Sounds of Hope

How many times I got “saved” under the ministry of David Wilkerson is anyone’s guess.  I got saved a lot as a child.  I had a lot of guilt.  The guilt was always temporarily relieved by saying the sinner’s prayer.  I encountered David Wilkerson in person, through multiple readings of The Cross and The Switchblade , his magazine or a tract.  It seems from his bursting on the scene in Brooklyn in the late 50’s, he was always part of my life.  I don’t remember when I first heard of him.  I remember watching him on our old black and white TV as a small child.  His choir had familiar faces including those of my brother and my soon to be sister-in-law.  Teen Challenge invaded our little Norwegian church.  It was one of the rare times there was color in that church.  These were true sinners, the first I ever encountered. I now view my adolescent rebellion through the lens of grace and understanding.  Absent is the guilt that dr...

It was Easter Sunday, our first Easter in Missouri. We had not gone to the Sunrise Breakfast, an Easter tradition with the church we were attending. The next Easter I would go. I would be married, be a mother whose first child would be dedicated that morning at First Assembly of God in Columbia MO. I had thought moving to Missouri was a great adventure. I had visited with my parents the summer before. My oldest brother was working on a doctoral degree at the University of Missouri. Looking back it now seems odd that we moved. At the time, perhaps I looked at it as the same as so many of our friends moving to Long Island, New Jersey or Staten Island. Brooklyn was experiencing exodus. Replacing the Norwegians were mostly Puerto Ricans; later would come the Chinese. The neighborhood was changing. My father was retired. Being in his 50’s when I was born, retirement came while in Junior High School. They would tell you that the reason for the move was me. I am not sure if that was real...