The Making of a Preacher -Prep

A Wanderer Has No Place to Call Home

Matthew Marks began his trek of life on Earth as the son of a Baptist seminary student and his wife of slightly more than two years.

Matthew's brother, Straightway Marks, came into the life of the family, while Matt was still just three years old. Being slightly inexperienced with life, his first thought when "Little Brother" arrived at their home on Seminary Circle was expressed as "Bring him into my room so he can play with my toys!"

Carlos Marks had a hometown. It was a small village in Southeast Alabama.
Naomi Mara Marks, (Matt's Mom,) had a hometown. It was a little farming community in South Georgia.

However, Matthew Marks has never had a hometown. He was born in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas, but his dad moved away from that big city, replacing it with another big town in upstate New York when Matt was only five years old. For the bulk of his first four decades on Planet Earth, Matt lived the life of an itinerate nomad, developing few long-term friendships because he was like a flowering bush that a homeowner kept transplanting throughout his property every season or two. It couldn't really set down a substantial root system.

Matthew Marks has a big heart for people. As a result, he has developed the ability to love at least one thing (and often many things) about every place he has called home throughout his lifetime, thus far. For instance, D-FW is about as close to a hometown as Matt will ever have since that is where he started life. All of his memories of the metroplex are the memories of a little five-year-old boy, who can't imagine that anything remains as he remembered it all those years ago. However, even today he considers himself to be a Texan, meaning that his favorite accessories are a cowboy hat and a bolo tie, which he consistently wears more often than a traditional tie, which he knots with a Double Windsor.

Matt liked his time in upstate New York,...mostly. He got to see Niagra Falls, which was a big thrill with "all the rainy wet spray and really loud falling down of waters." He often looked through the souvenir book that the family took home from that vacation. He couldn't seem to get his mind around the fact that the book had the picture of a shark in it. He thought that sharks were only in the ocean. "A shark in a lake or in a river? That's something new!"

Yet, Matt did not like something about upstate New York. He left his tricycle behind a car in the apartment parking lot, where they lived, but it got crushed when the owner of the car backed out to leave. That was a harsh lesson in his early life. "Somebody killed my tricycle! And who is that very black little boy hiding behind the bush?"

About six months after being transferred to New York, the job played out and Carlos decided to take his family back south, again. Matt almost got to return home to Texas when the family landed in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Carlos had heard about a church in the little town of GoodWill that needed a pastor. It seemed to be the wisest choice for Carlos to put his seminary degree to work. So, the family settled into the church's pastor's home (or pastorium,) quickly realizing that since this town could only support one Baptist church, most of the needed provisions, like food for the family and gas for the car, would have to be purchased in the next town about ten miles away. Another practical need was that of locating an elementary school in the other town since it was time for Matt to start first-grade.

Matt's social ineptitude often got him in trouble to one degree or another in the public schools that he attended. In first-grade, he had a real issue that hindered his ability to learn. He needed glasses, but he didn't know that he needed glasses because he just thought that nobody could see the blackboard from the back of the classroom. The need for glasses never seemed to bother him nearly as much as his wary, anxious feelings over the dark-faced "friend" that sat behind him all the way through the year. (This was really strange since none of the other rows had a child sitting behind the last chair, apparently hovering rather than sitting in an actual chair. But what did Matt know? He was just a kid.) Lazarus Watyudid was not a member of some earthly race. He wasn't a person of color. He was something other. He was something otherworldly. His face was nearly jet black, but Matt could still make out his features. Lazarus had the brightest blue eyes Matt had ever seen, but there was one element that always seemed to draw terror from his heart. Laz' bright blue orbs had a small circle of red that peeked out at the edges of the blue.

Matt consistently seemed to do things wrong or to do things that were wrong, even though in his heart of hearts he wanted to do things right and to do right things because of his deep-seated need to please people. He wanted to be friends with everybody that he could be friends with, but that never seemed to work out. Yet, Lazarus seemed to cling to Matt like glue. Laz was his friend. Laz was as faithful as any friend could be. Laz was always there to help pick up the pieces of his life when he did something wrong. Laz seemed to step in front of him right before he did something wrong. Even at that young age, he wondered, "Did Lazarus do the wrong thing or did I?" Nobody ever seemed to blame Lazarus, but Matt always got blamed. Lazarus was always there "plain as day." Why was Matt the only one to see what Laz was doing?

In second grade, he got a paddling because the teacher thought he was being rebellious for continuing to work on Math homework when she told the class to start the English lesson with her. In fourth grade, Matt was constantly anxious that year because the teacher had emphasized getting enough sleep every night so forcefully, "Don't come to my class, sleepy & tired! Come ready to work!" that his anxiety kept him from getting to sleep every night until he was intensely exhausted.

Matt's experiences in junior high and high school made his anxiety go off the charts to the point that he was "sick to the stomach" pretty much every day when he arrived at school. The sickness decreased throughout the school day until he was pretty much back to his contented self when it was time to "buckle-up" for the ride back home.

Matthew Marks graduated from a small high school in a little town in the Panhandle of Northwest Florida near the turn of the Millenium. As soon as the call came for people to board a rocket ship to reduce the overcrowded conditions of Earth for the earthlike planet of ZoNed 4 in a little solar system in the next arm of The Milky Way, Matt was one of the first to sign-up. "There's nothing here for me on this planet. Let's start over on a new planet of our own." Artista "Dread Chick" Marks stood there shaking, "Yes!" with her own head vigorously, being the adventurous, free-spirit that she was. "Nothing here for me either. Let's go!"

"Earth has been consistent trouble for me," Matt processed, out-loud. "I've always known that I have (and still do) need the Savior. The people here shun me because I point to Jesus as the best Friend in my life, but do they take time to realize that He has been my only true friend? Oh, well, that doesn't matter now. I'll start a new life away from all of my so-called friends, like that funny little man, Lazarus Watyudid. Who is he, anyway?"

The trip to ZoNed4 took the family about three years at top-speed for humans in the 21st-century. They slept a lot, and played games, like "Peek-a-Boo" with their growing little family of Pansie & Aurora, the twins, who were nearly two-years-old when they all arrived on the planet, thick with Nitrogen-ionized, though breathable, atmosphere. This will take a little getting used to, Matt thought. They say the weeks are eight-days long here. What's that all about?

Matthew Marks enjoyed two decades of great ministry on his new planet home of ZoNed4, but Lazarus Watyudid showed up light-years away from Matt's earthly home to play mind games with his "Best Bud," to destroy his life once & for all. What would Jesus do to save his servant from sure defeat, while giving him a confidence and assurance that Matt had never known before in his lifetime?