CELEBRITY TESTIMONY 12 MICKEY ROONEY

Mickey Rooney LIFE IS TOO SHORT CHAPTER 32 Barbara: Dr Buckley was one of the wisest most compassionate men in the world but he had chosen an indirect way to tell me this awful news. He had just walked into my room, greeted me and my visitors, and then the phone rang. "WHAT! WHAT! BOTH DEAD? BOTH OF THEM?" I heard him say. He finished with "I UNDERSTAND!" and then he hung up. He looked at me sadly as he told me that my fifth wife, Barbara, had been murdered and the man who shot her had also been shot to death in the struggle. I wanted to know about my kids. Once I knew they were alright I began to sob as much in relief for my kids as in my grief for Barbara's death. I asked my friend ,Red Barry, to bring my kids to me. "Oh poor Barabara" and then "My poor babies", I would keep saying. I died too that day in Dr Buckleys arms. It seemed like a steel band had been wrapped around my chest and I didn't take a full breath for 3 years. The preacher who did the funeral was the same one who had made my marriage legal to Barbara in 1960 and had baptized all four of our kids. The body of the murderer was shipped back to his mother in Belgrade. For days I was close to a catatonic state but I was aware enough to care about my kids. When I got out of the hospital I rented a small room in Beverly Hills and gathered in it with all my kids. I stayed close to them until 10 days after Barbara died my attorney, Dermot Long, called and told me that my mother had died. Ever since my life started falling apart she had been drinking. Not long after my friend, Fred Pankey, had also drunk himself to death in a cheap hotel on Sepulveda Boulevard. "Ahh God," I prayed, "when will the sorrow end?" I would learn that it would only end when I stopped running away from God. I had been running from him for days in the ways of a labyrinthine and he still kept following me. And I still didn't know what he was doing or where I was. MICKEY ROONEY LIFE IS TOO SHORT CHAPTER 33 VISIONS: I had many more set backs in the next dozen years but I would survive them as I do the ones nowadays with the help of a faith I had almost forgotten. I got added help from a visitation. It came at an unlikely place: the coffee shop of a casino on the shores of lake Tahoe. I was a last minute fill- in for Judy Garland who was too sick to make it. I was having breakfast at Harrahs with a few friends. We were half-listening to a lot of aimless talk when a busboy came up behind me and whispered my name. I started to get out of my chair thinking someone was paging me on the phone. The busboy leaned over, put his lips to my ear, and said, "MR ROONEY JESUS CHRIST LOVES YOU VERY MUCH." For a minute I couldn't quite believe what I had heard. I turned to look at him. He was wearing a white jacket, had blond curls, a white rose complexion, and shining teeth. He smiled at me and then disappeared into the kitchen. I finished my breakfast then I walked over to the hostess. "I would like to talk to that busboy who was working at our table." I said casually "Which busboy are you talking about?" she asked. "The one with the light blond curls. Sort of surrounds his head like a helmet." I said. She answered with, "WE DONT HAVE A BUSBOY WITH BLOND HAIR." " But I was just talking to him?" I asked impatiently "You can go back into kitchen and look", she offered. When I went back there I saw no boy with hair like a- a halo. Then my flesh started crawling and my hair stood up on my arms. I KNEW I HAD BEEN VISITED BY AN ANGEL. "GOD", I said, "WHO AM I THAT YOU SHOULD SEND ME AN ANGEL? I WHO HAVE BEEN PAYING SO LITTLE ATTENTION?" When my sixth marriage fell apart Barbaras parents started taking care of my kids. I saw them every now and then but I couldn't really be a father to them. I was still addicted to barbiturates and it seemed like no one could do anything for me. I would have been the first one to sign up for Betty Ford clinic if it had existed then. Then quite unconsciously Judy Garland helped with an object lesson of her own. On this particular day in 1967 I kept phoning Judy but was getting no answer either at four in the morning or after noon. I had a hunch Id better go by and see if she was alright. Judy and I were like brother and sister and that kind of relationship sometimes has that sixth sense about each other. I called Dr Buckley asking him to meet me at Judys place. "Something tells me she needs help," I said. When we got there we found the front door locked. We crawled over a wall and found the back door locked as well. Just like in the movies I put a handkerchief around my hand and punched in a window pane. We found Judy naked and unconscious facedown on the pillow. After feeling her pulse Dr Buckley said she was alive and he phoned for an ambulance. "Mickey help me find what shes on." he said. We searched the house and after looking through the likeliest places I found a cache of pills at the bottom of one of Judys boots. After cracking the pill and tasting it Dr Buckley said that it was Percodan As we dressed Judy Buckely explained to me that Percodan was powerful enough to haul a Steinway over the Andes Mountains. This view of Judy and of myself pushed me to an utter cry of the heart. In answer to those prayers Jeri Greene appeared on my doorstep. She made a start by consulting a movie producer and mutual friend named Leo Popkin. The two of them decided they needed to find a specialist for me. I remember Jerri driving me down from my house in Coldwater Canyon one winter morning to where Leo was waiting for us. We waited in my car while Leo talked with another man. Finally he came to my side of the car and said, "DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL?" "Yes I do," I answered, " I don't want to live like this anymore." Two days later I was on the plane to San Francisco with Jeri. She helped check me into a hospital under an assumed name. I was going to get well. It wasn't easy. Doctors didn't really understand addictions as well as they do now. They didn't have all the support groups they do today meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 step programs. These doctors took a very basic common sense approach: "YOU DONT WANT TO BE A DRUG ADDICT? WELL THEN FIRST OF ALL YOU HAVE TO STOP TAKING DRUGS." The doctors kept me in bed and made sure I was eating right. They also gave me back rubs. Besides that they really didn't know what to do. Then one night I made my own breakthrough. I looked to a power higher than myself. "FATHER," I prayed. "COME INTO MY HEART. I HAVE SINNED. I CANNOT MAKE IT WITHOUT YOU. PLEASE HELP ME! PLEASE HELP! He did help. From that day on I was a well man. I didn't pass from sick to well in one day. I spent the next 10 years working my way from sick to being completely healed. But that prayer marked a turning point for me.

Celebrity Testimony 11 Phil Robertson (Duck Commander)

P Phil Robertson HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY:

Chapter 5 WHOS A MAN: After I gave up football at Louisiana Tech I started running with a pretty rough crowd. It was during the 1960's when people my age questioned everything about the government and society in general. The Vietnam war was raging I wasn't sure why brother Si had been sent to Southeast Asia to fight in some country we had never heard of. We had parties and everybody got drunk except for Kay who wanted nothing to do with all that nonsense. It went on from when I was 21 or 22 until I was about 28. We got drunk on anything we could get our hands on running wild and duck hunting. It wasn't just beer and whiskey either. It was the 1960s so usually there was a little Marijuana around. We never bought any but wed smoke it if it was available. So between the whiskey, diet pills, and different kinds of medicinal speed we were staying pretty messed up. As far as alcohol it was mostly whiskey beer and wine. Throw in a little Marijuana and pep pills and that was the drug scene as far as I was concerned. I never got any of the serious stuff like LSD or heroin; sticking a needle in my arm was insanity to me. This went on for about 7 or 8 years. I was trying to become an 18th century man who relied on hunting and fishing to make a living. But I lived in the 20th and everything was changing around me. Hunting and fishing was no longer a way to provide food for my family it was competition between me and my buddies and all the rules had been thrown out the window. We were romping stomping and getting drunk. Shooting to many ducks and catching to many fish. We were outlaws. It was all about who could kill the most ducks and catch the most fish.
 We didn't care about anything else. It was a riotous time. By then I had a growing family at my home. Jason and Willie had been born and Kay was at the end of her rope with me. I would go out partying with my buddies and leave Kay alone to raise our children. I was becoming more and more distant from everything I had known and been taught and pulling even farther away from those who loved me the most. Kay felt her entire life was in ruins and that she had failed as a wife. After a while even the school where I had been a teacher and a coach could no longer ignore my public behavior. Students and their parents were making complaints about me being boorish. Sadly my life continued to spiral out of control like a downed duck from the sky.

Chapter 6 HONKY TONK: Before the school board could fire me I resigned my teaching position then I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I rented a Honky-Tonk in the middle of nowhere. where I was the manager, bartender and cook. Occasionally I would have to break up a fight. Kay would often bring one of her great meals but what  I mostly served was fried chicken boiled eggs and pickled pigs feet. Though most us that were usually there, including me, were only there to drink as much beer and whiskey as we could. The bar was a long one story wood building unpainted and yellow.
 Kay and our three sons had moved out to the middle of nowhere with me and our trailer home was roughly attached to the bar making the whole complex look like a regular U shape. That certainly wasn't the proper place to raise my boys. Kay got a job as a barmaid to make sure I stayed out of trouble. Kay never was much of a drinker after she had seen what it had done to her mother but on most nights she was right there with me watching me slowly drink away our lives.

When my parents and brothers and sisters heard about what was happening to me my sister Jan drove out to the bar bringing with her William Smith one of the preachers at Whites Ferry Road Church in West Monroe, Louisiana. Because she lived close by Jan knew more than anyone in my family that I had strayed from the Lord. She was determined to save me and asked Bill to help her. When they walked into the bar I was sitting at my desk with a quart beer bottle in my hand.
"You some kind of preacher?" I asked him. When Smith told me he was I added with, " You ever been drunk?" "I use to drink a few beers" he answered. I got back at him with,"Than whats the difference between you and me? You've been drunk and Im getting drunk right now. There aint a dime difference between you and me Jack. You aint putting any Bible on me. That's the ways I was born."
 At the same time Jan was in the barroom handing out religious tracts. The customers were doing their usual cussing and carrying on as well as getting drunk. She was having an argument with one of the guys when I stepped in to figure out what was going on. "Hey! Hey! Hey",I said then they turned around and looked at me. "This is my sister, I said to them,"Shes handing out religious tracts. Let her hand them out and anyone who messes with her will deal with me." "This is your sister?" one of them asked. "Yes. Shes going to do whatever she does here", I answered, "Leave her alone." Jan went on handing out religious tracts until she had given everyone one.
 I went back to Smith and demanded that he leave. Although Smiths visit had not convinced me, Kay later began to study the Bible with him. She knew our marriage and lives were rapidly deteriorating. A few months later I hit what I believe was rock bottom. The couple that owned the bar came in and told me that my rent was going to be raised. So I decided to hightail it out of the place before the last two months of my rent were over. We started arguing and I threw them both across the bar injuring them pretty badly. By the time the fight was over there were four police cars out front. I went out the back door and jumped in my truck before the police could arrest me.

Before I left I told Kay, "I'm going to the swamps or somewhere. Youre not going to see me in a few months." I had left Kay to clean up my mess. The police had a warrant for my arrest but Kay persuaded them to drop the charges. The plea bargain came with a heavy price the bar owners took all the money we had made while operating the Honky-Tonk. Eventhough Kay paid off the owners I didn't know if there were still arrest warrants out for me. The bar owners had a restraining order against me so I couldn't go anywhere near them. Kay moved our trailer to a spot beside lake D'Arbonne at Farmville Louisiana as we had discussed during a phone conversation. For about the next year I somehow endured though our was marriage under tremendous strain. The incident at the bar didn't keep me from romping, stomping, and ripping with my drinking buddies Kay always had hope that I would change my ways and if we moved to a new location and met new people things would get better. But they never did; things only got worse. One rainy night Kay came home late from work and I accused her of cheating on me which I knew she would never do. It was a life changing event for Kay and she knows the details of the incident and what had happened afterwards better than I do.

KAYS WORDS: Our first year at Louisiana Tech was when Phils problems first began. He was playing football but he had a wife and a baby. It was a lot of grown up responsibility for an 18 year old and he wasn't ready for it. All the time he saw his teammates go out and party and he wanted to go too. I believe that's why he so easily got into the wrong group he wanted to be like the single guys who had all the freedom. Since we married so young he never really experienced the single life. I wanted to go party with him but Alan was only a baby and I couldn't leave him. It just didn't seem right. I never liked drunkenness. I didn't believe it was wrong to have a drink but I didn't like the way it looked.
 When Phil rented the bar people couldn't believe that I went out and stayed with him. I was working as a barmaid and I was respected by everyone. They would tell others, "Don't talk ugly to her. Shes a nice lady even if she doesn't drink." The fact that they were protective of me was surprising. They would always ask why I was in the bar if I didn't drink but when I decided to stay with Phil and remain faithful to him, I felt it was my job to protect him. If I was there he wouldn't get in as much trouble as he would if I wasn't. The year after the bar fight was the worse time of my life. Phil was working offshore and drinking more than ever before. One night when I came home he accused me of having an affair which was stupid. I had never done that and it wasn't because Phils friends werent hitting on me. I just wasn't that kind of person. I always told him, " If I leave you Ill divorce and find someone else if I wanted too. But I would never cheat on you." Ive always thought of myself as a good person. I don't know if it was by personality but Ive always been very serving.
 During Phils troubles I was focusing on the faith my grandmother had instilled in me. I then realized I had to find my own faith. Phil was cursing me and calling me every ugly name possible. For the first time in my life I felt hopeless. No one can live without hope.
 My whole life I wanted to be the best wife and mother I could. I never asked for anything except to have a good loving home for the boys. When Phil accused me of running out on him that was rock bottom for me. I went to the bathroom and cried. For the first time in my life this was a problem I couldn't fix. I had suicidal thoughts as well I just wanted to fall asleep and never wake up. I don't know if I would have actually gone through with it but I wanted Phil to suffer for what he was doing to me. But as I sat there I heard the sound of the boys shoes running down the hall. 9 year Alan 5 year old Jason and 3 year old Willie. Alan knocked on the door and said, "Mama don't cry. Gods going to take care of us. We'll all be alright. One day daddy will stop drinking." I will never forget what he said. Then it was as if a light had gone off in my mind. Thought, " What am I thinking? Ive got three little boys I cant leave them with a drunk." In his condition there was no way Phil could take care of those boys. I started praying to God to bring me peace. Things were not going right and I had three boys to take care of. The next day I started watching LET THE BIBLE SPEAK on TV hosted by Bill Smith. The same preacher Jan brought into the bar. What he was saying were things I needed to hear what and I wanted in my life. He was speaking about obtaining peace and hope so I called the screen number set an appointment. The next day I went to Whites Ferry Road Church. One of the first things Bill asked was, "When you die do you think you'll go to Heaven?" I told him, "I sure do. Let me tell you what Ive been living with." I went into how bad Phil was even though I had been a faithful and loving wife to him. Bill then asked me if I believed I had earned my way to heaven I said that I did. Then he asked me if there was peace or hope in my life. That was my problem. I felt some sort of disconnect because I believed I had earned my way to heaven but there wasn't any peace or hope in my life. Smith shared the gospel with me and I became convinced that my good works couldnt save me. I was a good person but I didn't have Jesus. It wasn't enough. Smith said if I wanted to I could walk out the door with Jesus Christ in my life. I repented and made him the Lord of my life then I was baptized. The best thing Smith said that day was when I got home Phil would be as drunk as usual and still act terrible. But that I would be different because I had Gods spirit living in me. He told me to think about the wonderful life I would have in Heaven when things were bad here on earth. I left his office beginning to develop my own faith as a Christian. I went home and was able to tolerate Phils behavior because I knew God would help me through this. While Phil was drinking and staying out all night I was working at the Howards Brothers Discount Store in West Monroe I again came home late from work one night and again Phil accused me of having an affair. This time he stared at me and said, "You make me sick. Living with you was bad enough before but now youre a holy roller." Then he called me a Bible thumper and goody-two shoes Then he said, " You think youre an angel. I want you to take these three boys and leave." He knew nothing would separate me from my sons. "Are we messing up your bachelor life?", I asked. When he told me yes there was nothing else to do but leave. Our boys began to cry as we left because they loved their father even though he was drunk. The boys and I moved into a low rent apartment and White Ferrys Road Church gave us money for rent and furniture. We stayed away from Phil for three months. We were hiding from him actually. I put everything under my maiden name so he wouldn't be able to find us. One day when I got back to work after having lunch with a girlfriend I saw Phils truck in the parking lot. His head was lying on the steering wheel so I figured he had passed out drunk after driving here. I told a friend to watch by the window and to call the police if Phil was flashing a gun. I didn't want Phil following me into my office and hurting anybody either. I walked up to Phils truck and opened the door. When I saw his face there were big tears streaming down. I had never seen him cry before. He said,"I cant eat I cant sleep I cant do anything. I want my family back." He told me that his drinking and partying days were over. I had heard that before several times but I felt Gods courage inside me and said, " Phil you cant do it yourself. You just cant." Phil told me he needed help and he asked where he could find it. "Theres only one person who can help you," I told him "God?" he asked When I told him yes he answered with "I don't know how to find him." Phil had gone to church and sunday school as a boy but he had been away from God for a long time. I told Phil to be back at my office at 5:30 for did know someone who could help him I called Bill Smith the preacher and told him to be at my apartment at 5:45 "Let me check my calendar." he said Then I said to him, "Whats more important then a lost soul coming back to the Lord? If you have anything else cancel it." "Nothing is more important than a lost soul" ,he said. Smith and his wife met Phil and me at our apartment. The first thing Phil said was, "I don't trust you." Smith said that he could understand why. "Considering those people you've been running around with I wouldn't trust anyone either" ,he stated. "But do you trust this?",he asked holding up his Bible. Phil answered with, "I do trust this book but everything you say Im going to check out. I don't take mans word for anything." While I was in the back room with the boys Phil and Smith studied the Bible for several hours. When they were finished Phil said he was going to check out everything they had discussed and were going to meet again the next day. Phil then moved into our apartment. The next day me and the boys went to the grocery store and when we got home we found a note from Phil telling us to come to Whites Ferry Road Church. When we got there Phil was in the baptistery waiting. Smith had taken Phils repentance and was now going to baptize him. I saw the boys crying. Alan looked up and said, " The devil is gone now." Phil was 28 and our lives were beginning again.

BACK TO PHIL: When I make a decision Im in entirely and theres no second guessing. After I was baptized I went to regular church services three times a week(twice on Sunday). I also studied the Bible with a group or someone five times a week. I went back to teaching and working for the Ouachita Christian School. To get back on my feet spiritually I felt like I needed to spend more time with Christian people. I did it for about two years. Since everything was in Kays maiden name my old friends couldn't find me. After about 3 or 4 months they finally tracked me down, I told them never to come back. This was five years after I got saved and my sinful ways finally stopped. Although I was healing spiritually and my wife and kids trusted me again there still seemed to be something missing. Its funny how things work sometimes. Hunting and fishing had become a training ground for what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Even at my lowest point when I was romping stomping and ripping. I spent as much time as I could doing it. It was in my blood. When I was partying and we would go from the beer joint to the woods or lakes and back. Yet out of all my sinful ways I gained experience for duck hunting and catching fish as well as my dream to build my own duck calls. Even as I sank deeper into that lifestyle and as my values and sense of worth were severely battered there was a core of resilience in me that kept me going.

Celebrity Testimony 10 Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare Chapter 13 Whiskey Holds the Lace: He had playfully refered to himself as Jekyll and Hyde character. Killer Alice Cooper by night mild mannered Vincent Furnier by day. Now his friends were finding out how true this theory was but it wasn't the difference between onstage and offstage that brought it to life. It was the fact that he was an autopilot on stage and a mess offstage. It was only Alice himself that didn't realize this. He kept telling himself that drinking wasn't a problem and that nobody was noticing. He pride fully appeared completely normal when he wasn't. Alice himself even says today, " you would never believe I was drunk nobody who was close to me was able to realize how much I was drinking. When I was 16 and dreaming of being a rock star getting money and cars, I never included being an alcoholic. It sneaked up on me. I like drinking and hanging out with the guys. Wed have these long drive in the states and Id have about three beers before and after the show. I started having a beer in the morning too. But I didn't feel like an alcoholic. Then the beers lead to whiskey in the morning and the afternoon. Then there was more before and after the show suddenly the fun was gone. It started tasting like medicine. It didn't change my personality drastically if you knew me then you wouldn't have known I had a problem. I never missed a show or a lyric. I was what you call a functional alcoholic." Yet how functional was he really. He wasn't enjoying the performances or the tours. Writing new songs became like chore and rehearsing became painful. Before a show backstage even the sight of what he was going to wear made him sick, so he would reach for a whiskey drink it up and get dressed. Still he insisted that nobody knew but they did know. Its hard to be unaware that the one youre working for is throwing up blood every morning or that there are whiskey bottles on the table,in the morning, and in the trash in the afternoon. Sheryl and Shep( his wife and manager) often compared notes. The piling up empty cases of beer in the garage, performances becoming less and less spontaneous, and Alice carrying on destroying himself. Alice himself cautioned in 1982, "You hear about the dangers of Heroin and Cocaine but alcohol is the perfect killer. Its the worse drug in the world and I took it to far. It got to such a point that I began to believe that I couldn't live without a drink." Alcohol began to dictate his friends and flavor his career as well. He was also being beaten down by record company politics. Shep Gordon ,his manager, was under no illusions with what Alice was going through though the attempts to balance Alices demands with his concern for Alices health were being shot down by Alice every time he suggested taking it easy. He wanted Alice to take a break but he wouldn't do it. Welcome to My Nightmare Chapter 14 Special Forces: Warner Brothers had assumed that Alice was going to give them the rights to WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE for distribution but he didn't and all promotion from Warner Brothers was dropped. His albums had even been blocked from getting any kind of exposure. There was no co-operation whatsoever. Alices life was falling apart with no contract with Warner Brothers his career was at rock bottom. Some even said it should stop. His only source of comfort was his family. His wife Sheryl and his daughter ,Calico, who was born in 1981. No matter what Alice went through they were always there. Then one day they weren't. Sheryl moved out of the house on September 30, 1983 taking Calico with her. Her life was so shattered by Alices drinking. Six weeks later she filed for divorce. It seemed the marriage was broken with no chance of reconciliation. Sheryl didn't really want to leave though. It would all go away if Alice gave up drinking of his own freewill with nobody forcing him to do it. And he did it. They were in the courthouse about to finalize the divorce when Alice pledged that we would stop drinking without anybody forcing him too. And he was true to his word. It wasn't just his family by his side there was JESUS. Throughout his career Alice had been trying to avoid anything onstage that might embarrass his father or his fathers church;he had often spoken too that his way of entertainment was as harmless as any singer or actor. I was a matter of pride for him but it was also based on deep beliefs that he learned as a child and had always been in the back of his mind. Although he believed it was no ones business but his own Alice himself was as strong a Christian as any faith grounded pastor and probably more honest in his understanding of what faith meant as well. He said about the same time he stopped drinking, "I started thinking about Christianity when the doctors said that if I had been drunk another week I would have died. When you come that close to death you start thinking about something other than limos and mansions. I suppose its not surprising I turned to my Christian faith. My father was a preacher." Alice does not preach and he does not prophecy. He does not put religion in his lyrics. In fact the only time hes outspoken about his faith is when he needs to defend himself against anyone accusing him of Satanism and leading kids astray. That's the cruelest insult to Christians. " You can call me untalented and boring. Ok I can live with that but call me satanic and youre stepping on what I really believe. I spend a lot of time in my lyrcis warning against Satanism because I don't believe in the concept of Satan I believe in Satans being. I believe in the being of God. And I think were in the middle. Were being pulled this way and were being pulled that way... Satan offers us everything we want. God is offering us everything we need. So when people start playing around with the 666 and the upside down crosses and all the blasphemy-I'm at the point in my life where I can go, 'Be careful, youre inviting something in and you dont know what youre playing with. So I do lyrics that say 'Be Careful.' He's here hes right here and hes going for your throat, it doesn't look like it but he wants to own you. That's pretty horrifying, that's real horror when you think of it. If you believe in Satan, then you believe in a real person that's trying to destroy your eternal life. Whats more horrifying than that?" ALICE COOPER

Celebrity Testimony 9 Meadowlark Lemon (Harlem Globetrotters)

Meadowlark Lemon Trust Your Next Shot:Chapter 9 Meeting the Man Who Changed My Life Of all the men who have made me into what I am there one man above all of them "Jesus Christ" Today I am an outspoken non-denominational Christian evangelist. You might say I am a preacher of the Gospel the good news for any group that wants me to speak. I have been invited to mainline churches and independent congregations. I have been to prisons and shelters for the homeless. Weve ministered to Native Americans, gang members, and those with severe addictions. Ive been part of a lot of motivational and spiritual events that team with other ministries, foundations, and celebrity fundraisers for charities. We go to detention centers and lock up facilities and to youth prisons. In every one of these settings my message remains the same: I come to you with a "Ministry of Joy." I was introduced to Jesus Christ by a Jewish Hollywood Costume designer and it changed my life forever. Heres the unlikely story. After playing with the Globetrotters I started my own comedy team: Meadowlarks Lemons Bucketeers. As we were getting it started we were able to arrange several engagements including a special on NBCs Sportsworld. Thus was great because we finally had a chance to show what we could do but we didn't have any uniforms. I was given the name of a costume designer who worked in Hollywood: Heidi Rasnow. I told her about the deadline for the NBC show and asked her if she be able to help with the uniforms. She agreed and performed miracles with her sewing machine. She made the uniforms and they turned out great! We wore them on the David Letterman Show and David said he loved the uniforms. Today you can watch it as a clip on You Tube. I returned from along trip with the Bucketeers and felt I should stop by Heidis studio. She was with a minster friend of hers named John who had gotten there just before I arrived. When Heidi saw me she could tell I had an awful lot on my mind. I had filled my life with everything I thought would make me happy: money,fame, security, work, business. Still I wasn't happy. I was frustrated and disillusioned. In her direct way Heidi said, "Meadowlark, I know what you need. You need Jesus." She knew it and at that moment I realized it to. God had sent John into the studio at the same time and God lead me there because he knew that I needed him. "Im ready," I whispered. John led us in a simple prayer: "Heavenly father, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Im calling to you. I pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be Lord of my life. I confess Jesus is Lord and I believe in my heart that he rose from the dead. Thank you that your spirit now lives within me and I am forgiven Amen." After saying the prayer I wish I could say that my life changed completely in the next minute. I was sincere when I prayed I really did want the Lord in my life. My faith grew in the coming weeks and months. I realized God had cleaned me up on the inside and my desires had changed. I wanted to know more about the Lord and his word and anything I could to have a closer relationship with him. In the next year I began to share my testimony about the man who changed my life. As I began to realize who I was I saw that God had known me even when I did not know him and he had been with me all the time. I read in the Bible that God gives us the desires of our heart. When I read that I realized that when I went to the movie theater 11 years ago that God was there too. He gave me the gift of seeing my future with the Globetrotters on that movie screen. God was there when I was frustrated that I had no place to play and God gave me the courage to keep on believing that a little black boy going from home to home, no place to call my own, would have a chance to be on a team known around the world- the Harlem Globetrotters. God was there all the time, guiding, comforting, and encouraging me. He was with me when I thought I was alone practicing for hours while my buddies were away. God was there all the time waiting patiently for me to recognize his presence in my life and run into his arms! What a wonderful place to be: In the arms of God who brings unspeakable joy. I knew, with all my heart that Jesus Christ was the man who changed my life FOREVER Anyone can say the prayer that John taught me and God will change their life as well. When I said I was assured of God's love and of eternal life with him no matter what. If this prayer bothers you and youre not sure about God I challenge you just to pray: "GOD IF YOU ARE REAL REVEAL YOURSELF TO ME." You will be amazed about how God will make himself known to you. When I was a boy I used to sleep with a basketball. Now whenever I get a hotel room while Im traveling the first thing I unpack is my Bible and study notes and put them on my bed. I study Gods word the same way I studied my basketball gane.