Pastor Ron Palmer was born on September 27, 1942, in Valentine, Nebraska. He grew up living what some would call a “poor, difficult life,” but as he sees it, it was just life.

In 1962, at age nineteen, he was saved and got involved in the Baptist Church of Kilgore, Nebraska. His pastor mentored him through the following year, after which Ron moved to Montana, where he got out of church and was backslidden for six years.

He spent four years in the Navy, from 1964 to 1968. He was a hospital corpsman, surgical technician, and spent a year in Vietnam, from October 1966 to October 1967, during which he helped establish the first surgical team in military history. It operated off the helicopter carrier, rather than the “MASH unit,” which was inland.

He married Arlee Chamberlin on June 20, 1964; and they had five kids, fifteen grandkids, and seventeen great-grandkids. They moved from San Diego, California, to Baldwin Park, California, in January 1968, where they started attending the Baldwin Park Free Will Baptist Church. In June 1968, Ron rededicated his life during the same service
Arlee was saved in; and they began a Christian marriage that has lasted for fifty years, to the glory of God.

God called him to preach in April 1969 and to Pastor in May, 1971. After pastoring in Bellflower, California, for fifteen years, he moved to Billings, Montana. There, they started the Cross Roads Free Will Baptist Church and have been pastoring there for thirty-two years. His ministry has been a journey of faith and miracles. He felt led to write this book so it could encourage others, especially those pastoring small churches. May God fulfill that desire and purpose for Christ’s glory.