Plan “A”: How I Got on God’s Plan for My Life and How You Can Do It Too!

By Martin Pollock

If God had a plan for your life, wouldn’t you want to know it? Author Martin Pollock faced many struggles along the way, but when he met the Lord Jesus Christ in March 1985, he began to discover who he was and to know that God indeed had a plan for his life.

In Plan A, Martin shares the journey leading up to this discovery and the road he found himself on afterward. He recalls how he felt a lack of direction in life, how he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and how he eventually got on God’s plan for his life. His life story is one of success, peace, contentment, and victory. He challenges you to walk in his shoes—though they are nondescript shoes, they belong to a man blessed by the living God to do what he has been called to do. Martin knows it isn’t enough to be saved; you must also live out the purpose God has for your life. And with help, you can find His plan A for your own life.

This personal narrative and testimony shares one man’s account of finding God’s true purpose for his life and offers advice on how anyone can do the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Jul 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781489729705

Martin Pollock

Martin Pollock has worn many hats over the years, including running sound for rock bands, serving in the Navy, working as a government contractor, and participating in ministry. He seeks to help others and change lives through communications in the classroom, in the pulpit, on retreats, and through the written word. He and his wife, Teresa, founded His Perfect Peace Ministries in 2016; they have four children and five grandchildren and currently live in Alabama.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Martin Pollock.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of

The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

LifeRich Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.liferichpublishing.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2618-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2617-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2970-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020912152

LifeRich Publishing rev. date:  07/07/2020

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson unless otherwise

indicated. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

"Scripture quotations marked AMPC taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC),

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked ISV taken from the Holy Bible: International

Standard Version® Copyright © 1996-forever by The ISV Foundation. ALL

RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked JUB (or JBS) are taken from the

Jubilee Bible (or Biblia del Jubileo), copyright © 2000, 2001,

2010, 2013 by Russell M. Stendal. Used by permission of Russell

M. Stendal, Bogota, Colombia. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV taken from the

King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked Murdock taken from the James Murdock New Testament.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART 1 — NO PLAN

Chapter 1     Early Life

Chapter 2     Teenage Freak

Chapter 3     Adult Freak

PART 2 — MY PLAN

Chapter 4     Sailor Freak

Chapter 5     Rock-N-Roll

Chapter 6     Plan B

Chapter 7     Meeting Jesus

Chapter 8     Oklahoma

Chapter 9     Navy 3.0 and Regression

Chapter 10   Another Beginning with War

Chapter 11   Shave that Off!

PART 3 — HIS PLAN

Chapter 12   IT School and Coming Home

Chapter 13   Instructor Duty back to Sea

Chapter 14   Retirement, Loss, and Faithfulness

Chapter 15   A New Beginning

Chapter 16   California Here We Come

Chapter 17   California Here We Go

Chapter 18   New City, New Job, New Pastors

Chapter 19   God’s Plan for Me (Us)

PART 4 — YOUR PLAN

Chapter 20   First Things First

Chapter 21   Hearing God

Chapter 22   What’s Your Plan?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to thank some folks that have helped and/or influenced my life in a positive manner. Please forgive me if I leave anyone out. Also please note that I left out some names in this work to protect people’s privacy.

First, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has been very patient and longsuffering with me. I literally would not be alive today without Him. Thank you Jesus!

My wife, Teresa has been very supportive of me during these years we have been married, my partner in life and ministry. She actually found out some things about me from proof-reading this volume. I love you WW.

Our extended family; Carolyn, Tim, Mike, Karen, Dave, Suzy, and all our grandkids, brothers and sisters-in-law; thank you and love you all.

We love and miss my father-in-law Reece and my mother-in-law Pat. I miss my mother, Harriet; I love you mom! I also would like to say, "I love and miss you to my Uncle Kenny who has since passed as well.

I would also like to acknowledge all my Pastors, past and present. First Pastors Mark and Rhonda Garver. Pastor Mark preached on Plan A some years ago and that was the inspiration for the title of this book. His wife Pastor Rhonda taught Love Walk in Bible Institute which challenges me to this day to walk in love. It is from your ministry that I began to really understand faith. I had faith and a lot of knowledge, but my faith increased expediential under your ministry.

Pastors David and Michelle Higgins. God used you two to increase my leadership and rediscover that there was more for me to do than usher. I started to develop a love for the Indian people under you and your father’s ministry.

Pastors Allen and Beverly Higgins. You were there when my wife Paula went to be with the Lord. You taught me endurance in the faith and much meat of the Word. Will see you in Glory Pastor Allen.

Dr. Graham and Pastor Pamela Truscott. You were at the start of my Christian walk. I will never forget your teachings; they have stayed with me all these years. I still have your books; they are a treasure to me. Will see you in Glory as well Dr. Graham.

There are other Pastors not mentioned here that I had for short times, thank you all.

Thank you to all my un-named friends and family in this book. I pray that this volume accurately depicts the events described and that you are not offended by anything in here.

For I know the thoughts that I

think toward you, says the LORD,

thoughts of peace and not of evil,

to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

INTRODUCTION

What is it about my life that you should read this book? Am I particularly interesting? Have I achieved greatness? Is the world a better place because I am here? Does my life impact yours?

I am a very non-descript man who grew up in a small town in northeastern Ohio. My story is like a lot of stories; my life may not seem significant to most people, and there are many forgettable moments in my history. Like everyone else I have had tragedy, pain, disappointment, failure as well as success, peace, contentment, and victory.

When I was very young, I used to imagine that I was different than all the rest of humanity. All of you were in on the same joke, and I was that joke… It was like looking through my eyes was very different than you looking through your eyes. You were all somehow against me and I was a puppet in a play that I had no control over. The world was a very cruel place and I was there to provide comic relief to all those around me.

After a few years, my life changed seemingly for the better. I became friends with those who used to scorn me. I became acceptable, almost popular… Something I thought I had always desired. Years later my life would take another turn, serving in the US Navy. I spent several years still searching for who I was, in and out of the Navy three times.

One of the things that people who know me will notice is the lack of information in this work concerning details about physical and mental abuse. I am not ignoring it, this is about a journey, my journey, to the path that Jesus has for me. This is not meant to disparage anybody from my past or present. Suffice it to say that my past is filled with violence multiple times and from many sources.

Some may notice that I don’t detail all of my sins either, again, this is a journey and yes, I have done some horrendous things in my life. But praise God my sins are forgiven and forgotten by my Father in heaven, so why should I spend my time writing about what the Devil did or what I did and how it affected me?

The start of my discovery of who I am began in an empty townhouse in San Diego, CA. I had lost everything I thought was important. I was in ruin, I hated the Navy, and I was ready to do something drastic to get out of the Navy in a hurry. My life changed forever when I cried out in the darkness, God, why did you let this happen to me?

I met the Lord Jesus Christ that evening in March of 1985 and my life would never be the same. Oh, I still have more tragedy, pain, disappointment, and failure to come in my life. But my life story is one of success, peace, contentment, and victory. I challenge you to walk in my shoes, non-descript shoes, but shoes of a man blessed by the living God to do what he has been called to do. A man working on the plan God has for his life, Plan A. I am a world-changer because I follow His plan for my life. Take a journey with me and I pray that you discover His Plan A for your life.

PART 1

NO PLAN

…but has devised plans so that the

outcast is not cast out from Him.

2 Samuel 14:14

… and do better for you than at

your beginnings. Then you shall

know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 36:11

32233.png

CHAPTER 1

32180.png

Early Life

Today Brownsville Pennsylvania is much different than when I was born. The downtown businesses are mostly closed, the hospital I was born in is boarded up, and my Grandfather’s house burnt down some years ago with the rubble left there. Brownsville a once alive coal-mining town 40 miles south of Pittsburg now nearly abandoned. I took my wife and daughter there in the summer of 2009 as neither had ever been. The people that would know me or my mother are either dead or moved away. Black lung disease has taken many in this town. There is no reason for me to visit again as there is nothing there to remember.

My first six years of life began in this small town by the Monongahela River. My mother and younger brother were all born in this town as well. I have few memories of this time, most of them uneventful and relatively innocuous. But there is tragedy during these years as well… There are many alcoholics in my family, I started to realize this disease and its effects at an early age.

From stories, not memories, I have helped my father up the stairs, he took me to Sunday school and forgot to pick me up, and he bought me a train set with no trains… I do remember at dinner one evening I was crying about a fly in my spaghetti. My father could not see the fly due to his drunken state, stuck in his fork, scooped it up and ate it. This was after I had viewed a program on TV that featured my father, Ralph during a first-of-its-kind operation. (He was the patient).

Later in life my mother would tell me about my aversion to red food because I associated it with blood. She would also relay to me how I was not set a knife at the table when young because I would hold it up and say, this is what daddy chases mommy around the house with.

I started First grade in Brownsville, finished it in Geneva, Ohio. Memories are few from this period of my life, yet this is where a person’s understanding and personality begin to develop. The often shy, unsure-of-himself, small-in-stature boy started life here with this as his early life shaping moments.

We left Brownsville one day after school. The next time I would see this town would be in October of 1977, a couple of weeks before I entered the U.S. Navy for the first time. I again visited this town two more times prior to the afore mentioned summer of 2009. The summer of 1982 while traveling in Pennsylvania I visited on a whim. When our mother passed in July of 1992, we sprinkled her ashes in the Monongahela River in Brownsville.

31794.png

My mother, younger brother, and I moved around a little after we left Brownsville. My mother and father were getting a divorce and mom wanted to be away from him and I guess closer to some other family. My brother and I grew up knowing our sister, but she was an adult, married, and living elsewhere when we were cognizant of her relationship with us as she is 18 years older than me.

I don’t remember everywhere we went; I remember traveling in a train and an aircraft. We visited my uncle in one of the Dakota’s, and then we lived in Sioux City, Iowa for a short time, where another uncle of mine was. My mother told me years later that we didn’t stay in Iowa because it was too flat for her taste.

We ended up in a small town in North-Eastern Ohio called Geneva. This location is about 10 miles from where my sister’s family lived in Ashtabula, Ohio. It would be here that I would develop child-hood memories, friends, and see life as a cruel joke where I was a powerless pawn that was manipulated by others and moved around by a power, not mine.

We moved to an apartment on the North side of town. My mother instructed me to meet her after school at a local tavern some days. This is where my mother would meet my stepfather, another alcoholic in my life. On the positive side, he did teach me by his excellent example, how to go to work every day and provide a semblance of stability.

Most of the people that I went to Grade school with I graduated High School with years later, but none of these people would be a real friend of mine throughout my life. I have a few friends from Geneva, but these relationships started in Junior High and High School. There are a few people that are my Facebook friends that I went to Grade School with, but again, none of these were anybody I was close to in these early years.

I didn’t understand why I had a stepfather that was very mean and large. Due to my timid nature and small stature, I was picked on a lot in Grade School. Nobody seemed to like me very much except for a girl that was a couple years younger than me that lived next door for a short time after we had moved to a house that my parents later purchased. It was this little girl’s father that taught me to ride a bicycle at somewhere around age 9 on her bike.

My brother developed a friendship with these brothers that lived a couple of blocks away. They would befriend me as well to a lesser extent because I was three years older than them. This family split in divorce and the brothers move away to Ashtabula with their mother and then again years later one of them would move back in with his dad. He lives there today; I visited him briefly during my trek to my 35th High School Reunion.

Even as a teenager and early adulthood, my friends would be younger than I because they normally would have been my brother’s friends first. I was always troubled by what my younger friends thought of me because I didn’t have very high self-worth. I really wouldn’t see myself in a good light until several years after meeting the Lord Jesus Christ.

Never did I feel a part of what was going on, I wanted to fit in, I wanted to belong…. I never quite fit in or belonged back in those days; I was just there. Learning was an issue for me when I was young not due to any disabilities, but I was near the bottom of my classes because of the moves in First grade, my image issues, and just plain attacks from the devil whom I didn’t even know existed at