Pastor Jerry L. Lewis

As I related in my book, thirty years ago I was a practicing all-out heathen until a group of "Bible thumpers" on the edge of my small Iowa town started praying for me. I think they picked me to practice on because if they could "get" me, they could get anybody.

After getting back on track with God's plan for my life, I remember telling Him that I would go where ever he wanted me to except New York. Well, you know how that always works out. A couple years later, the New York Teen Challenge did some restructuring and Cincinnati Teen Challenge offered me a position. Yep, yellow Ryder truck again. I spent almost four years with them.

Some years later, after getting my pastor's license, one fall I was assigned to a small Ohio United Methodist church. I was told to keep it open until after Christmas and then close it down. I messed up my first assignment; six and a half years later when I left, we had not only kept it open, but had rebuilt the church from the bell tower on down. The projects were even totally paid for when completed. Many of the folks who witnessed and participated in the mighty works described in the book are still there to this day, should someone need to contact them for encouragement in their own church situation.