Going For God's Grammy...His," Well Done! Come and share your Master's happiness!"
Option 3-One Mans journey from philosophy to religion to a relationship with God the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ
and the power of the Spirit
Born January 13, 1954 at St. Luke Hospital in Pasadena California to Patricia Ann and Ernest Theodore Laudise.
Being the first grandchild of Ernest and Lillian Laudise, I was spoiled rotten to say the least. I was also spoiled by my Uncle Will and Aunt Marion Metz as their first nephew. For the first five years of my life I thought I was the only little boy on planet earth...destined to become King of at least Toy Land on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel. My Uncle Will bought me a new super hero out fit every week it seemed. One week I was Superman and the next week I was Zorro.
My father had met and fell hard for Patricia Anne who was attending Roosevelt High while he was stationed in Hawaii.
My dad was in the Navy and my mom lived there with her sister Mary and her Uncle Swede. I was conceived very near where they first met at Fort DeRussy Park Beach in Waikiki.
After I was born my dad had gotten out of the Navy and were back in SCAL Both my parents at the Hickory Hill in Los Angeles. Ever since he was just a little boy my father knew when he grew up he would be a fighter pilot. So off we went to aviation school in Georgia. My parents actually got divorced because only single guys were allowed at the flight school. They drove down to Mexico to do it. Man they were super in love..."this thing is bigger than the both us kind of love". At only five years old Mua actually attended their second wedding right after he graduated.My.
At his first post we're living on base at Glendale AFB. Just my father and mom and me "just the three of us" a sweet society. ladies would come over to the house and ask my mom if I could go to their Sunday School. My mother asked me if I wanted to go and for some reason I said yes. The Sunday School was in a home and we watched movies and were taught all about how God had become a man named Jesus and left heaven to come to earth and save us from sin, death and hell. That He wanted to take us to heaven after we died. I loved hearing about this God who loved us so much.
My first sister, Laurel, came along after I turned five and then my second sister, Jan arrived about a year and a half later. After that we would be moving all over the place including England where my twin brothers Michael and Chris were born. Needless to say my dictatorship was terminated rather quickly and I being
Option
the first born was demoted to the head baby sitter/servant of all.
While in England my Aunt Betty sent me a Bible for Christmas and I thought that meant she was mad at me for some unknown reason. Anyway I did like the pictures in it. And I did pride myself in saying my prayers every single night since I was four years old. This record was broken when I got the measles and forgot to pray...I was devastated when during a fever of over 104 I actually forgot to pray.
My all time favorite gifts as a young boy was my fake jet fighter cockpit and a tape recorder. I just loved hearing the sound of my own voice and pretending to shoot down Mig-15's! My mom gave birth to twin boys and now I had two younger sisters and two younger brothers. Music was really a big deal in England so I started buying 45 rpm records by saving up my allowance each week and watching Top Of The Pops and Ready Steady Go on BBC.
Living in England out in the country I had to go to a English public school in Barrow where all the boys had to wear short pants and a cap and school shirt...I looked like the lead guitarist for AC/DC before they ever existed ha! I learned to play futbol at school every day! Some missionaries were at our school during the summer break and my best friend Stephen came back with really cool pencil set. It as like the iPod of the sixties so I asked him how I could get me one. He gave me some verses out of the Bible to memorize. When I felt I was ready I went with him as his guest and scored a really cool pencil set. At the end of the evening the missionaries brought out a felt board (the power point of the sixties) with Jesus knocking on the door of a heart. The missionary asked us if anyone wanted to open their heart and receive Christ as their Savior? Being all of eight years old I figured if you did that maybe you would win something really big like a bike. So I did it but even though I waited and was the last one there to leave I never got anything. Looking back I realized I had received the greatest gift of all, Jesus, God’s Son. But at the time I felt I had been ripped off by the missionaries and even God Himself.
Finally we moved closer to the base where my father was stationed at Laken‐ heath at the village of Barton Mills just outside of Mildenhall. I attended another English school for a couple of months where I learned I was a yank and to popular at this school. Finally I got to go to school on the base with all the other base kids. But since we still lived in a village my friend Gerald told me I could get some money if I sang in the church choir so I auditioned and got in. It was cool be‐ cause every practice on Thursday you made threepence and every Sunday you you made another threepence. Every six weeks we got paid. This was strictly candy money and the British knew a lot about candy. This was only my third experience with religion and church. After moving back to the States I really did not go to church or anything (both my parents were God-fearing people but since
my mother was a Catholic and my dad was an Italian Baptist we did not attend church except for an occasional wedding). I was seven when we first moved to England and eleven years old when we moved back to the good old USA.
My father went back to school at the University of Wyoming so we bought a home in Laramie. The home was brand new and the area was nicknamed “Snob Hill” by the locals. I got a paper route delivering the Denver Post and got my first taste of having some money beyond a weekly allowance. Even though my par‐ ents made the greatest sacrifices like never getting a Sunday paper, hearing my moan and groan when the alarm clock went off at 0430 and pitch black outside, my parents graciously let me keep all the money I earned. Thanks mom and dad!
From there my dad went to Vietnam to fight in the war so my family thought it would be best if we were near my mom’s family in Santa Rosa California so off we went. We lived right next door Aunt Mary and her husband my Uncle Swede who had helped raise my mom in Hawaii. It was here that surfing and music and drinking and drugs became my operand-us. My mom bought me my first portable stereo record player and electric guitar and I fooled around with it every chance I got.
After a little more than a year we left Santa Rosa and were back in Wyoming so my dad could finish getting his degree in engineering. It was cool moving back and looking up old friends and finding out that I could even whip the bully that pushed me around just two years earlier. Didn’t do much regarding music since we were there only about six months.
Thank God my father survived his first tour of duty and we were all reunited and moved to Las Vegas Nevada where we lived on Nellis Air Force Base “Home of the Thunderbirds” which was really cool because I got to get close to other base kids who really understood what it was like to grow up in a military family.
This was the time trading the Kinks, Beatles and the Rolling Stones for Jimi Hendrix and psychedelic lights and my first romance with the opposite sex. I formed my first band “Ice” and we played in the El Dorado Parade which was a pretty big deal for a bunch of eighth graders anyway. I was infatuated with a girl who was a Catholic so I would go to mass and a young people’s group just so I could see her more often.
I had gotten my first guitar in Santa Rosa at 11 years old but the action was so high it was better to use it to shoot arrows off of it instead of playing it as an instrument. So I quit...
until I heard Jimi Hendrix play on the radio at 14. So at 15 I bought another guitar from the PX for $28.50 and the action made it really simple to play.
From there we went to Norfolk Virginia so my dad could attend the Staff College where they were grooming my dad and other creme of the crop military officers to eventually become high ranking officers down the road. We were only there for six months but I managed to start a band and even get some paying gigs at our teen club. Not good enough to play guitar yet I was the leader and lead singer.
From there we went to MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida. I purchased my first Public Address System and put a band together. I cannot remember if we had a name or not or even played anywhere outside of Doug's our guitarist’s garage.
I think we got a gig at our Leto High School as long as we did it for free. It was then that I asked God if I could play and record ten albums during my lifetime.
My father got another tour in Vietnam but this time we stayed in Tampa until he finished his tour. I really got serious about the guitar and washed dishes and was a busboy long enough to buy a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar. I figured I had better learn to play it or look really foolish owning such a fine instrument. I did notice that I started getting some respect just for owning it ha! If that was the case what would happen if I could also play it?
It was in Tampa that I got my first taste of religion and use to go to mass on a Sunday when I spent the night with my best friend David. We would be partying Saturday night but then Sunday morning we would get all cleaned up and dressed up be to holy for about an hour. I figured I didn’t really need religion if that was all there was to it. I mean I also dressed up for Halloween once a year and never really turned into the character I had portrayed that evening. Anyway it seemed silly to pretend for an hour that I was a good person.
From there we were stationed in Hawaii which was really cool since I always heard about the islands from my mom while growing up. Through my friendship with a really hot drummer named Barry I landed a gig playing guitar with all these older guys who ruled the military circuit at the time. I was only seventeen and they were sneaking me into the clubs on the weekends during my senior year at Kailua High School. This was really cool to be respected by these older more seasoned players. I learned a lot from them.
Man it was really something to be respected by people just because you were a guitar player and singer and actually played in a working band. I thought I had discovered my philosophy for life: Be a musician and all other things shall be added unto you.
I finally got a fat head and threatened to leave the band if they did not let me 1) play my guitar as loud as I wanted and 2) let me out of having to purchase 25% of the PA system we used at all our gigs that did not have one. They would not back down so I just did not show up at our next gig. I came out a little buzzed with some friends of mine to see how they were sucking without me but they already had another guitartist and were doing just fine without me.
Finally, I put my own band together where I was the lead guitarist and lead singer so I pretty much got to call the shots and all the pressure that comes with it. We did the military circuit and teen clubs and just about any other gig you could imagine.
Darrell the drummer in my band was the first real Christian I had ever met. There was something so different about him. He hung out with the Jesus freaks at our school during the Jesus movement in the early seventies. It was like he had a personal relationship with God through his faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately after high school he went to the mainland to go to school and we lost touch. But his influence on my life still stands even today more than forty years later.
My father got orders for Thailand and I remember praying that his orders would change so that my younger brothers would not be without their father during their formative years. My dad would be gone, and their big brother would be gone at the same time since I had no desire to leave Hawaii. I was eighteen and ready to be on my own. Now you have to realize that once orders are cut that it is usually impossible for them to change. I really prayed about this and they did change and I believe that was the first miracle I ever experienced.
Met a great male vocalist “JJ” and started a new band called “The New Directions”. Once at a rehearsal a vice squad team came and raided us. Most of the band members were all eighteen years old and we thought it was really cool and appropriate for musicians to be put in jail for a narcotics charge which, believe it or not, we were innocent, really innocent, this time.
Found out that our lead singer was also a pimp and was using the band as a front to his real business. He offered me a chance become a partner but after I went there one night to say “Yes” there were bullet holes all through his home just from the night before. The local syndicate wanted a cut of his business and my friend had refused. No one was hurt but I decided against becoming a partner for at least the time being.
After playing music all over the place while living with my friend the pimp and just doing drugs and alcohol I got the great idea to join the army to help settle me down and focus on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life..
After a very short stint in the US Army ( My best friend could not take boot camp and wanted out. He threatened to kill himself but was ignored so he cut his wrists. When he was found the the soldier who found him told if he really wanted to kill himself he should slice his writs vertically up his arms.
After Thomas recovered the powers that be sent him back and he begged them to be let out but was ignored again. A few days later he did what the soldier had told him and I found him in the shower bleeding to death. I called for an ambulance which took him to the hospital on base.
I tried to get the Inspector General to investigate but was ignored. I investigated myself and learned the CO's wife worked in the hospital office where all the files of soldiers who had tried to kill themselves were to be filed. I decided to fake an overdose of pills and was rushed to the hospital where I threw up after they gave me something to drink. While in the hospital I learned that my friend's first attempt was never filed. I looked for my file and it was not there as well. I called my dad to ask him if this was normal during boot camp and he said no. I was then assigned to my CO where he could keep an I on me.
I worked in the Armory until boot camp was complete. One day I was running a special file to Battalion HQ and was told to wait outside by the restrooms. I had to use the bathroom so I got into a stall. I wanted to read something and noticed the papers I had to deliver had my name on the file. I decided to read the file and it was all about me trying to cut my wrists and was to be discharged as soon as possible. When I got back the CO was shocked to find out that I was the one chosen to deliver the file with my name on it. He called me into his office and asked me if I read the file. I said yes and the next thing I knew...the very next day I ended up getting a General Discharge under honorable conditions.
I got back to the islands and I could not find a band that needed a guitar player. The only thing I could find was a band that needed a vocalist so I auditioned and got the role of lead vocalist.
The original band had been formed by two really young but super gifted musicians Mike Firis on guitar and Karl Wakeland on keyboards. “Kyle Hepler” was the name of the drummer Sonny’s cat but we all thought it sounded cool. We played under two different names “Wakeland” and “Kyle Hepler” so we could work for two different agents and therefore get more working gigs to help pay the bills.
A manager got interested in us and offered his services and took us out one by one. He told each of us that we were the main attraction in the band. Little did we know that now we each thought we were the secret sauce and so he took control by playing us one against the other. Funny, as afar as I know, the only guy that had red flags about the manager was the only one that continued to work for him for many years after the rest of us left the band one by one.
During my stint with Kyle Hepler aka Wakeland in August 1974 I got smitten and fell in love, with a young beautiful local girl named Dawn Leilani and we were married on October 7, 1975. We were so in love and in the beginning it looked like we would last forever. The next year I was getting tired of just being a singer and by this time our band at the bidding of the manager who by this time had an iron grip on us all, changed us so much. I started sneaking off on our Monday off night to jam guitar with anyone I could. Then all of a sudden my voice quit working. I mean there was no physical reason at all. I had a physician and a shrink and all they advised me to do was start taking some valium and or smoke a joint so I could chill out and not be so stressed out. Now what was I gonna do? I decided to put another band together using my wife‘s brother Harold on drums and my best friend from high school Mune on the bass. After practicing and becoming tight we began auditioning singers since I still could not sing. One day after auditioning a female singer, who was a real madonna, Mune and Harold looked at me and asked if I could just sing a little. I remembering praying to God and asking Him if I could have my voice back...just a little bit.. enough to get by on. You know what? All of a sudden I could sing, just a little bit, but it was enough to get us by. This was my second miracle.
Our band was called Chameleon and Snake Oil and we did the military circuit since I still had connections with a couple of previous agents who still had some faith in me. After just one year our band “Snake Oil” aka “Chameleon” caught the attention of some promoters who wanted to get behind us and one other local band. The backers were from New York and to get noticed as rock bands from Hawaii was very unusual. What should have done it for me was not happening and I really did not know what to do. Here was my dream coming true right before my eyes and I felt so unfulfilled and empty inside.
Things were going well for the band but my marriage was going down the tubes. Since we were both so young, she was 17 and I was 21, when we first got married, the insecurity and jealousy was off the richter scale. After eleven months we separated and we were just waiting for a court date to make things final. The weird thing was I was numb and had no more feelings, good, bad, or ugly. Maybe I was just depressed and did not know it.
Little did I know that my wife had been praying for us the whole time and had actually called an old mutual friend to come over and share the Good News with us. I still do not know why I agreed but I did and this guy Bill (who I use to cut college classes with at Windward Community just to get stoned) came over and I don’t remember a thing he said. All I do know is it was like waking up from a bad dream and I looked at my wife and just fell in love with her all over again. This was my third miracle.
Now I had to know more about God, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. After all the guy upstairs seemed to be watching over me all these years and He had already done three miracles just for me!
My friend, Bill, who had come over that first night would come to our band practices and just hang out with me. He would answer any questions I had and turned me on to going to church on Sunday mornings and evenings and even Wednesday evenings. It was working for him so monkey see, monkey do. Little did I know that I was becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ… which was so much more than just believing in Him and crying out to Him only when I needed another miracle.
Jesus had always been with me ever since that day I asked him into my heart at eight years old back in England. I did not get the bike but...I had truly received the greatest gift of all, God’s one and only Son! Everything became centered in a personal relationship with God through my faith in His Son.
I had trusted Christ for fire insurance when I was eighteen but had no idea that God had a wonderful plan for my life. All I had to do was choose to walk and talk honestly with Him day by day, moment by moment.
After surrendering to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, maybe just two weeks into it, Dawn and me got into one of the biggest fights we had ever had. I ended up giving her a black eye and was convinced that even God had deserted me. I mean even I wanted to bag on myself but everywhere I went, there I was! I decided to end it all and took a knife and went down the street to Kainalu Elementary school where I planned to stab myself to death.
I was on my knees crying out to God and all of a sudden a peace came over me and I heard a still small voice like that of a loving father that said, “Go back home and make up with your wife.” The amazing thing is I did just that.
That whole evening Dawn and I just sat on our living room floor and God by His Spirit taught us about the enemy of our souls. Sure we had become friends of God through who Jesus was and did by dying on the cross to take away our sins...but now we had a real enemy, the enemy of God… the devil himself. No wonder things were getting crazy again, especially as we were getting closer and closer to God and choosing to walk in His plans for our lives.
I mean Dawn and I were famous for fighting even in public. What if all of a sudden God saved our marriage and those who were watching us thought that maybe God could and would help them too? That must have really made the enemy of our souls angry and he was trying to snuff out this brand new life in God before it could even get off the ground.
Well there is a promise in the Bible that says, “Greater is He who is in you, then he that is in the world.” Thank God for that. I mean how else can we defeat the devil who has been lying, deceiving and destroying mankind for the past six thousand years?
The Bible also says the the Son of God came that He might destroy the works of the devil. Now please do not turn me off just because I am quoting Bible verses...I am just telling my story, my journey from religion to philosophy to a personal relationship with the living God. I trust that the very reason you are even reading this is because God is already at work in you drawing you to himself just like He did with Dawn and me.
I call this personal relationship the third option, the God option. Over and over and over again I have been faced with three options when facing difficult decisions. The one is to be religious about it (My way or the Highway) or the second one is to be philosophical about it (Whatever will be will be) or the third option to be relational about it. Dealing with a boss or employee, spouse or one of your children or a neighbor or a close friend you will always have just these three options. The religious way is being like a hitler (my way or the highway)....the philosophical way is being like a Doris Day (whatever will be will be)...but the relational way is being like Jesus. You know treating someone the way you would like to be treated.
One of the best antidotes I have found to help me to choose the third option is when I discovered how God felt about me. I knew He loved me but it blew me away when I learned that He liked me. I mean I think everyone knows that God loves them, He has to, He’s God and God is love! But when I learned that God liked me and enjoyed my company that floored me in the best possible way.
Sometimes I forget that God is a person and I find myself getting religious even with God Himself. Sounds crazy but I have fell into that way of dealing with God as if he is just a swimming pool rule sign with “No running, no splashing, no making noise, etc.”
God is a person, a holy person but He is still a person with feelings, hopes and dreams. Why do you think we have hopes and dreams? God put them inside of us and is using them to draw us into a personal relationship with Him. My dream was to marry a beautiful woman and have a family and be rich and famous too. Are dreams evil? I think the dreams are cool its just letting God partner with you in bringing them to pass. If God gave us the dreams in the first place wouldn’t it make sense that He has some plan in bringing them to pass? That there is some purpose behind these dreams, from God, is seen all throughout the Bible. For example Adam, Moses, Joseph, Jesus, you and me.
Now already many of you may be thinking that there is only room in the winners circle for just a select few. I am not talking about the winners circle here in this world. I am talking about God’s winner circle where there is room for every single one of God’s precious children and every man, woman boy or girl Imago Dei (meaning created in God's image)…I mean we are going to rule and reign with Jesus throughout eternity. We are royalty in the King’s court. In the meantime we learn how to serve one another in love using all that we are and have from God.
Using my recordings I share with you my passion to please God through my journey from religion to philosophy to a personal relationship with the Living God through faith in His Son and by the power of His Holy Spirit:
Chapter 1 “Reject or Receive Him”
Now remember I am just a brand new Christian who has learned that everyone on the planet is either in Christ or not. If you are not in Christ then you are in the Anti-Christ gang which is against Christ or has something instead of Christ like money or religion or some kind of philosophy that it worships and relies on for success in this world.
According to the Bible we are all lost in our sins and dead in our trespasses with the wrath of God hanging over us.
God also so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son to save us not condemn us. Save us from what? Oppression that eventually leads to demonization and ultimately to demon possession. I know that is hard to take but if you really want to get well you have to know how sick you are and what disease is consuming your health, wealth and mind. I remember when agreeing to have my friend Bill come over and explain the Good News to us I heard a voice in my head saying “You don’t need that! Call him back and cancel the appointment. Even after Dawn and I surrendered to the Lordship of Christ we immediately experienced the worst fight of our lives as I mentioned earlier. Why was the first lesson Christ taught us one about the enemy of our souls? I guess its knowledge that is really important to God that we understand and know it for our own benefit as well as for God’s glory.
Needless to say I was very black and white and my first record displayed it to the uttermost. I still believe we have only 2 choices 1) to reject or 2) receive who Christ is (Son of God)and what Christ did by dying on the cross in our place two thousand years ago and be saved from the wrath of God that is coming upon this earth.
Chapter 2 “Love Call”
After experiencing the love and forgiveness of God for a couple of years it really hit me that God loves everyone just as much as He loves me. This seemed especially relevant starting with my very own family, friends and neighbors. They needed to hear the Good News. That God loved them and had a wonderful plan for their lives. Again it seemed easier and more effective to sing about it then to talk about it so I wrote and recorded my second record “Love Call”. Since it was a record with me on it they all at least listened to it out of their love for me.
Chapter 3 “Free To Love”
Several more years had passed and I was struggling with the kindness and sternness of God. Kindness to those who walked in His mercy and harshness to those who did not. Finally I understood that God set us free to love and serve one another rather than to just go crazy doing whatever, whenever. Freedom and love together in God is so much different than the free love I saw and experienced growing up. As hippies we would get stoned and love our neighbor all right...especially our friends girlfriend so as to even have babies out of wedlock and think it was all so cool.
In Christ however, our freedom is given so that we treat others the way we want to be treated. Then we are truly and righteously fulfilling the entire law of God summed up in the command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor.
Chapter 4 “Living in the Last Days”
The first three records were all accomplished as a power trio with just Guitar- myself, Bass-Frank and Drums-Bill. At an outreach concert that a young youth leader put together, Dan, at Faith Baptist Church, a close friend of the band Jay brought is brother Greg to check us out and later joined our trio to make it a quartet with keyboards now and Greg’s incredible talent, voice and writing ability.
We called it ”Daystar” which is one of the many wonderful names of the Lord Jesus. There was a lot of wars and rumors of wars and we sensed that Matthew 24 was upon us so we sounded the warning trumpet with our next offering “Living In The Last Days”. The temptation to be religious or philosophical or relational faced me each and every day. Unfortunately sometimes I would slip into the ditch of religion or philosophy and then cry out to Jesus to rescue me which He did every single time.
Chapter 5 “Undeserved Mercy” by Stephen Anthony, Keith Winston and Greg Liu
My very first solo record was accomplished with the writing and musical talents of four very close friends, Greg Liu on keyboards and Keith Winston on vocals and bass and the incredible talents of guitarist Anthony Dallago and drummer Jimmy Allioto. Greg had played with me in the Band Daystar and Keith and I had formed a power trio along with Jimmy called “Left Hand” since all three of us were left handed. Grace means undeserved mercy it’s like mercy upon mercy or double mercy. Mercy has been defined as not getting what you should get in the way of judgment and double mercy is going beyond that and receiving an eternal reward you should not have received. Believe it or not that is what the Good News regarding Jesus Christ offers. This record was my favorite because of the other song writers contributions. It was kinda ahead of its time back in 1983 but in 2007 it would resurrect by being discovered by a brand new generation and audience thanks to our two youngest daughters Rebekah and Danielle.
Chapter 6 “It’s True” by Red to White
Red to White was Greg’s idea based on the revelation we were experiencing in our local church. It was called the Kailua Church and every week our Pastor Ray would give the opportunity for folks to hear the Good news and receive what Jesus did for them personally. He also always offered those of us who knew Christ and who were fumbling and bumbling, maybe even all out rebelling against God’s will for our lives, to come back and get things right again. I could not believe it until I read in Isaiah 1:18 where God is speaking with His people that have turned against Him. God says, “Come let’s reason together. Though your sins and rebellious acts be as scarlet they shall be whiter than snow. Though you are stained with your sin you shall be whiter than fresh fallen snow.”
This was mind boggling because I already knew God loved those who were lost and dead in their sins. I was one of them! But that He continued to love His people even when they did not love Him back was so intense. Those of us who were following after Christ were still messing up along the way and sometimes we felt that we had blown our second chance with God and there was nothing left but back to facing His judgement. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgives us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That is in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9. Cleanse us from all righteousness means that God will even renew our minds that got us into trouble in the first place. Stinkin’ thinkin’ SNL called it.
When anyone comes to Jesus they all start off as a baby in Christ and then little by little put away the childish things and become mature and complete lacking nothing. Man we took this message packaged in our band and even played back in the clubs especially the Kaneohe’s Enlisted men’s club. it was during the Lebanon crisis and we just had to tell the Good news to the guys and gals that were going to have to risk their lives in this conflict. We were by God’s amazing grace actually leading them to Christ during our breaks! A small part of our church freaked out cause we were using the church van to go to our gigs and they thought it was a bad witness for folks to see The Kailua Church Van parked outside the E-Club on base. This about destroyed our band cause the last thing we wanted to do was stumble our fellow believers. We disbanded and went our separate ways some of us really turned off from the church and religion. Religion kills!
Chapter 7 “ Be Strong and Take Heart” by Stephen Anthony
“In view of God’s mercy offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God. Let Him transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know by experience how good and pleasing and perfect God’s will really is.” Man that is Romans chapter 12 but you have to read the first 11 chapters that come before it to really understand and fully appreciate it. In view of His mercy means that as believers in Christ we live our lives in front of God’s throne of grace. Before that we were living before His throne of judgment. This encouraged me to go all the way and become a missionary with the Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy from 1985-1987. The Kailua Church sent me out with $400 a month and that was a lot of money back then. We had to raise at least half of our sup‐ port before joining with this para church organization. Para just means to come along side of. It was cool for me cause I really wanted to see lost boys and girls coming to Christ after hearing the Good news that God loved them and had a great plan for their lives and then heaven as retirement!
Chapter 8 “Take Me Back To My First Love”
I had been a missionary for several months and the honeymoon like feeling had evaporated. I was pulling weeds in my yard in Kaneohe and sometimes I would just pull up the top portion and the roots would break off below. I sensed the Lord telling me the root of my present problems and situations was that I had left my first love with Jesus. Sure I was serving Him full time as a missionary with the Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy but I was not in love with God like I had been in the early days. I began writing songs and approached Pierre Grill at RendezVous Recording and he agreed to produce me since I had no money besides my support which was taking care of Dawn, Melissa and Rebekah and me.
Chapter 9 “Wait On The Lord” by Stephen Anthony
While a chaplain I got back into the prisons and onto secular radio which theThe Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy had no problems with at all. We even had our main service on the beach every Sunday morning in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It was a wonderful time but my family and I were feeling the need for a local church after our third year. Dawn and our girls were still attending the Kailua Church but I was gone every Sunday doing evangelism outreach in Waikiki. I heard about the church that my drummer Jimmy from Left hand had turned me onto years ago had a Friday evening worship service. That seemed really radical to me at the time but it was practical and made a way for my family to all go back to church together. While attending Hope Chapel Kaneohe on Friday eves and Dawn and the girls at the Kailua Church on Sundays and me in Waikiki it seemed silly to be stretched out all over the island on Sundays. So Dawn would send our oldest daughter Melissa to help me with the early am Chapel service and then Dawn would come with our two other daughters, Holly and Rebekah, to join with us at the Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy beach service. This caused some hurt at our local church where we had been attending and growing up in the Lord for the past 10 years. I left the chaplaincy and became the chaplain at our school based in our local church. For a year I wrestled with the idea of having a church that was a hybrid of our local church and the Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy.
Chapter 10 “Beauty Out Of Ashes”
During this time of my walk with the Lord I discovered the resurrection power of Jesus was available on a daily basis especially after I would totally blow it with my wife by not listening to that still small voice that would try and warn me to not say that or do that but say this or do this instead.
Chapter 11 “Love Never Fails” 1987
After trying everything under the sun I would finally just love the person and everything usually transformed the situation, other person, and myself. As I was walking to my office in Waikiki I thought I heard the Lord ask me what I wanted. I answered, “ Lord you have been so good to my and my family I wish I could help other families get to know You and be blessed by You.” I went to work and forgot all about it.
Several months later this Pastor Michael called me to set up a meeting with me. I agreed and at the meeting he asked me if I wanted to help him pastor his church in Aikahi Park. Now I lived at 62 Aikahi Park Loop while attending Kailua High so this was very interesting to me. I was a rebel in those days and one night after drinking we were doing donuts out in the school’s field and my own dad called the cops on us! Anyway he told me there would only be medical and dental from the church for our support with no salary. I would have to raise my own salary for rent, food, and transportation etc. He asked to pray about it with Dawn.
I went home thinking Dawn would no way want me to do this after we were finally settled in the Chaplaincy with faithful steady supporters. Guess what? She said yes. I really started praying about it! Our family had been attending Hope Chapel Kaneohe’s Friday night service since that was the only way we could worship as a family while at the Chaplaincy. And I was also leading a Hope Kaneohe mini church at the home of a Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy family whose parents I had served with. I asked Ralph since Hope Chapel Kaneohe had been supporting so faithfully and Ralph said yes. My mini church was basically made up up people who had been burned by a local church but trusted me as their friend. When I asked Ralph what should I do with my mini church he said to take them with me if they were willing to go.
By August 1988 I was over along with my family and mini church at Aikakhi Christian Fellowship as one of three assisting pastors to Michael. On Mothers Day in 1989 during the service I was preaching for Mike and the Lord told my wife Dawn that he was going make me into a pastor. She never said a word about it to me. The very next Tuesday Mike dropped the bomb on me (the other two assisting pastors had already come and gone) that the Lord was calling him and his family back to the mainland. He felt that the Lord wanted me to take over the church. Our church was independent at the time and I agreed only if Mike would allow us to become Hope Chapel Kailua under the supervision of Pastor Ralph. He agreed and we both went to Ralph and by September 1989 we had our first service as Hope Chapel Kailua.
With me as the pioneer pastor (since they treated us as a brand new pioneer church) the new adventure was off and running.
Chapter 12 “Trust In Love”
Since love is the main deal and God is love this revelation was pretty self explanatory but it slips away when we start getting religious and or philosophical with people and situations. I mean as a pastor you are knee deep in the people business. Plus I was so ignorant and arrogant I thought that people only came to church because they loved Jesus. When I discovered their insecurities and fears my own were revealed loud and clear as well. That made for a fine mess. So we all had decide to grow together or go to another church. Thank God 2/3 of the congregation decided to stay.
Chapter 13 “Earthquake Praise”
This revelation came out of the frustration we all sometimes experience even though we are not doing anything wrong. Paul and Silas were in prison for setting a young slave girl free. Around midnight they started singing praises to God and an earthquake came and their chains were broken. The jailer was going to kill himself but Paul assured him the prisoners were all still accounted for. Paul goes to the jailers house and leads the entire family to Jesus Christ and baptizes them. Wow! No instruments just voices in a prison cell. So I did a simple praise record with tunes the Lord had been giving me here and there. Little did I know that I would end up taking a few copies to Fiji because of my friendship with an on-fire born again lawyer named Michael Hughes. There in Fiji during three music missions, God used it powerfully to minister to several local pastors there and especially to a young pastor named Joel who had been struggling and was greatly encouraged by my earthquake praise songs.
Chapter 14 “Help Each Other”
My daughter Holly sketched me a picture of a big person helping a little person to get a drink of water. The revelation was so simple and straight forward. Big kids should be helping the little kids. Older Christians should be helping the younger ones.
Chapter 15 “You Are The Work Of His Hands”
Although the original title was “Heal Our Hearts” I went along with the exec producer Tom Brock and producer Ralph Stover and changed the name to “You Are The Work Of His Hands”. This record originally came about after I finally listened to my wife about doing the very best recording with the very best musicians and the very best songs. Even if I had to go to the mainland to accomplish that. I had been doing a lot of stuff with Tom Brock of Wave Of Life Ministries and had played guitar for Viola, from Sweden, an artist Tom was helping to launch at the time.
Chapter 16 “The Boys Home”
This came about after I had been crying about not doing the prison ministry for the boys and girls homes in Kailua. I remember God telling me that the whole planet was the girls and boys home full of lost boys and girls that God created and wanted to recreate in Christ Jesus. This really excited me so I approached Harold, my brother in law, to play drums and Rodger Douglas to play bass. Both had helped me earlier in the prison gigs years way back and they totally loved the idea. After we formed theboyshome we went on tour to Sweden and England. We even recorded a live album “Just Another Fool” at the Estelle Beat Company thanks to the graciousness of Kevin & Jaci Staggs in Brighton. Earlier,I had had the privilege of signing off on their marriage license after Tom Brock performed their wedding ceremony out at the Makaha Inn Resort and Country Club. I also sang a tune at their ceremony and Kevin liked my voice. He made me an offer that the next time I was performing in England he would love to record a couple of tracks for me.
Chapter 17 “Bang” by Explodingface
In 2005 My daughter Holly who had been singing with me in worship and various other gigs asked me to start a band and produce a record for her. She loved the name, explodingface, one of the zillion band names I had joked about while attending Kailua High School. When I really get into soloing on my guitar I end up making all these contortions on my face like it’s gonna explode or something. Again out of relationships with Tom and Viola I was re-introduced to Ralph Stover a producer originally based in Los Angeles and now relocated in Sacramento who had produced “You Are The Work Of His Hands” for me back in 1999.
Chapter 18 Holly Lewis and Stephen Anthony 2022
Somebody...Imago Dei
"You Rescued Me"
You know how the “winner’s circle” only accommodates a rare few people? It does not matter if we are talking about car racing, rock artists, TV and or movie celebrities even Olympic gold medalists. Only a few can be in the circle at one time. All the rest are trying their best to be somebody. But every single man, woman and child are already in God’s winner circle for He created us in His image. Not only that God also desires to recreate us in Christ Jesus to be His sons and daughters. Imagine being a son or daughter of the Most High God? When someone hears that God loves them and sent His Son Jesus to save them not condemn them they are born again. God actually sends the Spirit of His Son into their hearts and they can call God, “Abba Father!” which in English means “Daddy, daddy!” Does that blow your mind or what? Almighty God as your heavenly Father. The all seeing, all knowing, all present One...King of Kings, Lord of Lords etc etc. Don’t we join gangs, clubs, surf giant waves, jump off buildings and scramble to the top of some industry or company just hoping to be somebody?
One man’s journey from religion and philosophy to a personal relationship with the Most High God...Why? Because God by His Spirit has been working inside me giving me the desire to obey God and the power to do what pleases Him.
"May the love of God the Father and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every single one one of us men, women and children!"
2 Corinthians 13:13 salv
~Stephen Anthony "Dago" Laudise
