About myself

                                                            



   I am a Christian.  A serious Christian.  I repented of the way 
   of sin and darkness and turned to God and the "Way of Light and 
   Life" that is found in Jesus Christ in a Baptist revival 
   meeting at the age of nine.  As the Baptists would say, I was 
   "saved", I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I gave 
   my heart to Christ.  And I was serious about my decision.  I 
   spent a lot of time during my childhood reading the Bible and 
   read it through from beginning to end.  I spent a lot of time 
   in the gospels and the epistles.  The New Life spoken of there 
   was my life.  I was determined to be a true Christian, not a 
   sham Christian.   I have never uttered a curse word or profane, 
   vulgar, obscene or four letter word in my life.  Never.  Not 
   ever.  And I have never been tempted to do it.  Why?  I am a 
   Christian.  A born-again Christian.  Underneath it all is an 
   allegiance.  An allegiance going back to my conversion.  An 
   allegiance to that Most High God and to the way of Decency, 
   Righteousness and Goodness that he stands for.  I am a 
   teetotaler and have always been one.  I have never touched 
   either alcohol or tobacco.  Why?  The same reason.  And, of 
   course, I have never even considered trying any drugs.  That 
   would be really far out.  I can't imagine myself being that 
   dumb.  I neither dance nor gamble.  I swore off watching 
   television when I was in my early twenties and rarely watch it 
   now.  Movies?  It has been many, many years since I have been 
   to a movie.  I went to a few in my youth.  After getting up and 
   walking out of some in disgust I gave up on them.  Underneath 
   it all is a knowledge of right and wrong that goes back to 
   childhood and a commitment to the Way of Right, the way of 
   decency, integrity, goodness and morality that is part of being 
   a Christian. 
   
   Struggle?  Temptations?  The ridicule of the crowd?  The 
   difficulty of walking a lonely path?  They were all there.  
   They are part of the Christian life. 

   My background?  I was raised in the country, on a dairy farm.  
   My raising was very strict -- we children were taught strict 
   and unquestioning obedience -- and physical discipline was 
   used.  My father was a very hard worker who farmed as well as 
   working a regular job.  He grew up during the depression years 
   and that left a strong stamp on his outlook and character.  I 
   never saw him smoke, drink, gamble, swear, or use any kind of 
   bad or low language.  My mother was a good, decent, caring 
   Christian mother.  I thank God for her.  I was raised on hard 
   farm work.  Father worked hard and he expected his children to 
   work hard, too.  I believe he started me out working at the 
   age of about 6 or 7.  I was the oldest of the children.  
   Morning and evening there were farm chores.  Mostly milking the 
   cows twice a day.  I got up at 5:00 in the morning in a cold 
   upstairs bedroom of an old farmhouse, dressed, and waded 
   through three foot snow drifts to get to the barn to help milk 
   twenty four dairy cows before breakfast and school on many a 
   winter morning.  And then, after breakfast, I walked a mile and 
   a half to the small one-room country school that I attended 
   through grade eight.  Then in the evening we milked the cows 
   again.  This was in the early 50's.  I did what I had to do.  
   And I never resented it.  My father paid me a salary.  One 
   dollar a week -- a salary which gradually increased over the 
   years through a series of fifty cent wage increases to two 
   dollars and fifty cents per week.  During the summers I spent a 
   great deal of time on a John Deere tractor out in the fields.  
   And summer was the time for putting up hay.  For several years 
   we put it up into the mow loose.  Then we started baling it.  
   For several years, in the years when I was between about 6 and 
   11, we also raised red raspberries and cucumbers.  I spent many 
   a hot summer day picking red raspberries or cucumbers (as did, 
   also, the rest of our family).  I remember we had to pick the 
   cucumbers every other day.  We had an acre or two.  You were 
   stooped over in the hot sun and it was unpleasant, menial, 
   boring work.  I also remember having to hoe the garden.  I 
   didn't like that job either.  The soil would be hard, the day 
   was hot, and the rows were long.  I remember one winter 
   spending day after day for the most of the winter out with my 
   father cutting up trees with a crosscut saw --- I at one end 
   and my father at the other.  We had a number of fruit trees my 
   father had decided to cut down.  We cut them up for firewood 
   for our furnace.  If chain saws were available, we didn't have 
   one.  I had to do a lot of hard, menial work that I didn't 
   enjoy in those years.   But I believe to this day that it was 
   good for me.  God gave me that childhood.  I thank him for it.  
   It was far better than the idle life of a city boy who has 
   nothing to do but get into trouble.  I wouldn't trade that 
   childhood for anything.  It wasn't all work.  I spent many 
   hours fishing in the river behind our farm. 

   I was an A student and at the top of my classes in high school. 
   My main interest was mathematics, physics, chemistry, and 
   science, although I took an interest in all the subjects and 
   did well in all of them.  The secret to my success?  Hard work, 
   perseverance, determination.  I knew what I wanted.  I was 
   motivated.  I had goals and aspirations.  I wanted to make 
   something of my life.  I wanted a college degree.  I attended 
   college on a scholarship, studied mathematics and physics, and 
   obtained a degree.  I worked in research as my life career.  In 
   my mid twenties I met and later married a very attractive and 
   sweet girl.  We have been married for over 40 years and our 
   marriage has been a very quiet, serene and happy one.  

   I look around me.  I see a society where indecency, crudeness, 
   obscenity and badness appear to be the norm.  Most people 
   appear to have lives of turmoil and badness.  My life has been 
   a good one.  Life is what you make it.  Life is what you are.  
   I believe God has watched out over me in a special way over the 
   years.  I believe His protective hand has been over me.  And He 
   has blessed me greatly, in every way.  There is no doubt about 
   that.