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Hello,

My name is Gary and I am newly saved by an old high school friend who is the Pastor of my new church. We had not seen each other in over 38 years when out of the blue he contacted me through classmates.com. It turned out he was home recovering from prostate cancer surgery. What a coincidence! I was headed for prostate cancer surgery a few days later!

As we talked on the phone he began to share with me his life and his walk with the Lord. I, being a lifelong atheist, was not too excited about God, but as my surgery was completed and my own trials of recovery began I became more and more interested in knowing the Lord and what He is all about. To that end I pursued my relationship with my friend and eventually my wife and I moved to his town and joined his church.

The funny thing is that, while in high school together I got him into drugs and it led him on a long road of sin before he reformed himself and came to God. I like to say that I turned him on to drugs in the 60s and he turned me on to Jesus in the year 2008.

I am married for more than 20 years and my wife and I have a beautiful daughter and two grandchildren. We both work online managing websites for large corporations. Our specialty online is search engine placement/management and we do pretty well at it. We were on the beta-test team for Yahoo! way back when so SE work came naturally. Before the internet we produced TV programming for Discovery Channel and did 'stringer' work for ESPN. We also had hundreds of commercials to our credit and produced safety and training programs for corporate clients as well as for the Federal Government. I definitely like the net better. Too much equipment hauling in TV for me now.

I grew up in SoCal but moved to New England in '67. I met my wife in '86 and we have been inseparable ever since. We ride a 1980 Goldwing [hence the nick 'Oldwing] and are avid about riding. We attend charity events and at one time founded the Motorcycle Ride Volunteer Network, offering motorcycle rides to the blind and otherwise disabled, people who would not normally have a chance to 'get in the wind'. We had chapters worldwide, but after a couple of years found ourselves overburdened with the paperwork and insurance problems and such, so had to close the operation. Maybe someday we can reopen, but for now we seek our personal ministries on a much smaller scale.

That's it for now, but I'm sure you will get to know me as I am thirsting for knowledge and will be asking many questions as I journey along my path to grace.

God Bless You All,

_____________________________

Gary