I grew up in a home with 8 children, me being in the middle according to age. We were not a family with strong ties to each other. I was thirteen-years-old when a man I had never met asked me if I had ever accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. After considering his question for some time I said no. Then, he asked me if I would do it today. After some time I said yes. That day I met Jesus Christ as my savior and at the same time I knew that I belonged to Him and that I was loved by Him. I am now 60 years old but this experience still is very precious and fresh.
I spent 4 years in the U.S. Navy after getting out of high school and was sent to Memphis, Tenn., where I studied to be an aircraft mechanic. My heart was hungering for Christ during those years and I read my Bible off and on, but still didn’t have much direction. I was discharged from the Navy in 1963 and went back home to the Seattle area. Though the Lord, over the years, has put numbers of books in my hands that have given me nourishment and help, it has been through the books of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee that my Christian life has been put on the path to maturity. The first of these books was The Release of the Spirit, then, The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee. Yes, I came to trust in these writings because when the Lord touched me with something in the Bible, I would see the same truth in the writings of these two precious brothers. The Lord is so precious and real to me because through the ministry of these two Christians, He has opened the book of books, the Bible, to me, book after book. In 1976 I had the deepest and most profound experience of my Christian life. I went to a Bible training on the book of Revelation given by Witness Lee. The Lord had led me to read Revelation before I went. I read it six times, but I didn’t see much. As this book was opened up by Witness Lee meeting after meeting, the Lord Himself was infusing me with the fire of these words. Oh what wonderful grace to one as undeserving as me. This is grace guided by love.