By Bobby Davis
For twenty-one years, Dee Casper had never heard of a Seventh-day Adventist. “I was young when my parents divorced, and I lived with my dad for 20 years in the small town of Pittsburg, Illinois,” he says. “He gave me a good, moral upbringing, and I never doubted his love. But when it came to religion, my father didn’t go to church much, because his parents didn’t; so neither did I, unless I was with my mom’s parents.”
“By the time I was in high school, I was a thieving, lying, critical, mean spirited, and foul mouthed kid. I was a mess,” he admits, “and I’m sure my dad was worried about me.”
Changes
Dee says that only two things were important to him at that time: drumline and his girlfriend. So when she broke up with him because he wasn’t a Christian, he started swearing less and going to church in an attempt to win her back. “Things didn’t work out, though,” he says, “because I was only a nominal Christian, and I never really lived for anyone but myself.”
But things were about to change. “When 9/11 happened, my father was really shaken,” Dee explains. “He realized he wasn’t ready to meet his Lord, so he started watching Charles Stanley and other televangelists, and got serious about knowing Jesus. From that point forward, Dad changed profoundly. He loved me in a way that I had never experienced before. God was loving me through His intended medium—my parent—and that forever defined the rest of my life. I wanted what he had. C.S. Lewis shared his testimony in a book called, Surprised by Joy, so I title my testimony, Surprised by Love.” *
Seeming Success
Although Dee auditioned several years for a chance to march with a professional drum and bugle corps, he’d never made it. But finally, during the winter of 2004, he was offered a contract and signed on with a group from Dubuque, Iowa, for the 2005 season. “That was the only time my dad came with me,” he recalls, “and on the way home he had a heavy feeling that it wasn’t right. But I wouldn’t let go of my dreams.”
Life on the road was crazy. “Imagine a large group of 16 to 21-year-olds touring and living out of buses without a lot of supervision,” he says. “We were ranked thirteenth in the world the first two years, but then finally broke into the top ten my last year. I was still seeking God, but I wasn’t a Bible student. And, of course, my pride, and the influence of others, were a problem. But God in His mercy continued to prepare me for what was coming. I learned to be flexible about living conditions. I learned to be physically disciplined. And when I became a leader, I learned how to teach and address large numbers of people. God never wastes anything.”
Discovering 3ABN
During the off-season of 2006, Dee returned home to his work at a sports retail store and teaching the drumline at his old high school. And although he was successful, financial difficulties began to beset him.
“Dad felt he hadn’t been there for me spiritually, so he left his job to fully invest in me,” he explains. “Eventually, he paid dearly for that, because I kept dragging my feet. But Dad showed me a self-sacrificing love that said, ‘I will not give up until my son is saved. If it costs me everything, I will see that boy saved!’
“I was comfortable with spiritual things, but still too comfortable with the world. I’ll never forget Dad pulling me into his room after my first season of drum corps. In tears, he confessed to failing me spiritually. He kept asking if he’d hurt me, and I kept telling him no. But when he apologized for not being a godly parent and asked me for forgiveness, it really rocked me! All I could think of was, You’re the best dad I could ever hope for! Why are you crying? He took ownership like a man—and he won my heart in the process. Because of that, I know what a real man looks like. Men take responsibility; they don’t run from what they’ve done. They face it head on.
“Dad’s savings dried up, and we decided to get rid of our satellite TV—and that’s how my dad found 3ABN. He encouraged me to watch it with him, and since I had no theological grounding, I was not prejudiced against the message. ‘Seventh-day’ meant nothing, and ‘Adventist’ didn’t, either. What I was hearing was what Scripture taught. I just never knew.
“While Dad enjoyed David Asscherick, I thought he talked too fast. However, eventually he resonated with me because he was younger, and like me, had looked for meaning in all the wrong places.”
The Sabbath
Dee continued watching 3ABN until he left for his final season of drum corps, and then came the day when his father asked him whether they should be keeping the Sabbath. “We’d already changed some things we believed, but the Sabbath seemed like a really big change, and I wondered how I’d explain it to people,” Dee says. “I was the head drum major of a top ten corps, my students had an undefeated season, and I’d been promoted to management in my store. All that made it harder to start keeping the Sabbath. But finally, Dad said, ‘Buddy, it’s either true or it’s not. What are you going to do?’
“I would’ve stayed on the sidelines had Dad not put it that way. For a time, it was an easy choice, but then things got difficult. My bosses would schedule me on a couple Sabbaths, and teaching the drumline during the week was to prepare for weekend events and competitions. Satan really tried to confuse the call of God on my life, and I dragged my feet. Then things got worse. My license was suspended for an expired sticker, we received a foreclosure notice on our house, and Dad’s car was repossessed.”
One day, Dee received a call at work about some jackets, and the voice sounded familiar. “When Pastor John Lomacang came in, I recognized him and told him how much I enjoyed 3ABN and the message. He invited me to visit his church, and when I did, his wife Angela took me to the New Believers class. She let me sit with her in church, and then John asked me on stage and told everyone that he believed I’d be doing evangelism in the nearby city of Carbondale someday! That sounded crazy to me, since that was a rival town. And I definitely wasn’t an evangelist!”
Through the Wilderness
As their financial situation worsened, Dee and his father were forced to move into an apartment in nearby Marion, and later, an elderly man from church who was in poor health came to live with them. “While I took care of him, I spent much time in nature,” Dee recalls. “I believe that this—and the fact that I was pouring myself into serving someone else—finally brought about true conversion for me. It took four years to surrender, but my dad and my Heavenly Father loved me unconditionally.”
Eventually, the elderly man required skilled nursing care, then passed away, so Dee began looking for a job in earnest. Through a series of miracles, he landed a job in emergency management and moved with his dad to a city several hours north. Attending the local Seventh-day Adventist church, he met a kind pastor who became a dear friend.
Later, some of the church members brought him along to a 3ABN Camp Meeting, where Dee met David Asscherick, director of ARISE Institute. He also met a recent ARISE graduate, Ben Middleton, who a year later would start UnScene Media Group. Talking to Ben rekindled Dee’s desire to attend the ARISE school of evangelism, and when his work contract was up, God provided multiple miracles for Dee to enroll in that program.
“My dad initially was against this, because I tried to go a few years earlier, and God had given a clear ‘no.’ However, the Lord knew I’d relied on my dad to know His will, and He needed to break that dependence. (God later showed Dad that this really was His will for my life).
“I learned to preach and do outreach, and then David baptized me as a Seventh-day Adventist on December 4, 2010. I still struggled with pride, though, and as I received praise for my preaching, there was a struggle within me. I needed to die to self.
“When I came home, I ended up in a homeless shelter where Dad was staying. I spent four months literally feeding the sheep bread on the shelter’s farm. You see, I wasn’t safe to use on humans yet, so God put me there to see if sheep (which are illustrative of God’s people) would matter to me. After I acquired a lot more humility, Dad and I got jobs working for a community center in Carbondale, and I ended up doing evangelism at a small Adventist church—fulfilling Pastor Lomacang’s prediction!”
UnScene Media Group
After his father got a different job in service to the underprivileged, Dee moved to Tennessee to work at Heritage Academy.
During his last year, he served as a Bible worker, an elder, and was even asked to consider becoming a pastor. But in 2015, the Lord brought him back in contact with his friends, Ben Middleton and Ryan St. Hillaire, from UnScene Media Group. They told him about a new school of evangelism, and invited him to be their evangelism director.
Dee says, “The Institute for Digital Evangelism Arts (IDEA) is a one-year media evangelism training program in partnership with 3ABN that combines evangelism with media training in an internship-learning experience.
“As I look back, I realize how everything God brought me through—my non-profit work, teaching, preaching, and Bible work—was God’s preparation for what I do today. When I get up to preach, I ask Jesus to get me out of the way. And when I’m done, I am humbled, because I know I don’t have any claim to this.”