Sharing My Story

The rest of 1975 I was involved in several CCC media projects
such as the Mediated Training package. This package was a
combination of films, slide shows, instruction manuals and
other print material that "is an entire complete Lay Institute
for Evangelism in a structured Audio-Visual form." (from my
September-October 1975 prayerletter) Dr Bright was always
thinking about how to multiply the Campus Crusade training
in creative ways. The Lay Institute for Evangelism was a seminar
that trained church laymen on how to share their Christian faith.
Several of the Campus Crusade staff would come to a church over
a weekend or during several evenings and give lectures and conduct
hands on training about Campus Crusade's methods of evangelism
and discipleship. The Mediated Training package combined this
training into media form so that participating churches could put
on their own training at a fraction of the expense of having actual
CCC speakers come to their facility. This was a way of multiplying
the ministry of the Lay Institute far beyond the ability of
human speakers. This method of media training seemed innovative
for the times and was successful.

One night during the summer of 1975 Don Franklin and I were
returning to San Bernardino from watching a bobybuilding event
in the Los Angeles area (probably the Mr Western America
where Sergio Oliva a former Mr Olympia gave a posing exhibition.
Oliva was one of the most incredible bodybuilders ever). On the
Interstate 10 freeway going east we were just passing the Ontario
Motor Speedway when we were rear ended by another vehicle.
The auto hit our car about three times causing enough damage to
our vehicle (a brand new small station wagon) that we ended up
dead on the freeway in the second fastest lane. While we were out
of control I remember Don shouting "they're ruining my new car!!"
I thought "The heck with the car they may be ruining us! " It is by
God's providence that we survived and walked way from the
accident that totaled Don's car. Don sustained a few scratches to
his leg and I was completely unhurt. We got back to San Bernardino
in a tow truck and I returned home about 5 AM. The highway patrolmen
arrested our "attackers" on drunk driving charges. This is sometime
I never shared with my parents as I didn't want them to cause them
worry over sometime that had already happened.

In December 1975 several of my roommates and I moved from 48th Street
house to a new housing development on San Bernardino's east side.
This was our 1141 E. Hampshire Rd address where I lived for over four
years making it my longest housing situation during my Campus Crusade
years. This house was owned by "Mom" Doris Oram who rented rooms
to different young men who worked at Campus Crusade. Doris (who was
in her sixties) worked in Campus Crusade's print shop as a press operator
and actually preferred housing young men because they were easier to
deal with and live with than the opposite genre. Doris was a mother
surrogate who could be confided in and there were those of us inside
and outside the household that did just that. She always had a listening
ear for problems of both young men and young women. Often these were
matters of the heart and several marriages came out of Hampshire house
during those years. Doris' listening ear and motherly advise were helpful
in the development of those future marriages.

Other early housemates were Jim Winchell, Van Wong, Steve Bradshaw
and Steve Rubidoux. Steve Bradshaw worked in the Print shop for a time
but eventually began working as a outside ministry with Prison Mission
Association (PMA) that was located in nearby Riverside. Bradshaw would
eventually leave Campus to work full-time with PMA and still later would
begin his own prison ministry in his native Tulsa, Oklahoma called
Prison Discipleship. Van Wong who worked as an hourly employee at
Campus Crusade was now an art student at nearby
University of California/San Bernardino. Jim Winchell was still
working in the Campus Crusade print shop and Steve Rubidoux was a
from of Steve Bradshaw's for Oklahoma work stayed for some months
and eventually moved back to his home state. As with the other housing
situations were each had our own rooms and shared wonderful Sunday
afternoon dinners together. There was a good sense of family in the
Hampshire house which persisted through the last half of the 1970s as
several roommates came and left.

Through this time I continued my weight training. "God has given me
a small ministry in this area among my fellow Christians. One of my
roommates [probably Steve Bradshaw] and I have been working out
together for several months and he has been able to loss 15 pounds
and is working to trim more off. He has also seen a very good
improvement in his strength. Also another staff man and myself
have gotten some weights together and constructed a weight training
bench for doing barbell bench presses) which we keep at Arrowhead
Springs and work out during lunch hours. Several others have joined
us also in this excellent form of exercise."(for my March-April 1976 prayerletter).

I was still involved with the convalescent hospital ministry and was
working for a while with a lay preacher named Orville Matzke. "Speedy"
Matzke was a former fighter pilot during World War II.

Another very memorable gentlemen that I knew during that time work
worked in the convalescent hospital ministry was Leon Applegate. Leon
was a bright Christian gentleman who was afflicted by Cerebral Palsy which
in his case affected his speech (very muffled) though he was effective
in personal work and teaching. Leon was a bachelor was lived in a
small book-filled and roach infested house in one of the seedier parts
of San Bernardino. We had good fellowship to together and he was
very well educated and very well read especially in Christian apologetics
and Biblical theology. Leon was one who made me aware of the
ministry of the Bible Answer man, Dr Walter Martin and his Christian
Research Institute organization. His one great frustration in life was
not having the opportunity to marry and his disability put him at a
disadvantage in that area. I probably met Leon as early as 1972 and
sustained a friendship with him until he moved to Modesto in the
late 1970s. Leon along with Don Franklin was one of those unforgettable
and much beloved characters God bought into man live during that time.