Because I named the Ministry and help with the work it seems acceptable to start with the beginning.
The second Tuesday night of November 1940 the Heavenly Father caused me to accept Jesus as Savior. It was a miraculous event (remind me to explain sometime).
Dad's death, 3 weeks later, delayed baptism a few months, but the Dorsey Christian church in Albany, Missouri, welcomed me as a member early in 1941. The road to the kingdom seemed to require a lot of effort, but the promise of eternal reward was sufficient motivation to justify the cost.
A miraculous event in 1943 (remind me to explain that sometime) caused me to believe, each Christian of normal intelligence should search the scriptures for guidance.
In 1944 Mom married a minister, intending to move into our house in the fall. In July of that year it became apparent that a drastic change was in order. He was a Sabbath observing Christian and he was to become the head of the home. I needed to know why Sunday was as good or maybe a better day for rest than the Sabbath.
Searching the Scriptures led to a surprising conclusion: there is no biblical reason to rest on Sunday. What a shock! September of 1944 I started observing the Sabbath as a rest day. This brought me into fellowship with the Church of God at Stanberry, Missouri. More importantly this brought me into fellowship with Lettie Lippincott.
The road to the kingdom continued to be a lot of work so the Sabbath was treated much as Sunday had been used before the change. No farm work outside of chores. No business activities were engaged. I choose recreation wisely.
Stanberry, being the Church of God world headquarters, caused politics to flourish. This disturbing fact did not seem a sufficient reason to seek a different church. Of course, Lettie's presence made life pleasant.
She married a hard working nominal Christian in July of 1946. Much to her disappointment he decided to leave farming to better seek an understanding of the Christian walk in 1948.
Let us move to 1954. After too much involvement in Church politics and working toward the Kingdom, the Holy Spirit was manifested so strongly that another drastic change occurred. Instead of working toward the Kingdom, living in and as a part of the Heavenly Father's kingdom became the focus.Sometime between 1954 and 1970 the Words of Jesus became uppermost in our ministry. By mid 1970s our business cards were promoting the Words of Jesus Ministry. When we realized that the State of Missouri required registration of all businesses and because we needed to pay tax, Lettie and I became the official owners of the Words of Jesus Ministry in the State of Missouri.