All Things New: Rescued from Darkness
Photos by Various
Sought by the Shepherd
Not all the photos above will be used with this article, some for the subsequent parts. All do need captions, though.
Gail woke in the night, her heart racing. She had dreamed that her newborn baby girl had been crying out for her. The 21-year-old scrunched her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face. She reminded herself: I gave her up to give her a better life rather than suffer for my mistakes. The people at the Los Angeles County home for unwed mothers had told Gail to forget it ever happened, but she couldn’t. “I felt like trash; all of us did, for giving up our babies,” said Gail. Burdened with grief, pain, and shame, Gail returned to psychedelic drugs. Life reverted to a blur of confusion and sin. But this time, her mother had been born again and was praying for her.
It was 1971, and the world was in upheaval: 50,000+ young recruits dying in the controversial Vietnam War, angry protests, civil rights debates, and the rapid moral decline of the counterculture hippie movement. As the disillusioned hordes of young people wandered, hitched rides, and partied searching for enlightenment, they were swept up in a tsunami of drugs, alcohol, fornication, and the occult. Yet, in the midst of such darkness, a new light was shining: the hope of Jesus Christ. The Gospel was transforming the hippies and burnouts into born-again Jesus People with a new passion to reach other lost souls with the Good News.
Something about the joyful Jesus People made Gail keep every Gospel tract and flyer. Watching Gail spiral again, her mother dug through the pile and gave her a list of Christian houses started by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, CA.
“I had heard that they were good communes, and that they would help you,” Gail recalled. That September, she asked a friend to drive her from Covina to Santa Ana to visit Bariah House. “Walking into the place, you could just feel the peace of the Holy Spirit; you could cut it with a knife.” A young man was reading a giant family Bible. “He looked so holy, I thought he was an angel.”
They invited her to stay for dinner, worship, and Bible study. The songs awakened a deep yearning in her soul:
And Jesus said, "Come to the water, stand by My side
I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied
I felt every teardrop when, in darkness, you cried
And I strove to remind you that for those tears, I died” (Children of the Day)
The leader read Jesus’ words from Matthew 18:11-12: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?” That’s me, she thought, her cheeks burning. My mother must have called him and told him what was going on. A new hunger was stirring in Gail’s heart.
Later, sitting on the beach cliffs, Gail pondered the song: “Jesus said, ‘Come to the water, stand by My side.’” Did Jesus really want her? Her friend offered her a large marijuana joint. Gail shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on in me, but if I take a hit off that. I’m going to come down.” Gail fondly recounted decades later, “Kay Smith loved that story; she would often ask me to share it with others.”
All Things New
A week later, she moved into Bariah House. A message from Pastor Chuck Smith became very real: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). “He said, ‘You’re brand new. The old is passed away; it has nothing to do with your new life in Christ.” It was music to her hungry soul.
Gail devoured the Word. “We were being drenched and saturated in truth, and I believed it. It was the pure work of the Holy Spirit, restoring our messed-up lives. … We were truly a family of brothers and sisters. The blood of Jesus restored our innocence, which was so healing.” Men and women slept in separate rooms; men worked in landscaping all day, as the women cared for the house. Everyone listened to Bible teaching tapes at private cubicles and answered written questions—a practice that would become required curriculum a few years later at Calvary Chapel Bible College. House residents attended Bible studies at Costa Mesa every time the doors opened.
One Thursday night after Pastor Chuck had given a message on salvation, Gail lay on her bed talking to God. “I want to give my life to You,” she whispered, later recalling, “I never desired drugs again.”
She reflected: “Jesus became a real person to me, speaking directly through the Holy Spirit to my heart. He was just transforming me. I knew His Word was Truth.”
Because there were so many who needed to stay at the Christian houses, residents were only allowed to stay for two months. When Gail thought about her future, all she knew was that she wanted to help others know the love, forgiveness, and freedom of Jesus Christ. She had no idea God’s plan would involve Steve Mays, a zealous young leader at one of the houses.
From Violence to Peace
Steve suffered traumatic abuse in seventh grade, which detonated into intense drug use and violence in high school—even brandishing a machete at his bewildered parents. Leaving home before completing school, his mechanical skills landed him with a violent motorcycle gang twice his age. The nightmare worsened: He was often threatened—held down with a shotgun put in his mouth, fired upon several times, finally taking a gunshot wound to the leg and being left to die in a field. When the gang mistakenly thought he had ratted them out to the cops, they put a contract on his life. Fleeing the bikers and the law, Steve had nowhere to go. That’s when he hit bottom, on the run and sleeping in a street gutter. He was found there by an elderly Christian couple, Shirley and Henry, who brought him home and fed him. “She told me that she saw Jesus in my eyes,” Steve recounted in the book Harvest.
They brought Steve to Calvary Chapel’s Christian house, Mansion Messiah, in 1970. Pastor Chuck wrote, “One bleak day a hoodlum from Anaheim showed up at one of our Christian commune houses dressed in bib overalls and leathers, with a 9-mm Beretta tucked in his back pocket. He had not bathed in three months and had literally slept in gutters while living as a fugitive from the law. He had not brushed his teeth in months and, with his neo-barbarian hairstyle, he was a sight to behold.”
At Mansion Messiah, a petite young man named Orville Stanton asked Steve, “Do you know Jesus?” When he said No, softspoken Orville boldly ordered the ruffian: “Bow your head; we’re going to ask Jesus into your heart.” Steve recounted, “I said the sinner’s prayer after him. … Everything suddenly clicked. God just grabbed me, reached in, and burned in my heart. It was the most incredible power I have ever experienced … the awesomeness of God’s love. … At that moment, God delivered me from drugs. ... I also threw my gun away in the ocean. … From then on, I started singing Christian songs by myself when I was just walking down the street.”
A God-Arranged Marriage
Two years later, when Steve met Gail, she was impressed with his knowledge of the Word, but they had no special friendship. After Steve moved to a Christian house in Victorville, he asked Pastor Paul and Ruth Smith to pray about asking Gail to marry him—unbeknownst to Gail—and they gave their blessing. Steve invited Gail to visit him at the new Christian house, so she visited on January 6, 1972.
“As I got closer, the Lord spoke to me that what He had for me was in Victorville,” Gail recalled. “I thought Steve was going to ask me to be the elder sister of the Christian house.” After a pleasant day of fellowship and touring the house, she realized it was getting late. As she bade Steve goodbye, she was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t invited her to serve there. He asked her to pray with him. After they said “Amen,” he looked down into her eyes and said, “I think we’re supposed to get married.” Her heart filled with God’s peace; she smiled and whispered, “OK.”
Wanting to be open with Steve from the start, she soberly confessed, “I don’t know if you’ll want me or not, because I have had a child and given her up for adoption.” Steve shared his own difficult past with Gail. “We both knew that we were different now, that Jesus had made us new.” They wanted to serve Jesus together—and they would, for more than 40 years until Steve passed. When Gail got home, she called her mother: “I have something important to tell you, so you should sit down.” Her mom answered, “I don’t need to sit down; I know what it is. You’re going to get married!” That was her confirmation.
Ten days later, they were married on the front lawn of Macedonia House. “It was standing-room only, even though we were outside,” Gail recalled. Worship and the joy of the Lord filled the air among all the brothers and sisters from the house ministries and Calvary Chapel. They celebrated like a family. Many other couples met through the houses and went on to serve Jesus across the country.
A year later, their son Nathan was born. That was also a fulfillment and sign to her. Just a week before Steve’s proposal, Gail had felt prompted to write a letter to God, asking that she would be “great with child” by that time next year. Reflecting recently, she said, “It must have been the Holy Spirit prompting me, because that’s exactly what happened.”
Alive in the Holy Spirit
Eyewitnesses of the Jesus Movement have described the ongoing, powerful work of the Spirit. “The Holy Spirit was so real during those days that He was moving in a one-to-one basis. I was in a prayer meeting, and suddenly my prayer language just happened,” Gail noted. “We were being taught these stories in the Bible, and Pastor Chuck said, ‘This is for you today,’ and we just believed him. We were so open to the work of the Holy Spirit. His presence was so right, so peaceful, so holy. We knew we were children of God.”
At CC Costa Mesa, crowds of nearly 2,000 would pack the big green tent to hear the Bible teaching. Pastor Chuck always gave an invitation to accept Jesus, and young people came forward every week. After they prayed for salvation, the house residents came forward to talk with each one—men counseling the men, and women with the women. “We would ask if they had a Bible, what was going on in their lives, if they needed a place to stay,” Gail remembered. “The house elders were there, and sometimes we would lay hands on people. You could see the Lord transform them—their countenance would change. Some were delivered from drugs instantly.”
Bruce Danzara testified: “I was spaced out on drugs and alcohol for seven years, down to 126 pounds, and my speech was often incoherent. … On September 10, 1972, I heard a powerful Christian message by Pastor Chuck Smith in the big tent. … I responded to his invitation to follow Jesus Christ. I left there completely healed.”
Hundreds of lives were transformed every month, with Pastor Chuck leading massive baptisms at Pirate’s Cove. “Many had instant deliverance,” Gail recounted. “We would pray for them, and their whole countenance changed, from forlorn to joyful. You can see in someone’s eyes when they are in darkness. But we had all been transformed from darkness into His marvelous light.”
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.1 Peter 2:9
“There was a lot of prayer in the house ministries, gathering together and praying together, waiting on the Lord. Often, there would be a word of knowledge, prophecies, miracles. I thought that was normal,” Gail said. “I wish more people were open to the work of the Holy Spirit. … Pastor Chuck often led afterglows. He taught us the scriptural use of the gifts in the congregation from 1 Corinthians 12-14. As long as we follow the Word, there is nothing to fear.”
Greg Preuss recalled, “Living at the House of Psalms was an incredible time. We would minister to each other as brothers. I had been in the charismatic church and had some crazy experiences. As Chuck taught us the Word verse by verse, I was set free from all of that. It reordered my thoughts. I still listen to Pastor Chuck’s teachings on the Word for Today app; I’m still growing in the Word.” He attends a Calvary Chapel in Washington, MO.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also shall bear witness, because you have been with Me” John 15:26-27a
Gail testified: “We were taught to make things right with our enemies. I was convicted to find my best friend from high school and share my testimony with her. She received the Lord and moved to Victorville. About five months later, I was in Victorville because I married Steve, and I led her parents to the Lord.”
Mentoring Others
Pastor Chuck asked Steve to return to Santa Ana and oversee four of the Christian houses. In the House of Psalms, Steve mentored Roman Padilla and his friend Rick Sawyer. Roman was a backslidden believer who wanted to stay just long enough to get clean, save up some money, and move back to his girlfriend in Arizona. God had other plans.
“One day, Rick and I loaded up my Toyota Land Cruiser, said goodbye to everyone, and took off. About half a mile from the house, the car just broke down,” Roman recalled with a deep chuckle. “I called Steve, and he picked us up. That Cruiser sat in the backyard for about six months until I finally surrendered and sold it. I knew God was calling me to stay and serve.”
As the house overseer, Steve could be intense and passionate with the new believers. “Steve was the first person who cared about what happened to me,” Roman recalled. Once, he was joking around when Steve grabbed him, carried him to the backyard, and turned him upside down. Even though Roman was laughing, Steve was embarrassed by his outburst. “But God used it. Steve believed that God had a plan for me. Everyone else in my life didn’t care what I did; they said I was going to die young. But Steve really cared,” Roman recounted with emotion.
“It was a special time, and God was doing a special work in each of us,” Roman explained. One night at a campout, Roman read aloud Psalm 46:6b: “He uttered His voice, the earth melted.” He was suddenly overwhelmed with the burning, holy presence of the Lord and cried out. “Steve came over and laid hands on me. I felt Spirit-filled. I was crying out at the top of my lungs, ‘God, I want to serve You!’ Then everybody else got nailed [by the Spirit]; it was one of the most blessed times, people laying on hands and praying for each other.”
Roman testified: “We saw so many miracles. For me, the biggest miracle was changed lives.” Steve often had a prophetic word from the Lord. Once, Steve was remodeling a room with a new man who was still struggling with fleshly ways. “Steve looked at that guy and told him that God was going to take our lives apart, just like that house, and put them back together the way He wanted them,” Roman said with tears, “and He did. God tore me apart, put me back together, and sent me out.” For years, Roman served as a handyman/runner for three of the house churches. He’s helped at several Calvary Chapels over the years and attends a Calvary Chapel in Salinas.
Gently Restoring
Leaders used grace, discernment, and loving boundaries to help the young converts come to freedom. Steve was known for being blunt and firm, but also compassionate. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted (Galatians 6:1).
Growing up without a father, Robin Dodson was struggling with drug addiction when she came to the Harvest House for unwed mothers and their children. “I had a heart for Jesus, but I just didn’t know Him and didn’t have any foundation,” she recalled. With two children of her own, Gail would visit once a week to lovingly encourage the young moms in the Word.
Robin recalled being changed “by the love that Helen Warn (the house mother) and the other ladies poured into me.” Shortly after arriving, Robin left the house and took drugs, then returned and confessed to Helen. Frustrated, Helen “grounded” Robin but let her stay. After Robin fell again, Helen asked Steve to talk to her. He came with another elder. “They were probably coming to kick me out, but after they talked to me, they knew God was working. Steve was gracious, listening to my story.” As he listened, his countenance softened. “He told me, ‘Even if you went out again, I would let you stay.’ … What he was really saying was that he believed God would finish what He had begun.” Wanting to help her, Steve continued Robin’s strict boundaries to never leave the house alone.
Agreeing, Robin asked the Holy Spirit to show her when she was healed. Three months later, she had her answer. One day, the temptation came to her mind, and she firmly answered, “No.” The Holy Spirit revealed that she was free. Helen rejoiced with her and handed her the car keys to take a ride by herself. “God did a miracle, and it’s been 50 years,” she testified recently. Robin went on to become a Hall of Fame women’s pool player, sharing her testimony from her platform and on The 700 Club. “Steve was just proud, praising God with me for the miracle that happened at the Harvest House.”
Robin continued, “I would spend an hour and a half in the Word every morning, and we would go to church several times a week. We went out street witnessing. It was spiritual boot camp, and I grew and grew. After a year, Helen asked me to be her deaconess. … God used me to pass on what I had received in the ministry. Those were the best years of my life. I really needed that kind of foundation. If I had just been attending church on Sundays, I don’t think I would have survived.”
Friend, Brother, Father Figure
Though Steve was only a few years older than most of the new believers in the houses, many saw him as a father figure for his wisdom and genuine care for them.
Rick Sawyer recalled, “Steve always took the time to listen to me and tell me what I needed to hear.” Sometimes they would talk about their difficult pasts, and how the Lord carried them: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27a). When Rick’s wife had cancer, Steve called him in 2013 (one year before Steve passed): “He encouraged me not to feel sorry for myself but to focus on her care and being strong for her. He had said basically the same thing to me 50 years ago when I was a young guy—not to use the past as an excuse not to change.”
Rick wrote a song about Steve that summed up the gratitude of many of the men and women who had been under Steve and Gail during the house ministries:
“Well, they call him the Mays, a friend and a brother and a father to my soul. Old Mays, giving his life so others could grow. I’m not trying to praise a man, but I’m thankful for the helping hand. Lord, You know my heart. You know the long way down. And Lord, You picked me up and turned it all around. And You’ve shown me how to be a man through the tears of an old familiar friend.”
Rick recounted that once he was “complaining to one of the guys about the ‘one-nighters’ that Big Calvary would send us.” He recalled, “They were people with no other place to go; some of them were homeless and would steal from us. One of them stole my shoes. I was complaining until my friend reminded me that I had been a ‘one-nighter,’ and that God broke down our jeep so that Roman and I would stay for two and a half years, getting grounded in the Word and laying a foundation.” He and his wife Lynda are still serving Jesus together.
The Jesus Movement of the 1970s changed the world. Young people turned from drug- infested gatherings to Christian concerts. Many answered the call of the ministry and the mission field.
With the world in upheaval today, Gail said what many others of the Jesus Movement have noted: “The world is ready for another revival. We need to share Jesus as much as we can.” As Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).
Thank you for reading! If this story inspired you, we invite you to partner with us in continuing the ministry God started over 27 years ago. We appreciate your prayerful consideration in joining us to reach more souls for Jesus.
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