My Story
By
Jim Hood

I was the only boy in our family. I had seven sisters and no brothers. I wanted a brother very much and God gave me a brother. His name was Bobby. I played with him from the time that he was a tiny baby. But when Bobby was about a year old he died of an unknown cause.

I felt like God had rejected me.

I didn't go to church much, but I liked the preacher. The rest of it wasn't important to me, but I always went when they had a potluck dinner!

When I was old enough I joined the army and spent most of my time in Korea. On October 3, 1947 I was honorably discharged and headed for home. I tried to get some of my old jobs back but none of them were open.

That's when I decided to go to California and work in the logging industry or whatever else I could find. Logging was not a year around job so I began to go from place to place, riding the freight trains. That was a family mode of transportation for me since my dad was a conductor for a railroad company back in Oklahoma.

I ended up in Las Vegas and got a job as a bar boy at the Flamingo Hotel. The truth is I liked my job. The pay was fair and I made a lot of new friends.

That didn't last long though. One morning we were told that the hotel owner, Bugsy Seigel, had been killed and now they would be hiring a new crew at the hotel. I saw the handwriting on the wall, so I went on over to Arizona and took employment as a bartender. I was hired and fired all in one day because I just couldn't leave the booze alone.

Down and disillusioned I decided to just get drunk and block it all out of my mind. I went to my apartment and turned on the radio thinking that the music and booze would soothe my pain.

Half asleep and half drunk I heard a powerful voice on the radio booming out the words, "REPENT AND RECEIVE CHRIST!" In my drunken reverie "Top Ten Tunes" had ended and "The Hour of Decision" had started. I listened for awhile and as they were singing, "Just as I am without a plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me," I managed to get down on my knees by my bed. I don't know how long I stayed there like that, tears streaming down my face. I know now that God was bringing me to an acute awareness of my need for Jesus Christ.

The voice calling me to repent and receive Christ was that of Billy Graham.

I called my dad and he sent me money to come home. I tried one job after another but nothing worked, so I said goodbye to Mom and Dad and headed out on a freight train for the state of Michigan. I heard that there were good jobs in the Detroit area.

I got off the train in Adrian, Michigan without a dime in my pocket. It was freezing cold so I went to the jailhouse and they gave me a place to stay for the night. The next day I was on my way to hop a train for Detroit when I saw a man standing on the street corner. He was just standing there looking around, trying to keep warm in the bitter cold. I didn't know it at the time but God had spoken to him to go and stand on that street corner that morning -- and God didn't tell him why. But when he saw me, he instantly knew that God had sent him there to help me.

I went up to him and asked him for a dime to buy a cup of coffee. It was a very cold day and a hot cup of coffee sounded like heaven to me!

My benefactor was from Mexico and didn't speak English very well. His name was Manuel Viejo. He took me to his home, fed me, and gave me a place to sleep. They took me to their church and did everything they could to make me comfortable. I stayed with them for a couple of weeks.

One morning Manuel's wife told me that the church was praying for me to get a job. Then she packed me a sack lunch, took me to a factory, and dropped me off promising to pick me up at 3:30 p.m., saying, "You have to stay there and wait on the Lord."

I sat in the hiring office all day waiting to be interviewed. The next day I did the same thing. On the third day when everyone was out to lunch a man came running into the office and said, "I need a man right now!"

"All the other applicants are gone," the secretary said, "but this man has been waiting here for three days. He even eats his lunch here."

The man looked at me and said, "Follow me!"

The church rejoiced when they heard that God had provided me with a job. I still didn't understand anything spiritual. I didn't know Jesus yet -- really know Him -- but I was getting closer.

My new friend, Manuel, found out that an English speaking church was having special meetings near his house so he gave me a dollar and an English Bible and told me to go to church. His intentions were pure, but mine weren't. Instead of going to the church I went to a bar about a block from the church, put the Bible on the bar and spent my dollar drinking beer! A dollar bought a lot of beer back in those days. On my way home I passed the church and I started crying. I didn't know why. When I got home I went to my room and continued crying, off and on, all through the night.

Later, Manuel took me to another church. I liked it. I enjoyed the music and singing, but spiritually I was still in the dark. Joe Copeland, the pastor, took me home for lunch with him and his family. After lunch he took me aside and explained to me the love of God, why Jesus died, and how to receive Him. I was still a little confused, so he told me to come to the altar the next Sunday when the invitation was given.

The following Sunday I cried silently through the entire service and when the invitation was given I went forward to receive Jesus. The pastor asked me if I believed Jesus to be the Son of God. He asked me if I believed Jesus died on the Cross for my sins and if I received Him as my Lord and Savior. Then he asked
me if I was willing to follow Christ in baptism.

"Yes!" I replied.

Something happened when I spoke that one word -- Yes! Suddenly I knew who I was, where I came from, and where I was going.

The next day work was a different world. I sang and prayed all day long and had a great time talking with other believers who worked there.

I stayed there in Adrian, Michigan and Joe Copeland became my personal mentor and spiritual father. He helped me finish high school by providing me with a tutor. He believed in me so much that he even encouraged me to go on to college. So in 1958 I
enrolled in Adrian College.

It was there that I met Alice Neuman. I was asking God for a wife. I said, "Lord, I want a wife who is a school teacher, a piano player, and a farmer."

When I first got up enough nerve to ask Alice for a date, she said, "I already have a date, but I'll give you a rain check."

The next day I took her out to lunch and during our conversation I asked her what she wanted to be. Her reply to me was, "I want to be a teacher and an organist." When I took her home I discovered she lived on a farm. I saw her everyday for a year and we got married on December 19, 1959.

God blessed our marriage and we now have two beautiful daughters, Bonnie and Brenda, who are both happily married with godly husbands and children of their own. Bonnie has three children; Brenda has two.

If you have read my story this far you are more than mildly interested in spiritual things. I want to share with you how easy it is to receive Jesus Christ into your life. If you know that you have sinned and if you believe that God loves you and sent Jesus to die for your sins, you can pray this simple prayer and Jesus will come into your life:

Dear God, I know I have sinned, but I believe You love me and sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to die in my place, paying for all my sins. I invite you, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart right now and cleanse me from all my sins. Please make me the kind of person You want me to be. Thank you for hearing my prayer and for coming into my life.

Jim Hood Ministries
2714 North Olive Lane
Santa Ana, CA 92706
(714) 541-5962

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