The journey before us was something we couldn’t imagine. We simply had no knowledge of what it meant to follow Jesus and obey Him in His simple gestures to our hearts. Two years after being born again into Christ, we discovered an insatiable desire to serve Him with our lives.

After remaining in the Lutheran church of my family for some time, we found a Mennonite congregation deep in the countryside. They were vibrant and alive with Christ – we thought we entered Heaven. The church was attracting many people like us who were looking for genuine community centered around the life of Christ. By attracting, I mean there were people, many of whom were very young, coming for many miles just to be part of this spirit filled congregation. Everything here was new to us and so life changing in the way we saw life centered in Christ. This wouldn’t last long.

After one year of being immersed in the life of Fredericksville Mennonite Church, we met Gerald Derstine, from Bradenton Florida. He was a childhood friend of our pastor and was invited to speak to our congregation one Sunday morning in the early part of 1975. Gerald’s manner and way of preaching was like watching someone who simply spoke as he was hearing God speak to him. During his Sunday morning address, he mentioned that his ministry in Florida would be starting a school of ministry in April.

The Institute of Ministry would be a ten week course of intense instruction to awaken the gifts and callings of God that were in believers. As he was speaking about the school, we knew we were going to Florida that year. There was no question about it. We voiced our decision to go with a few of our friends and instantly people were placing cash in our hands to make that possible. We didn’t ask! It just happened.

After quitting our jobs, in April of 1975, we were on the road to Christian Retreat Conference Center in Bradenton, Florida. Talk about jumping from a world of everything familiar to everything strange, yet wonderful, was the only way we could describe our experience there. For ten weeks we lived in my sister’s camper while we were immersed in the Word of God surrounded by a group who’s appetite for more was as hungry as ours. This felt like a rapid growth spurt and it seemed like we were flying. We had no job, no place to live except a camper in Florida and no plans for the future. And we had no anxiety either!

We didn’t know it then, but this would become a new normal for us; viz., living in response to God’s leading. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it was always real.