Dan Meitzler:  

I always wanted to be a cook in the Coast Guard when I grew up. My family and friends thought that was a great idea. As it turns out, they were wrong. When I tried to enlist in the Coast Guard in the spring of 1970 I was rejected because I said on the questionnaire that I had asthma. I did not realize at that time (but was very soon to learn) that asthma was/is not a disease that comes and goes like a cold. I remembered during the physical that I had a bad case of seasonal allergies in both 1968 and 1969 that led to tightness in the chest, difficulty breathing and wheezing. I thought that I had asthma in both of the cases. As it turned an official letter from my doctor was not enough to convince the Coast Guard doctors that I did not have asthma. So, I was not allowed to go into the Coast Guard. I found out the news just a day or two before graduation in 1970. At the graduation a list of things was read that people would be doing right after high school. As the list was read there were some going to college, some working, some going into the Army or Navy and one going into the Coast Guard. That was supposed to be me. But it was not meant to be. Since I was not going into the Coast Guard I decided to go to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New Haven Conn. I worked a year at Deka to earn some money and then in August 1971 I went up to the CIA. I moved to New Haven, Conn. August of 1971. This was the last year that the CIA was in New Haven the following year classes were held in the new location of Hyde Park, New York. It was at the CIA that I had a life changing experience and became very serious about my belief in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I felt an unquenchable desire and leading to leave the CIA (in April 1972) to go home and work so I could earn money to go to my denomination's Bible School to pursue being a Pastor. It was a three year school and I graduated in June 1975. During my last year at the Bible School I felt very strongly that I should go to Dubois, Pa. and work at starting a mission church. I finally arrived in Dubois in September 1976. During my 15 months in Dubois God was doing a lot of work in me personally. In fact, I realize now that the reason that I was supposed to go to Dubois was for what God could do for me and change me rather than what I co...Expand for more