The First Baptist Church of Bellflower -- Really Saved -- 1

This picture is of Bay View Church -- No picture of Bellflower Available

I mentioned some of the bad things about FBC Bellflower in a couple of postings -- my descent into the Belly of the Whale. But I don't know what my life would be like if it hadn't been for the church. In my title I mentioned salvation and yes, I accepted Jesus and was baptized at FBC Bellflower in 1948; I was 10 (almost 11). My cousins, Gene and Janice also accepted the Lord at the same children's evangelism service. We were baptized by Rev. Ernest Hasselblad. I will talk more about him in a later post. My baptism, not only brought me into the church but my parents also became active in the church. I may have mentioned earlier, but my parents were baptists and met at church. But throughout our years of travel, we went to church very irregularly. 

Both of my parents were there every Sunday. They both sang in the choir. I went to the children's program. I sat on the front row at worship services and I heard from my dad after church if I misbehaved. My dad actually became the Chair of the Building Committee that built the present church building. Then, in the Fall of 1949, when I was in the Seventh Grade, my Father left home. He was infatuated with his secretary. My mother fell apart and I was adrift.

Let me give a little background on my life thus far. I will only give my school years:

• First Grade 
• Galesburg, Illinois
• Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- another school
• Gainesville, Georgia
• Second Grade
• Danville, California (all schools for now on are in California)
• Concord -- an all 8 grades in one room, country school
• Livermore -- same kind of school as above
• Third Grade
• Started at the same Livermore country school
• Livermore -- city school system
• Fourth Grade
• Corona 
• Oceanside
• Corona -- another school
• Fifth Grade
• Compton
• Gardena
• Bellflower -- from then on I was in Bellflower

The point of all this is to say that I didn't have a lot of "life-time" friends. I really didn't know many people from school. Then, as mentioned before, my family fell apart in 1949. I had been a quiet, intelligent child and did well in school. Then (Jr. High is bad enough when things are going well) after dad left, I began to act out in school. I was terrible in Jr. High. I also lost interest in church -- but my mother made me go. She insisted that I go to the Jr. High youth group. I did and something weird happened. They elected me President of the Group! I must admit that it never occurred to me that no one else wanted to do it. I thought I was popular. Then, Eleanor, my wife's sister, was elected as Vice President. We became life-long friends.

The youth group was strong in the church. We had a High School group of around 50 kids. Without the church I would have had no social life. I was not bullied at school and knew a lot of kids, but I didn't hang with them. It was the church that provided me with all of my friends. I was actually popular there. This is what I meant when I said that the church was my salvation. 

In my next posting I will discuss the church and my love for music.