The Personal Testimony of  Dr. David Parsons

This is my story.  You have 5 options!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zO80Xu_8R4

The written testimony is below with photos, just scroll downbut it is also available in:

English Abbreviated

Spanish

Spanish Abbreviated

The full written testimony is below:

I am color blind.  As a child, I had five seizures with loss of consciousness between the ages of 5 to 12 years old.  I was on big time anti-convulsant medicine into college, and I wore glasses.  If anyone has any one of these, they cannot train to fly military airplanes.  It is a very long story of how I was approved to fly, and none of it makes any logical sense.  But there was NO WAY I should ever have been allowed anywhere near a military airplane, let alone the fighters… but… there was a power above that determined I was to fly military jets and I went to fly.  

As I received my wings, I graduated at the top of my class and went to fly fighters for the USAF.  In the first two fighters I flew, I won the Top Gun award. Then, it was off to Vietnam.

In the first three months of combat, six of my classmates would die but in that year there would be many more friends who would pay the ultimate sacrifice.  

[Photo 1]

I flew the OV-10 Bronco.  We had one of the highest fatality rates due to our mission of flying directly over the enemy.  We always flew very slow to optimize our visibility of ground action and we flew quite low.  We were always alone in the plane over the enemy.  

Let me tell you about our mission.  We lived with the USArmy units we supported.  We attended briefings every day to know where the enemy was suspected to be, and where our troops were being deploying.  We had the platoon and companies radio frequencies and could always be in contact when they got into trouble.  

I took enemy ground fire virtually every mission and deployed my rockets and automatic gunfire every day.  We carried both high explosive and white-smoke marking rockets along with 4 internally mounted machine guns and occasionally a minigun that fired 6000 rounds/minute.  This plane was very effective at suppressing enemy assaults and advancement.  I could help the guys on the ground by identifying their position, then assaulting the enemy with my weapons.  When excessively hostile, I could direct Army artillery or call in fighter aircraft support with powerful explosive weapons.

During attacks, the ground fire from the enemy was intense both for me and our ground forces.  The Army guys loved us as we often saved their lives and limbs.

But when I returned from each mission, the sense that I was something special in my plane accelerated.  Every mission I came back as a valiant warrior in victory.  I felt invincible and volunteered to fly more and more sorties and finished that year flying more than 450 combat missions.  

As a First Lieutenant, I was highly recognized by my commander and was selected to be a combat instructor pilot.  My “students” were all experience pilots with no previous combat flying.  I had Majors & LtColonels as my students.  After the year, I was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a chest full of medals.  The ATTITUDE that I was something very special in a combat airplane was firmly established.

Do you see that the Attitude equals Pride.  In Proverbs of the Bible it says “Pride disgusts the Lord.”  The Seven Deadly Sins are also listed there and number one is Pride.

I was 1st Lt David Parsons, USAF Fighter Pilot/Forward Air Controller (FAC) assigned the USArmy.  I was first with the 1st Infantry Division, then the 25th Infantry Division and was ultimately one of the original Rustic FACs as we invaded Cambodia.  Cambodia was an unbelievable harrowing combat area and our attacks on the invading North Vietnamese where devastating.

Let me tell you a little of the spiritual life of this 24 year old combat pilot.  I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma.  I was blessed with wonderful Christian parents.  I was a good kid and did things right.  But, my faith never matured from childhood.  Jesus was just the lead actor in Bible stories and nothing else.

As a top gun combat fighter pilot, the falling away from anything spiritual began.  God was replaced with THE ATTITUDE, the attitude that I was better than all the others.  I was my own false god.

Remember the color blind kid with five seizures and five episodes of loss of consciousness?  The Lord was actively leading, guiding and moving in my life long before I really knew Him.  But, of course, I was totally ignorant of this.

Returning to the States, now Captain Parsons continued as a combat instructor pilot for experienced pilots going to Vietnam.  Then the dream  assignment came, the F-105 Thunderchief.  It was the fastest low altitude fighter in the Free World,   One guy, one engine and pure speed and power!

[Photo 2]

When I got to the Fighter Weapons School, the instructors immediately assaulted me because my background was as a FAC. They wanted “real fighter pilots.”  I should have been humbled but instead, I was challenged. If you saw the movie Top Gun, the character Tom Cruise played so desperately wanted to be the Top Gun that he would do anything to win it, including violating the rules of engagement.  I did not violate the rules of engagement and by the third strike mission, I beat my instructor. There were 17 strike missions in the program.  All of the instructors wanted to fly against me to prove that no student could beat them, but each time I came back victorious.

Finally, on the seventeenth flight, they put me up against the wing’s Top Gun. He was a seasoned veteran with 100 bombing missions over North Vietnam. He knew the plane well.  He was a great pilot.  We fired the Gatling gun and rockets.  We flew high and low angle bomb runs.  But when the smoke cleared, there was a new Top Gun.  For the first time, a student won that hallowed honor.

Tom Wolfe wrote a book about fighter pilots called The Right Stuff.  In that book, he talks about the ego of the fighter pilot.  He said, “There is no ego in any other profession that rivals that of the fighter pilot except one -- the surgeon.” The week I won Top Gun, I was accepted to medical school at the University of Texas.

I was on my way up the ladder of success, and The Attitude was out of control.

Life as a medical student was tough after a life in the fast lane, but when I finished, I graduated with the same honors that I had won in fighters.  The ATTITUDE was reborn in medicine. 

Where was Jesus in all this?  Long forgotten.

Years later, I am now both a full Colonel and a full Professor.  I had specialized in children but after becoming a Pediatrician and serving in Albuquerque for a few years, I realized that I really wanted to operate on children and returned for 5 attentional years of study to become a Pediatric Head and Neck Surgeon.

I studied under some of the top surgeons in the world in London and Sydney, Australia.  They not only taught me surgery, but they taught me how to advance our specialty.  I began doing research, writing surgical articles and wrote over 130 articles for medical journals, I edited the largest selling book in the world on Pediatric Sinus Care and designed over 45 surgical instruments. But I was still in the USAF and could not receive any financial benefit from the sale of these instruments.  So the manufacturers put my name “Parsons” on each instrument.  As a result, my name was known all over the surgical world.  I was invited to lecture in more places than you can imagine.  The ATTITUDE?  I had gone from Top Gun fighter pilot to Top Gun Surgeon.

But my out-of-control-ego ruffled feathers, especially the General’s and his staff.  Without formally accusing me, they began an investigation to prove that since the surgical instrument manufacturers were making millions, Colonel Parsons was taking money under the table.  They were wrong.  I never took any money, but when the investigation showed that I was innocent, 3 more investigations were held and I was put under house arrest.  Yet, no wrongdoing was found and the house arrest was ultimately lifted, BUT…

My career, my empire that I has worked so hard to build was crumbling and obviously destroyed.  As I was falling into a Godless despair, I could only reflect on my beloved wife who loved Jesus. With her as a model of peace and joy, I did something almost unbelievable.  I said “yes.”

Three friends, who didn’t know each other, independently approached me. The first friend said, “David, you have been doing some spectacular surgical work, let’s go together down to Mexico and see if we can’t help the poor rural people in the mountains?”  I am an immense skeptic, I don’t say yes to anything without a thorough consideration.  But I turned to that friend and said, “You bet, let’s go.”

The second friend came to me and said, “David, let’s go to a Christian men’s retreat.”  Being the spiritual skeptic I was, I would never go to such an event, but, I agreed to go. 

The third friend came up and said, “David, how about joining me in Bible study?”  I was NOT going to read that ancient book, and I wasn’t going to believe any of that “Jesus stuff” either.  But I said, “Yes.”  There is no question, the “yes’s” came out of hopelessness, despair, and profound emptiness.

The Bible study was powerful & the mission work touched my heart.

The men’s retreat was an opportunity to learn about and really grasp Grace.  Grace is the unmerited, profound love of God given freely to each one of us.  It isn’t earned, in fact, you can’t earn it, no matter how good you are.  I had no clue as I was not only a non-believer, I was a rejector of Jesus.  

On the retreat, I was deeply moved.  I remember our small group leader took just our table to the chapel to talk and to pray together.  We sang acappella the beautiful hymn “Here I am Lord,” from the ancient Book of Isaiah and the words “Here I am, Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me” went straight to my heart.

I suddenly realized how little I had to show Him and for 1st time, I was truly humbled.  At that moment, I could see through the pride, and the anger I had for the men who falsely accused me.  For years, I had been wanting others to change, to see MY way.  NOW, recognized “I” was the problem, I needed to be the one to change, without my self-centered behavior, none of these terrible issues would have ever happened. 

So, I laid my sins, my pride, on the alter in that little country chapel and for the 1^st time ever, I asked Him to forgive me.  And I broke down, curling into the fetal position and cried & cried & cried.  Right then, while laying on the floor, I made the decision to truly believe in Jesus and ask Him to enter into my life, and take control of it.  

And He did.

My life was changed.

John 6:28-29 is a very touching scripture.  Jesus, the disciples, some of the Pharisees and some normal Jewish people were walking along the road.  “Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’”  Notice “works” is pleural.  That means the askers wanted a list of ALL the things a person MUST do to be able to enter into Heaven.  My interpretation is “What do I HAVE-TO-DO to achieve salvation with our Heavenly Father.”  

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”   Jesus says “work” in singular.  “The list" is ONE thing only.  True Christianity says salvation is simply believing in Jesus NOT doing a list of must-do activities .

The Apostle John tell us this 15 times in the first 11 chapters of his book.  John 3:15-16 says the same thing.  

As I began to grasp this, slowly, peace, contentment and joy began to fill my life.  Since that day my story only gets better.  I am a changed man.  My life has a purpose far greater than I had ever realized before.  My life now centers on a daily walk with Him and it effects virtually every decision I make.   

Have you ever wondered if you could “Change the World?”  Amazingly, The Lord did, using me and some truly wonderful friends.  By accepting Christ into my heart, God allowed me to use the platforms that He had already given me (even while I was a non-believer) and to bond with believing doctors to reach new heights for us in Third World ministry.

The platforms were, as an author, lecturer and professor.  Together we (the team and the Holy Spirit directing us) helped organize a single mission trip.  But slowly, over time, it expanded to serve 13 countries, beginning with just one step.  And it continues to expand.

The Lord gave me endearing friendships and together we created teams made up of some of the most outstanding doctors in our country.  These doctors also loved Jesus.  The grace and passion encouraged all of them to return for a second trip, then a third and now it is well more than a hundred trips.

Our goals had many faces.  One was to go into small rural villages in the Third World with a team of 90-100 where we took over a school compound and converted it into a med/surgical hospital with dirt floors.  In order for the locals to be seen by doctors and cared for, every person and family member had to hear the Gospel in their language multiple times.

My expertise was cleft lip and palate surgery coupled with having a heart to share Jesus.  Through the team, so many families came to know Jesus.  Bible studies and home churches were started that are still going to this day.  All of this worked!  

Another face of some of our trips was to go into major teaching hospitals in the Third World and give millions of dollars worth of donated new or high quality used equipment and teach their professors about new and modern surgery.  Such stops included cities all over Vietnam, Cuba, Honduras, Eastern Europe, Mexico, South Africa, Cambodia and others.

Always, their professors were in awe of what we gave and offered.  They always asked, “Why are you doing this?” And that opened the door to quietly share Jesus.

We worked using the Pyramid Principle.  We started at the top, teaching their most respected surgeons in the country.  We quickly realized after we left they would not only teach modern surgery but they would also teach Jesus.  Year after year we returned updating their skills and their knowledge of our Lord.  

Here it was, the Christian Community in action.  The world was changed and it was all by God’s amazing Grace… and He let us help!

I hope you can see, I did NOT plan any of this; I was simply obedient, willing & prayful!  Even with the first Baby Step, the Lord planned and opened doors amazingly.

The validity of our witness is not proven in immediate results.  Some Christians will plant, some will water, and some will harvest.  As disciples, we are not called to be successful but to be faithful.  Doing what we can, with what we have, wherever we are, to advance Christ’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.  

My story isn’t complete but neither is yours.  He is NOT finished with us.  So listen in your quiet moments.  He IS calling you.  And like our song says, “Whom shall I send?  Is it I Lord?  I will go, Lord, if you lead me!”

Amen and thank you for reading!  But there is one more story you might enjoy that reveals a couple of our many joyous triumphs.

On our first trip to Havana, Cuba, we went knowing we couldn’t even say “Jesus” publicly.  So our goal was two fold: teach modern surgery and build friendships.  There was only one Cuban surgeon who spoke English, Luis, and he was a junior resident in ENT.  He was always with us and his translation in the operating theatre was essential.  

We were also assigned a translator for lectures.  She was the head of English Department and grew up as a little girl in New York City.  She was blind but had exceptional hearing.

Luis was raised by a Fidel loving father who taught Luis what Christians believed and pointed out all the flaws in Christian’s thinking.  Every year, we took Luis out for dinner and, in private, and tried our best to share Jesus.  Luis always laughed at us politely and quoted his father’s teachings.

For 18 years we repeated this same program and for 18 years we received laughs.  But in that time, Luis became an absolutely outstanding sinus and head and neck surgeon.  

Then in the 18th year, the trip occurred a week after a devastating hurricane struck northern Cuba.  It then rested for 17 hours directly over a small village of 500 homes.  All were leveled.  So this trip, instead of only teaching in the major cities, we used our funds to buy building equipment, cleaning supplies and food.

As we went through the village, we gave away everything we had and fearlessly shared Jesus.  Luis translated.  Many of the people were deeply touched and prayed with us to invite Jesus into their hearts.  

About sunset, Luis stepped forward and said, “I want this!”  

We were shocked and thrilled.  Today, Luis is one of the top surgeons in Cuba but far more important, he is one of the top evangelists!

The head of the English Department, as it turns out, was the spy, to keep the government informed of what we American Christians were doing.  Shortly after Luis’ confession, she and her husband prayed to receive Christ into their hearts!

After 18 years, I was seldom the harvester, usually only the seed planter who also did some watering of the seeds.  What a wonderful gift the Lord gave our many teams and we saw such conversions time after time!  Thank you Lord!  :o)

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Decades ago, I wrote my original testimony and created this website.  In 2024, I re-wrote the story with a completely different ending.  Here is the original.

Imagine yourself flying an airplane.  You are alone.  It is just after sunrise and you are flying into a beautifully blue, cloudless morning.  Below you, is a gorgeous green carpet, as far as your eye can see.  You are about 2,500 feet in the air.  Below is David in the OV-10 Bronco, one of the planes in this story. 

 Photo 1

Now, let’s make your flight experience hazardous. Let’s have your plane upside down. But this plane isn’t flying. It’s falling. As it falls, it descends with a wild spinning motion and the nose is violently pitching up and down.  You are in an “inverted spin.”

The Air Force tells pilots, if you ever get into an inverted spin, be sure and eject above 10,000 feet. Obviously, you are in trouble.

But you are blessed.  You are sitting on one of the finest ejection seats ever designed… with a solid fuel rocket.  However, if you pull the ejection handle, you are going to be rocketed right into that green carpet which is rapidly approaching!

The green carpet is called the “Catcher’s Mit.” It is an extremely hostile area of triple canopy jungle in South Vietnam, controlled by the Viet Cong. You certainly don’t want to be down there.  The airplane is heavily armed and, unless something happens, you will be part of a phenomenal fireball on impact.

This is a true story.  I’ve set you up with what really happened to me in 1969.  I was a fighter pilot assigned as a forward air controller (FAC) to the US Army. I’m able to tell this story, so obviously the airplane recovered. But the physics of flight are such that when a plane is falling, the flight controls don’t work. The stick and rudder are useless. I tried everything I knew to get that airplane out of the spin. Nothing worked. But suddenly, miraculously, the nose pitched down. When that happened, the airplane again began to fly, but it had no maneuvering flying speed. I had to give up even more altitude to gain enough flying speed to make a high G pull-out just before the plane would impact the green carpet.

As I recovered, a new problem developed. This high G pull-out made an enormous roar that was heard all over that part of the Catcher’s Mit.  Every Viet Cong was now shooting at me.  I had to avoid their gunfire by banking the plane aggressively from one side to the other while simultaneously trying to climb to get out of the range of their automatic weapons.  Finally, the plane reached a safer altitude and I began to breathe again.

What do you think my first thoughts were? Do you suppose it was, “You are one lucky guy?”  Do you think I said, “Wow, thank you God?”  NO!  I said to myself, “I have just saved this airplane from an unrecoverable situation.  I must really be a good pilot.”  That thought was the beginning of what I now call “The Attitude.” 

I took off more than 450 times to wage war.  Each time I safely landed, The Attitude continued to grow.  As you will see, as I tell this story, my compulsive drive for success in everything I did resulted in both failure in the work place and failure in the heart. Like that airplane in the inverted spin, the “I” in my life was out of control.

In 1966, more than 600 American soldiers were dying every week in Vietnam.  I was a senior in college and newly married when I received a letter ordering me to report for my draft physical.   

As we were going through the exam, it was discovered that I was color-blind. I asked the crusty old sergeant, “Does this mean I can’t be drafted?” and he said “No young man, this just means you will never drive an Army truck!”  

In a few weeks I received my draft notice. Quickly, I went down to the enlistment office and found out that the Air Force would allow me to complete college and then go to Officer Training School. As I enlisted in the Air Force and was filling out the papers, they asked me what career field I wanted. I had no idea. They asked,

“Why don’t you become a pilot?” 

“I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” 

“Because I am color-blind”.

“Who told you are color-blind?”

“The Army”.

They just laughed and said, “You let the Air Force tell you if you are color-blind.”

So I went for the Air Force flight physical.  It’s an all day event.  I was escorted through the exam by a medical technician who was about my age and, like me, was an athlete. Between all the tests, we talked sports and established a nice friendship.

One of the last things I had to do was to take the color vision test. In the test book, there are pages with strange colored splotches arranged within a circle. He asked me what number I saw.  I have now taken this test many times, and to this day, I had never seen any number. I don’t know why he did what he did next, but he went through every single page slowly, asking, “Don’t you see the difference between this splotch and that splotch?” 

I answered, “No, I don’t”.

So we went through that book, not once, not twice, but three times and on each page, he told me the number. So finally I asked, “I guess this means I fail the exam”.

“Oh yes, you failed it. You cannot be a military pilot and be color-blind.”

We walk out to the area where the other med techs were standing and suddenly he said to them, “I forgot to give this guy the color vision test.” He asked one of his buddies to go in and give me the color vision test. We went back in and I recited the numbers from memory and his buddy initialed on my flight physical form that I had normal color vision!

But the exam was not over.  I had to receive a waiver because, as a child, I had a seizure disorder with six seizures with loss of lost consciousness.  Before this flight physical, I had been on an anticonvulsant medicine for 10 years.  No one with any episode of lost consciousness, or any type of seizure; or any history of anticonvulsant drug therapy can ever go to pilot training.

Having passed the rest of the exam, I was sent to see a neurologist to see if it would be possible to get a waiver.  As I walked into his waiting room, the door to the neurologist’s office was ajar.  I was the only person in the waiting room but he must have assumed he was alone. On the phone, he was having a knock down, drag out fight with his wife.  He slammed the phone down and came charging out of his office. He was furious. I was truly frightened.  He grabbed my paperwork and asked me what I was doing there. I quickly told him the story, he asked me a couple of questions, and in his anger said, “Your doctor made a mistake.  You were misdiagnosed and never should have been on that medicine.” He signed the papers and I was cleared to fly (however, my seizures with six losses of consciousness and extensive drug therapy were quite real).

This unbelievable event continues!  I wore glasses. You can’t wear glasses and start USAF pilot training. Your vision has to be perfect. Six months before that flight physical, I quit taking the anticonvulsant medicine and started having headaches. My eye doctor said, “You don’t need glasses any more.” I took off the glasses, the headaches went away, and I passed the flight physical. Six months later, I needed the glasses again and have worn them ever since.  Color blind with a history of seizure disorder, unconsciousness, on major drug therapy, wears glasses, but still gets to go to USAF pilot training!  Unbelievable but true!

It is interesting.  There is no way to tell if a prospective pilot will be any good or not until they actually climb into the cockpit and tries to fly.  You could not take a test. You just had to do it.  I climbed into the airplane and it was a perfect fit. When I was awarded my wings a year later, I was recognized as a Distinguished Graduate, a top young pilot.

Photo 2 (under the photo put: The T-38 Falcon which Lt Parsons flew in pilot training.)

I then went to two fighter assignments and in both planes won the Top Gun award.

There were 30 guys in my fighter classes, and we really got to know each other well. Many became extremely close friends.  A minor administrative problem developed and my departure was delayed for five weeks, but my classmates went on over to begin the fight in Vietnam. As I was getting ready to board my flight to Vietnam, I put my arms around my wife to tell her goodbye. Suddenly, an immense feeling of fear and death came over me.  I felt that this would be the last time I would ever hold my wife. 

I arrived in Vietnam and was immediately issued a steel helmet, a sidearm, a survival vest, and a machine gun. This was war.  I went out to my unit, checked in and found out that three of my classmates were already dead.  I was absolutely devastated.  That night I desperately tried to sleep, but without success.

Somewhere in the middle of that miserable night, the first of what would be many, many, many rocket attacks occurred. I felt like I would vibrate out of that bed. I so desperately wanted to pray.  I wanted to know God.  I wanted a faith so that I would know that He was going to protect me.  But I felt my prayers were like talking to a wall.  I didn’t know God.  Many more times during the course of that year and the years to follow, I would want to know more about Him.  But never once did I feel like He even knew who I was.

As a kid, I grew up in small town in Oklahoma.  My parents took me to church every Sunday. They were good people. I learned the right spiritual words.  I could carry on a religious conversation with most people. But my faith never matured from those childhood days.  I had no relationship with Christ. I didn’t know that such a thing existed. I had gotten into life-in-the-fast-lane and loved it. Up until that wretched night with the rocket attacks, there had never seemed to be a need for God.

I survived that horrible night and soon began flying one or two combat missions every day.  As a forward air controller, I went to the Army briefings each day and I knew where our guys were going to be.  I knew who might be at risk for real trouble.  When a firefight occurred, I was immediately overhead and in radio contact with our guys.  As I was fully armed, I either assaulted the enemy myself or coordinated and directed fighter strikes or artillery support.

   Photo 3

For those guys on the ground, I was the best friend they had.  I was always where the action was. The missions we flew in the OV-10 Bronco had one of the highest percentages of casualties of any Air Force mission in Vietnam.  

Before that year was over, many more of my classmates would die. But each time I came back from a flight, I said to myself  “I came back today for one reason, because I am really good.”  The Attitude continued to grow. When my tour was over, was there any need to pray?  No way. I was on my way to the top.  Who needed God?

Then my dream assignment came.  The F-105 Thunderchief.  It was the fastest low altitude fighter in the free world -- over two and a half times the speed of sound on the treetops.  It was a fighter that every young fighter pilot wanted to fly.  One guy alone in the airplane.  It was fantastic. To fly the “Thud,” as it was affectionately called, you had to go to a fighter upgrade school that was one of the most prestigious fighter weapons schools in the world.

 Photo 4 & 5

                                    The F-105D Thunderchief

When I got there, the instructors immediately assaulted me because my background was as a FAC. They wanted “real fighter pilots.”  I should have been humbled but instead, I was challenged. If you saw the movie Top Gun, the character Tom Cruise played wanted so desperately to be the Top Gun that he would do anything to win it, including violating the rules of engagement.  I did not violate the rules of engagement and by the third strike mission, I beat my instructor. There were 17 strike missions in the program. All of the instructors wanted to fly against me to prove that no student could beat them, but each time I came back victorious.

Finally, on the seventeenth flight, they put me up against the wing’s Top Gun. He was a seasoned veteran with 100 bombing missions over North Vietnam. He knew the plane well.  He was a great pilot.  We fired the Gatling gun and rockets.  We flew high and low angle bomb runs.  But when the mission was over, there was a new Top Gun.  For the first time, a student won that hallowed honor.

Tom Wolfe wrote a book about fighter pilots called The Right Stuff. In that book, he talks about the ego of the fighter pilot.  He said, “There is no ego in any other profession that rivals that of the fighter pilot except one -- the surgeon.” The week I won Top Gun, I was accepted to medical school.

I was on my way up the ladder of success, and The Attitude was out of control.

A three thousand year old book called Proverbs lists “the seven deadly sins.” What do you think is number one?  Do you think it is murder?  Sex?  Stealing? No. It is pride.  Proverbs is even more blunt when it says,  “Pride disgusts the Lord.”

Going back to medical school after life-in-the-fast-lane was not easy.  But I stayed with it.  When I finished medical school, I graduated with the same honors that I won in the F-105 Thunderchief.  The Attitude was re-born in medicine.

I specialized and became a pediatrician and went into military practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  But I am a man who likes doing things with my hands, so I went back for another residency for Ear, Nose and Throat and became a surgeon. Then I accomplished three fellowships in London, Denver and Sydney, Australia to become a Pediatric Head & Neck surgeon and with subspecialty expertise in sinus surgery for adults and children.  I studied under some of the finest surgeon professors available.

Self-motivation permeated every thing I did.  I had a history of a fiery temper.  I was so self-focused that when things didn’t go my way, the result was anger.  I am embarrassed to tell you that my children were afraid of their father.

I married my college sweetheart. She was, and is, a wonderful wife and mother. She always stood by me, even though I took her through some very tough experiences.  I didn’t treat her very well.  I was trying to be the best at everything I did, except, being a good husband and father. Essentially, she was a single parent; she spent a good part of her adult life as a very lonely woman.

While I was trekking through all my great adventures, she was quietly growing in her faith.  One night we were lying in bed.  I was reading medicine.  She was reading the Bible.  She turned to me and said, “Isn’t it wonderful how God has blessed you?”

“God blessed me?  Who do you think stayed up all these night studying?  Who do you think accomplished all these goals? God didn’t do that. I did.”

The Attitude was out of control.  “Pride disgusts the Lord.”

Years later, I was a full colonel in the Air Force and a full professor at the University of Texas.  I had become very successful designing surgical instruments.  Many of those instruments would become the largest selling instruments in the world for specialized surgery.  The manufacturing company knew I couldn’t receive any money from sales because I was in the military.  So they gave me “compensation” by putting my name on the instruments.  

Academically, I was on a new horizon and wrote 130+ articles and edited a book on Pediatric Sinus Care, which became the largest selling in the world.  I was asked to lecture and teach these techniques all over the globe.  No matter where I went in the world, professionally, people knew my name.

But at home, The Attitude was irritating important people.  Generals were advised that no one could make that much money for a company without taking a little something under the table.  I knew the rules and I had not accepted anything.  But an investigation was held.  The outcome of that investigation was that I had not done anything wrong.  But a mindset was implanted in the General’s staff that I was guilty.

Over the next two years, three more investigations were conducted.  I was placed under house arrest; I could only go to work and come home.  No formal accusations were ever made, but my Air Force career was destroyed.  When I should have been respected and at the top of my military and professional career, I was devastated and empty.  I found myself screaming, “It is not my fault.”  I felt crushed and alone. Hopelessly, I didn’t know where to turn.

Things were beyond wretched. The gods I had been worshipping abandoned me.  What were those gods? I choose to call them the 5 P’s: Pride, Power, Prestige, Possessions and Passion. It was not the passion of sex.  It was the passion of workaholism.  I put my professional career above everything else, and this truly was a passionate affair.

These investigations obviously had a marked effect at home.  To the casual observer, everything in my life looked great.  Nice home, nice family, great job. It all looked good to my subordinates, peers and casual friends.  But what was the truth?  Life was in shambles.  A disaster.  Hopeless.  There had to be more to life than being successful and being totally miserable.

My wife did the only thing she knew to do.  She prayed for me.  She knew I desperately needed God.  But in my heart, I was convinced that God didn’t even know who I was.  I felt He couldn’t possibly care about me.

Her prayers were answered in quiet whispers.  Three friends, who didn’t know each other, independently approached me.  The first friend said, “David, you have been doing some neat medical work.  Let’s go together down to Mexico and see if we can’t help the poor rural people in the mountains?”  I am an immense skeptic, I don’t say yes to anything without a thorough consideration.  But I turned to that friend and said, “You bet, let’s go.”

The second friend came to me and said, “David, let’s go to a Christian men’s retreat.”  Being the skeptic I was, I didn’t like that sort of spiritual activity, but I agreed to go. The third friend came up and said, “David, how about joining me in Bible study?”  I wasn’t going to read that ancient book, and I wasn’t going to believe any of that “Jesus stuff” either.  But I said, “Yes.”  There is no question, the “yes’s” came out of hopelessness, despair, and profound emptiness.

I joined a small group of old fighter pilots for breakfast every week.  We vowed NOT to talk about the typical male conversation topics… news, weather and sports!  We talked about serious issues in our lives.  These men were also skeptics struggling to find a meaningful faith.   We tried to really share our inner concerns.  But still, the changes to my faith growth were small.  Perhaps it was because I could not give up the worship of my 5 P’s, or because of the enormous anger I refused to resolve toward my accusers.

I kept looking for a flash of lightning of spiritual awakening. But it never came.  I wanted God to physically speak to me.  But, to my knowledge, He never did.  I wanted a billboard quality sign that would be so obvious to read.  But it never happened. For two years I kept searching, but from a profoundly skeptical point of view.  I so wanted to find God, but I was unwilling to let go of my hatred.  Those men were wrong and I wanted justice!

But I kept at it, Bible study, prayer, the men’s group. But because my skepticism and unforgiving spirit were so great, my growth was slow. I struggled with the claims of Christ. Throughout the Bible, Jesus made statements that were very tough for me to deal with.  For example, He says that He and God are One.  To me, Jesus was always a “good guy,” and He said a lot of good things, but accepting that He was God -- that was too much for me.

C. S. Lewis was a prolific author and a man who spent much of his life not believing in God. He set out to prove that there was no God, but the end result of his research was that he became a follower of Jesus.  In his book, Mere Christianity, he discusses that Jesus makes claims that are so staggering that you must choose one of two options.  Jesus says that He and God are One, therefore 1) he is either the biggest fool, fraud and liar that ever walked the earth and deserves no attention, or, 2) what He says is the truth so you had better listen and pay attention!

A deeply personal event finally occurred.  There was no thundering voice from God. The event only occurred within my heart.  My men’s group wanted to return to the Christian men’s campground for a second retreat.  At the camp, we were in a beautiful rock chapel in the hill country of Texas.  It was an absolutely gorgeous setting, and I was truly seeking God’s wisdom.

We were singing and in the song God is asking the question, “Whom shall I send?”  The singer answers, “Here I am Lord.  Is it I Lord?”  Suddenly the words penetrated my heart and it was as though I was being called to answer  to Jesus Himself.  I felt as though I was standing all alone before Him.  He only wanted to know one thing.  What was most important in my life?  Suddenly, I felt as if all I had worked so hard to achieve was truly meaningless.   I felt barren and stripped of all my armor of fame and success.

It suddenly became clear.  He didn’t care about my Top Gun, the instruments I had developed, or the fame.  Those things weren’t important to Him.  What was important was my having a truly genuine relationship with Him… to believe in Him and to trust in Him.  He gave himself on the Cross as a sacrifice for my sins.  He was now not only offering me love and forgiveness, but he was giving me the opportunity to know beyond all doubt that I could dwell in His presence throughout all eternity.  All I had to do was to ask for the forgiveness He had already given, and to simply believe in Him.  With that, I would be assured that I would have eternal life and fellowship with the Creator of the Universe.

For the first time in my life I was truly humbled, and I was physically brought to my knees.  For the first time I recognized that I was the problem.  I had wanted everyone else to change.  I wanted them to see my way. Now I realized that I was the one who had to change.  My self-centeredness was what had provoked all these problems.  So, right then I asked Jesus to forgive me.  I told Him that I believed in Him and I asked Him to enter my life.  Then, I broke down and cried, and cried, and cried.

Slowly, peace, contentment and joy began to fill my life.  Since that day my story only gets better.  I am a changed man.  My life has a purpose far greater than I had ever realized before.  My life now centers on a daily walk with Him and it effects virtually every decision I make.

Have you ever wondered if you could “change the world?”  Amazingly, the Lord did… using me.  By accepting Christ into my heart, God allowed me to use the platforms that he had already given me (even while I was a non-believer.)

The platforms were as an author, lecturer and professor.  Together, we (the Holy Spirit directing me) helped organize a single mission trip.  But slowly over time, it expanded to serve 13 countries, beginning with just one step… and it is continuing to expand.

The teams were made up of some the most outstanding doctors in our country… who also loved Jesus.  The grace and passion encouraged all of them to return for a second trip, then a third and now it well more than a 100 trips.

Our goals had many faces.  One was to go into small rural villages in the Third World with a team of up to 100 where we took over a school compound and converted it into a surgical hospital with dirt floors!  In order for the locals to be seen and cared for, every person and family member had to hear the Gospel in their language, and multiple times.

My expertise was cleft lip and palate surgery and, also having a heart to share Jesus.  All this worked through the team.  Many families came to know Jesus, and Bible studies and home churches were started that are still going to this day.

Another face of some of our trips was to go into major teaching hospitals in the Third World and give millions of dollars worth of donated new or high quality used equipment and teach their professors about new and modern surgery.  Such stops included cities all over Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Honduras, Mexico, South Africa and others.

Always, their professors were in awe of what we gave and offered.  They always asked, “Why are you doing this?” And that opened the door to share Jesus.

We worked using the pyramid principle.  We started at the top, with their most respected surgeons in the country.  We realized after we left they would not only teach modern surgery but they would teach Jesus and it would filter down the pyramid.  Year after year we returned updating their skills and their knowledge of Jesus.

Here it was… “The Christian Community in action.”  The world was changed and it was all by God’s amazing Grace… and HE let us help!

But all of this, for me and for you, begins with a plan.  And initially, each step will begin as a baby step.  God will take care of the rest as long as you are obedient… and willing… and PRAY!

You too can change the world, baby step by baby step using the gifts God has given you.  Don’t hide your skills and gifts but share them.

The validity of our witness is not proven with immediate results.  Some Christians will plant… some will water… and some will harvest.  As disciples, we are not called to be successful but to be faithful… doing what we can… with what we have… wherever we are… to advance Christ’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Let me summarize what I learned through all this with four points.  But as I go through these, search how each relates to you:

#1 - There is a God!  God created this universe and He loves you as His child.  God is there and He is moving in your life.  I know that is true for me, and if you don’t believe it, how do you explain a color blind, seizure disordered kid getting to fly those sophisticated fighters?  Open yourself to how he is moving in your life.

#2 - God is holy, perfect in every way.  Sin is anything that keeps us from being perfect like God. Because of our sin, our relationship with him is strained.  Because of my pride, I was truly separated from Him.

God is a just God, He must show justice and punish us for our sins. That would lead to eternal separation from God.  

#3 - But, despite our contrary behavior, God still loves us with an unconditional love.  So, God made a provision for us. He was willing to be punished in our place for all the things we do wrong.  So God, as Jesus, died in our place.  Now, because Jesus has already been punished for your sins, YOU ARE FORGIVEN!  But this forgiveness is a gift and isn't yours until you accept it.  It's an option.  You have the choice to accept it... or reject it or ignore it, which is the same as rejecting. 

#4 - The only thing you have to do to receive God's Forgiveness, Love and Eternal Presence in your life is to prayerfully ask for it.  That’s the option that I finally selected.  Simply admit to God that you know you have sin in your life, you know that you can't get rid of that sin on your own.  But you know that Jesus can... and did.  By believing Jesus did this for you, you are assured of being eternally with Him.   

I came to that point where I had to make a decision whether or not to invite Him into my heart. That is what all of us have to do.  We have to make a decision, and that decision clearly is the most important decision of your life.

If you would like to make this decision, please consider saying my closing prayer with me.  But remember, God is far more interested in your heart than your words.  But if these words express the desire of your heart, I would encourage you to make this your prayer."

Dear God, I know that I’m a sinner. I know that I unable to get rid of my sin on my own. 

I know that I deserve to be punished for my sin, but I also know that you love me so much that you sent Jesus to die for my sin. 

I believe that Jesus’ death on the cross is enough to take away my sin.  I believe in Him.

I ask for Your forgiveness, and thank you for already having  forgiven me. 

Thank you for loving me that much.  And thank you for always being available to listen to me. 

Lord, right now, I would like to invite you into my heart, and ask you to change my life, forever.

Please accept my humble prayer. Amen.

Testimony is also available as:

English Abbreviated (only a couple of pages)

Spanish Same as above en Espanol
Spanish Abbreviated (only a couple of pages)