Audio Only - North Seattle, Washington, 1988
Class taught by Larry Haverstock for the North Seattle church.

Larry Haverstock

Larry Haverstock was born on February 17th, 1952 in Hawthorne, California. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he attended St. Joseph's Parochial School for grades 1 - 7. The family moved to Rolling Hills Estates, California in 1965 so his parents could raise and train Arabian horses, thus making Larry a teenage expert in handling hay hooks. He graduated from Miraleste High School in 1970, and promptly joined the Army, volunteered for Airborne, Recondo, and Special Forces Ranger training, as well as serving the military as a radio teletype operator and mail clerk for a total of three years.

While stationed at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington, and keeping a personal vow, Larry read the New Testament for the first time in January of 1973 and was baptized into Christ two weeks later, on February 11th, by Leonard Woods of the Lakeview Church of Christ. Encouraged by the fine saints there, he enrolled in the Bear Valley School of Preaching (now called the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver) and moved to Denver, Colorado that following September. One year later he met Donna Jean Fox in a Sunday morning Bible class when she moved to Denver after two years at York College. Completing Bear Valley's two year course, they married on December 21st of 1975 in Deer Creek, Oklahoma and honeymooned their way up to Kirkland, Washington, so as to begin 5 years of study with Lowell Williams of the Kirkland Church of Christ, then a group of 185 Christians.

Lowell had set up a Preacher Training School several years earlier. In addition to the typical two sermons and a class he preached on Sundays for the whole church, Lowell taught another eight classes each week, Monday through Thursday nights, to a dozen men who studied Bible, Greek, Church History, and many other topics in either 60 or 90 minute sessions as well as a "Ladies Class" on Wednesday mornings. That's twelve classes each week, covering every Bible book, New Testament Greek Grammar, Church History, and various topical classes like Homiletics, Bible Authority, and more!  For several years, Larry was there for 11 of those 12 classes every week. We all must eat though, so he went to work as a carpenter for one of Kirkland's deacons, Wendell Smith, who had a custom home-building business. For nearly five years Larry learned the trade, built houses during the day, and studied the Scriptures at night, while Donna worked as a dental assistant.

In 1976, Daryl Johnson and Larry were asked by the elders at Kirkland to manage the recording of all classes. Daryl wisely saw that "reel-to-reel" tapes had no future and convinced the elders to adopt the then newer format of audio cassettes. The two of them purchased the equipment, built some walls downstairs to create a production & shipping room, and began the task of capturing and mailing out all classes taught in Kirkland. It was also in this year that Larry started "Truth On Tape" for this same purpose. He and Donna would spend a small fortune in time and money over the next 46 years buying dozens of reel-to-reel, cassette, and VHS tape machines, and then later remastering and replacing it all with the CD and DVD equipment necessary to ship thousands of tapes and discs from their home to the world.

Along with several other men from Lowell's school Larry began preaching for surrounding congregations on an irregular basis, but in March of 1980, he began preaching every Sunday and Wednesday for the Smokey Point Church of Christ, driving 40 miles north to do it. Then, in January of 1981, he and Donna sold their home and moved into the Arlington, Washington area where they lived and worked with that church for 27 years. During these nearly three decades, in addition to preaching and teaching four times each week, Larry delivered mail for 14 years, spent 6 more operating a construction equipment business, 3 years as a driving instructor (yes, several 15 year old kids nearly killed him), and two years selling dairy feed, while simultaneously operating "Truth On Tape." Putting his carpentry skills to work, he also designed and built a new home for his own family in 1984 and also the Smokey Point church building in 1994.  In these years he and Donna also raised two fine and faithful sons who share their faith and accompanied him to the Philippines while he taught preacher training courses there in 1996.

The military years had ignited a love of flying in Larry which culminated in his purchasing a French ultralight aircraft in 1997 (click here for photo: Cosmos Trike). The whole family took flying lessons that year, Donna became a solo pilot, and Larry eventually became a flight instructor too until June of 2001 when it was sold.

Larry had started "Truth On Tape" for the recording and distribution of audio tape in 1976 while living in Kirkland but in 1986 he began commuting 80 miles round trip from their new home in Stanwood to get back to Kirkland again, spending Tuesday nights with Wendell Smith and his outstanding family each week, in order to record five of Lowell's classes with Larry's shiny new VHS camcorder on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This effort lasted seven years and resulted in the video-taped commentary of the entire Bible Study / Preacher Training Course available on this website.

In July of 2006 Larry accepted the preaching responsibilities for the Kirkland church where he had recorded so many of Lowell's classes 20 years earlier and had been a young Bible student three decades ago. Their sons were now grown and had "flown the nest" so Larry and Donna sold the home they'd built and occupied for 23 years in Stanwood, bought one in Snohomish, Washington, and extensively remodeled it, in order to work with the Kirkland church. Once again Larry set himself to the task of upgrading their recording system too, so that soon his own sermons and classes were also being recorded for CD and DVD distribution.

After six years in Kirkland, the elders for the Coburg Road church in Eugene, Oregon, encouraged Larry to work there, so he and Donna moved even further south in 2012, bought another home (more construction work) and joined the wonderfully fine group of saints on Coburg Road. Having toured Israel twice with Ferrell Jenkins (2010 and 2011) Larry continued visiting Israel in 2017, 2018, and 2019 encouraging saints from Kirkland, Eugene, and other churches to join expeditions led by Barry Britnell and Luke Chandler as well as sharing additional weeks exploring the magnificent land of ancient promise with Larry too.

But wanting to be closer to their two sons, one daughter-in-law, and now three grandchildren, Larry & Donna left the terrific saints in Eugene with heavy hearts, bought and remodeled yet another home in Lake Tapps, Washington, and rejoiced to be back with family again in that magnificently beautiful state.

Back in the early 90's, Larry had used the website design software available at that time (and spent five months at his keyboard) building the original "Truth On Tape" website. The name was changed to "Truth On Disc"  in 2003 when all this material was painstakingly remastered onto CDs and DVDs. Finally, in 2022, after Larry and Donna had recorded, copied, wrapped, and shipped well over 100,000 Bible classes on three different types of tapes and two kinds of discs in the last 46 years, the legacy site was retired and this one was created by a professional designer. FINALLY, after nearly half a century of Larry & Donna's effort and personal expense, the entire library of recorded sermons, classes, and debates was now available for free through streaming and downloading to anyone with an internet connection. Praise God for the times in which we live and the opportunities we enjoy!

Having already taught the Book of Revelation twice in the city of Eugene, Larry was quite pleasantly surprised in 2020 when about ten of the saints there in Oregon asked him to teach it a third time through Zoom and YouTube now that he was back up in Washington. This class was recorded, and became Larry's "magnum opus" containing 50 hours in 45 classes. In just its first year on the web this study of Revelation was viewed by over a thousand students, passed the 5,000 mark in the second year, and continues to attract new viewers week by week. It is still posted on YouTube, found on several other Christian's sites, and, of course, is available on this website too (Click Here) where Larry intends, Lord willing, to be offering more classes as the years go on.

When both sons decided during the Covid pandemic to pull up stakes and move to Texas and Tennessee respectively, Larry & Donna followed the grandchildren, bought a home in Columbia, Tennessee (at last, one that DIDN'T need remodeling) and joined the Jackson Heights church because of their unusually wise eldership and excellent preachers (Matt Bassford & Clay Gentry). It is a truly great congregation, come see us some time!

GO WITH GOD AND GOD WILL BE GOOD

Feel free to call or write:
Phone: 360-652-6009
E-mail: Larry@TruthOnDisc.Com
Address: 944 Harmony Way, Columbia, TN, 38401