Few people are called to serve in two very contrasted ways in their lifetime. George Grace is one of them.
George Grace was born in Rochester, and graduated in 1964 from Sacred Heart High School. In 1966 he began his career at Kodak in the research department, where he met his wife Penny. In January 1968 George and Penny married. They were working at Kodak and saving for a home, and in September 1968 George received a Draft Notice requesting that he come to Buffalo for a physical. This was during the U.S. involvement of the Vietnam War. “I knew I was going,” said Grace at the age of twenty-two, in optimal physical condition, with no deferments. After the physical, he was classified as 1A meaning he was at the top of the list to be drafted. He was sent home with orders to return the following month for processing.
In December 1968 he said goodbye to his wife anticipating enlistment in the U.S. Army, with basic training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. As Grace was being processed, an announcement was made that four men were needed to volunteer for the Marine Corps. Grace said, “No one volunteered.” The Marines had heavy combat operations in Vietnam, and the boot camp was longer and more difficult. Since there were no volunteers, Grace was selected. “Oh boy, I am in trouble,” he said to himself. His wife believed he was going to Army basic at Ft. Dix, now he was a Marine recruit going to boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. “This was at a time when we did not have cell phones, or email, so I could not even tell Penny that my plans changed. The first ten days of our bootcamp was about breaking us down physically and mentally,” said Grace. When he finally was able to send a letter home to inform his wife that he was drafted into the Marine Corps, he also had to give her the bad news that his plans to be home for their first Christmas together, and their first anniversary, were not going to happen.
After boot camp, Grace got a few days off to go home to see his wife before going back for nine more weeks of training in his MOS as 0311 Grunt Rifleman. Once training was completed, he was given his WESTPAC orders for Vietnam and assigned to three more weeks of jungle warfare training at Camp Pendleton. Just prior to leaving for California, he was able to go home one last time. “I didn’t know if I was ever going to see my wife again,” said Grace.
Upon completion of the twenty weeks intense USMC training, young George Grace was now of a combat mindset. Grace arrived at the base in Da Nang, Vietnam in May 1969. As soon as he stepped foot off the military base, he realized just how primitive the region was. George Grace was in A Co, 1/7 Marine Regiment. “I was one of the older guys. Most were 18 years old,” he said. His platoon was assigned as a guard unit to protect the base conducting daily and nightly ambushes and sweeps in the jungle. “I realized shortly after arriving that I was replacing men killed in action,” he said. Grace’s life, just 20 weeks earlier as a newlywed and Kodak employee in Rochester, radically changed in the blink of an eye. “We would take turns sleeping, one hour at a time, in a fox hole, in the jungle. No cot, no tent, just dirt,” he said.
Grace became ill with dysentery, which is an infection from bacteria, and after receiving medical treatment he quickly recovered, and was back in the jungle. “My hope and sanity came from the letters I received from my wife,” he said. He would get mail every few days and there would be a 5–6-page letter, written front and back, from his wife, for every day of the week. “Her letters kept me going and I learned a valuable lesson on how important it is to stay in contact with people who are undergoing hardships. It gives them hope. It gave me hope.”
Penny also sent her husband one playing card from a deck each week, to symbolize the progress completed in his military service requirement. George Grace had a guardian angel protecting him in the jungles of Vietnam. One moonless night in the jungle, his platoon was headed to an ambush, carrying M16s set to full auto. While moving through the pitch-black bush, they heard a grunting noise and soon realized there was a water buffalo close by. Seconds later, the Marine closest to Grace, tripped over a chain attached to the animal and his weapon discharged all its 18 plus rounds, just missing Grace by inches. “I could see, and feel, the muzzle flash on my face,” he said. The Marines hit the ground, unable to see what had just happened. The Marine whose weapon discharged began crying out, “Gracie, Gracie,” believing he just killed him.
George recalled another time when he was with 50 Marines in CH 53 helicopter being moved to a hot landing zone. The helicopter was hit by enemy fire and the rotor stopped. “The chopper began dropping like a rock,” said Grace. As they were in the midst of dropping, miraculously, the rotor reengaged allowing the pilot to make an emergency landing, saving all 50 Marines.
One of Grace’s favorite memories in Vietnam is, on Thanksgiving, when he received orders that he was being picked up to go to an unspecified location. He was flown out on a helicopter landing on the USS Ranger aircraft carrier. When he arrived, he learned that his uncle was the Chaplain Captain on that ship and requested his presence. “It was a total surprise,” he said. Little did he know when he returned to the jungle, he would soon be facing a deadly illness.
Malaria was taking the lives of servicemen living in the jungle. The standing rule was a fever must be above 103.8 to receive medical treatment. Grace witnessed men die before their temperatures even got to the point of being eligible for medical attention. In December, Grace became so ill from malaria he was delirious, his fever reached a near fatal 104. He was taken on a medevac out of the jungle. After a week of no improvements, he was sent to a military hospital in Okinawa, Japan. “I had no memory of the first week. I just remember waking up in the hospital and hearing the song ‘Rose Marie’ on the radio.” Grace weighed 200 pounds when he began, and was now down to 146 pounds. After five weeks of treatment in the military hospital, he was recovering and preparing to return to the jungle for the remainder of his draft duty. To his surprise he learned, due to the start of Vietnamization, they were replacing American troops with South Vietnam troops. Grace qualified to go back to the U.S. to finish his military obligation. Upon landing at the base in California, he was informed that Vietnam Infantry Marines were not considered “usable” in the U.S. On February 14, 1970, Marine George Grace called his wife Penny and joyously told her, “I am coming home!”
George Grace returned home to Rochester. He was warmly greeted by his family and did not experience any negative reception as others had. He soon returned to work at Kodak and began taking classes at the University of Rochester. What he did not see coming was his second, and most important call to serve, was just about to unfold.
During his time at Kodak, a Christian co-worker was stopping in George’s office weekly to speak to him about salvation. “He would come in to see me with a Bible verse and my other co-workers would tease me that he was coming for me again.” His wife was attending church, but George jokingly referred to himself as a “Chr-easter.” “I would usually sit in the car and wait while Penny attended church unless it was Christmas or Easter.”
Finally in August of 1972, after George’s co-workers continued to witness to him, he sat George down and asked him if he was ready to accept Jesus into his life. As George recalls, this life changing moment, his eyes filled with tears, “That is when I said yes to the Lord.” His co-worker invited him to a Bible study at a church on North Greece Road. “I went right home and told Penny, and I was excited to see what was next.”
George and Penny immediately began attending the Bible study at First Bible Baptist Church in Greece, and he began reading his Bible every day on his lunch break. As his passion and excitement began to fan into a fire, he was eager to serve at the church. “I was given the role to drive the children’s ministry bus,” he said. The bus would go into neighborhoods, pick up children, and bring them to church on Sundays. He began to thrive as he learned, served, and grew in the Lord.
In 1973 he was called to service for the second time. George felt the calling to leave his career at Kodak, his salary, and benefits, to seek full time ministry. He put in his notice at Kodak, and took the church leadership by surprise when he announced he would be available to serve, full time. When asked if the church had offered him a paying job, his reply was, “No. I did this full-time without pay. Several months later, the church began to pay me $25 a week. Later in the year, they were able to pay me $200 a week as a Bus Pastor, and teaching classes at the church.”
By 1983 the Grace family had five children and they were raising their family in Greece, when George Grace was appointed as head pastor at First Bible Baptist Church. Many accomplishments occurred as part of the fruit of his ministry during his decades at the church. Betty Johnson, Pastor Grace’s secretary for 28 years, witnessed many of the blessings that happened during that time. Northstar Christian Academy went from being a small school in the church named “God and Country,” to having their own school building on Spencerport Road, in Gates. “Since the move Northstar Christian Academy has been growing by leaps and bounds. It now has more than four hundred students,” Betty said. Betty recalls when FBBC was on North Greece Road, Pastor Grace was preaching four times every Sunday, due to the explosive church growth. “People would have to walk sideways to exit the church as the next service was starting to come in,” chuckled Betty. They ran out of seating room, and parking, to meet the needs of the community. In the late 1990s FBBC purchased land, and built a new building on Manitou Road, that was more than double the square footage.
Another milestone, during the time of Pastor Grace leading FBBC, was the vision and completion of the area’s only faith-based sports park. “Our goal was to bring in the children, and to preach the Gospel,” said Pastor Grace. Grace and Truth Sports Park, located on N. Greece Road, came to fruition in 2000. It is a ministry of FBBC, as a space to provide athletic programs to impact the community by creating new and better followers of Christ.
This multi-sport recreational space is used by youth and adult leagues and available to all members of the community. One of Betty Johnson’s fondest memories of working for Pastor Grace is seeing him spend years meeting with an atheist, every single week, taking him to lunch to talk. “He never gave up on him,” said Betty. “Pastor Grace lives up to his name, he is full of grace, and he treats everyone equally regardless of differences.”
Pastor Grace handed the reigns of FBBC to Pastor Kevin Pestke in October 2016, when he retired as the head Pastor. Although retired, he is still continually active in the church, teaching classes at the Northstar Bible Institute Seminary, conducting mission trips, and traveling the country for speaking engagements. He recently celebrated his 50 years in ministry. When asked if he ever thought he would go from being called for jungle warfare, to a call on his life to serve God in ministry, he said, “God has a reason for everything. My military experience taught me leadership, perseverance, survival instincts, obedience, and completion.”
Pastor George Grace spends time with his family of five children, 15 grandchildren, and one great grandchild. He walks over 100 miles a month, in addition to being active in ministry. When asked what was next for him, he replied, “By the grace of God, I have no plan to fully retire.”
