A bit about my roots, and how I came by my calling…
Early influences of God on my life.
A bit about my roots, and how I came by my calling…
If you want to know a bit about my roots, and how I came by my calling…
— Some of these accounts are expanded on other pages on this site.
My name is Ken Kriese, and amazingly there seem to be at least 2 others out there with this same name. However, I was born over 60 years ago in the interior of British Columbia, a province on the west coast of Canada.
— I was blessed to be raised by two good Christian parents, Herman and Elsie.
— I gave my heart to the Lord at the age of 8, during a call to do so in Daily Vacation Bible School.
(I can still remember how much I enjoyed those Vacation Schools.)
— It seems the Lord took the opportunity to school me in rapid succession those first few years.
— 1/ First, I had an inner-ear infection in my dad’s bush camp and was healed through the prayers of my dad.
(I saw that God would indeed still answer prayers.)
— 2/ I think it was that same bush camp vacation when the Lord gave me the experience of losing my dad’s ’22’ caliber rifle. God showed me He would even answer my prayers, when it was returned to me later that year, around Christmas.
(I realized then that God would in fact answer my own prayers, in HIS own good time.)
— 3/ About this same age (I think I was 10), I lost my Timex watch that my parents had given me. This happened at my Cub-Scout camp. Wrestling with God, in my childish way, I learned that God would ultimately hear your prayers. But that sometimes He pushes us to the edges of our faith, so as to stretch those boundaries and cause our faith to grow.
— 4/ Again during those years, on a Sunday picnic after church, I lost our dog’s leash, and God answered this child’s prayers, with a REPLACEMENT LEASH. Teaching me that He would indeed answer our prayers but in HIS own way.
— 5/ Again I lost that same Timex watch on another vacation-time staying at another bush camp of my dad’s. That year I lost it while exploring through the bush of the Ashcroft area, looking for agate stones. God once again answered my prayers and led me to remember the exact place I lost it as I in prayer, undertook the impossible task of attempting to retrace my trek through the dense buck-brush of the interior of B.C.
(I never thought to hold onto that Timex watch when it finally quit working. Now I wish I had.)
— 6/ My little sister Charlene, who is five years younger than me, was hit by a car in the front of our suburban home when as a 5-year-old, she darted out from between parked cars. This was probably my first experience with the awareness of the spiritual aspects of our lives.
I was at my weekly Cub-Scout meeting when this occurred, and totally unaware of what had just happened. I was being driven by a friend’s parents back home when we came to within half a mile of my house, a sense of weight and foreboding came upon me. I still cannot explain it completely, but as they dropped me off, (None of us having any idea of the tragic accident which had just occurred) I knew something was terribly wrong. This was the first time that I experienced that God could speak to my spirit. It was in fact, an introduction to His Holy Spirit.
As a family we went through some terrible days, waiting for word of the extent of my sister’s injuries, and of her chances for recovery. Miraculously, she just had to overcome a cracked skull, which she did fully within the next two years. And once again all my family were able to praise God for answered prayers.
— 7/ I include this next account, to show how from that point on I started to pay attention to the prompting of God’s Holy Spirit…
— It is a sobering account of how Satan is able to attack our youth, and he strives to make life difficult for those who make a stand for Christ. (So be sure to hold your church youth in your prayers.)
From the suburbs, we moved to a rural sub-division when I was 12. It was a beautiful place along the river in a new residential area. There were new adventures, opportunities, and challenges for me and my sister Charlene, as we were the only school-aged children remaining in our family at that time. And we left a large school we had grown up in and moved to a small rural school. It was so small they had to run split-grade classes just to justify class numbers.
I soon ran into the ‘bully the goody-goody newcomer’ syndrome. Such that even my fellow teammates on our senior soccer team targeted me. They became determined to teach me a lesson on submitting to their will, even if it meant cheating, and using their size to bully others. That is when the Holy Spirit started to warn me of impending traps, and attacks that they lay-out for me and my sister.
— I should explain that we had to walk about a mile to school every day through open fields, beside the highway and railway tracks. To get under the traffic there were two pedestrian underpasses.
…One underpass became a perfect hidden place for an ambush.
Time and time again, as my sister and I would be getting ready for the long walk home, I would sense a warning of aggression in my spirit. God always confirmed my suspicions by some small sign of my bullying teammates. I would notice a look or see one of them running off in the direction of that underpass.
Every time I sensed that warning I would take my sister and circumnavigate the underpasses, and take a longer route home. This would mean we needed to cross traffic on the highway and railway, but I felt it was necessary to avoid some trap. My fears were time and again confirmed when, safely from our yard, I would see my teammates straggling home late, always from the direction of those underpasses.
(I found out later that they had indeed been waiting in numbers, determined to teach me a lesson.)
This led to the first victory God gave me in standing against the world. I will relate it in brief here… One day as my sister and I passed through that last underpass, headed for home, all of a sudden a group of my soccer teammates jumped out and surrounded us as we exited the tunnel. They blocked our way and their spokesman informed me that I was to stop resisting their lead in sports and quit trying to stop them from having their fun with the juniors.
All I remember is even though I was afraid of their numbers, a wave of anger rose up inside me and somehow I knew I could and would keep standing for what is right, regardless of what happened to me.
I do remember challenging them to let my little sister go home safely, as she was just a little girl, and had nothing to do with our disagreement. I will always remember how Charlene refused to leave my side, and I had to angrily tell her to go home to tell our mom what had happened. This she did through tears.
As my sister walked away sobbing, I turned to my attackers. I know to this day that God’s Holy Spirit came over me and gave me the fierceness and voice to angrily face them. I challenged them to come at me one at a time, saying with an unreal bravado, that I would probably be able to take two or three down before they beat me up.
It was unreal how God gave me exactly the right way to approach their scheme to defeat me. As next I heard myself telling them that even though they would eventually beat me down. I angrily pointed out to them the facts of what would happen next. Like what did they expect would happen when I returned home beaten. How would they answer their parents when the police showed up at the door when my mom reported the incident?
— They instantly started to back down, and I was able to return home with no more than suffering a name-calling as they decided that maybe they had taught me lesson enough.
— I never did have to detour from that underpass anymore after that. I knew then why God had refrained from warning me about their trap that day. I realized God had decided it was time to put an end to all their bullying.
— The word of this confrontation did get around, I suspect chiefly from the testimony of my little sister, and it certainly worked to end those confrontations from that day forth.
Believe me, friends, GOD IS INDEED GOOD and He certainly knows how to handle your problems.
I believe that began my calling to stand for truth and justice in the name of Jesus.
— What I do now stems from these childhood lessons God taught me, as He confirmed to me, everything He has written in His Bible, Old Testament, and New.
— I feel God brought me up for the purpose of telling you about His covering power, to walk with, talk to, teach, and defend you. Be sure that I AM OF NO MORE VALUE TO HIM THAN ARE YOU!
…WE ARE BOTH UNIQUE AND LOVED WITH HIS UNFATHOMABLE LOVE…
I hope you may be encouraged today to turn your every remaining moment over to the one who loves you more than any other person or power… May God truly bless you! (KK)
If you wish to hear my latest call for this time of pandemic recovery, I have this link provided…