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Lord; What Is My Cause In Life?

If anyone knew me growing up they would know that I was no angel.  God had a cause in my life but if I didn't make some changes I would have never made it in life to carry out God's cause for me.  The song Bro. Johnson sings is my testimony.

Thank you for visiting My Cause In Life.  We have had some rough old rows to howe and mountains to climb in life, but kwe hope with all the bad things that has happened, we pray some good things has come of it.

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Everyone born on earth is born for a reason, everyone has a cause in life. Moses had a cause in life; {Exodus 3:11 Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?} {Exodus 24:12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.} John the Baptist had a cause in life; {Matthew 3:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare Ye the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.  {Exodus 23:6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause} 

I am telling you these things about myself as a testimony of how the Lord changed my life.  I didn't change just overnight, but for the biggest part, I did.  (1 Corinthians 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. )  In other words, I am now 66 and the Lord is still working on me.

Ever since I was a boy I had a heart for serving others.  My dad worked hard cleaning out blast furnaces at the Still Mill. I can remember dad going to people he knew, after work to give a helping hand.  I can remember one man who had cancer and couldn't  keep up at home, we went to his house to cut his grass and whatever needed to be done.   Another guy who lived a couple miles down the hollow from us needed help and dad went to give him a hand making repairs on his home.

 

There was one guy who fell into a big pot of hot melted still at work.  As he was falling he grabbed a hold of the side of the pot to keep from falling all the way in.  They rushed him to the hospital hoping they could save him.  Dad took me to the hospital with him to see his friend.  Needless to say, he passed away a couple of days later.  

There was a friend of his involvement in the Boy Scouts and was doing some volunteer work at Boy Scout Camp OyO. He asked dad if he wanted to help, so dad took me with him as he gave him a helping hand. That's when I became interested in the Boy Scouts.  I was too young to join them, but I joined Troop 1 as soon as I was old enough to join.  My mom and dad were the best.  They didn't have a lot, but they always are seen to it that we were well taken care of.  They would do just about anything they could to help others.  They were good Christian people. 

 

I believe even then the Lord had a Cause for me in life, I just didn't know it.    Dad built a house on a piece of land at the head of Carey's Run Road that was given to him by my uncle to pay alone he got from dad.  Down the road, not very far from the house, there was a small country church and we went to visit.  They were some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet.  The Asst. Pastor use to take us boys camping and do things with us.  They had a lot of patients with us boys, especially me, they had to have to put up with me.  I did things back then that I'm ashamed of now.  I remember one time when I started out to church and didn't make it.  There was a truck driver who was related to the church family who lived next to the church.  The only way I could get anywhere back then was by hitchhiking.  Anyway, when I got to the church I ran into the truck driver and we went to town, and I got wasted on some cheap wine.  When we got back to the church it was about over. I was afraid to go home so I went up the road to my Aunt's house to spend the night.

 

Before we moved to our new home we lived on front street in Portsmouth.  I was about five.    I loved to dig and play in the dirt in the backyard.  So one year I got a rake, shovel, and hoe for Christmas. They were toys, but back then they made some pretty good toys.  It wasn't plastic like they are today, they were made out of metal and wood. 

 

There was this boy who was bigger, older and stronger than I was who use to chase me to the house all the time.  I got tired of it and one day I had enough.  He chased me to the house and I ran inside the hallway door that leads to our apartment.  I slammed the door and tried to hold it shut, but I couldn't hold it, he was too strong for me.  I saw my hoe laying on the floor and I let go of the door and made a grab for it.  When he came through the door I let him have it.  I hit him with it and he ran home crying with the top of his head gushing blood.  The police, fire department and an ambulance came to his house.  They took him to the hospital where they put stitches in his head.  I don't know how many stitches it took, but he never chased me again after that.  One of the neighbors would pick me up by the back of my britches and carry me to the apartment door.  When mom answered he would say, "Tie this brat to the clothesline." Mom would get up set at him and tell him off.

Mom and dad didn't know, thank the Lord,  but through my teenage years, I was a roughneck.  I think God felt like He could do something with me.  I drank, fought and done things that would have landed me in jail if I ever got caught. I remember one weekend when I and some of the West Siders were out drinking and having a good time, so I thought. One of the guys wanted to use their dad's car and his dad said no.  He got the keys somehow and we loaded up the car and went joy riding.  Little did we know that their dad called the police. We had the police, the sheriff and even the highway patrol out looking for us.  He took his dad's car back home and I found a way home.  I don't know what the others did, but I sat up all night worried that the law would come knocking on my door.  Thank the Lord, they never did come.

I remember one time when we lived in town, I decided to skip school with a friend.  We shot pool and ran around all day.  I thought I got by with it, but the next day I was sick and had to stay home.  There was a knock on the door and when I answered it was the truant officer.  Wouldn't you believe it, that was the first and last time I did that. I asked him if I could help him and he told me who he was.  He asks me if John Foster lived here and I said yes but he was sick in bed.  He asked if he would be in school tomorrow and I said yes.  Then he left.

 

A couple minutes later mom came in the room and asked me who was at the door, I said it was someone looking for someone.  Mom went down the stairs looking for him, thinking she could help him.  You can figure out the rest of the story. I was in serious trouble.

I remember one time when I was in the first grade I had to use the restroom and the teacher wouldn't let me go, so I thought, oh well, and I went in my seat.  After they got me all dried up and ready to go back to class the teacher made me lay down on her lap in front of the class.  I got tired of laying there and I asked the teacher if I could get up, she said no.  What did I do, I bit her on the leg.

 

She let out a loud scream and jumped up.  A couple of teachers came running into the class room to see what was going on.  I don't remember what happen after that, but when 

the report cards came out I got a nice big F in conduct.  Mom went to school to find out what was going on and the teacher said I was one of the best students she had, she didn't know what happen.  If you knew my mom you would understand why she told mom what she did.  The same teacher would make me sit in front of the class with a dunce cap on, she would call me dumb, make me stand in the corner and put my nose in a circle on the chalkboard.  I told mom about it and she went back to school and jumped all over the teacher.  I think that is why she said I was one of her best students.

 

I didn't do too well in school, I was always in trouble, I had to stand in the hall, and I would get my tell busted for fighting.  Back then they didn't have special education or tooters to help students like me, or I don't think they did, they didn't tell us about it if they did.  I was on my own, except for mom.  The night before our spelling test mom would sit down with me and go over the words.  We would go over and over them until I knew them all.  The next day when we took the test I would fail it.  It would upset me, make me mad.  Sometimes I think that's why I was always in trouble.  I didn't think I would ever be able to graduate so I took it out on everyone else.

When I was in about the tenth grade I was in study hall.  When the teacher left the room everyone started talking and doing everything except study.  When the teacher came back in the room she picked out about four people to go out in the hall to get a paddling, I was one of them.  When it came to my turn I told the teacher if she paddled everyone else in the room she could paddle me.  She said to take the paddling or go to the office.  I said I needed a vacation anyway and I was suspended.  I never went back to school.  It wasn't the paddling that upset me, I had plenty of them before.  It was the idea of me not being the only one involved, the entire class was talking too.  That's what happens when you are always in trouble, you are always one of them to blame. 

They had a program called the Job Core. It was a program where a person could finish high school while having O.J.T. (On The Job Training). Since I dropped out of school and I had nothing better to do I thought I would give it a try. It was a good program, the food was good, we had a nice warm place to sleep and the teachers seemed to be nice. I thought I would give construction a try as my O.J.T. They put me on a bulldozer and the first time I tried it, I dug a big hole that I couldn't get out of. The instructor had to get the bulldozer out for me. I was standing in line at the chow hall one way and this guy grabbed me by the hair, pulled me out of line and crowded in front of me. I knew 

I would be kicked out for fighting, but I didn't care, I was mad. I hit him and that's all it took. That's what happens when your school records follow you. They see your records and what you did in your school back home and they figured if I was in that much trouble back home, it must have been my fault the fight started.

I remember them taking me to the airport and buying my ticket. They showed me where to catch my plain, told me to stay there and watch for it, then they left. I sat there for a while and when I saw it coming in for a landing the wings were bouncing up and down. I didn't  like that, so I sat there as people loaded the plain and I watched it take off. I called the base and told them I missed the plain. They came and got me, took me back to the base and the next day they took me back to the airport and stayed there with me until I got on the plain and it took off.

When I got back home I went to work for the BP service station, later at a pie factory, then for Brits & Ratliff Construction building houses, and other odd jobs.  The Vietnam War was going on and people were being drafted.  I decided I would join on my own so I joined the Air Force.  How I got in the Air Force without graduating high school I didn't know. Perhaps because it was during the time of Vietnam and they were taking anyone. I do know that it was the best thing I ever did.

 

I was given a test before I went in to see what field I would be in.  They put me in as Administrative Specialist.  After Basic Training in Texas, they sent me to Eglin Air Force Base in Fla.  the largest Air Force Base in the world.  I went to work in an office typing citations, filing, and other assignments.  They sent me to school to teach me about office work, how to type and to finish high school.  At the same time, we were playing war games and training for Vietnam.  We were frozen on base a couple of times getting ready to be deployed, but thank the Lord, the freeze was lifted and we were able to leave the base and go to our homes.  That is, those of us who lived off base.

 

As I stated before, we lived off base. One of our neighbor boys said they needed a scoutmaster and asked me if I would be his troop's Scoutmaster. Since I was a Boy Scout in civilian life I gave it a try.  From there, things started happening for me.  A preacher came to our house and talked to my wife and me about the Lord. He had prayed with us and we started going to church.  All we had to do to join their church was to stand in front of the church and be voted in by the people. Then we had to shake the preacher's hand and shake hands with the members and we were saved.  I knew better than that, but we went for a while because the people were so nice to us.

 

Working with children around a Military Base will teach a young man, like me, a lot of things about the real world.  I always heard in the end children are always the ones to suffer the most.  For example, in a divorce it isn't the adults who suffer the most, it's the children.  In the death of a dad or mom during the war, it isn't the parent who suffers the most, after a time they get over it and re-marry, but the children never get over it.  If a person cares about anything at all, it would break their heart to witness and hear and see the things I did.  Though I was a roughneck growing up, the love and compassion my mom and dad taught us was planted deep in my heart and soul.

 

I have wished a thousand times that I knew Jesus as my personal savior.  I could have done more for those children.  I could have told them about the goodness of the Lord, how much He loved them and talked to the ones who lost a parent in Vietnam. It was such a sad and hard time for all of us, but especially for the children.

 

Just as we have working girls today standing on the street corners, there were working girls back then too. We had a little guy in our troop who spent most of his time in upstairs of their garage at home. He had a bed to sleep in and other pieces of furniture. He lost his dad in the war and his mother and older sister stayed in the house. They were working girls, but they didn't stand on the street corner, they stayed at home and worked. They needed the income since her husband was killed in Vietnam.

 

We had one scout who keeps talking about how his dad would be coming home from the war and he was going to bring him some things and pay his way to summer camp. His mother didn't have the heart to tell him his dad was killed over there. I don't know if or when she told him, it was time for my discharge.    

 

One of our scout leaders were good friends of my wife and I.  They invited us to their church for a visit.  It seemed like a nice church and started going with them. There were a lot of people going there and they were always doing things with the adults and children as well.  The pastor seemed to be a nice guy and he seemed to be on top of things. Everyone like him. We were going there for a while until it came out that he was messing with the young Airmen on base. They also found out that he had to leave his church where he was before for messing with teenagers there too. The church broke up and we left too.

 

Little did I know that the church I went to as a boy was praying for us.  A preacher friend of mine came to visit me while on leave, trying to get me to join the church.  One night after my discharge I went to visit.  I bet I got up at least three times and went outside to get myself together, I was crying.  The third trip I made, I came in the church and ran to the altar.  I don't know how long I was up there, at least a couple of hours.  When I got up it felt like a tone of weight lifted off of me and I haven't been the same since.  Now that was the best thing that ever happened to me.  Amen & Amen  My wife started going with me and she too got into the church.  She sang with a group, got involved, helped with summer camps and was on fire for God.  What I'm trying to say was, God had a cause in my life, even as honorary as I was, it took me a while to accept it, but I did.  If it hadn't been for the Lord I may not have lived long enough to fulfill it.  You too have a cause and if you will allow God to show it to you, you too will be, "Living With A Cause.”

 

I was like Jonah, God had something for me to do and instead of listening to Him, I was running in a different direction.  It took me having problems and reaching the bottom to look up before I would hear Him.  (Jonah 1:17  Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 2:1  Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,

After being moved to a new base, Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico my wife and I really got involved with the youth.  Not only did we take over another Boy Scout Troop, we held Cub Scout Meetings in our home.  I thought it was bad in Fla. but when we got settled in New Mexico all I can say is "WOW." 

My Cause

Click On a Picture Below

To The Left

For Each Of My Causes

1.

My first cause in life is, of course, the Lord's work.  As I worked with the youth throughout my life, adults as well, I have always taken the time to talk about the goodness of the Lord.

2.

My second cause in life is my family.  God has blessed me with a wonderful family. No one could ask for a better one in life.  Like everyone else, we have our problems, but if we ever need help with anything, we are there for each other.  I am proud of my family.

3.

My third cause is my country.  If it were not for our military ready to defend our country to the death, if necessary, we would have no freedom, liberty or a country called America.  If it were not for America other countries would be in trouble.  My family is very patriotic and have served their country and community with pride and honor.

4.

My fourth cause is my community.  We have served our community before and after our four-year obligation to my country in the military.  It hasn't been easy, but we did it with the help of the Lord.

5.

CARING FOR OTHERS

It all comes down to one thing, (CARING) CHARITY,  1 Corinthians 13:13

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

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