"There is no problem too big or too complicated for the Lord to answer. No one need lose hope," says The Rev. Wendell A. Silvester, pastor of the Inter-Faith Christian Center, a non-denominational Christian church at 226 S. Second East, Farmington.

He said the greatest gift anyone can possess is a personal relationship with Christ."If you have that, you at once have an interest in the Christian message. That message, found in the Bible, is one of hope, love and salvation. Once you have a personal relationship and feel that Jesus is your Savior and the Lord of your life, you live your life differently."

The Rev. Silvester says a great many people, especially in these modern times, feel the Christian religion is boring, confining and "just something to keep people from having fun."

"What a silly idea! If they only knew and could discover that there is great excitement in knowing about and having a relationship with God and Jesus. I love to read the Bible and study its ideas and its history."

The Rev. Silvester said the Bible is the foundation of his church and can be the foundation of new lives for people everywhere.

The Farmington pastor grew up on a farm in Plymouth, Box Elder County, and milked cows, fed chickens and hogs and cut hay and grain. "My father died when I was 9, so I was introduced to hard work early and was driving a two-bottom plow with a team of six horses when I was still in grade school."

He left Bear River High School, Tremonton, in 1939 to work on a nearby cattle ranch and joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 during World War II, serving as a sonar operator aboard a minesweeper in the Pacific during several campaigns.

After his discharge in 1945, he went to Weber State College and earned his high school diploma and finished two years of college. During this time and for 26 years after, he was an appliance salesman at the Sears store in Ogden, then moved to Montana and ran a gift shop for two years in Bozeman, until 1970 when he returned to Salt Lake City and spent another five years with Sears.

As a youth, he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He became a member of the Reorganized LDS Church in 1951 and was pastor of a Reorganized LDS Church in Ogden for 17 years.

When he moved to Bozeman, he was pastor of a Reorganized LDS Church there for two years and when he came back to Utah he was pastor of a Reorganized LDS Church in Salt Lake City for two years.