David Phelps, pastor at Centertown Baptist Church and campus pastor for the Baptist Student Union at Lincoln University, started serving God while serving his country overseas in the Army.
"I was raised in a Christian home," Phelps said, "with good Christian parents. When I went away to college I bought into the intellectualism and so forth, the idea of the Bible not relating anymore. I lived that way for five years and was not near the Lord. I went to church about twice during my college years. But when I got into the Army as an ROTC student, I went to Germany. The Lord used that situation to get my attention. I was in a job which was very stressful and was having some difficulty. I knew what I had been raised on, that maybe the Lord could help me. I began to seek Him out and He put a couple of Christian officers in my path. We started hanging out together and long story short, one shared a book with me, The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, that convinced me the Bible was true because of fulfilled prophecy. I am thankful he wrote that book, the Lord could have used something else but the book gave me the confidence and faith the Bible was God's word."
For more of this story check out the March 2 issue of the California Democrat.