The other strand is my growing appreciation that diversity is a blessing for humankind and for the church. When I was 12, with no family religious background at all, my parents enrolled me in a nearby Seventh-day Adventist church school. I was an avid reader, so very soon I was reading Messages to Young People and other church books. The Investigative Judgment and standing before Jesus at his second coming was impressed on my mind. It was a sobering experience, but I soon adapted.
Youth is so rich that it can endure an incredible amount of guilt.
I enjoyed the church, especially Sabbath School, and learning. I volunteered to help teach a class in the primary division, and had such a good experience that eventually I have been involved in every Sabbath school department from cradle roll to the senior division. I finished church school, academy, and La Sierra College where I received a degree in physics. 1962 was the start of a renewal of theological emphasis in my life. I was a teacher in the La Sierra Church Sabbath school and also the coordinator for the 13 class instructors, many of them faculty members of the college.