Howard Roy Elseth was born in a small town in northern Minnesota. After High School where he enjoyed basketball and track, he attended Covenant Bible College in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. He graduated in 1963 from this small Bible College, where he also was the student body president. Several years later he completed his studies at Seattle Pacific College, where he obtained degrees in Speech and Biblical Literature. He was active in Gospel Teams while at SPC. During the summer between his junior and senior years he travelled full time, as a speaker, on a student body Gospel Team representing SPC in southern California and Mexico. In his senior year at college he was the Director of Gospel Teams. Later, he attended Asbury Theological Seminary. Before graduating, he brought a Gospel Missionary Team of 26 members to British Honduras. He received a Master's of Divinity from Asbury. He also studied Greek at the University of Minnesota. He studied U.S. Government at a college in California and did archaeological field studies under the guidance of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies and Hebrew University in Israel. He attended theological lectures in Germany. He served as a pastor in California and in Minnesota. He pastored at one church for about seventeen years.