I was not raised in a church. My mother was a member of the local Congregational Church in Union Grove, WI. She did not attend. She had us three boys baptized (sprinkled) in the parsonage in the fall of 1942 so I was almost almost 5 years old and my brothers were almost 3 and 2. We did go to Sunday School there for a little while till Mom got tired of the hassle we gave her when she tried to send us.
As a teenager around 16 or 17 I began to reach out toward the Lord. I got a copy of the Revised Standard Version Bible and began to read it. I read some Roman Catholic material but did not pursue it any further. On March 28, 1955 I attended evangelistic services at the local Baptist Church. I really don't remember who preached or what he preached on but after going home that night I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart. My life was radically changed. My language cleaned up immediately. I went back to that church on Wednesday night and testified for the first time in my life. I quit smoking and drinking, and I started going to that Baptist Church. I attended Sunday School, Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, youth meetings and Wednesday prayer and Bible Study. I started carrying my Bible to school with me and read it in Study Hall. People who knew me knew that something happened.
Through reading the Bible and through hearing some preachers on the radio, I began to realize that God had more available for me than what we were experiencing and practicing at that Baptist Church. This is not meant to put anyone down at that Church. Our pastor was a good man and there were some great Christians in that Church. They just did not believe that things like healing, speaking with tongues, etc were available in our day.
Some of us teenagers talked about maybe being more for us. One girl cried all the while we were talking and reported us to the pastor. He kindly told me later on the way to some Bible classes that those gifts had ceased when the written Word became available. I did not argue with him. Some time during this period a couple of the teen age guys from that church rode to Kenosha, WI with a girl who went to Sunday School at the Baptist Church and then to a morning service with her aunt at a Church of God (Cleveland, TN). I was not impressed with their service. To be fair, we got there after the worship and all we were there for was a long period of announcements and the sermon. The trip to the Church of God may have happened before or after my visit to Marshfield. I'm not sure of the chronology.
During the summer of 1955 our family went "up north" in Wisconsin for a week. We spent Saturday night and Sunday with my mother's aunt. About a block from her house there was a white, frame, two story house that had a sign out in front that said "Apostolic Church." When I asked my aunt what kind of a church it was she said she did not know but they got kinda loud at times. That was back in the days before most places were air conditioned.
I got up that Sunday morning and went to a Church of Christ. I'd never been to one before. It was a small congregation and the folks were nice. That night I walked over to the Apostolic Church and was contemplating going on in. I walked around the side and tried to see into one of the windows. I heard a voice saying, "Kinda nosey, aren't you?" A couple of teen age girls (if I remember right) had seen me. I walked over to them and talked to them. When I told them where I was from, they knew some people from our small town who went to a church in Racine called Bethel Tabernacle. I had been to that church a couple of times, once as a joke with a couple of teenagers, once as a child as part of a Sunday School contest (with the family the girl in Marshield knew) and once just to visit during a revival. Actually, the visit during the revival may have happened after the Marshfield visit --I'm not sure of the timing.
I went on into the church. The auditorium was the living and dining rooms on the first floor of the house. There was a small platform. I think Sis. Hardt led some singing and testimonies while she played her guitar and Bro. Hardt preached something about a fish in a net. I may have that service confused with the following week. After service, I went to the basement prayer room and sought God for the Holy Ghost Baptism. I did not receive the experience but prayed for maybe an hour.
Our family spent the rest of the week in a cabin on a lake. I don't remember where it was but it may have been Hayward. A couple of times I walked out into the woods and sought God for the Holy Ghost Baptism.
The following Sunday we were in Marshfield again staying with a different relative. I got up Sunday morning and walked to the Apostolic Church. I was there for Sunday School. Sis Hardt taught the teenagers. I think it was in the basement at a picnic table. I don't remember if there was a subsequent morning service or not. I spent the day with them. Like I said, I remember two children, Aaron and Sharon. That night after service I went to the prayer room and prayed again but did not receive the Holy Ghost Baptism.
I'm not 100 percent sure but I think I prayed both Sunday nights like I stated above.
In October, Tex Hansen, a neighbor and someone I actually went to school with for all of grades 1-8 and also 9-12, and the mutual acquaintance with the Marshfield girls invited me to a meeting at Elim Tabernacle in Milwaukee, WI. At that time I was still 17 and in the 11th grade. I think this was a District Conference or maybe it was a fellowship meeting. Elim Tabernacle was pastored by F.J. Ellis (no relation to me). After service I went to the altar (or maybe a prayer room) and was seeking the Holy Ghost Baptism. Tex asked me if I wanted to get baptized. I had been baptized that previous summer in a lake and had joined the Baptist Church. I had been reading some about baptism in Jesus' name but was not convinced it was necessary. I thought, "Well, I'll probably get baptized in Jesus' name some time or another so I may as well do it tonight." The baptistry looked like a wooden box with a plastic liner. A garden hose was used to fill it with enought water to cover me. I had to kneel in it and the baptizer purshed me over backward. I'm not sure if I was completely submerged or not. Bro. L.R. Mitchell had been the pastor of Bethel Tabernacle in Racine and was leaving to go to North Dakota as a home missionary. He was the one who baptized me.
A month or two later I began to attend Bethel Tabenacle. I did not drive or have a car so a couple different families who lived in Union Grove took turns bringing me to church. By then Bro. Lester Thompson was the pastor.
On May 20, 1956 I was baptized in the Spirit at Bethel Tabernacle. That following September I went to St. Paul, MN to the Apostolic Bible Institute. In the spring of 1957 I came to the Cincinnati area for the summer and have been here ever since. I have only been back to Bethel Tabernacle twice and that was years ago. That church building is no longer there. It had been replaced by a brick Baptist church some time. Some of the congregation that made up Bethel Tabernacle is now part of a church called True Life Ministries. Their web site is
http://truelifeministries.com/index.php?nid=93285&s=hm
I've never been there and since it is about 8 hours from where I live, I'll probably never get there.
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