BOB ABERNETHY: Now, a profile of a man well known to readers of Christian fiction: Frank Peretti, master of the supernatural thriller. It turns out Peretti is not only a writer but an Assemblies of God Minister, a musician, actor, pilot, and moralist, with a special mission to children.

DERYL DAVIS: He might seem a little wacky -- like the character he plays on a children's video show.

FRANK PERETTI (Christian Author): This was for when we first sold a million of THIS PRESENT DARKNESS. That was about two million books ago.

DAVIS: Since his literary debut in 1986, Frank Peretti has sold over 10 million books and helped create a whole new mainstream publishing genre: evangelical Christian fiction.

Mr. PERETTI: I'm starting to feel like the old trailblazer on top of the ridge, watching miles and miles of wagon trains coming through.

DAVIS: For Peretti, the Bible is God's truth. His belief in absolute right and wrong is reflected in his best-known works -- supernatural thrillers which describe cosmic battles between demons and angels.

Mr. PERETTI: They established me vocationally as an author because I was finally making enough money at it. I guess in a way it sort of typecast me as an author too, because Frank Peretti, spiritual warfare -- this instant association.

DAVIS: Peretti has reservations about the ways some people have interpreted his books -- too literally, he says. But he's grateful for the success they've brought him. He and his wife, Barbara, share a large home in the mountains of northern Idaho, complete with landscaped gardens, waterfalls, and a trout pond. When he's not writing or feeding the fish -- which he keeps as pets -- Peretti takes a spin in his Cessna 182 Skylane.

Mr. PERETTI: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Peretti Airlines. We know you have your choice of airlines. Thank you for flying with us.

Flying is a real spiritual kind of thing because you're just above God's green earth and you're seeing the beauty of creation. I pray every time I go flying.

Here's hoping I do a good job, all these people watching me.

DAVIS: Peretti hasn't always been a high flyer. He had a difficult childhood and then struggled professionally for years, trying to decide whether to be a minister, like his father; a musician; or a filmmaker. During much of that time, he and Barbara lived in a small trailer with no plumbing.

BARBARA PERETTI: We just had nothing to live on. And we thought, "Okay, you know, Lord, your word says that you will take care of us if we're faithful." We hung onto that promise probably for about ten years, just living in poverty, really poverty.

DAVIS: Frank finally found his vocation in writing, something he believes God had planned all along.

Mr. PERETTI: He said, "Frank, you're going to be a writer, but you have to wait for a while. I have to show you how to trust me. I have to show you where your strength really comes from." God has his ways of preparing people, trying them in the furnace and purging the metal and making it ready.

DAVIS: Peretti sees writing as a form of ministry allowing him to reach a wide audience. Recently, one of his Christian thrillers for teens was made into a movie -- with Peretti as one of the characters.

The movie highlights a major theme of Peretti's writing these days -- the problem of being a misfit in society. It's something Peretti knows firsthand. As a child, he had a birth defect on the side of his neck that slurred his speech. But he says the bullying which accompanied that illness hurt the most.