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heard that he was an agnostic, or unbeliever, or something bad. This was not long after the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court’s Schempp decision that removed prayer and bible reading from the public schools, so we Christians were quite recently wounded and sensitive about the issue of religion on our campus. Anaheim High School was forced to end the tradition of opening each day with a morning bible reading broadcast to the classrooms. But I figured that I possessed a calling from a higher level than the Supreme Court, and I proudly took my bible to school, being careful to place it on top of my other books so that everyone would notice.
     
    I often took two bibles to school: the King James Version and another in Spanish. When Mr. Edwards would give us some free time to read Spanish literature, I would open my Reina-Valera bible and kill three birds with one stone: learn Spanish, worship God and prepare myself for my missionary career. I noticed that Mr. Edwards noticed.
     
    One day as I was leaving the class, Mr. Edwards called me over to his desk and told me that he wanted to talk with me after school. I was pretty sure he wanted to talk about my bible in the classroom—the bible hardly qualifies as Spanish literature, I thought—so I prayed all day long. After gymnastics I steadied my nerve and walked into his classroom. He shut the door and went back to his desk, where I was standing.
     
    “Dan,” he said, “I notice that you have been bringing your bible to class.”
     
    “Yes,” I said, swallowing hard.
     
    “And I notice that you have been reading your bible during class time.”
     
    “That’s right,” I answered, ready to do battle with Satan. I was his top student, so I didn’t fear any academic lecture.
     
    “Well, then,” he continued, hesitating, “maybe you are the one who can help me.”
     
    “Help you, Mr. Edwards?” I asked, anticipating some kind of trick.
     
    “Yes. Maybe you can help me make sense of spiritual things.” His whole manner changed, and he started talking like a humbled man, friend to friend, hurting. I was surprised to see him like this. He told me that he was an agnostic, but that he was starting to think that there might be something “out there.” He had read some articles about ESP and other psychic phenomena, and was deciding that a strictly materialistic view of life was unrealistic and unsatisfying.
     
    “Dan, you seem so confident and happy. Tell me what you believe.”
     
    So, I told him that I believed in God, that God was revealed in the bible, that we were all sinners, that God sent his son, Jesus, to die for our sins, that Jesus rose from the grave to conquer death, that we could confess our sins and accept Jesus as our personal savior and be born again, becoming “new creatures” without guilt and with a joy and purpose in life to know God, praise God and do his will. I took advantage of the opportunity, telling him everything I believed. He listened quietly, and as our meeting ended he thanked me and told me he wanted to hear more.
     
    We met every day or so after that, with me mostly talking and him listening. I kept stressing the reality of God, and the moral difference between believers and nonbelievers. We became friends. Sometimes during break between classes he would stop me in the hallway and ask about a verse in the bible. I felt self-conscious, knowing that some of my classmates were watching and wondering.
     
    Early one day Mr. Edwards found me in the hallway and excitedly pulled me over. He was grinning. “Dan, I had to tell you. I did it!”
     
    “What happened?” I asked, still able to be surprised that the important head of the district language department was treating me like a buddy.
     
    “I accepted Jesus as my personal savior. This morning as I was getting out of my car in the parking lot, it hit me. What you were saying about making a conscious, deliberate decision to accept Jesus made perfect sense. I prayed right there in