How I ended up in The Back Pew

Humble Beginnings...  were found in the rural community of Cable, Wisconsin, with a population hovering around 280. I was born the son of loving parents, Walter and Nellie Larson, way back in 1957, shortly after the glaciers receded from Northern Wisconsin and the last Cheesehead Woolly Mammoth went extinct. 

My family attended a small white country church in Cable, where, at the age of six, I accepted Jesus into my Heart—ironically, sitting in the literal ‘Back Pew’ at Summer Bible School in 1963.

As a child, I loved cartoons and would spend hours at the kitchen table or on the floor in front of the television, drawing popular cartoons (My favorite being Popeye the Sailor Man) or cartoons of his creation. Just think how far I have come. 

After leaving Wisconsin, I changed from working as a logger wielding a low-tech but powerful chainsaw to careers in computers and sports officiating, all while still drawing cartoons.

In the late 1990s, many years removed from sitting in the literal Back Pew in 1963, I focused my single-panel faith cartoon creations and cleverly named them… ‘The Back Pew’. Then, in January 2000, I started a website also cleverly titled "The Back Pew" to share Clean Humor and God's truth through cartoons and blogs.

 This was the very real beginning of my faith journey. Church and family lived out in the quiet rural setting of Cable, Wisconsin, , which was a priceless heritage for me. And, living in a town of 280 people is about as rural as it gets.

There are NO traffic lights. Rush hour traffic exists between 7:59 AM and 8:01 AM and returns from 3:59 PM through about 4:01 PM. Traffic jams were only mythical folklore shared regarding trips to the big city, told to scare the locals from leaving town. 

After High School, since I neither liked to hunt nor fish, it was time for me to move to the big city, so I crossed the border into Minnesota (border control problem?), where I learned to live amongst both Minnesotans and gophers since around 1980. During this time, Jeff got married, had some kids, owned a pet or two, and now has six grandkids! Life is good!

"The Back Pew title actually has a double meaning, as I accepted Jesus into my heart in that literal Back Pew in 1963, as I mentioned above, but also the Back Pew is typically where I sat with my friends as a youth.

The moral of my story is to serve God uniquely as He has wired me. I like to say I serve God by coloring between the lines and prayerfully sharing cartoons as a ministry resource for others.  With a cartoon, I am looking for that sweet spot between God's Glory and Man's Folly.

And to know me, you need to understand that adult life has been marked by back pain, culminating in two surgeries, one in  August 2021 and the other in April 2022, to repair impingements causing nerve damage/pain and affecting muscle function.  

Next,  after the 2nd back surgery in April, I had a staff infection in the surgery incision, requiring a third surgery to clean things out, followed by a one-week hospital stay to get the infection under control, then another 6 weeks with a pink (or PICC) line feeding me antibiotics 24/7. In August 2022, I turned 65, and I believe that these surgeries and all the doctor’s care, the king’s horses, and the king’s men, will be necessary. I am feeling much better.  PTL

This is more information than you were looking for, but I have cartoons, just as other people have photo albums.