I was born in High Point, North Carolina on March 8, 1951 to Donald and Fonda Swaim. I am the oldest of three children. I don't remember having many excesses growing up, but we always had enough. My daddy worked in a hosery mill when I was born. Later he drove a fuel oil truck and then became a motor oil salesman. Mama was a housewife who worked part time as a book keeper. We attended church regularly where Daddy was the choir director and Mama sang in the choir. Music was always a part of our home.

When I was in the fifth grade I began taking piano lessions. My piano teacher, Martha Bennison, was also the music teacher at my school. I learned very quickly and was soon playing and singing at church. She began to talk with me about becoming a concert pianist when I grew up. When I was in the sixth grade I played the Norwegian Concerto for a school assembly. She had me memorize it and wouldn't let me use the sheet music. I knew if I missed one note I would never find the next one. That morning I was sick on my stomach. My hands were cold and sweaty at the same time. I was an eleven year old kid under a lot of pressure. When the time came I played it and didn't miss a note. When I heard the applause of my teachers and peers it changed my life. An entertainer was born.

Mrs. Bennison had taught me that the three B's in music were Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. When I was about fourteen years old I discovered she had lied to me. The three B's in music are not Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. The three B's in music are The Beatles, The Byrds and The Beach Boys.

The summer after the eighth grade I was at my grandma's house one Sunday night. I was talking with one of my cousins, Phil McDowell. (Phil played trombone in his school band) He said, "Do you know what we are going to do?" I said, "No, what are we going to do?" He said, "We're going to start a rock and roll band and make a million dollars." I said, "OK." Then I asked him what he was going to play. At that time I didn't know of any rock and roll bands that had trombone players. He said he had always wanted to be a drummer. He ordered a snare drum and crash cymbal out of a wholesale catlogue for $35.00 and we started practicing in my parents living room where there was an upright piano. Within a few months I bought an electric piano and Phil sold his $35.00 snare drum for $60.00 and bought a bass guitar which he proceeded to learn to play. A few months later we found a drummer and then a guitarist. We had started our rock and roll band but I think we are both still working on the million dollar part.

At first playing in a rock and roll band was just a lot of fun. By the time I graduated from high school in 1969 rock and roll had become the voice of the drug culture. The music had changed and so had I. By the time I was eighteen years old I no longer believed that God existed. Having rejected my up-bringing, I began to search for truth in all the wrong places. The more I searched the more disillusioned and depressed I became. I began to think about suicide. The only thing that kept me from it was fear. What if the things I was taught in Sunday school were real? I knew I wasn't ready for heaven but I sure didn't want to go to hell.

While playing in rock bands I was around a lot of drugs. Somehow I managed not to do any drugs myself, except for alcohol. My search for truth had already taken me to the edge of reality and I feared that drugs would take me over that edge. However, by the spring of 1970 the pain of depression had become so great that I no longer cared. I was thinking about trying LSD. The idea of escaping into a fantasy world appealed to me and I figured if it took me over the edge, things couldn't get much worse.

One day I read a poster taped to a door in downtown High Point. It told about Scott Ross. Scott had been a DJ in New York City and had emceed the Beatles at Shea Stadium. He had partied with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. He had been heavily into drugs but had become a Christian and left all that behind. I didn't pay much attention to the Christian part but the rock and roll stuff interested me. I heard Scott on TV on Monday and Tuesday of that week. He had been given thirty minutes each day on the local station. From the moment I started listening to him I couldn't stop. I felt like a fire began to burn in my gut and shoot up through my chest. I kept thinking, "This guy is talking about Jesus and I've heard about Jesus all my life. But this one is different. This one is real." Of course, it was the same Jesus. Somehow the Holy Spirit was cutting through all my doubts and defenses and revealing Jesus to me supernaturally. I heard Scott speak in person on Wednesday night. Later I said to my girlfriend, "That guy's got what I've been looking for." I heard him again on Thursday night. As he closed the meeting that night, I told Jesus I had made a mess of my life. I asked him to take over and be boss. A joy I can't describe flooded my inner being. I haven't been the same since.

A few months later I spent a Sunday with several other young people at Camp Mount Shepherd near Asheboro, North Carolina. Tom Watson, a pastor and exectuive director of a local youth ministry had reserved the place and taken us there for the day. That morning we listened to teachings on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I had heard "speaking in tongues" once in my life and knew little about this experience. After lunch Tom shared his personal experience with us. Then he asked us to go outside and spend some time alone talking with God. I remember telling God that I didn't know much about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. However, I had read about the day of pentecost in the second chapter of Acts in the Bible. I said, "God, if this is something you want me to have, I want it. I want all you have for me." We returned to the meeting room at the appointed time. There were maybe thirty of us sitting in two circles around the room. The outer circle was in chairs and the inner circle was on the floor. I was on the floor. Tom prayed a simple prayer and asked the Holy Spirit to fall on us. I sensed a commotion starting in the room. It was spiritual. It was a stirring. I can't describe it. Around me some of my companions started speaking in tongues. I waited for it to happen to me but nothing happened. Finally I said, "God, you know how thick headed I am. If I am going to get this you are going to have to remove my mind from me and pour it through me." As soon as I prayed, a friend of mine who was a student at High Point College, got up from acorss the room and came to me. He put his hands on my head and began praying in tongues. That is the last thing I remember until I came back to myself sometime later. I was still sitting up on the floor. I was praying in tongues as fast as my tongue would go. I had been doing it for awhile because I had slobbered all down my chest and my shirt was soaked. For the rest of the day I had this huge grin on my face that wouldn't go away

For awhile, I continued playing with the rock band I was in. As time went on, some of the songs I was singing began to bother me. Somehow "Honky Tonk Women" just didn't seem compatible with the changes I was experiencing as a young Christian. At this time I attended a rock concert in the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro , North Carolina. As the concert got underway, kids got out of their seats and began to dance around the stage area. I was in the third row on the floor of the coliseum. I looked to the right of the stage where the kids were dancing. In the midst of the kids I saw a demon. The demon was also dancing. It had human charistics but obiviously was not human. I looked away and thought, "No, it couldn't be." I looked back and the demon was gone. I left that concert knowing I had to quit my band.

A short time later I started my first Christian band which we named Latter Rain. The other guys in the band were friends I had known before any of us were Christians. We began to play churches and Christian events. I think we prayed more than we practiced. While I was in Latter Rain, I hitch hiked to Carolina Beach one weekend. I slept out in the dunes near the south end of the island and spent the weekend fasting and praying. On Saturday I walked up to Carolina Beach. I was walking on the boardwalk when the Lord spoke to me. It was the first time I can remember hearing him so clearly. It wasn't audible, but was so clear I had no doubt it was God. He said, "You are going to play on this boardwalk." I looked around and the only places I could see to play were bars. I didn't understand, but I knew God had spoken. From that time on I not only knew I would be playing on that boardwalk, I also knew that one day I would live at Carolina Beach.

A few weeks later we were having a prayer meeting at our drummer's house. As we were praying the Lord spoke to me again and said it was time to move to Carolina Beach. A few months earlier I had told the Lord I would do anything he wanted me to do and go anywhere he wanted me to go. When he told me to move to the beach, I assumed he meant for the band to go with me. I couldn't imagine he would break up the band. I wanted to tell the other band members but I knew they wouldn't go with me. The drummer was married with a child and worked in his dad's hardware store. The other guys were in school and had jobs and girlfriends that tied them to High Point. It never occured to me that maybe I was to go by myself. Instead of obeying the Lord, I didn't do anything. Amazingly, I quickly forgot what he said.

Within a few weeks Latter Rain fell apart. Tom Watson approached me and asked me to start a new band which would be sponsored by the youth ministry he headed up. I told him I would pray about it, but when I prayed I didn't hear anything. However, it seemed like a good opportunity so I said yes. A few weeks later I thought I heard the Lord say I was to marry one of the female singers in the band. We were friends but weren't dating. Within a few days there were several confirmations which came through other band members and total strangers. When I finally got up enough nerve to tell her, she said she already knew it. It was the spring of 1972. We were married that summer. We continued to sing and play in the band and things were going really well. We had been married eighteen months when our first son, Joshua was born on March 2, 1974. After Josh's birth we began to experience problems in our relationship. In April of 1975 our second son, Jeremy, was born. He was six weeks early and had a lung problem. Jeremy only lived twenty four hours. His death put an additional strain on our marriage.

Not only was my marriage in trouble but my relationship with the Lord was suffering as well. It seemed he was nowhere near and I didn't know what to do. I remember standing in the hallway in my house one day and praying. I told the Lord that I didn't know where I had gone wrong, but I wanted to get back to where I had been and go on with him. I asked him to help me. Then I spoke to the devil. I said, "In Jesus name you will not kill another one of my children." I don't believe God gives us children and then takes them away from us. John 10:10 tells us that satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. God didn't take Jeremy from us. Don't misunderstand me. Jeremy is in heaven and I will see him again, but God is not responsible for his death. I take full responsibility for that. I was not walking where I should have been and was powerless to take authority over the situation and save Jeremy's life. If you have lost a child or loved one, don't start condemning yourself. There are many reasons why things happen. I'm just telling you about my situation.

On July 4, 1976 Gabriel was born. He too was six weeks early and had the same problem that had taken Jeremy's life. Not wanting to take any chances, the doctor sent him to Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Gabe was only four hours old when he went in an ambulance to the intensive care nursery at Baptist. After a few hours there he contacted meningitis. Suddenly the problem that killed Jeremy was no longer Gabe's biggest problem. However, God had been answering my prayer and I was prepared to fight this time. In two days time Gabe was almost completely well. The hospital kept him for two more weeks to observe him but there were no more problem or side effects.

After Gabe's birth my spiritual life continued to improve while my marriage continued to go downhill. I prayed, confessed and believed for a restored marriage but it just wouldn't seem to happen. My wife began to talk about leaving and I continued to pray. This went on for several years. Early in 1982 I was in my backyard one day and the Lord spoke to me. He said, "Get things in order. She is getting ready to leave." In March of that year she moved out. Initially we had a joint custody arrangement but in June she took me to court and sued for full custody. The Lord showed me favor and I was awarded custody.

The first year we were seperated I had no desire to date. I was deeply wounded after ten years of a troubled marriage and a nasty custody battle. I was very busy being a single dad and trying to make ends meet. When I did start dating it was not for romance but just for companionship. I let a neighbor talk me into going to singles dances. It was there that I saw an old friend from years before. I asked her out, thinking it would just be an enjoyable evening for "old time's sake". I had a very good time in her company and we continued to see each other. In 1985 she accepted a job in Wilmington, North Carolina and moved to Carolina Beach. We courted long distance for awhile and then on October 18, 1985 we were married.

Cathy had been renting an apartment on the north end of Carolina Beach. We rented a house right on the beach and moved in, bringing Cathy's daughter Nikki and my two sons. We have always had a good relationship, but those first years as a blended family with three teenagers were difficult. By God's mercy and grace we survived and today all three children are grown and on their own. Thanks to Josh, we now have a beautiful little granddaughter.

Even though Cathy and I were very happy together during those first years of marriage, the pressures of starting over as a blended family sometimes caused me to question if I had made the right decision. God in his mercy was about to do away with those doubts in such a way that I would never doubt again. Cathy doesn't have many pictures of herself as a child but one day she pulled out two five by sevens and displayed them on our buffet. One was her when she was about ten or twelve years old and the other was her brother. When I looked at the picture of her it brought back memories of a recurring dream I had when I was about eleven or twelve years old. The dream was about me and a little girl about the same age as me. We were best friends. We spent a lot of time playing in the dirt with little plastic horses. We both knew that someday we would grow up and get married. This dream continued every night for weeks. I had forgotten about it until I saw the picture of Cathy as a little girl. She was the girl in my dream. To my knowledge I had not met Cathy when I had this dream. We first met when she was sixteen and I was eighteen.

When I first started telling Cathy this story, she gave me a look of disbelief. But when I told her about the plastic horses her expression changed. She told me this story: When she was about ten or twelve years old, she would take her allowance to Richardson's Department Store in High Point on Saturday mornings. Richardson's had two tables in the front of the store full of little toys. Everything on those tables sold for a penny. Every week she saved her allowance to buy little plastic horses which she took home and played with in the dirt in her backyard.

What an awesome God we serve! Somehow he takes our mistakes and failures to bring about his perfect will for our lives. How he does that is sometimes beyond my comprehension. Marrying the little girl in my recurring dream brought about the fulfillment of the prophecy that I would one day live at Carolina Beach. I have played on the boardwalk with an outreach ministry of the Methodist Church in Carolina Beach. Several years ago Cathy and I operated a teen outreach on the boardwalk where I also played.

What an adventure walking with God has been! There have been many extreme difficulties and trials along the way, but I have also witnessed the miraculous power of God over and over again. To tell it all would require much more space than I have on this web page. Eventually I plan to write a book and tell "the rest of the story".

Let me close with this: When Cathy and I were married I was working as a painter with my brother's contracting firm in High Point. When I moved to the beach I started my own paint contracting business. In the spring of 2003 I was in Portugal with pastor/evangelist Miguel Escobar. While we were in Lisbon, I went walking by myself one day to spend some time praying. The Lord spoke to me and said, "It is time to get out of the painting business." I said, "OK, but you have to tell my wife." I didn't tell anyone what the Lord had said. When I returned home I went back to work. A few weeks later the Lord woke Cathy up at 4:00 one Monday morning and told her I was to get out of the painting business. He also gave her financial details as to how we were to make the transition. In August of 2003 I gave the business to my sons who were working with me. Today I travel and minister on my own and with various other ministries. I also hold Glory Campaigns and Conventions in cities in the United States. For more information on Glory Campaigns/Conventions click on the Glory Campaigns page.

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