God Prepares the Man
My first 30 years God prepared me for His ministry call on my life.

I grew up in Northeast Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. I was raised by Christian parents who prayed earnestly for me and my sister. My dad was a member of the Gideons, an organization of men and women who place Bibles and New Testaments in schools and hotels, and hundreds of other areas. My mother was a strong prayer intercessor. My older sister Janet and her husband, Doug Swanson, for 15 years ran a medical clinic for Wycliffe Bible Translators in the middle of the jungle in Peru.

When they were in Peru I was in high school. I was not motivated to study. I was a dreamer and I was spoiled. My mother had a job so she could pay for me to attend a private Christian school. I was non-motivated and a dreamer. Just before graduation in 19581 was told I would not graduate unless I passed algebra. I was so disinterested in school that I was failing that class and didn't even know it. On the final test, a multiple choice test, I put down the letter B for every answer, got a D- and graduated.

I joined the Naval Air Reserve the summer after graduation and went through a 90-day program to become an airman. That fall I attended a pre-school for Annapolis, but I didn't pass the Annapolis entrance test. After one year of attending college at the University of Minnesota I realized that I was still a dreamer and needed to grow up.

I went on active duty in the Navy for my two-year requirement and spent my first eight months living on a ship in the Persian Gulf off the island of Bahrain. The ship, Valcour, was a sea plane tender and was the flag ship for the Middle East. As a result I saw one-half of the world. I was nine years old when my relationship with God began, but this, at age twenty, was a time for me to really grow deeper in the Lord.