My brother is two years older than me. There are not many traits we have in common. He was fearless and I was fearful: he had courage, I did not.

Our only similarity, we grew up in a Christian home. Because of my childhood illness, it was all I could do to walk to school. I was an easy target for bullies. Most days, I planned how to get from school to home, without being seen by the eight-grade thugs. I was in fourth and brother Keith was in sixth. This day, I planned to walk with other students as they headed west. There was a footbridge across “Dry Creek.” From there, I would go under the bridge and head South. In two blocks it would intersect with Hwy. Ten, running right by our home. Within half a block I had been caught. They took my winter coat and threw it in the water. When they were tired of their games, they pushed me in also. Fortunately, it was only knee deep. Struggling home in the cold of fall weather I had no one to tell what happened. When Keith came home, I unloaded on him, then forgot the ordeal. In the morning it was school again. I stuck close to Keith’s side but coming down the walk were my 3 nemesis. I hollered for my brother to run, and he did, right for the first one in line. His right fist connected with him and he went down like a sack of potatoes, He jumped up crying, running for cover. The second in line saw what Keith did to his friend and took off. The third one was already in a head lock with fists reigning down on his unprotected head. Even though we were raised in a Christian home there was not any mercy or compassion shown at that moment. I lay down between my brother and the assailant taking some of the blows, shouting for him to stop. I learned two things that morning. Being raised in Christianity doesn’t always mean that love wins out, sometimes vengeance does. The second thing was unknowingly, my brother had my back, willing to do what it took to protect me; but for the moment there wasn’t comfort in that. From that lesson, I learned how to give my life to the Lord and let him do the heavy lifting.