We all have those special years in life when everything just seems to come together for us. Mine are 1979, 1987 and 2005. The years I want to forget are 1985, 1988 and 2013 but we are not going to discuss them! 1979 was 40 years ago! Songs like "Heart of glass" by Blondie and "My Sharona" by The Knack were popular. Movies like Rocky 2 and Kramer vs. Kramer were being shown. Disco was on the downside and it was the last year of the decade of the 70's. Little did I know that on New Years Day 1979, God was about to do a work in my life during 1979!
I was a 14 year old shy, insecure kid who was in the middle of 9th grade at Smithtown High school West. Although I attended church and Sunday school, I did not have very many friends who were "Christians." In February right after my 15th birthday, my Mom encouraged my to attend the Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle's Youth Group Winter Retreat. I don't remember where the retreat was held or how long it was. I do remember the speaker was from the Stony Brook School. Although I did not know anyone, I do remember laughing a lot and making new friends. It was a great introduction for me with kids my age at my church. I really hated being so shy and wanted to fit in with everyone else.
During that spring I got along great with the neighborhood kids. If we weren't playing hockey, we were playing football. If we weren't playing football we were playing basketball or baseball. I loved playing hockey and each neighborhood played against each other. We played well into the month of May. That year I was very happy that my team, the New York Rangers beat the Islanders in the playoffs only to lose to the Montreal Canadians in the Stanley Cup finals. I would have to wait 15 years before I saw the Rangers hoist "The Cup" and the next 4 years the Islanders would win 4 in a row. Oh...the pain!
That year in school I really struggled a lot! Again, I just wanted to fit in and be like everyone else. I wanted to do well in school, get good grades. Throughout my life I always struggled with a bad reading comprehension. I felt like I was always one step behind my other classmates. It was always a struggle. In June when I got my report card I did absolutely horrible. I remember crying uncontrollably. At that point in my life, I wanted to become a writer. With the horrible grades I received, I thought I would probably be lucky if I were an assistant plumber. God had other plans. I'll get back to my schoolwork later in Part Two of this blog.
Without knowing it, God was working on me. It began with my friendship with a guy named Doug. Our Mom's were and still are best friends. Doug and his family literally moved one block away from my family. He was the very first friend I had who was a Christian. Doug would always tell me about a place he went to on Saturday nights called "Coffeehouse" that our church hosted. That June I attended the "Coffeehouse" right after our church picnic. It was held at our churches school cafeteria from 8p.m. to Midnight. The night included Fellowship, a musical guest, a speaker and at the end more fellowship. The gym was open at the end of the night where we played hockey, volleyball or basketball. The catch was it was open to all young adults. I was only 15 yet everyone accepted me with open arms. I was a mainstay there for the next 5 years well into my college days. God was beginning a work on me, yet the devil was trying hard to keep me away from church. My sister Paula graduated from high school that year and my parents had a huge party for her. I was so proud of my sister and wanted so much to like her academically.
My Mom worked for a Jewish ministry called B'Nai Yeshua which was later renamed Messianic Life. During the summer she brought home many Christian books and I really enjoyed reading them. One was a biography written by Joni Eareckson who is paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident. Today, God is using her mightily. The other was a book called "Tortured for Christ" written by Richard Wurmbrand who suffered in a Russian prison. I was very interested in learning more about Jesus and wanted to get close to him but I didn't know how. During that summer, my neighborhood friends were changing. Instead of playing sports, the wanted to smoke marijuana. Something I would not do...ever! Besides Doug, I had no other kids in the neighborhood to hang out with. Late in July, my Mom invited me to hear a guest speaker at B'Nai Yeshua named Randy Cutlip. Randy was involved in the music industry back in the early 1970's and shared his testimony of how he came to accept Jesus into his life. His testimony changed my life and I was glued to his every word.
My turning point in my life came later in August. I attended a Camp called Couriers Camp. The Couriers were a singing quartet who used to visit my church periodically. Each summer they hosted a youth camp in Pennsylvania. I was nervous about going but was anxious to not only make new friends, but to learn more about Jesus. The speaker that year was Dave Roever, an evangelist who had an amazing sense of humor but also an amazing talent in communicating to young people. All I can say is at that camp, I rededicated my life to the Lord! One of Dave's messages at the end of the camp was about the effects of Rock music. I loved my secular rock and since 1976 I was a huge fan of the Rock groups Kiss, The Beatles and Wings. Let's just say after hearing Dave speak on how that music did not glorify God whatsoever, I went home and got rid of those albums. I came home from that camp a changed teenager. This blog is getting long so I will continue next time with what took place in my life September through December 1979.
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