Revival at Home

AUGUST 1972

By the time I got home in August 1972 Cindy and David were going to church regularly at Elmbrook and attending "Forever Family" during the week - the bible study fellowship begun by Wyn Couchman. In Madison, WI my older brother Marc was also beginning to go to church regularly, having broken up with his long-time girlfriend because she didn't want to join him on his new spiritual journey.

The last time I had been at home I was absurdly zealous, leaving Christian literature everywhere and destroying all my albums. I suppose I did everything wrong, but I heard Marc talking to his girlfriend on the phone saying that this form of Christianity made sense. Now months later he was in church and living the life of a new-born Christian.

The first night I was home I spent alone with my sister Mary (the second youngest in the family of seven kids). I wanted to talk to her about Christ but was afraid to. Inside I thought she was too hardened to care, so I said nothing until she asked, "So how's this Christianity going?" I asked her what she thought about Christ and that within several minutes she was praying to receive Christ.

The next day I drove to Northern WI to my parents' summer home. The whole family was there as well as our next door neighbor (from Milwaukee) Paul, who was Dave and Eric's friend. Paul and I got into a discussion about religion, Christ, and the world. He kept on bringing up problems with Christianity, "What about people in Africa who have never heard?" "Why do bad things happen if God is good?" etc. These are questions that are very common among people who are looking for ways to discount the God of Chrisianity. They are also questions I could not answer, neither can I today.

To be sure I gave a few of the pat answers, "There is suffering in the world because of sin," and so on, but the answers went nowhere and seemed hollow. Finally, I looked at Paul and said, "I don't know the answers, but I do know this: Jesus died for you. What are YOU going to do about it?" We ended the conversation with that.

That same day I saw my brother Eric walking up the path so I asked him what is he going to do about Christ. He said he already believed. I asked him why he still lived the way he did and also told him that believing is not enough, for after all, the devils also believe.

Shortly after my youngest sister Pat came into the house and I asked her what she was going to do about Jesus. She wanted to give her life to Christ, so we prayed.

During the next few days my 2 brothers and Paul were discussing Christianity and decided that it made sense. I was told that Paul with whom I had the argument was feeling different.

Days later, back in Milwaukee, I was driving my new orange VW. David was in the front and Paul and Eric were in the back. I had not talked to Paul since our argument and asked him, "Paul, would you like to give your life to Christ?" He said yes, so while I drove he repeated a prayer with me to become a newborn Christian. Years later Eric told me that he too prayed in the car with Paul.

At Elmbrook Church all of my brothers (except Marc who was going to a Madison church) and all of my sisters met up with all 5 of my cousins who had recently become Christian. I began to realize somebody out there had been praying for us and the one who came to mind was the one who always told us she was praying for us - Grandma Winnie - the same one I had mockingly warned my brothers, "Watch out because Grandma is praying for us."

Before I went back to the ship in FL my sister Cindy introduced me to a friend she met at church. Cindy kept talking to her friend about her older brother who had become a new Christian after being in drugs and one day Cindy showed her a picture of me. The girl couldn't believe what she saw. Only a year and a half ago, she sat next to me in History class and prayed for me every day because she knew I was stoned day after day.