"I Was Called by Don Knotts" Back in 1965, my hour-long drive home on L.A.'s freeways after a 10-hour day was eased by the distraction of talk shows. I would turn the dial, eavesdropping on one program and then another. One night, I heard what sounded like Don Knotts (you remember, Barney Fife on TV?) talking about the Bible. Stunned, I listened in. He was saying something about Jesus not having long hair. What was Don Knotts doing talking about religion and, since I had been raised a good Lutheran, what did he mean Jesus didn't have long hair?! Well, the show ended with something about a magazine, and I made note of the station and the time. I kept tuning in each night. This was the height of the "hippy movement" and Vietnam War protests. The Supreme Court had just thrown prayer out of the schools; and some hippy in the newspaper asked, "Why are you putting me down? I have a beard and long hair just like Jesus." That made me angry, but he was right. He looked just like the picture in my Bible. "Don Knotts" had said Jesus didn't have long hair. I listened in more carefully and found out Don's name was really Garner Ted Armstrong. I wrote for that magazine, The Plain Truth, and a couple of booklets. The rest is history—a long and exciting one… So why did Garner Ted Armstrong sound like Don Knotts? It seems the station I was listening to was running the tape a little fast to get done five minutes early so they could fit in a couple extra commercials! Speeding up the tape caught my ear and caused me to listen when I otherwise would not have. God certainly works in mysterious ways. —Knute Josifek Los Angeles, California, congregation ---------------- "The Very Thing I Had Been Searching for All These Years" Although we joined the United Church of God a few years ago, we have only just recently had the wonderful opportunity to be baptized. This wondrous event gave us both the opportunity to reflect on our journey so far. This journey has taken us along many strange pathways and through many eye-opening doors. It is a journey my wife and I love to share with as many people as care to listen. For almost nine years we traveled the broad ways of Pentecostalism until one day when we discovered the Sabbath. I had been putting together an end-time radio documentary for my Christian community program called Christian Magazine when during my research I stumbled across an audiotape of a teaching on the Sabbath. It only took a quick search of the Scriptures and a meeting with our head pastor to realize we were the victims of a very clever deception. I purchased some Bible software, gave away my radio program and spent the next three years searching the Scriptures. I began to discover some amazing things. Beginning with the Sabbath, we began to discover the real depth of the deception. We discovered many things such as the commandments had not been nailed to the cross and done away with and that Jesus was not crucified on Good Friday and resurrected on Easter Sunday and those "three days and three nights" meant exactly that. And so after 12 months of keeping the Sabbath alone at home, we joined a messianic Christian group that met on the Sabbath. We stayed only a short time; however, we did have the opportunity to learn about the Holy Days. Once again, we found ourselves alone keeping the Sabbath by ourselves. I had discovered that the Bible spoke of a remnant Church, and I wondered if somewhere, somehow we would find a church that had not been deceived and that taught the truth. One day I came across another audiotape that had been given to me by a customer of mine many years previously, and as I began to play it, I realized that this was the very thing I had been searching for all these years. The teachings on the tape contained some of the same understandings of the Scriptures that I had discovered. The audiotape had been produced by the United Church of God. Eventually we found our way along to this congregation, and both my wife and I are delighted to be finally home in the Church that we believe is where God wants us to be. And so recently we reassessed our position on baptism and through the lessons contained in the Bible studies provided through the United Church of God, we embraced baptism as perhaps the most important stage of our journey so far. —Don and Lyn Browning Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia ---------------- Baptized in the Mississippi at 3 a.m. (Thankfully, No Snakes!) I will be in the Church 44 years this June 26, having been baptized in 1963. About 1961 or a little earlier, my father, who lived on a small farm, sent for the Church of God's magazine. It had been advertised in a farm publication, possibly the Wisconsin Agriculturist. At the time, he was nearly 80 years old. There was no Church meeting in St. Paul or Minneapolis then. My husband and I went to visit my father one afternoon, and the magazine was on the table. I picked it up and looked through the 1961 issue. I'd never heard of it before. My mother said, "Take it home and give the kids the Bible lesson, as Dad is done with it." I did and read it all before I went to bed. I sent for my own copy of the magazine. I finally received a letter from headquarters stating there would be a baptizing tour at Red Wing, Minnesota. I had my husband take me to Red Wing, where it was held in a motel. By that time, I had covered 13 lessons in the Bible Correspondence Course. We were counseled until 2:30 a.m. Then they chose three of us who were ready, a lady teacher from Red Wing, a farmer who lived near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and me. We were taken near Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, to a beach along the Mississippi River. We had to wait until the people all left the beach. Then, at 3 a.m. by car lights, Mr. Walter Sharp and Mr. David Albert baptized us. To me it was like when Jesus went down into the river. But, there was no visible Holy Spirit over our heads! We left the water, soaking wet and arrived home by 5 a.m. Someone asked me if we saw the big water moccasin snakes, as there were apparently many in that location of the river. I'm thankful that God kept them away! On the way home, our old car ran low on water, but a filling station had left a full can of water out front, which we used—a blessing from God. I'm now 92½ years old, but the baptism is still as bright as the day June 25-26, 1963, when God called me. At that time the nearest congregation met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the following Passover was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. —Violet Sand Eau Claire, Wisconsin ---------------- "I Almost Wrecked My Little '53 Chevy Trying to...Write Down the Address" One of the first things I can remember in life was my mother reading the Bible to my brother and me. She taught us to read using the Bible, and I practiced on the Progressive Farmer Magazine. My mother listened to preachers on the radio every chance she got. When I was about 12 years old, I asked her who her favorite preacher was. She said that the only one that preached the Bible was Herbert W. Armstrong. When I was 16 I heard a program on the radio of my father's pickup truck that made sense to me. It was a program on "Real Happiness" and was The World Tomorrow program. I remembered what my mother had told me, so I began to listen for The World Tomorrow. My mother passed away when I was 19, so I never knew if she ever wrote for literature. But one Sunday morning in Sunday school the lesson was on how the law had been done away with. This threw me into confusion because it was contrary to the Bible. I spent the afternoon alone, in study and prayer, and asked for some sign or proof that the Bible was God's Word. At the time I was commuting with six other guys to Winston-Salem, where I was working and going to school. On Monday morning I was the first to arrive at our meeting place, and all six of the other guys came by and told me that they had personal business after work and would be driving themselves. This was a miracle that forced me to drive alone in a situation where I would listen to the radio. What did I hear but a World Tomorrow program on "Seven Proofs God Exists" and proofs that the Bible is God's Word. I almost wrecked my little '53 Chevy trying to get a paper and pencil out of the glove box to write down the address for the booklets. I wore out those pieces of literature showing them to people. In 1968 when I was 27 I applied to attend Ambassador College but was not admitted, probably because I was married with two children. I still had not learned of the Church, but a short while later was contacted by the minister in Greensboro and invited to attend Church in the summer of 1969. My wife and I were baptized in December of 1969. —Lacy A. Mayes Hickory, North Carolina ---------------- "Losing My Most Prized Possession but Gaining Eternal Life" When I was young, my family didn't go to any church. Grandma told Dad about the radio broadcast and Church magazine. One thing led to another until February 1966, just before I turned 10 years old, when my parents said we were going to start attending church. It would not be like any other church. We would go on Saturday. From that first Sabbath, everything made sense to me. At 13, I asked for my own copies of the Church magazine and Bible Correspondence Course. When I got a job, I saved for Ambassador College. I allowed myself one major purchase: a stereo system. I loved that stereo! I brought it with me to college in 1974. While I was at church on March 29, 1975, the stereo was stolen off my desk. Having my most prized possession stolen while I was in church upset me to my very core. I realized that, even though I had grown up in the Church, I had not obeyed God as well as I should have. In my journal, I wrote: "Now I got mad. I cried aloud and spared not. I really talked it out with God. I cried, I was so upset. Upset with everything. I admitted what a rebellious, dirty, rotten clod I am. I deserve to have my stereo stolen. I deserve death. "What good am I? Why does God bother with me? I don't obey God. I sometimes think I want to, but do I really? I'm too lazy. I want to obey, but my mind doesn't want to. Now I know what You mean when You said the heart is evil and desperately wicked above all things, who can know it? And I dropped to my knees and asked God to forgive me of my past—for what I did and for what I am. I asked Him to change me—to make me a new person. And to leave the old person buried under the water. "Then I read the 'Repent' and 'Be Baptized' sections in the November '74 Good News. It mentioned how men of old (page 8) sought God with prayer and fasting. 'The earnest supplication of God through prayer and fasting shows Him you mean business. He doesn't want a temporary, fleeting repentance which is brought about by an emotional appeal due to the pressures around you.' I don't want this to be a temporary repentance. Tomorrow I'll call a minister and counsel for baptism. Tonight, I fast." On Monday I made an appointment with a minister for Friday. I wrote, "My whole life—eternity—hangs in the balance of Friday. And I hate waiting." The meeting was changed to Thursday. I wrote that day, "We discussed how I came to the decision for baptism, my past history, the Church, and was I ready to count the cost? I was. He saw no reason [why] I shouldn't be baptized. I told him there was no other way. I have come to a point in my life where I can't go on living the way I want to." The next day, Friday, April 4, we met in the pool in the basement of Ambassador Hall. I recorded the event in my journal: "We went out to the steps and bowed our heads. He asked God to bless the ceremony, mentioning how I willingly chose to come to do His way. "Then we went into the water, and he asked me my name, and have I repented, and have I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Then he said he will baptize me in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The water was very warm… "Then he pushed me back under the water, and I could feel myself lying on my back under the water, him holding me down. And I knew what it felt like to be buried. I felt dead. The next thing I knew, I was up above the water, and had a hard time getting my footing. We then came up, and he laid his hands on me and asked God's Spirit to enter me. "He then congratulated me, and we walked back to the dressing room. I felt good. I felt happy. I felt clean. I felt exhilarated to know I was now a member of the God family." —Gregory Dullum Cape Girardeau, Missouri ---------------- Thanks to all who have sent in a baptism story. We hope to run more of them in a future issue.