CHAPTER 1

Bereshith-In the Beginning

Bereshith means "In {the} Beginning" in Hebrew. Myjourney began the year I was born, 1967. God had a planand a purpose for me from the very moment I was born.Unfortunately, like the majority of us I had my own plan. Iknew what was best for me.

I look back at my life and ask myself how did I get fromthere to where I am today? Of course I know God deservesthe glory because I was incapable of rescuing myself. In thecourse of sharing with you it will never be my intention todishonor my mother or father in anyway. But with that saidto really relate to what I am saying you need to understand alittle bit about my upbringing.

The Bible was not a book readily available in our homeand God was never a conversation piece at the dinner tableor anywhere else around the house for that matter. The Biblewas thought to be too thick and it had too many Thou's andThou Shall Not's and beside that the text was too small.

Growing up we never went to church as a family. I wentto a few church functions when I was in junior high but itwasn't to hear the word. I went for the food. I am not proudto admit this but I could be persuaded to attend a nightlyevent when the word "potluck" was tossed out there.

I had heard about church potlucks and if they didn't careI was only there on those occasions when they were offeringfree food well why should I deprive these people of mycompany? Everything would be fine as long as they don't askme any questions, or expect me back for a regular Sundayservice.

I lived by two unwritten rules growing up. I only readSports Illustrated and the sports pages of the local paper. It isa miracle I can read.

My second rule was Sunday's were made for recoveringfrom the last six days and how better to do that then layingaround watching sports all day long. I believed church, Bible,and all that religious stuff was not for me, I thought I wouldleave that stuff for those other people.

The potlucks came to end the first time there was a shortservice prior (I was tricked) to eating and I saw a personflopping on the floor like a fish out of water. Hey, I like foodbut that was too much. I still don't know what that was allabout. Nobody seemed to be concerned or willing to help theperson so I determined it wasn't anything medical. But thatpretty much put an end to the potlucks for me and endedmy church attending days if that is what I can call it.

For the next sixteen or so years the only time I entereda church was if there were a wedding or a funeral. Neitherof which occurred very often. Oddly, there were times whenI felt I wanted to be somewhere where I could spend timewith this God I had heard mentioned a few times.

My college football coach always offered prayertime before each game on Saturday mornings. For somestrange reason I often felt this internal tugging to attendthose meetings. I never knew why I wanted to be at thosemeetings. Why, was I drawn to these gatherings? After all Iam not one of these people.

God is always working in our lives we just don't alwayssee what He is doing. Two significant events happen in mylife in February of 1991 that started me on the journey I amon today. February 10th, 1991 was the date when my dadpassed away and it was also the year and month when I hadmy very first date with Kelli.

I met Kelli that winter while going to college. Kellibecame a rock for me to lean on during this time of grieving,sadness, and anger. Kelli and I will be celebrating eighteenyears of marriage on our next anniversary.

I graduated from college in June of 1992 and moved backhome. I had been hired by the Forest Service as a wildlandfirefighter the two previous summers and I was going backfor another summer. Twenty plus years later I am still awildland firefighter and still employed by the United StatesForest Service (USFS).

Kelli had one more year of college before she wouldgraduate. We tried the long distance relationship for awhilebut eventually called it quits. It was not working out becauseof the distance. I don't recall there being a big ugly break upit just happen due to the distance and lack of seeing eachother. I believe we were both enjoying our freedom anyway.

After Kelli graduated she moved to Portland and founda job. After a few miscellaneous jobs Kelli landed a job witha home mortgage company. Prior to Thanksgiving in 1993Kelli and I started dating again and even making plans tohave Kelli move up to North Idaho in the fall.

Shortly after the new year Kelli saw a job opening inCoeur d' Alene, ID which is fifty miles west of Mullan, IDwhere I was raised and living at this time. It was a longshot and if she did get the job it would change our wholetime table for her moving up to North Idaho. I wasn't tooconcerned believing the odds were insurmountable with herbeing new to the profession. I wanted her to move up but Iwanted to stick with the time frame we had discussed andwait until the fall.

Kelli applied for the job and to our amazement she endedup getting the job. We moved her up from Portland in thespring of 1994 (Yes, living together is a sin but let's takebaby steps for now). Shortly after the move I realized I hadmade the mistake of my life. What was I thinking? I wasonly twenty-seven years old and tied down. I did not likethe situation I was in. I believed the problem was she wassmothering me. Can you imagine she wanted to spend timewith me whenever I wasn't working!

The fire season of 1994 was one of the worst fire seasonswe had ever experienced as a country. From the middleof June until early October I was pretty much gone on fireassignments. The trend was to go on a fire assignment forten to sixteen days come home for a day or two and then goon another assignment.

One or two days off did not give me a whole lot of time tosee what the buddies were doing, go fishing, and attempt toget in a game of golf. Kelli had these crazy expectations thatwe were to spend time together when I was home. How wasI going to work in some time for her? Talk about selfish ...what was she thinking?

Let me recap the situation. Kelli has moved up to be withme which was a big adjustment for her and I am gone allthe time. She left her friends and a...