My father and his family were prominent members of the Church of God (headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee), so I have a few recollections of this old white church in Salem, Oregon.  I recall there was a particular day that we went to the church where the ladies were making candy for a special fund raiser.  They were making candy canes and taffy.  It was fun to watch them pulling the taffy then folding it over on itself and then repeating the process all over again.  I just couldn't understand why in the world it needed to take so much time in the folding and stretching - it was sweet and good to taste, why not eat it now?

I remember that we attended that church for a while. The attendance was brief because one of my dad's cousins was playing with matches in the church attic. The building caught fire and burned to the ground.  The church was later rebuilt out on Boone Road, in Salem.

 When we moved to Aumsville, Oregon we attended a Pentecostal church in Turner not many miles from our home.  Salem was about 12 miles from Aumsville, so I guess my parents figured it best to attend the closest ... I don't know.

My dad's cousin's (not the one who burned the church down) wife, Esther Arnkeel started driving out to our farm in Aumsville, pick up my mom and us kids, and drive us into Salem to attend the Boone Road Church of God.  This was no easy feat ... she had two children of her own and there were five of us kids (the twins were new born) ... all of us would cram into a little Volkswagen beetle.

In 1964 we moved to Yakima, Washington, where we attended the Nob Hill Church of God.  Rev. Wallace Rampy (his wife was Ann) was our pastor at that time ... fifteen years later I had the great fortune of being the District Youth Director for him when he served as the Prosser District Overseer.  I was pastoring the Grandview Church of God at that time (but I digress).

Following Wallace Rampy as pastor in Yakima was Rev. Bob Scroggins (and his wife Winnie) who was another man that I held in high esteem.

We hadn't attended that church long before my dad was transferred to Sunnyside (about 45 miles away) in 1967.  In Sunnsyide, there was not a Church of God located in the town, which was almost unbelievable since the town of Sunnyside had a nickname, "The Holy City".  I understand that it received its nickname from the fact that there was one of the highest ratios of churches per capita than many other cities in the USA.

With the lack of a Church of God, my mother was determined to get us into some sort of church.  Fortunately, there was a rather large attendance of Pentecostal believers in the town.  The Neighborhood Church (Assemblies of God) was Mom's choice for us ... I don't remember my Dad attending church with us growing up except for the brief period that we attended church in Yakima.

Since Mom did not drive, she still needed Dad to drop us off at church.  He usually then went back home and then returned in time to pick us up from church.

I had the very fortunate experience while attending the Assembly of God, to enroll in a brand new boys camping program called Royal Rangers.  I was in a group called Trailblazers (for boys 12-14 years of age).

That didn't last for long, as we were informed by family members living in Yakima, that there was a young couple fresh out of Northwest Bible College who had arrrived in Sunnyside for the soul purpose of starting a Church of God in the community.  They came by our house to introduce themselves to us - Rev. Gary Tygart and his wife Charlotte.

It was under Pastor Tygart's ministry that I rededicated my life to the Lord and felt a calling to the ministry.  I was 13 years old when I had the opportunity to "preach" for the first time at that local church.  On Wednesday evenings, the church conducted a special service called YPE Night.  The YPE stood for Young Peoples' Endeavor.  So my "sermon" was on a YPE night at the church.  After the service, a visiting minister Rev. Sterling Gilton approached my mother and said, "Sister Lee, the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said that God is going to use your son in a great way".

Now I am not trying to equate myself with any great historical figure of the Bible, but if you look at the life of Samson, King Saul, Moses, Simon Peter you will see that even though individuals may seem to to destined for greatness can and sometimes, do fall short of the expectations that were on them. I feel that I was just that ... starting a great work for the Lord, but maybe a wrong turn just spun me off the path of what God really wanted me to do for His Kingdom's sake. But more on that later.