My Dad

Here are some pictures of my Dad baptizing people in the early 1970s. When these pictures were taken he was just a couple of years older than I am now. The black and white picture was taken in Los Altos Hills. The color pictures were take at Lake Lagunitas on the campus of Stanford University. My dad is easy to find. He's the only one with a bald head. I sure do miss him.

In some of the pictures you will see some old women. When the hippies first started becoming Christians and coming to our classical Pentecostal church there was some resistance from the denomination. Two of those old women came to my Dad and said, "Pastor Karnes, we don't know what to think of this but if you say its okay we'll stand behind you."

At one district wide meeting my mother was seated with some other pastors' wives, who kept staring at the barefoot long haired tie-died people from our church. Finally my mother said to her friends, "If you don't stop staring at my parishoners I'll take my shoes off, too, and go sit with them."


Not everyone in these pictures is still a Christian today (The Lord told us this would happen in the parable of the sower.) but many are. I have hope yet for those who are not.