Gary Graff:  

Hello former classmates, What have I been doing since I graduated from Fremont High in 1964? First, I spent a year at Laney Jr. College studying electronics, something I also took in high school. Early in this period, however, I became a Christian. I had been searching for meaning and purpose to life all my days and could not find it in any of the things I had tried: sports, studies, electronics, shooting a bow, shooting a 22 cal. rifle, cracking a whip, throwing a screw-driver (like a knife). My interest in these things lasted for about two weeks. I would also find my identity in whatever I was doing at the time: for instance, I identified myself as being the "bow-man," or "rifleman" or "whip-man," or whatever. None of these identities did me any good, nor did I find any real purpose or meaning in them. But one day I tried reading the Bible and right away, it began to touch my life right down in the center of my soul. Previously, this same Bible had been just an old in the book cabinet. When I read it two or three years earlier, it didn't do anything for me. But now, for some reason, it began to speak to me; I guess you could say, "it was my time." So I began reading the Bible an hour a day five days a week and have never stopped since that day in 1964. So, I made contact with God, with Jesus Christ. He would, at times, speak to me in subtle ways. After several months, the minister of the church asked me if I was interested in attending a Christian College (Northwest Christian college, Eugene, Oregon). I thought he was nuts, but simply said, "I'll pray about it." But the more I prayed about it, the more the idea was impressed upon me. After a few months, I finally threw up my hands and said, "OK, I'll try it." And when I did, I found it was what I really needed and was really a place I wanted to be in. To make a long story short, I did finally get a B.S. in theology. I also spent about three years in the army, which involved working as a microwave radio repairman in Thailand for a year. After the army, I remained there in Eugene and just started working in a factory, Pierce, a manufacturer of irrigation equipment. After a few years, my mother's second husband died, and she wanted ...Expand for more