The year was 1974 / 1975 and there weren’t a lot of people going around talking about “out-of-body” experiences and/or “life-after-death” occurrences. I knew that it had happened to me though and I began to look for information on the subjects.

At first, the only information I found (about “out-of-body” experiences) had to do with Eastern religions, Buddist monks, etc. and the whole idea about “astral-traveling.” Then I did some studying on the subject of astrology but none of these things satisfied my questions.

I had been raised in a good Christian home and had a good foundation for my belief in God. I wasn’t exactly a steady attendee at church when all this happened, nor, even after it happened I’m sorry to say. But, I knew what was right and what was wrong and I believed that the Bible was God’s Word of Truth.

I began to search, more and more for answers to my experiences and I read religious materials by people like Kenneth Hagin, Billy Graham, Kenneth Copeland, Charles and Frances Hunter and others. I listened to tapes of sermons of many people and I watched the religious channel on TV because I wanted to….not because it was the only thing on.

A number of things happened in my life in these few years. I began teaching school in the fall of 1974 and in the summer of 1976, I married your mother who was also a teacher in the same building. I also helped my father on the farm that summer and fall and then again the next year.

I still didn’t comprehend the total experience but things were happening that would continue to shape my life and my faith. The fall of ’77 had been a long hard one for my father on the farm. There was lots of mud and mechanical breakdowns and the harvest was a difficult one. Finally, things were done, hunting season came and was enjoyed and then winter came and was a time to slow down a little, catch up on things, do repairs and begin making preparations for next year.

Things seemed to be going well until my father had a heart attack. It’s amazing how so many of us take health issues so matter-of-factly until all of a sudden, either we or someone we know and love doesn’t have that good health anymore.

I had faced a family death once before in 1971 when my grandfather had died. I had been very close to him but it was different because he was 87 years old when he died and he had lived a good, healthy, full life right up to the end. But now…..I was possibly facing my father’s death and he was only 59 years old! There were too many things to do yet. It was too soon. It wasn’t fair!!

To make a long story shorter, my father made it past the heart attack and he and my mother even took some time and went to Florida that winter. Maybe things would get better after all.

One of the things I had learned from my family while I was growing up is that God always has a purpose for everything that happens. Maybe it’s a learning experience…maybe it’s a blessing….maybe it’s a punishment….maybe it’s a test of our faith in Him…..but whatever…there is a purpose and even if we don’t agree with it or understand it...He has a reason! I’m glad I learned that lesson because I still had things coming up in my life that would test that idea ...and my faith…to the max !!

In the spring of 1978, I was still teaching and now I was farming full time too to help my dad while he was recovering from his heart problem. By the time the summer vacation (at school) rolled around, it felt good to only work one job again. It was during this summer however, that we found out my dad had another ordeal to go through. He had been spitting up blood and after all the tests had been run…….it was found that he had lung cancer and would need to do radiation therapy and chemotherapy.