, because my co-worker was going to drive the next day not me. Well that morning my co-worker didn’t show, so running late I took off in my own car, hell bent for election. Well about 10 miles down the road on Route 3, doing about 70mhp the blowout did occurred. I had run over a piece of metal in the road cutting the tire causing it to completely come off the rim. If it hadn’t been for the Angels warning me, I might have lost control of the car, but when I ran over the piece of metal, I know what was coming and was able to control the car and bring it to a safe stop.

GOD’S Help Mate

It was in the beginning of my senior year in Snyder High School. My father finally got his act together and barrowed enough money from my mother’s family to open a Luncheonette, ice cream business, located a few blocks from my high school. It was there where I had to work after school, 5 days a week and all day Saturday. Just like any business of this type, a group of teenagers would hang out there. Within the group was a teenager that I had known since a kid, named Albert Tetter. It was on a Saturday afternoon when at home with my mother and grandmother as we were playing Pinochle, a card game. The phone rang, answering it, much to my surprise, it was Albert Tetter. Saying to myself, what does he want, because we didn’t really hang out together. He asking me to go to the Bayonne Skating Rink that night, to pick up some girls. We had never talked about such a thing in passing, at any time. My mother asked, who it was on the phone and I told her it was Albert Tetter, and he wants me to go roller skating with him tonight. She replied why don’t you go; you might have a nice time. Wondering about this later, had my mother put Albert up to this idea? Going roller skating was the furthest thing from my mine, the night before, when playing poker with my gang members, I had won quite a bit of money. My intention was to go back and win more money. You see when it came to gambling, cards and dice, winning for me was the norm. There were times when playing seven card stud, I would bet blind and win hand after hand. The guys would think that the cards were marked, but they weren’t, it was an evil spirit. I remember one time on an Easter Sunday while shooting dice, I cleaned out the game with seven straight passes. Than one of the guys asked me to play him, head to head, if he went home and got more money. Of course I said, bring it on. When he came back and we began to shot the dice again, if you could call it that. For I started off by rolling eleven straight pass in a row, letting the money ride each time. Without blinking an eye, he was breaking, he stood there examining the dice, thing that they were loaded. From that day on my belief has been, that the prince of this world, Satan the devil is behind all gambling, which we call lady luck.    Now getting back to whether or not, I agreed to go skating with Albert that night, well I did. Albert came and picked me up in his car and we drove to the city line where the Bayonne Skating Rink was. After checking our coats and renting skates we began skating and looking for some nice looking girls we might hit on. During one of the programed skates, lady only, Albert and I were leaning on the railing around the skating area, eyeing up the teenage girls. One such girls caught my eye, she was about 5′-8″ tall, dark brown hair, and was wearing an olive green sweeter and a pair of green plaid slacks that fit her quite well. Having pointed her out to Albert, and it seemed that she was with a girlfriend we made our move. While I approaching the girl in the green sweater, Albert approached her girlfriend. Our advances didn’t impress these two teenage girls, as they refused to skate with us. From that point on it seemed that every time I turned around, there she was the green sweater’d girl. When Albert and I saw them leaving the rink we quickly left also and caught up with them outside, asking them if they needed a ride home, which they flatly refused. So this wasn’t the end of thing, Albert said why don’t we follow the bus they take, and watch were they get off. So we followed the bus and they finally got off at Ocean Av. and Stagmen St. in Jersey City. I paid special attention to the girl with the green sweeter, watching to see where she lived. As we sat in the car, and as the good Lord would have it. She came out of her house to walk her dog, a toy Fox Terrier. From this point on things went much better, getting out of the car and follow her while she walked the dog, we began to talk. Finally, I got a positive response and found out that her name, Charlotte VanAlst, and that she attended Snyder High School also. We made some more small talk and then she had to go in, so I told her I would look her up in school. The interesting thing was the next day, Albert who had talked me into go roller skating, told my mother that he had meet the girl that I would marry. Within two years, Charlotte and I were married. As God would have it, we have been married for 57 years. Our marriage didn’t start in a normal way, for we got married secretly at a Church on Staten Island, N.Y. We ended up standing before a Methodist Minister, which got out of a sick bed to perform the ceremony. As we stood there making our marriage vows, I literally saw Jesus Christ behind the left shoulder of the minister. Jesus said to me, “Ronald, you know its until dead do you part.” Then replying to Jesus I said, I agree. So the question is, was my marriage made in Heaven or not? I truly believe it was. Charlotte has been a faithful, loving wife and mother all these years. She has been always at my side everywhere I went, hard times and good. I can only say thank you God and His Son for given to me such a wonderful loving wife. Yet it would be several years before both of us came to a true knowledge of God our Father, and His Son Jesus Christ in a personal way, but let’s face it, it was all part of their plans for our lives.

MARRIED LIFE

Before you knew it we had our first child, a boy, Ronald Jr. Things were quite tough financially for us, Charlotte quit her job right after she got pregnant. On top of this her grandmother, Emma took very sick, she had been Charlotte’s guardian, after her parents died. By the grace of God, Emma pulled through, from Colon Cancer. I landed a permanent job as a draftsman in the field of Naval Architecture, top secret work. In order to save money, we moved into a cold-water flat. We intended to have a large family, but Charlotte had trouble carrying, but finally she gave birth to a baby girl, Pamela, which was my, Sugar Lump. She was truly something special and still is to this day. When our son Ron Jr. was three, we started to attend an Episcopal Church in the Greenville section of Jersey City, where my sister Gloria was attending with her daughter. It was during this time that I shared with Charlotte, that the Lord had a call on my life. So if we were going to attend church we were going to be serious about it. I don’t think she understood how serious, and religious I would become. One night when Charlotte had gone out with her friends, the kids being asleep. I was watching TV, a Billy Graham crusade from New York City, Billy came to the end of his sermon, with an altar call. He first called was to those in the Stadium, then the TV audience. Billy said “Stand up and put your hand on the TV set and give your heart over to the Lord Jesus Christ.” My response was that’s foolishness. Then looked to heaven I said to God, with Bible in hand, you wait there and I will make myself holy. One can’t ever understand how miserable, and how many sleepless nights that is spent by an unregenerate man, trying to live up to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

As a true zealot, involved in every religious and social activity possible. Then after moving to Union City, became a delegate to the Newark, N.J. Episcopal convention, and was involved in a mission to the Cubans in Hoboken. Finally, we bought a home in Perth Amboy, and became a Lay reader in the St. Peters Episcopal Church there. My activities there included Church Basketball League Director and coach, a Senior Leader at the YMCA. In politics I was a Committeeman and member of the board Model Cities a Federal Program for helping the poor home owners. Politically a friend and myself formed a political party called North East Alliance we also chaired a headquarters to elect President Nixon and Governor Cahill of N.J. In spite of all this I was determined to study for Holy Order. During this time, I was a heavy smoker and being involved with the youth I tried to stop smoking, without success. One day after my teenage Sunday school class I cried out to God to deliver me for smoking. Praise God, from that day on I never had a desire to smoke again. God had blessed me on my job, and with some night school behind me, I became an Electrical Design Engineer. One week’s salary covered our mortgage and new car payment. It was in 1968 that I changed Jobs to be closer to home, ending commuting to New York City for work. My new employer was, Wigton Abbott, Plainfield, N.J. There at work was a group of men that spent their lunches studying the scriptures, this was right up my alley. After about a month or so, the leader of the group, Ray, asked me whether I would like to join them for a home prayer meeting, I replied without thinking, yes. After thinking about it, and asking myself, what if these folks are a little off the wall? So telling my wife about what I had agreed to and with a little persuasion, she agreed to go with me. The interesting thing is that after all the years in the Episcopal Church and as a church leader, no one ever asked me to a prayer meeting. Just prior to the prayer meeting I had been sitting on my son’s bedroom, an attic room which was quite. While there writing some thoughts down, this truth came to me. That truth is without reason it’s just the truth, therefore God is end of story. In my thinking before this, when it came to God, His existence depended on my belief in Him, which real isn’t the true, for God is, the beginning and the end. The night came for the prayer meeting, my wife had made a dish to pass, which was part of the meeting requirements. The Lord was with us that night, for we found the place with no problem. When we entered the home of my fellow worker John, a mechanical engineer, there were already several people present, most of which were professionals. Everyone was very friendly, greeting the wife and I. We ended up talking with a couple that raised Siamese Cats, as we did. Finally sitting in the Livingroom, finishing our dinner with some desert, John the owner of the home came into the Livingroom, rang a little dinner bell, the room quieted then.  John then said that it was time for us to start the meeting, the real reason that we had come together. He then opened with an informal prayer, calling on God, in the name of Jesus Christ to be present with us and to bless this meeting. At that very moment I felt the room being filled with the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Lord. What came to my mind was that I was amongst the twelve; they are real believers. From my point of view, the only true believers were the twelve Apostles that followed Jesus during the first century church. Therefore, these folks that were in this room with me and my wife were real Christian believers. Siting there in the presence of the Lord, my mind was stayed on the Lord, not really hearing much of anything that was being said the speaker Ray, the Bible study leader at work came to an end.    Someone put a chair in the middle of the room and asked did anyone need prayer for healing? No one got up, then they asked did anyone wanted to give their life over to the Lord? The next thing you know, I was sitting in the chair and in my hand was the Thompson Chain Bible, which had just been given me by the Episcopal Church to begin my studies for Holy Order with. It happened to be the very week that the Diocese of Trenton had approved me to begin studying for Holy Order. The date of the prayer meeting was Sat. April the 5th. 1969, Easter tide week. As I sat there in the chair knowing in my heart that I couldn’t be a minister of the Lord, even though I had cleaned up the outside, the inside of me was still unclean. Just then the words that I had heard as a boy in church many Easter Sundays ago, “You must give up your life in order to find it.” came to mind. These are the very words I acted on by totally and completely surrendering my life over to the God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not knowing what my facial expression was, someone asked me if I wanted to be alone. That is exactly what I wanted, so two men lead me up to a bedroom, it was dimly lit and one of the men pointed to a person sitting in the corner, said that he would council with me. I said no, I wanted to be alone, so the person got up and left, closing the door behind him. Then kneeling down at the end of the bed began to say the Our Father. Then my spiritual eyes were opened and I saw the Holiness of God and the words came from heaven saying, “There is none good but God.” At this point My heart was totally broken. I began to weep and cry out to God for forgiveness, because I saw all my righteous act as sin. There I was kneeling and weeping and crying before God.

Then I saw the Lord Jesus Christ on my right, coming and lifting the weight of sin off my shoulders, and a relief, comfort and joy came over me. When I finally got off my knees and started to walk out of the room, it felt like I was walking a foot off the floor, and I had a smile on my face, for the weight of sin was off my back. By the time that I came out of the bedroom, the meeting had ended, so the wife and I left. As we drove home, I tried to explain to her what had happened, but she couldn’t understand everything that was happening. In fact, she thought her husband had gone mad. Just a side point is that I never told Ray, the speaker that night that I never heard a word of his talk. He though did tell me that he thought that I couldn’t get saved, because I was to religious. With God nothing is impossible.

The next day, being Easter Sunday we all went to Church, and the kids looked for Easter eggs on the church lawn. Later on I found out that my wife that day told Rev. Boyd, whom was to guide my studies, what had happened the night before and my strange reaction. Rev. Boyd told her that it would pass, well it never did, praise the Lord. During the next week I made it a point to have a meeting with Rev. Boyd, in order to share with him my glorious experience in the Lord that Saturday night. His reaction to my story was kind of apathetic, mixed with unbelief. His reply to the spiritual things I shared with him was, that Isaiah also had experiences in God. Then came the kicker as I told him that now that I believe, I needed to be baptized in water. For what the Spirit had said to me when I was twelve, came to remembrance when witnessing that water baptism, and it made sense, “You must be baptized to be saved”. Rev. Boyd’s reply to my request, was you had been baptized as an infant, my reply was, but know I, BELIEVE. You see faith in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is the condition by which one can be baptized, Mark 16:16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved;” Then Rev. Boyd, after my pleading with him, under much duress agreed to baptize me. Which he did by sprinkling water on my head in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. This didn’t satisfy the spiritual need of my heart. The next work day I went to the leader of the Bible Group Ray, asking him if I could as soon as possible be baptized. He told me that they weren’t going to have another baptismal serve for a couple month at Emanuel Baptist Church, where he was attended. I tell you this that all the time until my baptism I was in fear of my salvation. The word of God is no joke, and He doesn’t deal in vain rituals. You aren’t part of the body of Christ Jesus until you are baptized in His name. If you happened to have read the book of Acts, you should have noticed that everyone was baptized after they believed.

From this point on there was quite a change in my life, for the joy of the Lord had filled my soul. In our neighborhood we had made friends with a married couple, the Wonkics which had two young sons. Ever week we would play Pinochle, a card game together. But that would change, because the following week when we were to play cards, I took out my Bible and said, we were going to read it instead. They thought this was strange, but Charlotte had warned them before hand, so they went along with it. As I started to read the Gospel of Luke, the reality of it was so great, I couldn’t keep myself from weeping while, the tears just ran down my cheeks. Of course they notice this and it did have a lasting effect not only on my wife, but them also, which later lead to their own reality of God and His Christ.

Your Family Also

Before you know it, a month had gone by and more and more of the reality of God and His Christ became evident in my life.  Prior to this point I had almost finished a summary of the entire Bible. But know that I could see clearly, all of it went into the garbage, it was time to start over. My wife on the other hand, wasn’t really sure about everything that was taking place. Or whether she liked the new me a totally committed Christian, you know what I mean, a praise the Lord one. Once again I was asked to go to the prayer meeting at John’s house, of course I said yes. I came home from work that day and told Charlotte about the prayer meeting on Saturday, and asked her to join me. She gave me the excuse, that she couldn’t go because there was no one to mind the kids. Well God had another plan for her in mind. The day of the prayer meeting came and Charlotte wasn’t going and she was going to fix dinner for her and the kids. Just then the phone rang and I answered it. It was our niece Gail, so before Charlotte could say anything, I asked Gail whether she was free that night to baby sit, she said yes, sure. So Charlotte was kind of forced into going with me to the prayer meeting that night.

We got to John’s house in plenty of time and we all shared a covered dish meal together, and then the meeting started. That evening they had a special speaker a Christian author of several books, Bob Mumford. After he had given the word, they again put a chair in the middle of the room, and my Charlotte went up and sat down. Bob Mumford began to talk to Charlotte, as they talked she told him that she didn’t understand everything that was going on about their beliefs. Also that she felt that she was alright with God, but if there was something to all this, she wanted God to give her a sign. So that is what Bob Mumford prayed to the Lord for, that God would open her understanding. After the meeting we went straight home and I kept asking Charlotte if she had felt anything different, she replied no. I could understand why not. We got home and I took Gail home and then we went to bed. In the middle of the night Charlotte woke me, for she begun bleeding, like a heavy period, only problem was it wasn’t that time of the month. At first I thought we need to go to the emergency room at the hospital, but then I remembered that she had asked for a sign, I said could this be it? So I quieted her down and said I will pray for you, which I did, at this point the bleeding stopped. So we then changed the bedding and Charlotte cleaned up and went back to sleep.

The next morning, Sunday was normal we went to Church, and did what we usually did with the kids the rest of the day. Monday morning came around and I went to work and came home at the normal time 5:30 pm. When I got in the house I found the kids in the living room playing and Charlotte sitting in bed reading her Bible. Before this I couldn’t even get her to open it, except during my Bible study, x-card playing night. She apologized for not having supper ready, I said its quite alright. Charlotte then made dinner for me and the kids, and spent the rest of the night as a family. I didn’t question her about why she was in bed reading the Bible, why not leave well enough alone. The next day the same thing happened, I came home and there she was in bed reading the Bible, praise God, something had happened. Once again she said she was sorry, of course it was fine with me, for God is working in her life. The next day it was different as Charlotte shared with me that night, when I came home, supper was on the table. After the kids were in bed and asleep, Charlotte told me what had happened that day. Having felt guilty for the past two days, she did her house work and then went into the basement to do the wash. As she separated the clothes, as she was singing hymns, across her mind she could see strange words. So she than began pronouncing them as they went across her mind, and a joy came over her. Yes, she was praying in the Spirit, speaking in tongues. God is good, now she knows what it was all about, and she agreed that water baptism was the next step. It’s interesting that even today when I tell others about Charlotte’s two days in bed reading the Bible, she claims that she doesn’t recall that, but I tell you it happened.

The Walk with the Lord

It doesn’t end there for my son Ron Jr. now eleven, gave his heart to the Lord and my daughter Pamela, eight did also. Her conversion was the most heart rendering for me. It was one night when I was helping with her homework, as she sat on my lap. After we had finished, Pamela turned to me and looked into my eyes and said, “Daddy I love you,” then paused and said, “but I love Jesus more.” Right then I know that she knew Jesus Christ in a real, and living way. After all these years, I still get all filled up whenever I think about that evening. By the time the baptism serves at Emanuel Baptist Church came around, we all were going to be baptized as a family. Plus, our neighbors the Wonkics, with their two sons also were to be baptized also. The important thing that needs to be pointed out for all to know is, that in spite of all the experiences in God thus far. It was only after water baptism that for the first time we felt clean inside. Yes, we were cleansed from our sinful nature, and had received a new nature. We had been born again in the image of Jesus Christ. We were new creatures in Christ and before you knew it we were attending that little country church, Emanuel Baptist in Atlantic Highland, N.J.

You would have thought that the folks at the Episcopal Church in Perth Amboy would have embraced us and our expressed love of Christ Jesus towards them. No, not so, just the opposite, they made fun of us and would try to avoid any contact with us “religious nuts”. But thanks be to God, that in spite of this, it was through my testimony, five follow vestrymen were converted, excepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, yet Rev. Boyd would have nothing to do with it.

Holy Spirit Power

Between the time of my conversion and water Baptism, Ray the leader of the Bible group at work, said there was more, the filling of the Holy Spirit. I told Ray, if God has more for me I want it. So the following Sunday after Church I had Ray to ask Pastor Shaw to pray for me to receive the Holy Spirit. He said, yes sure, then calling some of the male leadership together, they sat me down in a pew and laid hands on me, as the Pastor prayed. While they were praying, it felt like I had been plugged into the wall socket. An electrical sensation, starting from my toes and made its way up my body to my head, so I thought my hair was standing on end. I knew then that the Holy Spirit had entered into me, put yet I didn’t speak in tongues or prophecy. It was several weeks later during one of our Wednesday night prayer meetings at Emanuel Baptist Church that the experience of speaking in tongues occurred. We would break up into small groups of four or five men and the women would do likewise. Then we would pray for the move of God and the needs of those that had needs. That night as we were praying and it was my turn to pray out loud, the Spirit came on me and I began to speak in tongues.

What a wonder it was, my mind was on the needs of the church, but my tongue was speaking in all different languages, as the Spirit gave me utterance. Then when I went to stand up, my knees were weak, like I was drunk. I guess that what it means to be drunk in the Spirit. On the drive home I kept speaking in the tongues as the Spirit gave me utterance. It was quite bewildering listening to myself as different languages came out of my mouth, praise God I am filled by His Spirit to over flowing. Yes, the scriptures are true, those that believe shall speak in unknown tongues and they will lay hands on the sick, and they will be healed.

What About Healing

The first person that I prayed for, was myself, for years I had been suffering from “Pinworms”. Pinworms are small thin thread like worms that live in one’s intestines and bore into them. There not fatal, but boy they drive you crazy, night and day it itches and you can’t scratch there. No matter what kind of medication was given me, I couldn’t get rid of them. So now filled with faith in God, I lifted my voice to heaven, calling for deliverance from these pinworms, and it was done, glory to God, I was free from these evil worms.

Then my daughter, Pamela was healed by God. When she had a condition on the bottom of her feet called Planters warts. Whenever she would walk or stand they would hurt her. We had made an appointment with a foot doctor to have them burnt off. What did Jesus say about the faith of a child, Pamela full of faith, asked me to take her to Church for prayer, so God could take them away. Well she was right, that next Sunday morning after church she went up for prayer for healing to get rid of those Planters warts. The Pastor and other lay members laid hands on her, and by the next morning they were all gone, yes gone. There were many other occasions within the body of Christ there at Emanuel Baptist Church of healings which I also took part ministering in by the laying on of hands. There were times when I could fell an electrical like power going right through me and out my hand to the person we were praying for. It was the power of the Holy Spirit moving through me and the others. We are the body of Christ Jesus in all and every aspects of faith.

Jesus has a Hold on Me

The love of God and the presence of Jesus Christ was so overwhelming that you could have run me over with a Mack truck, and I would have replied, praise the Lord. You couldn’t shut me up when it came to what God, through Christ Jesus had done in my life. Everyone needed to know about the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t imagine how it feels after walking so long in a dry thirsty land. Living under the law, wanting to know God for real, and finally coming to the well of living waters to drink, through Christ Jesus. I had made a couple of friends at work, other than Ray and the Bible group, which was Louie and Tony. Of course they saw a positive change in me, and of course, my open sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Louie was the most interested in hearing about Jesus Christ. Louie had given himself over to gambling and would lose most of his income by doing so. Of course I knew all about the sin of gambling, my father was a gambler. One day I had decided to buy Louie a Bible, to help him in the ways of the Lord. At lunch while driving to the store to purchase the Bible for him, the Lord Jesus spoke to me, saying, “Ronald I want you to buy the Bible, but give it to Tony.” I said no Lord. I going to buy a Bible for Louie. The Lord replied, “Ronald I want you to buy the Bible, but give it to Tony.” I said again. No Lord, I am going to give it to Louie. Then Jesus said to me with authority, “Who you are talking to Ronald?” At that point, my mouth was stopped, then realizing whom I was talking to. Of course it was time for me to repent, I asked Jesus to forgiven me. How gracious was the Lord Jesus Christ to me in my ignorance? What did happen was that when Louie saw me give Tony the Bible. He became jealous and asked me for a Bible, promising that he would differently read it. Therefore, Louie did get his Bible, after all, but with a promise. You see that the Lord Jesus knew all along what was in Louie’s heart and what take place.

GOD Calls My Sister-in-law

During that same period of time as a new Christian, the Lord Jesus spoke to me once again. This time it was in relationship to Charlotte’s sister, Florence, my sister in-law. One day while walking from the company parking lot to the office, Jesus called me by name, “Ronald!” Hearing His voice, I stopped right in my tracks, looked towards heaven, and replying yes Lord. Jesus then said Ronald, “I want you to go to Florence and ask her to receive me as her Lord and savior.” I replied, what Lord? The Lord repeated what he had said the first time, “I want you to go to Florence and ask her to receive me as her Lord and savior.” This time I said yes Lord. What was so difficult for me to understand is that Florence was a starched Roman Catholic. When Charlotte and I were first married outside of the Catholic Church, she said we were living in sin, and would have nothing to do with us for several years. Finally, she had conceded to let us come to her house on holidays, because our kids. Ron Jr. And now living in Perth Amboy one town away, Charlotte had become closer to her older sister, Florence. Now things had changed somewhat for the worst when we became fundamental Christians. Anyway it was full steam ahead, I was going to do exactly what Jesus wanted me to do. When entering the office, I went straight up stairs to say good morning to Ray, who was my mentor in the Lord. He asked me what was going? For he had seen me standing there on the sidewalk looking up towards heaven. After telling him what happened, and what the Lord Jesus had told me. Ray picked up the phone and said, what are you waiting for, call your sister in-law, right now. I said no, let me call my wife first and let her arrange a meeting for me with her sister. So calling my wife, Charlotte and after a little convincing, she agreed to call her sister. About an hour later called me back and told me she had made arrangements for me to meet her sister after work that night, at 9pm by the employee entrance. Her sister was working a part time job at a retail store named, Klein’s. Well there I was that night at the employees entrance at 8:50pm. Of course 9pm came and went, but no Florence, it wasn’t until 9:45pm that Florence came out the door.

After a brief greeting, she asked, whether we should talk in her car or mine. I said let’s talk in my car. Florence got into the passenger’s side as I got in the driver’s side. As She sat there she didn’t look at me, but steered out the side window and said to me. What do you want to do, talk to me about my drinking?

Little did I know that her daughter, Gail, had found her mother the day before, stoned drunk on the living room floor, when she came home from school. Gail had told my wife about it, but Charlotte informed me. Then replying to her question, I said no! The only reason that I am here is because the Lord Jesus Christ has sent me to ask you to receive Him as your Lord and savior. Florence turned towards me, looking right into my eyes, and said, what do I need to do? As we sat there Florence prayed the sinner’s prayer, committing her life over to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was it, I had done exactly what the Lord told me. We then said good night and we both of us went our separate ways.

It wasn’t until several weeks later when Florence had us over for dinner, that anything was mentioned about that night. When we got there, Florence was busy fixing dinner in her kitchen, she stuck her head out and signaled to me to come into the kitchen. When in the kitchen, Florence began to share with me that after our talk that night, when in Church on Sundays, she could understand what the Priest was saying related to Jesus Christ. Of course my response was praise the Lord, Christ had opened her heart and mind. Right then and there I shared the full Gospel with her, that she needed to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. Praise be to God that within the month, Florence was watered baptized and filled with the Spirit. Don’t you ever tell me that God isn’t involved in our lives.

Off to Bible School

Now that my family and I were committed to the truth and living faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ. The next step for me was to fulfill the call that Jesus had on my life, since I was fifteen. My first approach was to ask Pastor Shaw of Emanuel Baptist Church, if he would let me study under his direction. He thought that it would be advisable for me to attend a formal Bible School, to continue my religious studies. So out went three letters to Full Gospel Bible Schools and colleges which had been recommended to me. All the time praying for God’s guidance in this matter, intending to attend the fall semester in September 1970.

Of course being a natural man I was interested in seeing what type of courses they provided and the cost to finish their courses. When receiving their responses, I read them very carefully and prayed over each one. Two of the response letters were a formed type school business letter, which didn’t set well with me. The third letter though, was of a personal nature, written by the school’s secretary, a Hellen Craven. Her letter expressed that she was happy about my experience in God and that Elim’s desire was to help me to fulfill God’s purpose. Because of this heart felt personal letter, my decision was made to attend Elim Bible Institute, Lima N.Y. I felt sure that while at Elim, God’s will for me would be revealed, and that I would receive a solid foundation in the word of God.

Decision Time

Even though for me I felt that I was moving in the right direction, my wife Charlotte wasn’t on board. In fact, she was opposed to the idea of selling our home and moving to Lima N.Y.  I tried to convince her it was the will of God in Christ Jesus for us as a family. Her reply was unless God shows her, she wasn’t going to move anywhere, her and the kids would stay behind. So here we are at an impasse, even though at this point the Lord had even told me the very date we were to move out, which was June 15th, 1970. That date made sense for it would give us enough time to settle in before I started classes in September. At this point I did the only thing that made sense. To put it in the hands of God and the Lord Jesus. Then wait for them to convince Charlotte, that it was Their will for us. My wife was a type of person that once she set down roots, it was hard for her to pull them up and move. She was content here in Perth Amboy, living on this quite street with our children attending a school a block away from our home. Also she had her close friends the Wonski’s, our neighbors, who were also Christians now, and attending church with us. Several weeks went by without talking about selling our home, and my attending Bible School, for it was in God’s hands.

Then finally Charlotte one night came to me and said that, at first she wasn’t going to tell me, but she was ready to make the move after all. Of course I had to ask her what changed her mind? She went on to tell me that she had a strange phone call from an ex-landlord, Dale. Dale and her husband happened to have been our landlords when we lived in a cold-water flat on Boyd Av. in Jersey City some 8 years before. Dale just happened to be a born again Baptist believer. As the story went on, Dale had asked her if there was anything wrong with her and her husband? Charlotte told her that we all was well, and Charlotte asked Dale, why the concern, and the reason for this call? Dale went on to describe what our home looked like, its color, the white picket fence with a hedge behind it, and so on. Charlotte replied yes that’s our home, how did you know, you never were here, and we haven’t spoken in 8 Years. Dale told her that she had seen it in a dream and knew it was our home and that there was a for-sale sign out in front of it. From this vision of Dale’s, Charlotte concluded that it was definitely a sign from the Lord that we were to sell out and move to Lima, N.Y. for me to attend Bible School. After this we went full steam ahead, putting the house up for sale, and within a week we had two purchase offers.

Selling Out and Arrangements

The purchase offer that we took was a no contingence one, no strings attached. We set the closing date a week before we were to pull out, the date the Lord had told me to leave was, June 15th. At my work, Wigton Abbott, I told them that I would be leaving them to attend Bible School and would be taking my vacation due me. They were very obliging about the situation and wished be the best. All my friends at work had a little party for me and gave me two gifts. They were a Young’s Concordance and Unger’s Bible Dictionary which I am still using today. Off we went to Lima, N.Y. to find a place to live and finalize arrangements to attend Elim Bible School in the fall. So I and the whole family took the trip to upstate New York to the town of Lima N.Y. We had never been up state N.Y. infect I never even heard of Rochester, N.Y., no less Lima. Just to give you an idea how good the Lord is and how He makes away, before we left for the trip the Lord told me that it would only cost me $10 a night for a motel in Lima, I said to myself, no way. Anyway the next Monday morning we all got into our car and away to we went to Lima N.Y. After many hours on the road and stopping for lunch and to get gas we ended up passing through Lima. At the very moment when passing through the center of the town of Lima, Charlotte asked me when will we be getting there. I replied we just went through the center of town. Her reaction was not good, she began to weep, and said you’re taking us up to this God forsaken place. I tried my best to comfort her, telling her it will be just fine.

Just then the street to the school was on my left, we made the left turn and we were right in front of Elim’s main buildings. We parked on the side of the road, and told Charlotte to walk around the grounds with the kids. After asking a few people that were walking by I located the office entrance and went in. Then looking around I found Helen Craven, the secretary’s office. She explained everything that would be needed in order to start school in September. Before leaving the office I asked her whether there was a motel in town, she told me there was, giving me directions to get there. Then picking up Charlotte and the kids we went to the motel, to get rooms for a couple of nights. Do you believe it the rooms were $10 per night, and they didn’t charge us extra for the kids? All I can say, praise the Lord, God is good, and His ways go beyond understanding.

The next morning, we went for breakfast and then went over to a local trailer park the next town over, Avon N.Y. Charlotte and I had decided that it might be a good idea if we purchase a trailer to live in while attending Bible School, instead of an apartment. We found the Harper Trailer Park right off the main road Rt.5 & 20. The manages office was right at the entrance to the park. So leaving Charlotte and the kids in the car I went in the office to see the manager about purchasing a trailer. I explained to the him that I would be attending Elim Bible School in September and would be coming up in June. He said alright and that he would get someone to show me what was available. He made the call and two workmen came and showed me what used trailers were available and their prices. After looking at several of them they all were out of my price range. Finally, they brought me to a bleached out looking trailer, being used for storage. It was so packed with stuff that I could only stick my head in the door to see inside. They told me that I could have it for only $2,500, my reply was, sold, I will take it. I went back to the manager’s office and signed the necessary papers to purchase the trailer and giving him $100 to seal the deal. The understanding was that I would pay the rest when I completed the sale on my home and move up here in June. Then I went back to the car and told Charlotte that I had purchased a trailer, but I didn’t tell her I did so, sight unseen. We returned home the next day and started to make arrangements to sell, or give away our home furnishings, they being too large for a 10 x 50 ft. trailer.

Time to Move

Time went by quickly and the closing date for the sale of our home was upon us. Just prior to the closing the buyer said that they didn’t have the money to close. My reply was why not; it was to be a clean deal. The buyers had lied on the contract, their rationale was, because they really wanted our house, they thought they could sale theirs before the closing. Regardless of this setback we were leaving on the 15th of June, for God had said so. Therefore, I went to our lawyer and told him to turn over the $600 deposit, which by law was mine, plus we needed it for we were leaving for Lima, N.Y. the next day. So putting the power of attorney into my mother’s hand, Helen Pepper, and advising her to but the house back on the market. We were ready to leave for Lima the next morning, having packed what we had left in a small pull trailer. I had figured that once we got to Avon, N.Y. we would put our stuff in the trailer and spend the few nights in the $10 a night motel in Lima. We would deal with the fact of having no money to pay for the trailer or to purchase furniture, once up there.

We arrived at the Trailer Park in Avon, N.Y. midafternoon that same day. As we drove into the park to go to where our trailer was located, by the information received by mail. Right as we entered Harper Trailer Park, the manager came out of his office waving his hands to stop us. Coming to a stop and asking him what was the problem, He just asked me to come into the office, which I did. Leaving Charlotte and the kids in our other car that she had followed me up in. When in the office there was a well-dressed man on the phone, somewhat upset and there was older couple sitting in the rear of the office. Again asking the manager what’s going on, he just signaled me with his hand, just be still. At this point I turned my head towards heaven and prayed, Lord it in your hands. While sitting there and over hearing the phone conversation, I began to get the drift of what was going on, it seemed that the lot they had put my old used trailer on had been promised to the other couple for their new trailer. The well-dressed man was the salesman and he was complaining to the President of Harper Trailer Park, Mr. Harper the son of the owner. As the conversation went on I overheard Mr. Harper say on the phone whose trailer is on the lot, the salesman looked over at me and said, “Mr. DeMena”. Then I heard Mr. Harper say, then that whose trailer stays, that ended the conversation, and the salesman hung up the phone. The park manager gave me the OK, to go to my trailer. Leaving the office, I went over to Charlotte and told her everything was fine and to follow me to our trailer. When we got to our trailer there were workmen going in and out of it, busy as bees. Getting out of my car, I asked them what’s was going on? They told me that no one had drained the pipes before storing the trailer and during the winter all the pipes and hot water heater had burst, so they were replacing it all. Well to the motel we went for the night which we had intended to do anyway.

Surprised Brother

Just before we left for the motel, I unhooked the pull trailer with our stuff in it. While doing so, my brother in the Lord, Ron Childs from the Christian group in Morris Town N.J. who also had decided to attend Elim. He and his family had purchased a trailer located right across from ours. We greeted each other warmly and I shared with him everything that was going on, even the fact that I had no money to pay for the trailer. Then Ron told us that he felt sorry for us, because his dealings with Mr. Harper, the President hadn’t been all that good. That Mr. Harper wasn’t a reasonable man at all, when it came to business. I replied, great, that’s just one more thing God needs to deal with for us. Ron left us by saying, I’ll pray for you, you will surely need it. Off to the motel we went stopping on the way at a dinner for some eats, for we were quite hungry. After we had dinner we got our room in the motel and spent a restful night, praying to God in Jesus’s name to make a way for us. The first thing in the morning I call Mr. Harper and set up an appointment to discuss our situation. The best time for him was late in the afternoon which we agreed to, then getting directions to his office we hung up. Having some time to kill we figured that we would take a ride around the area. Then would head out giving us plenty of time to find Mr. Harper office Rochester off of 490.

GOD Holds the Heart of Man

After some difficulty in finding Mr. Harper’s office we got there still with time to spare. Unfortunately, something had come up and we had to wait about an hour before Mr. Harper could see us. Of course the kids were getting restless and we were trying our best to keep them quiet, in order to make a good impression.

Finally, there I was in front of Mr. Harper explaining everything that had transpired, about not closing on my house, and having no finances to pay for the trailer. What happened was just the opposite of what my Christian brother, Ron had told me. Mr. Harper replied, no problem, when you close on your house, then pay me. Then I went on to tell him I had no furnishing, and could he help me in this cause. His replied, yes sure, just go to my warehouse and take whatever furniture you need. After everything was said and done, He let me slide on the cost of the skirting and he paid for the electric to be turned on. What can be said, if God is for you, who can be against you. It was within the month that the people that wanted my house was able to sell theirs and close on it. Soon as their check cleared, we paid Mr. Harper and the first two years’ tuition at Elim. Would you believe it that, all the time we lived there, I never received a bill for the skirting, $169 even though I had asked him many times. It wasn’t until I called Mr. Harper and insisted he send me the bill, which was three years later, for I had sold the trailer and was moving out.

The first thing Charlotte and I did after settling the main bills we went out and purchased paint, and painted the trailer. Then planted the grass seed which the park had provided, and purchased flowers to plant around the trail. Well it wasn’t long after that Mrs. Harper the owner of the Trailer Park, an ex-biker, came by to see this old beat up trailer. She was pleased as punch on how well we had fixed it up, and couldn’t say enough nice things about it and us. Truly if you do what is right and good, in the sight of God. He will cause men to honor you and praise your name. You know there is truth to letting your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Finding Work

The next thing on my agenda was to find a job, for it wasn’t to my way of thinking, in Christ Jesus, that the State of New York should take care of me and my family. Especially with me leaving my job to fulfill the call of God in Christ Jesus. So filling my car with gas I struck out towards Rochester to go door to door, to find any type of job working at night. Before you knew it I got a job in a machine shop as a blanched and surface grinder, for during High School I had taken machine shop. To make life a little easier, Ron Childs my Christian brother had found a night work also in Rochester and he offered me a ride to work. Everything was going along smoothly, and I had been able to save $500 for a rainy day. The wife and I had decided that we would find a local church fellowship off campus, which we did in East Bloomfield, about 20 miles away. It was a small Pentecostal fellowship of about eight families strong, but the Pastor, Brother Keerps and his wife had 5 children, and of course a few of them were the same age as Ron Jr. and Pamela. On July 4th. they had a church picnic which we attended. The whole family had a great time that afternoon, and we got to know most of the other members. About 5pm the picnic ended, having time to go home and get ready for the evening church service at 7pm. By the time we got home and cleaned up, it was time to go back to church.

Just then Charlotte began complaining about having to keep on defrosting the old refrigerator that came with the trailer. This really irritated me, for we just had a most pleasant day with our fellow Christians, and know she has to complain about the refrigerator. I let Charlotte know that I wasn’t pleased about her complaint, telling her that was going to church and she could stay home with the kids. Before getting to the highway the Lord spoke to me, saying “You cheap skate, do you think that I had called you up here to starve?” You see it was all about that $500 I had put away. It didn’t take the Lord to speak a second time, I got the message.

GOD’S Provision

When arriving home after church I told Charlotte that the Lord had spoken to me and that we were going out the first thing in the morning and purchase a new refrigerator. So Monday morning off we went to Sears to purchase a refrigerator. It just so happened that there was enough money left over to buy a clothes dryer also. Now the $500 was gone, we went broke, really broke.

From that day on, even until know I have never given a though about how we would make it financially, God has always provided our needs. remember that God had promised to provide our needs not our greed.

There is one story which my wife likes to share about her needing a winter coat. Winter was upon us and Charlotte she had been praying about it. My folks were coming up to visit us for Thanksgiving, and we didn’t have enough money to buy turkey dinner, no less Charlotte’s winter coat. Well thanks be to God that the church folks had heard about my parents coming up to visit. So they went out of their way to fix a complete turkey dinner for us, bless their hearts. Now about the coat that Charlotte was praying for. My mother, Helen and stepfather Bob, got up to Lima the day before Thanksgiving so they could spend two days with us. My mother brought a winter coat for our daughter Pamela, thinking that she might need it with winter coming. Well Thanksgiving day was great, all had their fill and we played some games. Well me being vocal about the goodness of God, and how much I was enjoying school. Now Charlotte on the other hand was somewhat quite, due to the coat she needed and yet Pamela received one. My folks made plans for the next day, to take us all out to lunch to a nice restaurant near the Thruway entrance in Henrietta, N.Y. After lunch we said our goodbyes, got into our cars and started on our way. As we went, Charlotte had to mention again about the coat, that God didn’t hear her prays, what could I say. The words weren’t out of here mouth, when my stepfather, Bob pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. Of course thinking something was wrong, we pulled over right behind them. My mother got out of the car and signaled for us to come over to her, which we did. Just then she opens the trunk of their car, and taking out a large white box, handed it to Charlotte, saying that she almost forgot this gift for her. As Charlotte opened the box, in it was the most beautiful winter coat. My mother had especially had it from a Persian rug. Don’t tell me that God doesn’t hear our prayers, sometimes we just need to be taught a lesson. So now it was time for Charlotte to repent before God, for her unbelieve. We hugged each other again and thanking them and prayed for their save trip home. How long is it going to take for us Christian folks to learn this simple lesson, of just trust and obeying?

Bible School Begins, and Vision

To open the school year, the faculty conducts a week of meetings lead by the president, Carlton Spencer in the school’s auditorium. The whole student body was required to attend all of the services. Of course those students that had jobs were allowed to leave, only during their working hours. To begin with the meetings were great, there is nothing like a large group of believers praising the Lord. Then what happened next disturbed the Spirit of Christ Jesus that was within me. Carlton Spencer the president started to brow beat the student body saying that we all are sinners and need to lay before the Lord, and cry out to him forgiveness and cleansing. A large part of the student body went forward laying down before platform, moaning and groaning. Thank God it was time for me to leave for work, meeting Ron Childs off we went. Ron asked me what I thought about the serves, but I didn’t want to talk about it. That night after work once home I spent a little while with Charlotte and we went to bed. During that night, God spoke to me in a vision. Here I was in the school auditorium standing before all the students and the faculty, rebuking them for their spiritual ignorance. For God through His Son, Jesus Christ had already forgiven them of all their sins and now are son and daughters of the most-high God.

Now there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.

During my vision I noticed what I was wearing, it wasn’t the required schools dress code, of a navy blue jacket, gray slacks, white shirt and black tie. Instead I was wearing brown slacks, a two tone mustard colored sweater and a tan shirt. The next day things went as usual I went to the school’s church meetings and then to work, yet still thinking about my vision. Well the next day came, and the same thing happened, all the students were called down to lay before the Lord, to cry out for forgiveness of their sins. It was just then that the Spirit of God prompted me to speak to the assembly, per the vision God had gave me a few nights before. I said to myself, oh no! it can’t be, but when I looked down at what I was wearing. Yes, I had on the mustard sweater and brown slacks, so what else could I do, but stand up and requested to speak. President Spencer beckoned me forward, once at the platform, he said, make it short were about to go to lunch. Turning to him I said, I will be only telling you what God has told me to say. Then opening my mouth went on to tell them exactly what God had told me in the vision. That they had been saved from their sins through Christ Jesus and that there is no reason to be constantly repenting before Him. Thanks be to God, from that point on the services took on a more positive direction. Of course it did bring attention to me by the faculty and some of students asked who is this, Ron DeMena.

What About Christian Love?

Once classes started things at times got a little tense. Unfortunately, some of the teachers had strange unchristian ideas about interracial congregations and marriages. Of course I couldn’t let this go by unchallenged, didn’t Miriam and Aaron sin before God, by criticizing Moses for his marriage to an Ethiopian woman, Num.12. Then there were other teachers that would bate students about doctrine, just so they could malign them openly, again this wasn’t very Christian like. Then near the end of the first term they sent around a survey asking the student to evaluate their teaching. My reply was no, we have no right to evaluate those over us, that’s for the school’s leadership to do, not me. Well I was called on the carpet for my stand, but I stood my ground in the Lord, and never filled out their survey. Before you know it Thanksgiving, break was upon us when most students went home, and only a hand full were left on campus. What got me upset was that the school told these students that if they wanted to have their parents to eat thanksgiving dinner with them on campus they would have to pay for it. Do you believe that, what about Christian love and giving, what could a few turkey dinners cost? The schools position must be that Christian giving only counted when it came their way.

Giving Even When It Hurts!

There was another situation that affected me and a fellow student Frank Campbell negatively, when we both were out of work. The faculty decided during the morning service that they would take up a special collection for us, a blessing so we though. Well the sad truth was, we never received any of the money collected. Someone in the office misappropriated the money, and instead of replacing it, they said sorry, so we both suffer the loss. But God did provide for me in another way, about a week later I found a bank check on the steering wheel of my car, for $100. How it got there puzzled me, because I always locked my car door. Then there was the time when another brother that broke his wrist at work and was having difficulty paying his campus rent and tuition. The Lord clearly told me to give him $10 a week, out of my $60-70 weekly pay. When telling my wife, she replied, you must be kidding, were hardly making ends meet. Well it ended after a few weeks of giving, putting the $10 in an envelope with the brother’s name on it, and putting it in his school mail box. I would open my school mail box and there would be an envelope in it with my name on it, with $10 in it. No one knows about what I was doing except God, and exactly $10. Thank you Lord, for causing me to be faithful. Did my brother find any mercy from the school? No, sorry to say. In fact, he ended up leaving school and returning home. Cursed is the man that trusteth man, and blessed is the man that trusteth in God. Just because you prosper in this world doesn’t mean, God is on your side and you are doing that which is right. After these few incidents, everything went well, other than sometimes I was doing more teaching then being taught.

The Brotherhood

During the three years at Elim I had made two close friends and brothers in the Lord. There was Charlie Elwell, from the free Methodist Church, a true prophet of God, and Clarence Gavin, a Spirit filled Baptist, both went on to have successful ministers in the Lord. We talk about being servants of God but so many time Christian church fight against God. This was the case with my brother Charlie Elwell and his pastor Rev. Carpenter of the Free Methodist Church in Warsaw, N.Y. Even thou the Free Methodist believed in the second act of grace, the filling of the Holy Spirit, they opposed the active power of the Holy Spirit. Their response to healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and other gifts of the Spirit was to close the doors of those Churches. As God would have it, I had found another job, thanks to an old time Pentecostal believer, brother Appleby a night guard a Victor Insulator Co. I would drive back and forth from Avon to Victor N.Y. five days a week.

First Trip Back Home

After the first year we were dying to get home and see the brothers and sisters at Emanuel Baptist Church, to tell them how God was meeting all our needs. Before leaving for the Lord gave me a message for those at Emanuel Baptist Church, which was don’t become homogenized but remain pasteurized. Which meant, don’t let the world creep into the fellowship and destroy your faith. Once home I was asked to speak and share what God was doing to the congregation, which I did, for sure. I told them the prophecy that the Lord had given me, plus how God was meeting all our needs and then some. On the way back to Avon and our humble trailer, my wife Charlotte said to me after your talk, don’t expect any financial help for Emanuel Baptist Church. Looking for financial help was the furthest thing from my mind, but I guess it wasn’t from my wife’s mind. Well a month later we got a letter from the board of Emanuel Baptist Church stating that they were making us part of their missionary efforts and would be paying our lot rent until I graduated. This taught my wife a thing or two about just trusting God. The unfortunate thing though was that they didn’t heed the prophecy from the Lord. Due to a few persons and the Pastors wife taking off to be some great woman of the lord, the power of the Spirit left Emanuel Baptist church.

Car Pooling

Well there was a young man in the trailer park that work at a place on my way to Victor, which I gave a lift to. It just so happened that his father was a Bishop in the Free Methodist Church. Everyday his son would listen to me about the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. One day when sitting in my living room of the trailer, a vision from the Lord came to me. What I saw was a strange woman coming to the door of my trailer and my wife opening the door and letting her in. The woman asked for me by name, so my wife directed her to me. As the vision continued, she came in and sat on our couch. Then she asked me to pray for her to receive the Holy Spirit. Then as she sat there I laid hands on her head and called on God in the name of Jesus Christ. As the Holy Spirit filled her, she began speaking in tongues and praising God. After which she got up and we embraced, thanking me and then left. The next day I found out that woman was the wife the young man whose father was a Free Methodist Bishop.

Teachers Friend and Foe

There were also several teachers that became close to me, which we always addressed as Brothers. Brothers: Richer Fox, Hayden Kent, Edgar Parkyns, Lloyd Moulton, John Manzano, and Paul Garlington, whom I would minister with after graduation, in the Church of God and True Holiness. Then there were those teachers that I would locked horns with in the Lord, related to points of New Testament doctrine. Brother: David Edwards (about students visiting witches), Gerald Trudell (about water Baptism and Holy Communion), Paul Johansson (about drinking of blood), Vernice Smith (about mixed marriages), Leslie Cole (about water Baptism, and his authority over scripture.) One of the schools required for students was that they must go and preach at different Elim Churches or minister at nursing home on weekends. Whenever I preached a salvation message it always included turning your life over to Jesus Christ, water Baptism, and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The point about water baptism, seemed to give some a problem. for some Elim Church Pastors believed water baptism was an option not a command. For this reason, Leslie Cole, Student Ministry, and I had words, he told me that he was an Apostle and could change scriptures; Therefore, I should stop preaching the need for water baptism. My response was, just stop sending me out to preach.

So they ended up sending me to the Rochester Mental Institution to minister, which God showed his power in. Of course it leads to another black eye for Elim, because there was a woman which was their posterchild related to exorcism. During my ministry at the Mental Institution and speaking to that women. She Dixie, admitted to me that she hadn’t released all of her demons, but kept her favorite one. As far as I knew she never did give that one up, nor did she ever really commit herself over to the Lord. What came to my mind when talking about her, was that during one of our special school meeting when we were going to partake in the lords Supper, Dixie was standing by the Lords Table. When looking in her direction I also saw the container that held the communion cups and flames of fire dancing around its perimeter. When seeing this I opened my mouth and told everyone that they shouldn’t partake unless they are true believers.

Baptism or Not?

How thing got started between me and the school about the need of water baptism, was during my first year at Elim when they had their, July Camp Meeting. Pastor Keerps of the fellowship I was attending was to supervise a group of young people from the Camp Meeting at Conesus Lake, and I was to assist him. Each day a different youth speaker would be sent from Elim to address the young people. This one day it was a minister from Texas, and he preached fire and brimstone. I thought it was spot on, but Pastor Keerps had a negative reaction to it. He ended up storming out of the Meeting Hall right after the service before anyone else. While sitting there waiting to see if anyone was touched by the message. Which there was, John the son of the cooks at Elim which I knew. I had taken him and his older brother fishing with my son and daughter on Conesus Lake. There he sat crying, for the word of God had went deep into his heart. Going over to him and asking what was happening, he replied I want to give my life over to Jesus Christ, that God had spoken to him. Sitting there with him I went over with him, clearly what it meant to be a Christian and if he is truly serious about a total commitment to the Lord.

His answer was yes; therefore, I told him he needed to be baptized, and was he willing to do so, he replied yes. So we went down to the cafeteria to speak to Pastor Keerps and to get his approval to go down to the Lake and perform the baptism. He gave us his approval and went ahead to the lake and I baptized John in the name of the Lord. Several of the young people followed and witnessed the baptism. There was one young man over 18 years old, that had come to help, which asked me if I would baptize him. Of course I asked him if he had given his life over to Jesus Christ. He replied that he had been following the Lord for the past 3 years, with that information I went ahead and baptized him. Here I go from the frying pan into the fire, you see he was being pastored by the President of Elim, Carlton Spencer’s son-in-law. A couple of days after the baptism, Carlton’s son-in-law caught up with me, and questioned me, about what right did I have to baptize one of his members. I told him that if he had been doing his job in the Lord, the young man wouldn’t have had to wait 3 years, and I walked away.

The Truth Will Set You Free!

This occurrence opens the door for the Lord, Jesus Christ to minister through me to Elim about the need for water baptism, after one believes. It was the following year in 1971 that Jesus spoke clearly to me about writing a paper on water baptism to give to Elim. The Lord told me that the paper should only be given to Brother Gerald Trudell, and that I could only share it with those he gave the OK! to. The title of the paper was “Conversion Is Not Regeneration but Water Baptism Is”. The writing of the paper was being this wise, I shut myself in my room for three days, not eating except for water and coffee, with cream and sugar. After finishing the paper making some copies, went to Brother Trudell’s office and gave it to him. Then ask him if I could share it with Brother Fox and Manzano, which he agreed to. Little did I know that Brother Trudell had just been promoted to Academic Dean at Elim, but the Lord knew. About two weeks later Brother Trudell put together a meeting with the three of us and we all discussed the content of the paper. The some of the matter was only so, so, no one wanted to make commitment to this truth about water baptism. This puzzled me, because I couldn’t understand what are they afraid of. John Manzano was the strongest supporter of what was written, but he had no authority as far as Elim was concerned. But he had some other ideas in mind for me.

Better to be Sure

It was interesting though on Bro. Trudell part, for his adult son worked with me at Victor Insulator, and of course I shared with him the truth about his need for water baptism if he desired to be a true Christian. He left Victor Insulator shortly after our conversation, I believe to go back to college. Well about 6 months later, Bro. Trudell went out of his way to tell me that his son had been water baptized. What baffles me the most, are those ministers that claim to know the scriptures, yet couldn’t see the relationship with discipleship to Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sin, and water baptism.    Another subject Bro. Trudell and I locked horns about was in relationship to my “Guided Study”. This was a term paper every senior had to provide in order to graduate from Elim. Each student would be assigned one of the teachers that would be responsible to grade their “Guided Study”, my teacher was Bro. Fox. By the end of the second year having determined that there

was a need for me to have a complete understanding of the Lords Supper; Therefore, it only made sense to do my “Guided Study” on the Lords Supper. When submitting this to Bro. Trudell, as required, him being the Academic Dean, his response was negative towards my subject, the Lord’s Supper. He explained that it was to difficult of a subject for me. His reasoning was that he had been working on that subject himself for years and yet hadn’t come to any conclusion about it meaning. Well I told him that’s what I truly felt the Lord would have me to do it on, and that there was a need for me to know its meaning. The title of which was going to be “What Effect Does the Lord Supper Have On a Christians Life.” So we left it at that, but Bro. Trudell wasn’t pleased about it at all.

My Time to Teach

Well getting back to my student ministry requirements at Elim. The faculty had determined that the best place for me during my senior year, would be teaching the married student Sunday School Class at Elim School Church. The class was to start when everyone came back after summer break, the beginning of the school year in September. All summer long I was working on my “Guided Study”, reading everything on the Passover, and the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles related to the Lords Supper. In addition to the New Testament scriptures, there was the many teachings related to the Lords Supper by the early Church Father and theologians during the first five centuries of the Church. So it was only natural for me to give my first Sunday School lesson to the married students on the Lords Supper.

The lesson would be centered around the Apostle Paul’s, dialogue about what Jesus Christ had given him, about the Lords Supper, found in 1st.Cor.11:23-30. Well here we go again with God’s plan for me, that is from the frying pan, into the fire. This is what took place, the morning of the first Sunday service Bro. Trudell came to me and told me that he wanted me to teach the whole student body, the lesson that I had prepared. You see someone had dropped the ball; Therefore, no one was prepared to give the whole student body a Sunday school lesson. Glory be to God, that I was elected to do it, did I after all have the truth related to the Lords Supper, that the Lord wanted them heard?

Well it was full steam ahead, with the Power of the Holy Spirit, I delivered the lesson based on 1st.Cor.11:23-30. The lesson pointed out that during the Lords Supper, Jesus Christ Himself is completely and totally identified with each and every believer, His Body the Church. In turn each element, the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine (wine) is supernaturally joined to Jesus’s body and blood, just as it was that faithful night with His disciples. This fact was completely understood by the disciples the night when He was betrayed, as they kept the Passover meal. This is why Jesus Christ has warned us through what He told the Apostle Paul, related to any offences we might have against one another, when we partake in the Lords Supper. We must understand that the Lords Supper which we keep isn’t some empty ritual. That just like Judas who betrayed Jesus Christ, we also can bring damnation upon ourselves if we betray one another in the Lord.

That’s why the Apostle Paul ends up say, “that is why some are weak, sick or even sleep (dead)”.

This teaching hit a nerve with Bro. Trudell causing him to get quite upset with me. So after the Church service he called me into his office and challenge my concepts. The problem was that Bro. Trudell didn’t really hear what I was saying or it just plain disagree with what had determined beforehand, which he had said he really wasn’t sure about. You see the problem with most theologians and students of scriptures, is that they approach everything with preconceived ideas. They read, but they don’t hear or listen to what is being said. Jesus Himself continually said, “Those that have ears let them hear, those that have eyes let them see.” or ” If the light you have is darkness, how great is that darkness.” again ” The blind leading the blind they both full into a pit.”

Two other situations that I would like to share related to the Lords Supper. The first was when having a conversation about the Lords Supper with Bro. Moulton, teacher and business manager, when he said that the element of Lords Supper doesn’t matter. For it all about the fellowship one with another. My answer to him was if that is so why don’t we just have, potato chips and coke. The other time was when we at Elim was having one of their Missionary Conventions, and we all joined together to keep the Lords Supper. I was sitting next to Bro. Costa Deir, an evangelist, prophet, teacher and real Godly man, when I looked up after prayer I saw flames of fire dancing around the container that held the individual cups grape juice. After seeing this I then warned all that would be partaking of the Lords Supper, to get right with God and their fellow Christian.

How many of us go through life thinking that we have a true relationship with Christ Jesus, but yet we have been living a lie. That is why the New Testament scriptures are so important to each one of us. When one comes to the true light and experience the reality of God and His Christ Jesus, it time to start over. We need to examine any and all our denomination beliefs and traditions of men, by comparing them to the New testament scriptures, point by point. For myself I have been studying for holy order in the Episcopal Church and had almost completed my own summary of the Bible. It all went into the garbage, for now I could see clearly what the Lord was saying. The only word that we know is right and true is found in the New testament scriptures; Therefore, we should know it inside and out.

Graduation

Well after all this I did graduate even though the school in the process had lost my “Guided Study”. If it wasn’t for Bro. Fox, the teacher that was to mark my “Guided Study”, who also had become a close friend in the Lord, I might not have graduated. He came to me and asked if I had done my “Guided Study”? I assured him that I had and it was handed in, to Bro. Trudell, months ago. So Bro. Fox asked me if I could get a copy to him as soon as possible. The very next day I gave, Bro. Fox a copy of my “Guided Study”, proving that to him that I was telling him the truth about having handed it in months before.

In spite of the many difficulties at Elim Bible Institute, which was more for them, then I. As a family we were blessed, during the three years of my schooling. God not only gave me time to really study the scriptures, and early Church History, He made it possible for me to spend quality time all summers long with my family. These times I have to say were truly the best years our lives. All summer long we spent time at the area lakes, swimming and fishing, and picnicking. Also Ron Jr. and I took up scuba diving, which if wasn’t for coming up to Bible School we would have never been able to do. Ron Jr also had an opportunity to work with a cancer research doctor at Strong Memorial, and ended up with a salt water fish tank. Most of all I was able to guide my daughter, Pamela how to be a Christian young lady, which was the most important thing in my life, for she was always my “Sugar Lump”. Praise the Lord, no one could ever say that I neglected my family, or that I didn’t love them. If you truly Love God and His Christ, Jesus, then you must love your family, and care for them in every way.

Church of God and True Holiness

During the last school year there was Bro. Paul Garlington, the Pastor of an all-black church in Rochester, who was teaching Old Testament History at Elim. Now Bro. John Manzano, a teacher who also ran the book store, kept on telling me that I needed to speak to Bro. Garlington, about my position on water baptism. At this time, I didn’t feel free to do so, but I did ask him if it would be alright for me and my family, to visit his evening Church service, he said yes sure. It just so happened that his fellowship had just purchased the build that the Aenon Baptist Church had owned, where my brother in the Lord, Clarence Gavin, was assistant pastor. This was great for I knew exactly where it was located, having attended their Pastors, 25th anniversary there, and had been privileged to be seated at the head table with their Pastor. As I sat there noticing that the utensils were made of gold, never before had I eaten with golden utensils, praise God.

So the next Sunday evening I and my family went into the city of Rochester and attended their serve, The Church of God in True Holiness, yes we were the only white faces in the place. The worship serve was very lively and was to my and wife’s, Charlotte’s, liking. During the sermon given by Pastor Garlington, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me saying “Ronald I want you to put yourself into submission under this man.” I reply, why Lord, I don’t even know his doctrine. The Spirit of the Lord said again, “Ronald I want you to put yourself in submission to this man.” I replied yes Lord. After the serve, Pastor Garlington greeted us at the door as we were leaving, and wished us a good night. On the way home the Spirit of intercession came upon me, to the point that nothing would come between Paul Garlington and myself, even though at this point, there was no connection between us, other than a teacher student relationship.

About a month later while we were having dinner before I left for work, Pastor Paul Garlington showed up at our trailer. Of course we asked him in and we had him sit down with us and join us for something to eat. As we sat there eating and sharing about the goodness of the Lord, Paul began to ask us some serious question related to how we felt about people of color. One of the pointed questions was, how would you feel if one of our children would happen to marry a black person. Neither myself or my wife had any prejudice felling towards black, or interracial marriages. In fact, I had challenged Brother Smith one of my Elim teachers about his negative comments about this subject in class the first year at Elim. So we asked him why the questions about our feelings towards blacks. Paul went on to tell us that the Lord had spoken to him, that he should ask me to join him in the work of the ministry. Paul went on to explain that the outreach of The Church of God in True Holiness in Rochester was to help bring the black churches into sound scriptural doctrine.

Well let’s face it, that what I was all about in the Lord Jesus Christ, sound Christian doctrine. In fact, God had already started with my friend and brother in the Lord, Clarence Gavin, of Aenon Baptist Church. Clarence and I had already discussed about the filling of the Holy Spirit, and he had asked me to lay hands on his wife to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul Garlington also told us that he was willing to put his Pastorate on the line if the fellowship, wouldn’t except a white man as part of their ministry. You see, whether we like it or not, there was prejudice on both sides of the isle, white with black and black with white. The sad thing is it still exists today in some circles.

Looking back to my senior year, and what happened in relationship to my missing “Guided Study”, it all starts to make sense. It must have been during my senior year, after our discussion with Paul Garlington. That Paul had made his intentions related to me joining him known to the Elim’s faculty. The reason for saying this was, a few weeks later Bro. Trudell called me into his office and spoke to me, telling me that no white man should put himself under a black man. At first I was taken back by his comments, but then I told Bro. Trudell, I was going to follow the will of the Lord, not him or Elim. I had never connected my missing “Guided Study” together with my joining with Paul Garlington until now. Would you believe that, I thought we were all one in Christ Jesus, wasn’t Paul Garlington a Christian and teacher at Elim, in their school. How evil are men that they would work against God and the Lord Jesus Christ because of their own opinion? Thank you Lord, for if God is for you, who can be against you, no one.

My Eldership

Now that I was out of school and connected with The Church of God in True Holiness, and Paul Garlington, within the year I was ordained a Minister and a year later as an Elder. By then we had purchased a home in Rochester, on Lux St. The fellowship began to grow, not only interdenominationally, put also racially. As the congregation grow My responsibilities included opening the weekly Sunday serves, performing must all the water baptisms, and supervising a group of married couples, spiritually and financially, helping them to get their total lives in order. As a Church Fellowship we felt that your spiritual growth was connected to your financial independence, so that was our aim, the total freedom of the person in God and His Christ.

Everything was going along just fine, except Paul had one serious flaw, he had a tendency to be swayed by contemporary Christian type doctrinal book. I would try to guide Paul, that he must do a treatise on anything doctrinal that he reads, that is to completely compare it with the New Testament scriptures, and the Apostolic doctrines. There were periods of times when Paul Garlington’s teaching would go right against the New Testament teachings of vain philosophy and will worship. Such teachings would last two or three months and then just drift away, thanks be to God. These incidents kept on delaying the main purpose that God in Christ Jesus had purposed to join Paul and myself together in the first place. Which was to bring sound Christian doctrine to the black Churches in Rochester, which never did occur.

Finally, about five years later Paul and his brother John broke away from, The Church of God and True Holiness. They formed an independent fellowship calling, The Covenant Community. When doing so they hadn’t even consult with the leadership, or the membership. In spite of this I tried my best to fulfill the call of God on my life by being in submission to, Pastor Paul Garlington, but it was becoming more and more difficult to do so.

As time went on holiness and righteous living in the Lord started to become a thing of the past. Worldliness began creeping into the teachings of Paul, and his ego was getting the best of him, no matter my warnings. Paul became close to two other men, intellectual types in their thirties. from the very start I didn’t have a good spiritual felling about them, but Paul said I was jealous of them. My suspicion was later proven to be right, for these two men had made claims to have been Christians to avoid going to jail. Paul began to change the whole complexion of the fellowship by bring more and more young students from Elim, and making them part of the worship serves. The attitude of these young people were less then holiness. Paul acted like he found a new found freedom, no longer being part of, The Church of God in True Holiness, by allowing alcoholic beverages being drunk at our church picnic, turning the atmosphere from Godly into a worldly one. Finally, it caused me to take a month off, so I could lay before the Lord, and inquire from Him about what I should do next. It would come down for me to, either openly to oppose Paul and his actions, or for me to take my leave. Finally, the Lord gave me the freedom to take my leave from Paul and the Covenant Community. Me understand in the Lord was that He had made Paul the Pastor and the Lord would deal with him, so be it. The one good thing that came out of all this was a lasting friendship with Deacon Jerry McGriff Sr. and his family.

The End of Covenant Community

After leaving Covenant Community things went really bad for them, Paul got the fellowship involved in purchasing a million-dollar piece of property in Henriette, N.Y. It isn’t clear what happened, but it seemed that the community there in Henriette wasn’t going to let them build a church in their area. On top of all this Paul had done some underhanded thing in getting approval for the Bank loan in the name of the Covenant Community. After everything the fellowship went bankrupting, causing it to be disbanded. Things went so bad that I heard that Paul had taken to himself additional wives, which caused his wife, Glades to have a nerves breakdown.

His brother John had a more serious end, when he was to leave the Buffalo fellowship, to take a Pastorate in the Northwest, while on their way were all killed in an auto accident. Before John Garlington and his family had left, Brother Al Gausse, of the Covenant Community, one of the sweetest men that you could ever meet, received a prophetic word related to John Garlington, that he shouldn’t leave his Pastorate in Buffalo. Well John didn’t heed the word of the Lord and we know what happened. Paul’s reaction to this was totally negative towards, Bro. Al Gausse’s prophecy, Paul ended up excommunicating Al and tried to take away his children by saying he was an unfit parent. When I had noticed that Bro. Al Gausse was not attending Church any more

I had asked Paul where he was. Paul told me a story that he had opened a business and had to be open on Sundays, therefore Al, would be attending serves any more.

I found out many years later from Al Gausse himself that this was a lie. At the same time, I found out that, Pastor Clarence Gavin had asked Paul many years earlier to release me so I could take over all the biblical education in his fellowship, which Paul had denied. It just so happened that under, Pastor Clarence Gavin ministry, became one of the largest black churches in Rochester.

Wasn’t that the original purpose that Lord joining Paul and myself together to bring sound doctrine to the Black Church in Rochester. I don’t think that I will ever understand why man to whom God has made it clear what they should do, can go so wrong? In spite of all this the many years involved with Paul Garlington, and the fellowship under him, I had the privilege of leading many to the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing God fill them with the Holy Spirit and founding them and many others in the true Christian faith.

What Was Next for Me

The next place we began to fellowship with, was Faith Temple a large church fellowship and Elmwood Av. in Rochester. There was an assistant Pastor there, Rev. Williams from the Assemble of God Church there, who’s teaching I appreciated greatly. The Pastor, Rev. Edlin, not so much, from the very first I didn’t have a good spiritual felling about him. After about six months we moved over to Bethel Full Gospel Church on East Av. under a Pastor Morris, an Assembly of God minister. It wasn’t long after we left, Faith temple that my spiritual wisdom was bore out about, Pastor Edlin for he ran away with his secretary. Leaving his wife and teenage son, to fend for themselves. Isn’t this a sad state of affairs to say the least about these so-called men of God. Or is it just a fact that the flesh is stronger than the spirit of man and his commitment to God. Therefore, my continual prayer is, Oh! Lord Jesus, help me to be faithful to your calling and to my wife and children which you have given me.

After becoming active at Bethel Full Gospel Church, becoming part of the churches board of directors and Sunday school board and a teacher, things were looking up spiritually. The fellowship was going to try and start their own Christian grade school. This was always on my mind and even while I was with Paul Garlington had asked him to go in that same direction. The only problem that kept on getting in the way is the brethren wouldn’t get down on their knees and pray. No, they just can’t wait on a clear word from the Lord before they act. It’s always all steam ahead, God will bless our hand, were Christians doing God’s work, this is the great commission. Therefore, most all these program become a total flop, and of course a loss of a large sum of the Lord’s money. In this case was no different, we purchased a large building next to the Church building. Also we hired a Christian educator from Texas, and moved him here to take over our education system. Sorry to say it never got off the ground, and the church fellowship had a large white elephant on their hands.

Around the same time two faithful young man had spoken to me about selling out and moving to join Rev. Baker. The Rev. Baker and his wife Tamie, were TV preachers with a large following.  Their vision was similar to the Catholics Churches, St. Augustine’s, City of God idea, which they were pushing for on their TV show to build, down south. I tried my best to convince these young men that the only true city of God is the body of Christ Jesus, that is the Church in each city, not some physical place on earth. They made the move anyway and joined Rev. Baker and his wife Tami, being sure that this was the right thing for them with their family. Many things sound good in God at first, but end up disastrous in the long run. The Rev. Baker himself ended up going to jail for defrauding his followers and on top of it, was exposed for having unnatural sex. These young couples ended up losing everything, and in a place with no true brothers or sisters to help them.

Then as usual the faithful Pastor Morris, took another ministry down south, a larger and more affluent one. So much for these Pastor commitment to the flock. Have you ever noticed that all these pastor tell the members that they must be faithful to their fellowship and the ministry they are over? But as soon as the pastor receives a better offer, they are gone in a New York minute.

The Thankful Sojourners

The wife and I bought a home in Leroy, N.Y. and started a home teaching ministry there, called “The Thankful Sojourners” It was made up by some of the folks that had left Bethel Full Gospel Church after Pastor Morris had left. Plus, those people that I had led to the lord from my work place. Even though this fellowship was formed, I never felt that my calling was to be a Pastor, but only a teacher of God’s word in Christ Jesus. Once “The Thankful Sojourners” was formed we all agreed that any money we took in would go into a treasury for the soul purpose of help those in need. Our meetings were powered filled, for the presence of the Holy Spirit was there, guiding and directing us. God through Jesus Christ, had given me the wisdom to teach only the foundational Christian truths, that is Apostolic doctrines and traditions.

Just like Jesus Christ confronted, so did we. One night a person that came to the meeting, was possessed with a demon. She frightened some group by her ranting, even my teenaged daughter, Pamela ran upstairs. Of course myself being filled with the Holy Spirit and power of the Lord took control of that evil spirit, the woman. Once the evil spirit was bound, I was able to speak to her about the saving power of Jesus Christ and her need to submit to Him. Unfortunately, she left that night not convinced that Jesus Christ was the only way, and we never heard from her again. We need to remember that God does take control of your will, but only opens the door for you to submit your will to Him and follow His ways.

Our home fellowship was growing and doing quite well, to a point that some of the members were desirous for us to rent a storefront, having a more formal church site. Of course as good as it may have sounded, I wasn’t going to do anything without the Lord’s blessing, so on my knees I went. After several weeks of praying, the Lord Jesus give me a clear word that I should disband the fellowship. So this was exactly what I did, by advising the membership to attend several believing churches in the area. Many years later I ran into one of those members that sat under my teachings, a Dave West. He shook my hand and thanked me for my teaching, saying that my teachings had kept him in the way our Lord, to this day. God’s way is always the best way.

Interesting Occupations

During this period of time just before moving to Leroy N.Y. I had been working as a design engineer for Delco Products a division of GM, in Rochester N.Y. Also because of my son Ronald we had bought a Great Dane dog for him. One thing lead to another and my wife and I got involved in dog showing. Little did we know that there were hundreds of unchurched people out there every weekend, showing their dogs, but God knew. Before you knew it, there we were showing dogs as professional handlers, almost every weekend, year round.  Thanks to God for my job at Delco which had a great vacation program plus special time off, 20 days a year. This made it possible for me to have long weekends to show dogs.  It wasn’t long before you would find in the evening other show dog folks at our trailer listening to me share the truth about Jesus Christ and the love of God. There was one couple that had Great Danes, Allen and Barbra Young, which had befriended us and gave us some good advice, related to dog showing. Right from the start I felt that Barbra Young was a Christian, even though see wasn’t out spoken about it. Her husband Allen was a heavy drinker and would be found drunk on the show grounds, which really embarrassed Barbra very much, yet she always patient with him. The great thing that happened was Allen finally got saved and turned his life over to the Lord Jesus, an answer to Barbra’s prayers.       The bad thing that happened which you would have thought would have been good is that they got too involved with a full Gospel Church and its ministry. Just like so many young Christians, they were talked into going into debt to make a missionary journey with the fellowship to the Philippines. Myself and the wife tried our best to talk them out of such an adventure, but they went ahead with it anyway. After everything was said and done, they lost both of their businesses.

Allen had an Insurance Agency and Barbra had a Beauty Shop which they lost and had to sell their home to pay their debts. They ended up moving to Florida to live with Barbra’s mother, and she took a job in a nursing home.

Not all Pastors have the best interest of their congregation at heart. To many misapply the great commission, that was given to the 11 disciples, saying it applies to ever person in the congregation. Unfortunately, this causes many well-meaning Christians to bring unnecessary difficulties into their lives, by thinking they are doing the will of God, when they really aren’t. My desire is that more Pastors would take the time to read and understand what the New Testament scriptures are really saying, that their calling isn’t everyone else’s.

The wife and myself continued in the dog show business, working on weekends for at least 18 yrs. What makes my involvement in dog showing take on a spiritual nature, was that as a young boy my parents purchased a purebred female Boxer, of some quality. My father one day took us to a dog show in Madison Square Garden in New York City, to talk to a show dog professional handler about showing our Boxer. Well the female Boxer had an overbite, which was a serious fault in the Boxer bred. The Handler suggested that they should let me, their son, use her for junior showmanship. That really sound great to me, and I asked my mother would she please let me do this. When she asked my father, the answer that came back, was definitely not. He wasn’t going to waste his money on that. You see God does give you the desires of your heart, even though it might be many, many years later, thank you Lord God, my true Father.

Then There Was Horse Racing

Another such desire of mine which God did fulfill, in my life after dog showing, was with Thoroughbred Horse Racing. At 15 yrs. old my physical stature was quite small, I was only 5-foot-tall and 98lb., but was strong enough to lift 100lb over my head. Since my father and uncle John were into gambling on horse racing, in fact my father was a bookmaker. My father figured that if I became a jockey he could get tips on races, and make money. So my father had my uncle John, take me to Belmont race track to see a jockey agent. I had been to the race track many times before with my uncle, who would leave me with the stable help, from Calumet Farm stables. That year Calumet Farm had four outstanding thoroughbred horse, infect one of them won the triple crown. I was excited about the idea of riding race horses and had even thought about, that if I didn’t make it as a jockey, I could always become a trainer. After seeing the agent, he told my uncle that he could make arrangements for me to go to a Thoroughbred farm, to learn how to be a jockey. I never did get to spend time at the Thoroughbred Farm for my mother stop me from going, but rather sent me up to her brothers Harold’s farm in Maine. But in spite of that, God wasn’t done yet with giving me the desires of my heart. Before you knew it I had a new career in Thoroughbred Horse Racing as a trainer. It all began through one of my dog show clients, Elizabeth Zemp, a Thoroughbred trainer at Finger Lakes Race Track. Before you long I was involved in a partnership owning race horses. My desire was to be able to train these horses myself. Again due to the dog show business, and our home ministry there was, an Ed Acker who showed Doberman Pinchers. Ed had been seriously burnt in an electrical accident, and during his recovery, our home fellowship had helped him financially. It was on a 4th. July afternoon while at the race track with Charlotte, that we ran into Ed. He told me that he had just passed his Public Trainers test and was licensed to train horses. Let’s face it, what goes around comes around when you are serving the Lord God, and His Son Jesus. Ed Acker ended up training one of my horse and his son-in-law, Vic Takar the other. It was under Ed Acker that I received my Assistant Trainers license, and then through one of his trainer friends, Davenport, I was able to pass my Public Trainers test and receive my licensed. The backside of the race track was full of those needing Christ Jesus in their lives. So the wife and I got involved with the Chaplain by visiting grooms and exercise riders on the backside. One thing I found out was that everyone on the race track was related to one another. God’s hand continued to bless everything we did, for we went out of our way to help those on the backside.

GOD Does Have a Plan

It was in April 1992, just after becoming a trainer, having only two horses, my income changed. Delco Products where I was working, told their employees that they wanted everyone over 52 yrs. old to take early retirement, or else. At that time, I was 55 yrs. old. I got the picture, so they didn’t have to speak to me twice, Thoroughbred Horse Racing was to became my new occupation. Therefore, ending my career as an Electrical Engineer and Professional dog show handler. Dealing with Thoroughbred Horses was hard, heavy, back breaking, and heart rending work. My barn increased to as many as eight horses at one time. Dealing with these horses was difficulty for my wife, yet I really enjoyed every minute of it. Because of the unselfish Christian love that we showed, the word got around and many trainers, and other on the race track went out of their way to help us new comers. There wasn’t much money in our bank roll, so we could only afford cheap claimer, which I never paid more than $3,000 for them. In my eyes all champions, unfortunately many of my horses just didn’t have the talent to win many races, but I always treated them with kindness with a loving human touch. Just like us humans, some are blessed with natural talents, other not so, but we all need loving kindness. That is why God sent Jesus into the world to show us His Love and teach us the way. As for the partnership they were only interested in breeding thoroughbreds which was a losing proposition, so it didn’t last long. We lasted in the horse business about 8 years, with outgoing broke, thank the be to the Lord, then came the next adventure.

Next on the Agenda

There was one more occupation that the wife and I got involved in, through our son-in-law, Danny my daughter Pamela’s husband. Danny was out of work for a long period of time, and thought that he would be able to become a tattooist. God does move in strange ways, as a little boy of 6 yrs. old, I had a strong like for tattoos. There was a merchant marine that my father knows, Mr. Grace a Stationary Engineer at Rockefeller Center, New York City. He had two sealing ships tattooed on the inside of both forearms. I would steer at them as long as he would let me. I promised myself then, when old enough I would get tattooed. When I turned seventeen my mother gave me the OK, to get tattooed, which I did over in the Bowery, New York City, getting two of them the same night. Then after getting married, I got another one with my wife’s name in it. When we’re going to move to Philly to race our horse there, we decided to set Danny up with the equipment necessary to start tattooing. Also we agreed to have my daughter and Danny move into our home, and pay rent, to cover the mortgage. Before we made the moved, Danny needed someone to practice on. Well here I am, having him put a tattoo on both my forearms. While at Philly during down time I would draw flash for tattoos and make needles for Danny. Also it just so happened that there was a custom tattoo show right by our apartment. At night you would find me hanging there watching how good tattooist operate.

Once out of the horse racing business, we ended up owning two tattoo shops under my wife’s name. Danny became so good at tattooing that he became a world class artist. Danny also became the staff artist for, Am Jam Association, that held the largest tattoo show in New York State. Of course it wasn’t long before I was tattooing in our second show in Niagara Falls N.Y. Even though some would think that tattooing isn’t for a Christian, but we never let God and His Christ take a back seat. I can’t begin to count how many people which heard the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time while being tattooed by me. No matter what job or where we lived the wife and I always maintained our strong faith in the God and the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how hard a person’s exterior might seem to be, there is always a place in their heart for the word of God. Finally, it was time for us to move on, so in Jan. 1999, the wife and I turned over one tattoo shops to my son Ronald and the other to my daughter Pamela. We then bought a used mobile home in Batavia N.Y. moving from Niagara Falls, to be closer to Pamela our daughter.

Ministry in Batavia, N.Y.

Once we had moved to Batavia, the first thing we did was look for a Christian fellowship to be part of. It had been a long time since we were affiliated with any one group of Christians, having moved so much. Being Pentecostal adherents we wanted to find a Church with the same beliefs system. One of the fellowships that we first attended was the United Pentecostal Church here in Batavia. When we attended there Sunday service, things didn’t sound quite right, their songs and choirs, seemed to confuse Jesus Christ with God the Father. It just so happened that the Pastor, Rev. John Hatch wasn’t there that Sunday, so we returned the following Sunday so I could talk with him about their beliefs. After the next Sunday service, we sat with Rev. Hatch and asked him about their beliefs. Much to our surprise, he explained that they actually believed that Jesus Christ was God the Father.

This lead me to about a six-month long discussion and correspondence with Rev. Hatch, proving to him that there are indeed three individual persons with Divine natures; First is God the Father, Creator, the Alpha and Omega from whom all thing have there being. Second is the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit), which is Divine and is the implementer and sealer of God’s will and is the author of the Holy Scriptures. Thirdly there is God the Father’s Son, the man, Jesus of Nazareth, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, ordained by God as Christ our Savior, who died for our sins, ascending into heaven and becoming the High Priest and King of heaven and earth.

This conversation about God and His Christ ended finally when Rev. Hatch stopped all communications with me. A man convinced against his will is of the same mind still, sorry to say. To some the truth of the scriptures don’t matter, for once a man starts down a road, right or wrong it hard to turn them around, ask any wife. In this case nor did the historical truths of the early Christian Church down through the centuries matter. For this very reason God hates liars, because once a person receives a heresy, they are completely blinded by it. That is why Jesus said, “those that have eyes let them see, those that have ears let them hear.”

Also Jesus said, “the blind leading the blind they both will fall into a pit.” It is mind boggling to me to see how many people claimed to have read the scripture, but have failed to see what the scriptures are saying. For example; throughout Christendom down through the centuries the Christian Churches have justified going to war against other Christians, nations against nations. But Jesus the Christ clearly said. Matt.5:43-45 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for hem which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:”

Prayer Room C.O.G.I.C

All the while I was communicating with Rev. Hatch, the wife and I was still looking for a local fellowship. As we drove up and down the streets of Batavia, we happened to have noticed a hand painted sign outside of a building in the middle of N. Lyons St. which read The Prayer Room C.O.G.I.C. It surely wasn’t impressive looking, but something said that we should attend there next Sunday, which we did. Well as we entered the building it was clear to see that the fellowship was made up by people of color. As we went down the aisle we took a seat half way down on the left side. As the service started, the church became lively with songs and courses, which lifted our spirit in a heavenly direction, and was quite refreshing. That day the pastor of the church wasn’t there, a Supt. Bishop Carl Roberson. The mother of the fellowship, Louise Doward stood up and began to share from the scriptures. As she spoke I was completely taken back by her knowledge of the scripture and her ability to relay the truth of the Gospel. After hearing her speak I said to myself that I needed to stay around here for a while.

After several weeks attending there and meeting the Pastor, Supt. Bishop Roberson, and explaining who I was, and that I had held papers in “The Church of God and True Holiness” he invited me to be seated on the platform and share the word of God. The Bishop was truly a holy man of God, and you could fell the presence of the Holy Spirit when he came into the room. The wife and I became part of the fellowship and I helped them save some money by fixing their electrical work in the Church building. While doing the work I became friends with Deacon James Armstrong, whom had a fine voice. The Bishop was already in his eighties and was at time too ill to be there at Church. During this period his son Rev. Willie Roberson would fill in. Then one-day rev. Willie said to me that his father the bishop would like me to take out papers with them, becoming an Elder with the C.O.G.I.C., which I did. During my stay with them over 8 years in the Lord, trying to bring them into a more positive place in the Lord, without much success. They wanted to call themselves Christians, but not act like ones. Everything seemed to be about raising money for internal activities, without any reach in the community.

I did have the pleasure of mentoring a young married man, Asheesh Williams. We spent much time together as I taught him the ways of the Lord, and were able to lead several young men to the Lord. Also we both were involved in the Care-A-Van Ministries giving out food and clothing to the needy ever Sat. morning, which I am still doing today. In fact, they have honored me by making me them in house minister. During the summer month we put on a free B.B.Q. with Christian music and preaching at our local park. Asheesh and his wife Jasmin moved back to Central L.A., California. were Jasmin was originally from. Asheesh finally landed a job working as a youth guidance counselor and in the evening him and his wife are involved with a Christian youth ministry, also in Central L.A. One of Asheesh’s talents is his Christian rap music, some of his lyrics are spot on, Praise the Lord.    The last straw with the C.O.G.I.C. that caused me to retire on my 75th. birthday was when they revised their affirmation of faith, removing the necessary to be water baptism. The one positive thing that came out of my stay at The Prayer Room was I finished my book, “Let Get Real” The Basic Tennent of the Christian Faith which I had started in 1999. Thanks to the help of my grandson Ronny the 3rd. who help me get it published over the internet. He also has been studying the scriptures with me twice a week when he is in town, for his job with H.P. sends him to the west coast quite often.

At present the wife, son, daughter and myself are attending a loving fellowship in Rochester near my son’s apartment on St. Paul’s St., the churches name is “The Community Bible Church”. In fact, as I am closing this testimony, God had blessed me by having me addressing a group of recovering addicts, in a recover center named Total Freedom. After encouraging them in the Lord, many young men came forward to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and they weren’t disappointed, some were slayed in the Spirit and most were filled and began to speak in tongues, a heavenly language. Jesus Christ is still on His Throne and ministering to those He has called out of the world.

The main purpose of this spiritual life testimony of my experiences in God and His Christ is mainly for my immediate family and relatives. That they might come to know whom I real am in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That I wasn’t just another ordinary person passing his time on earth. That in some small way that this document would help them to see that without a living faith in God through Jesus Christ that there is no real life or happiness at all. I remain a servant of the most-high God, the true and Living God and His Son Jesus Christ, dated 10/16/15.

Ronald Andrew. DeMena Sr.