"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest (Matthew 9:36-38)."

An amazing thing began to happen, God began to reveal to me my spiritual heritage and some of the reasons His call never seemed to go away. When I shared with my parents about my preaching they didn't seem all that surprised. They told me about how my great-uncle, Adair Wrather, always seemed to think that he had missed his call to preach. Because of that my great-aunt Carrie (Adair's wife) had told them that since the time that I was saved that she had prayed for me and after my son, Clark, was born for him too that we would hear God's call and not miss it like Adair had. We have both heard and my son has been a pastor for several years now as well. I also found out that Adair's grandfather, Baker Wrather (my three great-grandfather), had been a Methodist minister in Tennessee. As I delved into my genealogy I found that on nearly every line were to be found ancestors of spiritual depth and activity. Growing up as I did not even attending church but for a couple of years this was indeed an amazing thing and seemed to confirm God's call upon my life.

I struggled with whether or not to go to seminary. It just didn't seem to be financially possible or possible in many other ways with Clark being a senior in high school. I finally got down to preparing a sermon and when I had my first sermon prepared the phone rang and it was about my filling in for a pastor in a couple of weeks that was going to be gone. By the time I had my second sermon finished another pastor had called and I would be preaching in about a week. From that time on I have been preaching nearly every Sunday. After about six months one of the churches where I had supply preached called me as their interim pastor, and in another six months I became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Sweetwater, Oklahoma. I was still working as a parole officer but resigned at the end of October 1991. In December of that year I was ordained and Dr. Finley Tinnin who had led me to the Lord came and preached the charge at my ordination.

As I ministered and preached I began my seminary studies eventually receiving a Diploma in Biblical Studies. By 1992 I had begun writing to prison inmates all over the country and after going through the study course Experiencing God began a newsletter The Burning Bush which I began distributing to prison inmates. Eventually the newsletter was being distributed by 75 prison chaplains (Some of these chaplains were in jails, others for juvenile facilities.) in 44 states, Puerto Rico and two provinces in Canada. As a result of the newsletter many were saved, many lives were touched and redirected.

In 1995, I accepted the call to my second pastorate. There our youngest son became severely depressed because of his school situation and we knew that we had to leave. After hearing Ronnie Floyd preach on fasting at the Southern Baptist National Convention in New Orleans in the summer of 1996 we came back home and prayed. We prayed and fasted for a week and on the seventh day a Sunday the search committee from Trinity Baptist Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma called.

The problem with our going to Trinity was that it would be bivocational, a smaller church, not a step up the ladder and I would need to take a one thousand dollar a month reduction in income. Now we did not have a thousand a month extra to spare but we thought we would be okay if I could find a full-time secular job in addition to the pastorate. That shouldn't be a problem, I had done it before when I first started preaching, hadn't I?

We moved and I began to search for that secular job and every door seemed to be closed no matter how hard or long I knocked and we prayed and fasted. The church was doing great but financially we were sinking. My spiritual life seemed to be taking a beating as well as my emotional condition. My son was doing much better but I was sinking fast. But within a year's time Trinity had given us two raises, loved us and supported us and we had reduced our expenses to the point that we were almost back to being full time.

On Friday, June 13, 1997 God did an amazing thing in my life. A couple of weeks before at a family gathering I heard my Uncle say that my great grandfather, George Richard Marical had been involved with a Pentecostal Holiness Church. Now I knew when I moved to Weatherford that my great grandfather had lived there and had owned a grocery store. I knew that he had died in 1929 but that was about all that I knew. I decided to dig into this a little deeper. We went to the county courthouse and found my great grandfather's will and estate papers.

From the papers that we found we were able to locate where my great grandfather had lived. It was only about four blocks from where we were living. According to the papers we had found my great grandfather had been a trustee of the Pentecostal Holiness church and when he died the estate paid off the remaining amount owed on the church building and land. I was intrigued to know where the church had been located. With the lot numbers and legal description in hand I went to city hall to look at their plat of the city. The lots of the church were located at....! The church where my great grandfather had been a trustee and had attended was located at the very same location as the church that I now currently pastored! For me this was a burning bush experience, a personal revival set in which I don't believe I will ever get over. I found out from the grandson of my great grandfather that he had went with his grandfather south of Weatherford in 1927 and helped him to dismantle a church building that he had bought. They moved that building back to Weatherford and reconstructed it and that was the first Pentecostal church in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Amazing! God did seem to know what he was doing and was in control after all! If I had had any doubt I had none any longer. One year later the first Burning Bush email devotional was sent on June 8, 1998. A direct result I believe of that experience.

I have no doubt that the prayers of my ancestors and many others have reached down to touch and influence my life and the life of my family. As I think about the call of God upon my life I can only marvel at what He has done with this lump of clay, with this wretched sinner that I am. I have not finished the Journey to Fruitfulness but I do believe that I am much further along this Journey than when I began. I hope and pray to continue on this Journey for the rest of my life here on planet earth. Someday the Journey will be completed for I will have crossed through either death to the arms of my Savior or He will have come again and I will have met Him in the sky. Oh, what a glorious day that will be!