Back when the "YES LORD" necklace was designed by me for Barbara for Mothers Day I was far from being the husband and father I should have been.  I knew about Jesus but I really did not have a relationship with Him.  I had a lot of guilt in my life and kept reading the Bible and praying to God for forgiveness.  I kept on praying and asking this question.  God when are you ever going to forgive me and what do I have to do to be forgiven?

At the time I was living in hilly farm country in the very northwest portion of New Jersey, five miles from Pennsylvania and four miles from New York State.  From the house I designed and built I could look up and see the highest point in New Jersey.  I can remember traveling fifty miles one way to work every day and driving up and over the second highest point in the State and when I was at that point start praying and saying to God, please I can't get any closer to you or Heaven today, when are you going to forgive me and let me feel forgiven.  

Then on a bitter cold day in January, I remember it clearly because it was fifteen degrees below zero and snowing in blizzard conditions, that I got up extra early to plow the driveway so I could go to work.  We lived on part of a farm that my dad owned and I walked or stumbled thru snow drifts up over my waist to get to the barn to get on the tractor to start plowing.  As I was plowing the driveway with the tractor which had a plow on the front and a grader bar on the back, I backed up along the side of our garage and forgot about two things, one that I had a grader bar on the back of the tractor and second that Barbara's car a used Volvo station wagon which she had just gotten less that a week before was parked where I was backing up to.  When I realized both, it was too late, because you just don't stop a tractor on a dime.  The grader bar only tapped the back window of the Volvo but it shattered the glass.  I got off the tractor and went inside to tell Barbara.  She went ballistic and said, "I have things to do today and I'm not going to drive in a car with no back window and freeze to death.  You drive my car to work and freeze, I take your car which is nice and clean and in the garage with no snow on it."

So I started out to drive fifty miles in the blizzard to work, freezing with the back window out.  As I was driving I kept trying to get the weather report or road conditions on the car radio, but the only station that would come in was a Christian station and it was Dr. Cook from The Kings College, in Briarcliff Manor, NY.  He had a fifteen minute program every morning which I had heard on occasion before.  He normally ended the program by saying, "Walk with the King today!".  However that morning he said "I am ending the program differently this morning.  I feel burdened because there is someone out there driving down a major Interstate about to turn on to another major Interstate."  That got my attention, because that is exactly where I was!  Then he said, "and this person has a tremendous amount of guilt in his life and has been reading the Bible and asking for forgiveness, but no one has ever told him that all he has to pray a simple prayer and invite Jesus into his heart.  So, I am going to ask that person out there to pray this prayer along with me.  "Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I want to invite you into my heart right know and ask you to forgive my sin's."  That morning at exactly that time and location, I prayed that prayer with Dr. Cook, then pulled off the road into a snow bank, at fifteen below zero with tears streaming down my face.  I knew then that finally I was forgiven.

Several years later when I took one of my daughters to that college where she was starting as a freshman, I met Dr. Cook in person and told him my story.  I said when I get to Heaven I would like to meet along with him all the other people who may have invited Jesus into their heart on that day because of his message.  For you see, in the listening area, The New York Metropolitan Area, there are may Interstates that turn off  and on to other Interstates.  But, Dr. Cook said, "that not important, what is important is that before you get to Heaven that just like I told you, it is your job to tell others, and make sure you don't forget it!"  And I haven't and that is why I am telling this testimony along with what God has showed me through the YES LORD pendant I designed for Barbara.

You see for approximately five years before the Lord had us start YES LORD, He showed me through the Holy Spirit that He could use YES LORD to draw people to Him.  He did this with increasing frequency.  I would notice that whether Barbara and I were walking through a mall, crossing a street or wherever, that peoples eyes would turn to the necklace.  I was as if the Holy Spirit was guiding their eyes to it, and often they would ask about "YES LORD."  Finally I saw what God wanted me to see, that He would use "YES LORD" prompted by the Holy Spirit to spark an interest and conversation that would lead to a relationship and acceptance of His saving Grace and Salvation.

Because of all the grief that I at one time gave Barbara over her burden for souls, I resisted telling her about what the Lord was showing me.  When He finally gave me enough courage to say something to her about what He was showing me, she said "that's funny because I have been thinking of doing something with a line of clothing on which would be colors for the plan of salvation, and wouldn't it be great if on the front over the heart we put the logo "YES LORD" that the Lord could use in the same way you experienced with the necklace, but in addition on the left sleeve put a bar representing the Plan of Salvation that people could use as a tool to lead other people to the Lord."  And, so, that became the beginning of YES LORD Witness Wear.  It's just that simple!  He will use you along with YES LORD if you are willing, so say "YES LORD."    Gene