On the surface the Christmas story has all the trappings of a fairy tale: An innocent young girl, a miracle child, an evil king, slain children, mysterious and wise visitors who journey hundreds of miles across a foreboding desert, a star that behaves erratically like no other star before or since, the appearance of angels and a couple so poor they must lodge in a stable. This is how God visited earth and herein is the indisputable evidence. At the age of five Rev. Gordon A. Jones was led to Christ by a neighbor woman who also discipled him. At that early age he said he wanted to be a minister. Subsequently he studied at the Philadelphia Bible Institute, graduated from Houghton College and Pittsburgh Seminary, interned in psychology at Presbyterian Hospital, Philadelphia and earned a Ph.D. (cum laude) in hermeneutics at the California Graduate School of Theology. His doctoral dissertation, Hermeneutics For the Laity , is a study in the art and science of biblical interpretation. Dr. Jones and his wife Katharine have been married 63 years, served in inner city ministries and as missionaries in Hawaii and China where they both taught at Sias University, Zhengzhou. For two years he was editor of The Crusader a magazine for Christian youth and the radio evangelist on the weekly Your Mission broadcasts. Katharine also served as director of a refugee ministry in Santa Ana, CA and their son, Gordon Jr. and wife, Elizabeth ministered in Africa for nine years. Together they currently head Friends of Refugees a Christian outreach in Portland, Oregon. Gordon and Katharine’s two grandsons are also in ministry.