IBC – the college years, not the root beer

The Fall of 1985 saw me enrolled at International Baptist College (IBC). I was going for a bachelor’s degree in Bible/Pastoral Studies. I had always grown up being a “preacher boy” and I always wanted to be an evangelist like Ron Comfort and others like him that came through our church. My whole life seemed to be focused in that direction and that’s always what I thought I was going to be. I still feel kind of guilty that I’m not in a pastoral ministry of some sort.

I continued my job at Piccadilly Restaurant across the street at night. I started dating a college freshman and we were a couple for the next 2 ½ years. The first year at IBC went by without much fanfare. When my freshman year was over I headed to Ironwood Camp for the summer to work in the kitchen. I came back to IBC for my Sophomore year. The Winter of ’87 is when my life got real interesting.

The first thing was that I joined the Marine Corps and I was sworn in on my 20^th birthday. I made arrangements to go to boot camp at the end of the school year. The second thing was I helped open up a new restaurant called The Top of the Rock, which is at the resort on the Broadway curve of the I-10 in Phoenix. They were still building it when I started. The third thing is that I never finished my Sophomore year and although originally I had planned on coming back for my Junior year after boot camp, plans changed and I didn’t come back to IBC for almost ten years. 

The year 1987 changed the whole direction and dynamics of my life. I dropped out of college, joined the Marine Corps, and although it was not my intention, started walking away God, and just kind of did my own thing for the next few years.