It was the second Sunday of the month of April. Wayne Larsen, the newest lead pastor at John Baptist Church was giving out a message about his having faith in God before becoming a pastor. So he began to share his story when the worship team took their seats after playing "Revelation Song."

"Today I'm going to share with you all about myself before I became a pastor in having faith in Christ. My father was a pastor in a Methodist church when I was growing up but I decided to become a Baptist pastor and I didn't want to stay Methodist the rest of my life. Here's the story I'm going to share with you all but today's message will not involve Scripture so you can just listen to my story for the fun of it.

"It was a big deal for Mom and Dad because we were Christians, both of my parents weren't happy since my Uncle Elliot decided to choose not to believe in God, even if it meant he grew up in a Christian home with a father who was a pastor.

That was how Dad put it: if you grew up in a Christian home and choose not to believe in Christ, you were following the Devil and not Jesus Christ. It almost meant he would go to Hell and when his time came to die and not Heaven with the Lord.

"That day, I was in the backyard. I was having a few friends from school. Like any other kid, my friends and I still enjoyed playing in the sandbox. It was starting to get late, so we got out of the sandbox. My friends left so they could go home and wash up for supper, as we used to say in those days. My father –"

"I was seven years old in 1967. I had just finished school that day. I really never had too many friends at all when I was growing up. It was a Tuesday afternoon, but it had been partly cloudy that day. I didn't have any classmates who lived in the same neighborhoods so it was me by myself.

Then I heard Jesus' voice.

"Wayne," I heard the voice say.

"Yes?" I replied.

God was finally getting my full attention. Of course it is true that God hears our thoughts, even if we aren't saying anything out loud.

"This evening I want you to spend some time with your parents. You shall try to listen as good as you can. There will be an announcement, so I want you to listen."

"All right, Father. I will do the best I can," I answered.

"The announcement you will hear isn't good news."

That was all the Lord told me. When He said that, He was already gone. I didn't hear anything from the Lord again until the very next day.

"It kept me interested while I was walking the rest of the way home from school. I still didn't understand what the Lord had just told me. I finally thought this out loud: 'What did God mean there was going to be an announcement?' Who could be sharing this sort of announcement? Mom or Dad?

"I soon later found out right after supper was finished. It was my mother who made the announcement. Dad and I paid very close attention to what Mom was going to share with her family. Before we ate supper, it was my turn to share a prayer. I had no problem with this.

"My father worked his butt off to receive money to put food on the table every night. His job was a preacher in a church. We now mostly don't say the same prayer every night. We would take turns every night. That meant it was Mother's turn to say a prayer this next evening. We really don't do this sort of thing while in restaurants, so we mostly do it at home, which was okay with me.

"My father said, "You may tell us your announcement, honey."

"All right. I found out from a close friend that her father committed suicide. That means we pack up this weekend. Sorry, Wayne, you will stay behind for the next two weeks. We don't want you to miss a lot of schoolwork."

"You will be staying with my mother and father," Dad told me.

I didn't reply. That very same night, I was down on my knees to pray to God. My father said it was always a good idea I do this every day. I do okay on that.

"Dad and Mom don't normally do this sort of thing, but they agreed for me as their only child to do this, both day and night. They even like it when I read the Bible. That was another assignment to do before I fell asleep at night. It was mostly the Bible for children. Both of my parents said I should be old enough to stop reading the children's Bible by the time I start sixth grade. They told me when I am old enough to read the Bible, I would be reading the King James Version.

"I was told from generation to generation that the Larsen family always read the King James Version and no other version that is out there. It is true the King James Version was printed out in 1611. Dad knew this sort of thing on his own, but I learned about it from him. I guess as a preacher, he did some research on the copyright of the King James Bible. As least he knew what to look for.

"The church I went to every Sunday with my parents was a Methodist church. It was a big congregation at the time. Back then women wore dresses and men would wear a suit and tie. My father took last week off. One of the ministers did his own sermon. I went as usual. The week before Dad took off, he preached about Jonah running back to God. I didn't understand much of it at the time, so he had to explain privately to me. Every time I didn't understand something like that, Dad would have a private understanding that way. And it always helped me understand better that way.

"Like any child, I went to children's church. At age of seven, I decided to drop out. Father and Mother knew about my dropping out since the minister at the time noticed it. Took the minister about a month to figure it out. The children kept teasing me and I didn't like that.

"In the first week or so in the month of July my father's brother came out for a visit. We really never kept in contact with him, but like they say, he was more of the black sheep of the family, and that was the only person who never found any interest in us enough to share what has happened since we were together.

My father's older brother, whose name happened to be Elliot, wasn't a very friendly person you thought he was. He was the only sibling he'd had, but it was Elliott's choice if he wants to talk or not. So he came out for a visit. Uncle Elliot didn't stay very long, but he really never had a family of his own. He did have a wife, but the marriage didn't last long enough to continue. They were happily married for three years and then he found out that she was having an affair with another man.

Back in those days, when one spouse finds out he or she had an affair with somebody else, they would divorce, but divorce wasn't very common back then. Since he was family, he never cared much about God and the Holy Spirit, even if it meant Dad was a minister.

Uncle Elliot never responded, and after that, we never heard from him again.

"Father in Heaven, I ask you once and for all not to let me visit the past ever again. Thank You for letting me start believing in the Holy Spirit again. In Your Name, Amen."

So that was the end of Pastor Wayne's message with the short prayer. He would never look back in the past again.