I was very surprised when the idea of helping Deacon Jack Gardner, a friend of mine, with his dream of starting a Biblical School in Detroit came powerfully to my mind. Jack Gardner was a friend of mine in college and he was a screw up. I couldn’t imagine him running any kind of business successfully but he was a friend of mine.  He had told me about the biblical school thing and I basically had blown it off, I hadn’t given it another thought until that moment in front of Jesus in the tabernacle. And he had no idea at that point that I had any money from my dad.

I tried over the next couple of weeks to ignore the idea but it just wouldn’t go away. So I had lunch with my friend and told him that God was asking me to help him with the money I had received from my parents’ estate. 

He was dumbfounded but he convinced me not only to put up the money to start the school but also to help form the organization and serve as the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan’s treasurer. He also asked me to replace him as the business manager at St. Linus in Dearborn Heights so he could spend all his time working for the school.

Thirteen years later, I currently serve as the President of CBSM and as the business manager of St. John Neumann in Canton, MI.

When God told me in the chapel he wanted me to be a watchman, that shocked me. That shocked me right off the top of my head because I remember it immediately back to when I was 28. And this time I bothered to look it up to know what a watchman has to do. And then God gave me what I call my watchman prayer.

When I looked it up, I learned that watchmen carried staffs to break up fights, carried lamps at night to help those who were having problems, and watched the gate for the enemies and opened and closed the gates every day.

So the watchman prayer goes like this:

Oh, Lord. Let me use the staff you’ve given me to bring peace to your Church. The light you’ve given me to lead men to Christ. And let me forever be ready to announce your coming again in glory.