Adventist Collegiate Taskforce ACTeam, Hinsdale, Illinois

It was the Summer of 1978. The job description bore little resemblance to what I ended up doing that Summer. While cleaning out a church closet, we discovered a shoe box full of “Bible Study Interests.” Some of the forms were dated two to three years ago. Dismayed that no follow-up had been done, we started calling the people. Some of the people we phoned didn’t remember asking for Bible studies and were no longer interested. Then there were the guilt-ridden moments when we were told that the person we were calling for had died. How we loved the exciting moments when the person said, “Yes, I still want to study the Bible.”

That Summer I gave my first Bible study and saw that when someone learned the truth about Jesus, they had the opportunity to respond to His love. Thus began my addiction to the spiritual high that comes from working/walking with Jesus. That Summer, I ended up working with five churches and preached almost every Sabbath.

My Senior year in college I changed my major to Religion and became a pastor in 1980.