Growing up in the 1960s under the influence of the emerging counterculture with its rock-n-roll, anti-establishment mentality; eastern religious leanings-, drugs; and "do your own thing" attitudes, Bob began embracing it all and trusting only himself Though trying to be sensitive to other's values, for him his word was law.

Leaving home and deciding not to go on to college at Texas A&M for Nuclear Engineening, Bob "dropped out" and began a nomadic lifestyle, hitchhiking from state to state. He also became increasingly more existential until he avowed atheism. Developing his own philosophical value system and believing that whatever he analyzed to be true was, in fact, "Truth," led him down a dead-end path that almost killed him.

Finding himself at death's door in the middle of the desert above Death Valley, his atheism crumbled in the face of extinction. Crying out in desperation to Whom, he didn't know, He nevertheless heard Bob and delivered him. Not too many months from that incident, the Lord led him through a series of circumstances to his brother's Pentecostal church, where he experienced a sweet and precious conversion to Christ. Clearly God revealed to Bob that he had a choice to make: to continue trusting his own 'word' or to give God's Word a try. Bob didn't want to go back to trusting his own word, so he gave God a try. The Word of God has literally transformed his life. Miracles still happen!

As Bob came out of the world, he sensed God calling him to the ministry. Going from a barefoot hippie to a preacher of God was just not possible, he thought! All he had ever been was a wandering field-hand, a jack-of-all-trades, a woodworker. And now to work with people whom he hadn't trusted or liked?! He wondered (often!) whether God knew what He was doing. Seven years after first sensing His call, Bob heard God's call a second time through the means of a sermon: his own! Though he felt terribly unworthy, God made His call clear by unlocking the door to Southwestern Adventist College, answering impossible prayers and finally opening the way to serve in Michigan.

Says Bob, "Without my wife, none of this would have happened. Marrying my wife, Sandi, in 1981 was the second best thing that ever happened to me. Through her and our four kids, I learned more about God and love than I thought possible. She is a continual source of inspiration to me, and has given deeper meaning to the term 'help meet.' She, as well, has felt the call to ministry, and working as a Bible Worker has been the fulfillment of a dream come true. I have to constantly remind myself of John 15:16 NKJV where Jesus said: 'You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.' By God's grace, we will."