AFTER CITY HALL
My Freedom In P-Town
My Freedom In P-Town
My Freedom In P-Town
I came home just as proud as I could be. I served my country for four years in the United States Air Force, I received my GED, I received other certificates and citations and received an Honorable Discharge. My mom, dad, and family were proud as a peacock. When I went places with dad he would say with a proud look, this is my son, he was discharged from the Air Force.
I hit the ground running, ready to do my part in the community as I did in other parts of the country. I was doing great too, all these people were behind me and I could do no wrong. I was working with the Juvenile judge, the county sheriff, attorneys, children services, the police department, school teachers, churches, business people and we were having telethons and on the radio doing programs and talk shows. Our local radio station was having interviews with me about our work and child abuse. We had a child abuse center where we held meetings with our boy scout troop, give out leaflets, fliers, and booklets on child abuse. Children who were being abused would come in to talk to me and they would sit and cry about what was going on in their lives
There was a war going on, VIETNAM, and a lot of local young people, including myself, left home from Scioto County not knowing what would be in store for us. We were a lot of worried kids wondering if we would make it back home to our families and friends. Some were drafted and some of us, like myself, volunteered for duty. I joined because I loved my country, my family and the freedoms we have in our country. Members of my family served and died for the same reasons over the years.
( I found the picture to the left in clip art on the web. He was not a client in our work, however, there were many like him and younger. ) They would break my heart. There were nights when I couldn't sleep. They were on my mind. I would lay there beside my wife or walk the floor and think of ways to help them. I had some college and attended seminars, but other than that, I was lucky to have my GED which I got in the military.
One year at one of our many summer camps, we had a little girl that started crying just before lights out. We asked her what was wrong. We thought she might be homesick. She said she was afraid her mom's boyfriend would come out and get her.
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We later found out the boyfriend was molesting her. My wife took her in her arms, assured her he couldn't bother her at camp and the girl slept with her that week.
(Again, this is not her.)
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Back to my story about fighting city hall. After our meeting during Christmas, all h . . . broke loose for me and my family. Satan opened the floodgates and let his angels out. His angels aren't red with a pointed tail and horns on their heads. It would be nice if they were so we could recognize them.
And the LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it ...
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How does Satan get around in this world so easily without being recognized? This is how, he looks like you and I. He could serve on a board, at the white house, he could disguise as a minister, doctor, a school teacher, city manager or anyone he wants to be.
I know where you live--where Satan has his throne. ... "I know that you live in the city
where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. ...
Do you know who Jesus is talking to in this scripture? That's right, yo and me. He's pretty smart, He, like our parents, tries to warn us of things to come. He wants us to be prepared, like the Boy Scout Motto. He wants us to know we live in a city where Satan lives and rules and if we want to make it we need to stick close to Him if we plan on making Heaven our home.
We went on with our business like always, I drove the bus for handicap children in Portsmouth, our children to school, our oldest daughter was about to graduate and her and her mother talked about college. I went on with my volunteer work for the children in our communities and we all went to church and worshiped the Lord.
After City Hall I didn't slow down, I keep on fighting for the children, I went to their schools to see how I could help them, visited them at the hospital and had prayer with them. I ran into one of the kids not too long ago who grew into a nice looking young man. He recognized me right off. Do you remember me, he said when I was a little boy I was in the hospital and you came to see me. I broke both of my arms on the slide and use to come out and feed me.
A little girl that was getting ready for our summer camp for the first time was all excited and come running across the street to our center before she got halfway across, a car hit her and she was rushed to the hospital. I wasn't there when it happens. He mother told me at the hospital she kept saying, pray Bro. John, pray. She thought I was standing nearby and I was nowhere around. She told me they didn't look for her to live. She had tubes, IV's hooked up to her and feeding tubes hooked up to her. He family was coming in, standing by her bead side and crying. I said I know someone who knows more than these doctors. I had prayed for her and in a few days she came out of her coma and wanted to go home.
I could go on and fill up pages about these children, but I won't. I will tell you this, I prayed for these children all the time for the Lord to put a hedge about them to keep them safe. It was heartbreaking at times, but God must have thought the only safe place for some of them was in His Kingdom. Before I go on telling my story, I would like for you to listen to this message by Pastor Calvin Ray Evins. He talks about four words that have to keep me and all these children all my life.
We have a lot of problems in our lives, young, middle age or old, it makes no difference.
"Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. ... "How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! ...
The good thing about it is, if you are a child of God and you are going through something, God said, I am with you.
I know He has been with me all these years. He has given me the power and the strength to make it.
If you like, you can listen to the whole service, but I would like for you to listen to Pastor Evans message, "I am with you." His message starts halfway through the service. Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
When I came home in 71 from serving my country and started my volunteer work in the community, I received pats on the back, good remarks, and received certificates, I even received a citation from the late great Vernon G. Rife. I was one of the best in Scioto County. The things that were said about me was like butter, it would melt in your mouth. All that changed after my visits to the city council meetings.
When you step on these toes, they say ouch loud and clear and for a long time, even after they are gone from this world.
After my ordeal with these people over pornography, now I not saying it was them personally, but I started receiving threats. The mirror on the bus we used was shot with a pellet gun to remind me of what I was told.
Watch your children, there were people buried in the woods that have never been heard from again, watch your back and so on.
Other than the broken mirror, a few slurs, the cold shoulders, and support for the children getting slimmer, nothing more had happen, yet.
We moved to the west side where I grew up and a school bus picked up the kids for school. Keep in mind the story I am about to tell you took place not long after I was told to watch my children.
Stacy and Tracy were in the second grade at the time. We had a small black dog at the time that would sit on the back of the couch looking out the window watching the girls get on the bus. My wife did as well. One morning the girls went out to catch the bus. Linda and Pepper, the dog, was watching and Linda had to leave the window for a couple of minutes to do something. When she went back to watch the girls get on the bus the dog was off the couch and the girls were gone. Linda didn't think anything about it, she just figured they already got on the bus and went on with her business.
While she was cleaning house and getting ready for the day she heard a horn blow outside where the school bus always stops to pick up the girls. When she went to see who it was, it was the girls' school bus blowing.
She went to the bus to see what was wrong. The driver wanted to know if the girls were going to school. After a short conversation, the buss pulled out.
While she was cleaning house and getting ready for the day she heard a horn blow. When she went to see who it was, it was the girl's school bus. She went to the bus to see what was wrong. The driver wanted to know if they were going to school. After a short conversation, the bus pulled out.
As the bus pulled out I was pulling in the drive after work, Linda was beside herself. She was crying and screaming, "the girls are gone, the girls are gone." I got her calmed down enough to find out what was going on. After she told me I jumped back in the old car and sped out of the drive and headed to the school. To tell you the truth, I didn't know the old car had it in her.
All kinds of things were going through my mind. What if the thread I received was being carried out. I thought about the children in our country taken and used in porn and pedophiles picking up children to molest. When I reached the school I ran inside to the office to see if they were at school. I was told that another bus turned the corner just up the road and stopped to pick up some other kids and the girls ran to the bus to catch it with their friends.
My heart slowed back down, my blood pressure went back to normal and I was able to start breathing regularly again. Needless to say, when they came home they got all kinds of hugs and kisses. We told them not to ever do that again.
Linda was 16 when I married her and back then no one could attend public school if they were married, no matter the age. A few years later after my discharge, she came to me and wanted to go back to school and earn her GED. She was tired of staying at home and she wanted to find a job. So I said fine. I thought it would be fine.
She was so happy and excited when she received her GED. Now she could look for a job to make her a little extra money. Before long she went to work. We were married for 25 years when she started working.
We were regular churchgoers and as they were born we raised them up in church. Linda sang in a group, helped
helped me with our summer camps we had for the children each year, in Sunday School, our toy auction for the classes and lots more.
Before she started her new job I talked to her about how Satan was fighting us over my battle with City Council and how he didn't care and uses people to do his dirty work. She said she understood.
My how fast things can change. As long as Jesus was feeding people, healing their bodies, making the lame
walk, the blind to see, raising the dead and all the other things He did for people, He had a great following and everyone loved.
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But when the city council turned against Him, He was beaten, abused and nailed to the cross by His own people, and it is no different today, 2000 years later.
Our twin girls, at the time, were in the second grade. I remember when we first started them in Kindergarten, I would take them to the hallway where their classrooms were, let go of their hands and say, go to your classroom. They would give me a kiss on the cheek, hug my neck and go down the hall to their room. I couldn't tell them apart. Their names are Stacy and Tracy. The only way I could tell who they were was by lifting their dress or pant leg if there a mole on their leg I knew it was Tracy.
AFTER CITY HALL
