The Early Years II Mom sang in the choir and Daddy was church treasurer and held a few more church offices. I grew up liking church. It is a good thing … we were there a lot. I never remember being told I had to go. On Sunday mornings, I just assumed it was what we did, I really worried about my neighbors who stayed home, and watched cartoons … I was already heading down the path to legalism. One thing that made it even more fun was when our pastor’s wife, Helen Klinsing (or Mrs. K. as we kids called her) had the burden to start a primary Alliance Youth Fellowship group. She taught me to sing the names of the 12 disciples; I had already musically mastered the books of the New Testament. Life was great in the little primary AYF group. She was kindergarten teacher in a local Christian School and so the squirrelly boys did not faze her she just redirected them. I remember the night I really messed up my memory verse. The verse was John 3:3b, but because we could not read her handwriting on the slip of paper, Mom helped me memorize John 3:36 … a mouthful for a first grader. I was devastated to have learned the wrong verse; I did not like to make mistakes. Mrs. K. complimented on learning the longer one and explained the mistake to my mother. It was a happy little group. Another event that shaped my spiritual was our involvement in s children’s Bible club, which was led by Auntie Maude and Uncle Harry. They were never able to have biological children, but instead, God blessed them with numerous spiritual children. Mrs. Jordan assisted them with great passion and energy; she had lost her only daughter to death, but instead of being bitter, she invested her life in reaching other children … nothing is wasted in the hands of the Redeemer. I attended the Bible Club from the time I was three years old, because Mom was helper. One of the first verses I learned there was “Even a child is known by his doings wherever his work be pure and whether it be right (Proverbs 20:11). It was at that Bible Club I made a profession of faith in Christ. I was only a preschooler and those were the sixties. Much assumption occurred especially with compliant children. I was given believer’s baptism by immersion at my own insistence, and the belief by pastor and parents that my salvation was genuine. God met me before I sought Him … in my church …in home … He was faithful.