ello, my name is John W. Childers, and here is a little bit about myself:

     I am a Scientologist. That is the first and foremost thing to know about me.

     I have a family, own my own business and am interested in many arts and sciences. My main hobby is song-writing.

     My dad still takes me fishing on occasion. I like getting outdoors, hiking or looking for crystals. Skiing is fun, too.

     My business is a service I provide for a part of the electronics industry: Golden Gate Graphics .  We design the artwork for printed circuit boards.  My main job in my business is that of Printed Circuit Designer, which is . . . (a description in plain English of this) .

     I have three very good-looking children, all redheads. My daughter has left the nest. My oldest son is approaching that milestone-18 years old in this year 2002.

     My youngest is a boy, eleven years old. His interests are many, and we have great fun together.

     My wife is a beautiful redhead. She has been a staff member at our church and supervised students on The Key to Life and Life Orientation Courses. (See “My Success in Scientology” - Controlling One’s Destiny.) We’ve been married for almost 28 years.

     I love all of my family very much. I hope my children will avail themselves of Scientology and use it, for there is their greatest chance for success and happiness.

      A QUEST FOR TRUTH

     I use Scientology to the best of my ability in all of my endeavors. I’m still learning how to use it effectively. I think the best way to describe who I am is to tell the story of how I came to be a Scientologist. It was a quest for truth.

     Before I became acquainted with the knowledge and truth I found in the writings and through the technology of L. Ron Hubbard, I was seeking truth.

     I had long believed in the spiritual nature of man, but at times not believed. I had become a born-again Christian. I also believed that we all had lived before. Living more than once seemed more fair than getting one shot at life and then heading for Heaven or Hell.

     It dawned on me one day that belief had its down side. How did one know what to believe? Even the Holy Bible is open to interpretation, mistranslation and even altering of data by human hands. I decided that day that I could know.  An adventurous decision, true?

     I replaced all of my beliefs with one faith: Truth exists and I can know the truth, whatever it may be. And being truth, it would resolve the conflicts between science and religion. Truth would also resolve the problems of survival and happiness, areas in which my life needed much improvement.

     I had noticed that there were some people around me who were surviving a whole lot better than I was. I’m smart enough. So why wasn’t I successful?

     For the next three years I read many books and went up many blind alleys in my quest. Then one day I ran into a friend from school. We began talking and I noticed that for the first time since I had known him, we were really communicating. Ideas were going back and forth and being understood and agreed upon.

     He asked me if I had noticed anything about our communication. When I said emphatically that I had, he told me he had just taken a course on communication at the Church of Scientology. I said, “My wife needs to take that course.”

     At his urging I read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. I went into a Mission of Scientology listed in the back of the book and got further data from An Introduction to Scientology, which is a filmed interview with L. Ron Hubbard. Between the book and that film, all of my questions were answered.

     I knew my quest had ended, or actually had just begun in earnest. I had found The Road to Truth:  Scientology. I knew that the truth really could be known by us humans. And so began my greatest adventure.