Sharing My Story

The latter half of 1970s were filled with many activities
and events. Included are some of them.

* In February 1977 I began involvement in a "growth group"
that was sponsored by the church that used Navigator
materials. Heavy emphasis was placed on memorization
which I was never good at. Small groups are an attempt
to help church people become more intimate with each
other. Small groups can be wonderful if people are really
clicking. If not they can become just one more activity to
juggle on an already busy schedule.

* In the Fall of 1977 my church (Faith Bible Church) had
the film series How Should We Then Live? written and
produced by Francis Schaeffer. Dr. Schaeffer presented
the idea of looking at history from a Biblically Christian
point of view. This type of overview thinking deeply
influenced the way I thought about origins, creative
artistic and literary endeavors and so forth. Our ideas
about life and reality were so influenced by the prevailing
materialist, liberal mind-set that the Christian needs to
realign his thinking in conformance with Christian patterns.

* In October 1977 the WWC art staff went on a retreat with
the Publication Dept. and we presented a skit about angels.

* I built a adjustable multi-purpose bench for weight lifting
in the garage that I used for several years.

* My work in WWC progressed as I was made art director
of the News section which meant that I did the layout
and design (photo selection, cropping for that section
of the magazine. I also continued doing layouts for the
feature section. In January 1978 I made a trip to Hart Press
in Lone Prairie, MN which was our printer to supervise
the printing of an issue. This was a pert that everyone
on the team had the opportunity to do during that time.
That was an interesting experience as I discovered what
ice fishing was as well as seeing the magazine being run
off on a large web press. I came home from my sub-zero
journey and got sick with the flu. I also starred in a magazine
ad for CCC's prison ministry as an inmate! My beard at that
time was wonderfully dark.

* During this time I continued as a constant reader.
"I have a confess to make. I am a confirmed bookaholic.
One of the surest signs of self control in my life is to go
into a bookstore and come out empty handed. However,
more often than not I succumb to temptation." (from
my March-April 1978 prayer letter). In this letter some
of the books I mentioned that I had recently or was
reading was Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, The
Red Decade by Eugene Lyons, An American First,
It Didn't Start with Watergate, Understanding the
Male Temperament by Tim LaHaye, Dinosaurs,
Those Terrible Lizards by Duane Gish, The Assault
on the Sexes, Eat, Drink and be Ready (about civil
preparedness from a end times viewpoint) and
the Four Loves by CS Lewis.

* Along about this time I became involved with
two social groups. One was a Inkling's reading
group (Inklings was not the name of the group
but the writers group we were reading) that were
devoted to reading and discussing the works of
British authors like JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis,
Charles Williams and others. This group consisted
of Kathy Golden, Jacque Donecho, Steve Becker,
Greg and Kathleen Schneider, Mark Bloom,
Rick DePrisco and many others over the years.
I even attended meetings occasionally after I
left Campus Crusade in 1982. It incredibly ran
for around 18 or 20 years. This was a good social
experience as I learned a lot from many other
people. The selection of books we discussed
expanded into many other fiction (fantasy,
science fiction, mainstream) and non-fiction
books from Christian and secular writers.

* The other group was a once a week drawing
meeting of Crusade artists to practice their
sketching skills. This happened during lunch
and we recruited models from other staff
whenever possible. This proved to be a valuable
time also as it helped to retain skills in a very
busy schedule that could easily get lost in the
press of more immediate concerns. Several of
us even took portray painting classes at the
local community college during that time and
even had some plein air painting and
drawing outings.