Although I am unable to be with you at our class reunion, I am praying for you every day. I though it might be fun to imagine being there and what I might share, with you, most of whom I have not seen for fifty years. I am sure I would recognize some of you and I know that I remember many of your names. Unfortunately, this email is sent in mass so I am unable to mention personal stuff, however I hope you will reply so we can visit.

In 2004, I saw Jimmy Wood who lives in Oklahoma City (I live in Tulsa, OK) and he still looked the same, just older. (this is a picture with Jimmy in the middle, and Ed Kessey who also lives in Tulsa, that Ed's wife Suzie took last month) I had not seen Jimmy since High School, even though we came close since in December of 65 when we both left Vietnam from the same base. One of the advantages of this email is you can delete it at any time where as at a reunion, if I lapsed into Vietnam stories about how we funded the enemy or how I started and ran a school that grew to over 1200 students or how God saved my life twice (probably due to a praying Mother back in Port Arthur), you might just be bored.

I'm sure it would not take me long to show a picture of Caitlin, my youngest granddaughter who is almost two (these pictures were taken last summer). It includes a picture of my wife of 38 years, Barbara, who I'm sure would be traveling with me, if I were able to come. Barbara is the HR Director of a large medical group here in Tulsa. And there is a picture of Ailis, who just turned 4. These are my only grandchildren and their parents, my oldest son Paul and his wife Amy live in Virginia Beach where he works as an Engineer/Manager on Aircraft Carriers and Submarines and Amy teaches in a private school. My youngest son Mark decided to go back to school and is in his last year at Medical School at Mt Sinai in New York (specializing in Urology) and his wife Eva is getting her MBA at Columbia and has a summer internship with Boston Consulting Group in Chicago.

I'm sure when I mention these details many of you will say you have great grandchildren the age of my grandchildren (I didn't marry till I was 29). In January of this year, 08, I finished my fastest Marathon by over 10 minutes (out of 12 since 02) in Tiberias, Israel. The last 10-12 miles I ran with a woman a couple years younger than me named Flora (see the picture her husband took) and when she caught up with me the first thing she said was "I'm a great-grandmother". Flora is from England and has finished more Marathons than me, including the New York Marathon and several London Marathons. She not only helped my speed but when we crossed the finish line they had run out of Finisher's medals for me (her husband made sure they saved one for her). Flora didn't think it was right so she fussed non stop for 20 minutes in fluent Hebrew until they found a finisher's medal for me. Flora was a blessing from God. My Hebrew is limited to asking where the restroom is or studying the Bible. (as you may have noticed the pictures didn't copy - let me know and I can email you the letter with pictures)

In my younger days, I was a buyer for a major department store. To reduce my boredom of buying trips to New York, I used to try to see only Broadway shows with the original cast, like Hair and Coco . My most memorable buying trip was a couple of weeks in Japan. After getting married in June of 70, my life started change for the better. Although I was nominal Christian all my life, I got to know Jesus and God personally, in fall of 71. When my oldest son was to be born in 72, I canceled a month long buying trip in Europe because my priorities had changed and I wanted to be with my wife, when Paul was born. I was a work in process, as I remember attending the Super Bowl in Houston in 74 the day before Mark was born (my neighbor used Barbara's ticket). Since it was in Houston, I sure some of you were there. Probably, I should have watched it on TV, so I could be more available for driving to the hospital. My Christian walk seems like 2 steps forward and 1 step backward but I keep making progress. For the next decade I owned my own business and finally I began serving God full time.

Sometimes people our age talk about medicine. This would be a conversation that I would try to slip away from, since I don't take any medicine. I did learn something worth sharing a couple of years ago from a Neurologist in CA, who runs marathons. Apparently we have something called preceptors on our nerve endings that affect our balance. They are trainable but most people lose up to 75% of their balance from age 25 to 75. We hear stuff about bone density like it is a given we are going to fall. Some people even expect to have a hip replacement and some even do it electively. I can tell you my balance is a lot better, with just simple balance exercises. We may self-destruct as we get older but God did not create us to self-destruct. Bone density is good but why fall?

I have to be careful on a lot of advice as I am unsure the cause and effect. Example is my hair is darker today (plenty of gray in my beard and yes in person you can see white hairs in my head) than when I was in High School, that can only have one explanation, which is God (and no, I did not pray that it would be darker - if you had asked me 10 years ago I would have assumed my hair would be solid white by now as my father's was at this age). Also, by my age, my father had had multiple heart attacks and today, I am healthier and stronger physically and spiritually than at any time in my life. My weight is down to what it was when I was 19 and I believe I am on track for the 120 years God talks about.

One thing I did prayer for, for 25 years, was my eyes. When I first got my driver's license, I was required to wear glasses. They were off more than on until I got to college and I remember sitting on the front row with glasses on in class and still having trouble seeing the board. Now, God has healed my eyes and it was confirmed by removing the restriction from my drivers license.

For the last 2 decades I have been growing as a Christian with OJT. Probably, I have moved from being a baby Christian to being in elementary school. Although I feel like it has been "on the job" training, I did get an outstanding Theological education including access to both Greek and Hebrew, when I got my MA. Most translators seem to have their own doctrinal agendas so knowledge of the original biblical languages is helpful. In preparation for the trip to Israel a few months ago, God had me learn modern Hebrew which revived my Biblical Hebrew. Subsequently, I realized how important Hebrew is in understanding the words of Jesus, as Jesus spoke Hebrew and then it was translated from the Hebrew to Greek in the New Testament. Since serving God full time, I have had the opportunity to minister to many thousands of people. Although over the years I have had little to no follow up contact with most of the people I have ministered to.

Early in my ministry, I was in Korea for a few months; a Pastor in Inchon invited me for lunch (he spoke very little English). After lunch, we drove to a house and as we were running in the rain to the door under his umbrella, he said in poor English "man sick". For a while I wasn't even sure which man, finally we were praying for the father. At the conclusion of our praying, with God's guidance I motioned to the father to take a deep breath and as I pointed up, told him in Korean to say "thank you, God". They all got excited and we left. Four days later the Pastor came to me dragging the children's Pastor in the Inchon Church who sometimes translated for me and told me what a great miracle it was. I asked "what was he sick from" and after my translator looked in her Korean/English dictionary she finally told me he was dying of lung cancer. God does the healing, so you really don't have to know what is going on.

Most of the people I have ministered to have been in the Tulsa area. And although most I have never heard from again, one I did hear back from was in an email I received in 02. She wrote, "I came to see you about 2 ½ years ago because I was pregnant and sick and wanted your advice about an abortion. You may remember me. I just wanted to tell you thanks for helping me make the best decision I ever made which was to continue the pregnancy. I now have the sweetest, cutest little 2 year old …" she even included pictures. God blessed me by her saying thank you.

Over the last 20 years, I have tried to follow only the teachings of Jesus. By definition, a Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. It is my desire and I know it is God's desire that every one of you have eternal life.

Jesus teaches us that most people will not make it to eternal life1. Yes, that means a lot of people who call themselves Christians and even go to Church regularly, may not experience eternal life. And when we read how Jesus describes eternal death2, it is amazing that more people aren't concerned about eternal life.

Jesus teaches that no teaching, from a church or church leader3, not even the Bible4 will get you to eternal life, not even other religions. Jesus teaches us that eternal life is only possible through Him5. What Jesus requires for eternal life will work in most Churches that consider themselves Christian.

Step 1: As one well known Christian, who did not have access to a Bible like most of us, stated, that he decided to forget about everything else except Jesus6. Only focus on Jesus. Note: Jesus teaches that God gave Him the power to Judge7 and if we follow Jesus we can have eternal life now8. Jesus teaches us that we do not have to wait until our body dies9 and if we have eternal life now, we will not have to be judged in the future10.

Step 2: To follow what Jesus teaches, it is good to read what Jesus teaches in the four Gospels, especially the words of Jesus that are in red letters in many Bibles. Also, what Jesus teaches us by His example.

Step 3: When encountering teachings of your Church or Church leaders, we need to follow the example of the early Church and compare the teachings to what God says and Jesus says in the Bible11. If the teachings don't agree, stick with what Jesus and God teach! For most people, this can be accomplished without leaving their friends and social support groups of their existing Churches. You can follow what Jesus teaches without arguing or judging others12.

A few elementary thoughts, that could help a person review how accurately they are following Jesus, might include that Jesus said that everything He said and did is what God told Him to say and do13 and Jesus referred to the Old Testament around 100 times. Although not everyone who goes to Church is going to have eternal life, we can be sure that no one can meet Jesus requirements for eternal life, without being a part of a Church14. Yes, Jesus teaches us to love God15 and Jesus also teaches us to fear God16. Jesus teaches us to love others17 and to forgive others18. Many people who consider themselves good Christians and yet have enormous un-forgiveness in their hearts. We must consider Jesus more important than our selves19 or our family20.

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