Written in mid-1998 with a few comments added as noted. For the first time in more than eight years I find myself not in any official role in Christian Leadership and yet I find myself leading in many ways. It is an interesting feeling, one of relief from the responsibility and one of almost loss, not having many of the opportunities to minister that we once had. To give you an idea where I am coming from I'll give you some background. As you read you will find me sometimes refer to “I” meaning myself and “we” meaning my wife and I together. My wife and I have been active in the work of the church for all but about a very few years in our lives. The first two years of our marriage we did little, they were ones of seeking our place in His Church. The year after moving to Morton IL and the year after we moved back to York PA were also exceptions. We were in transition. But the others were one of more than involvement. Most were years of commitment. We didn't know any other way. We both learned commitment to Christ and His work by example from our parents. Neither of us really knew otherwise and we have had a hard time with any other mode. It has made this time very difficult for us. I came from a Pentecostal background, Dee from a United Brethern. But our parents both knew Christ and knew a devotion to him that was passed on to us. Ironically, several of our siblings somehow missed this. They are at this time not actively following Christ.
My parents helped build two churches, physically and spiritually in the forties and fifties. One church was over twenty five miles from home. My dad spent night after night there laying blocks, wiring, plumbing and doing carpentry work to build the building in addition to working a job that was more than 45 hours a week. And during the several years prior we helped with setting the tent that served the congregation from April to November and in finding houses to meet in over the winter. For a while we met in a house that was under construction, the owner did not have the finances to continue work so the structure with few inside walls was a boon to us and our rent money was good for him. Theodore Gaylor was the pastor of that church and was a fine teacher of the word.
We followed the ministries of men like Oral Roberts and Clifton Erickson. We helped them set tents and men like Bob Steele, the head of Oral's ground crew became one of my heroes. This man could set a tent, drive a truck, fix a crane, weld like he did it every day and during the meetings was a man of God who prayed and God heard and answered his prayers. I knew him personally. I worked for him several times and there are few men who have walked the face of this earth that I respect more but there are two more that are certainly peers. One man I would put with him was Bob Dewees, the associate to Oral. This fine man of God did most of the non-physical tasks to keep the meetings going in addition to teaching and praying for the sick in the afternoon meetings. Some of those who later became the Charismatic movement learned of the Holy Spirit from his teaching. This man showed Godly humility and was a powerful man of God. Oral would never have been as successful without men of this caliber behind him and with him. Clifton Erickson had a tent about one eighth the size, he was not as well known, but if Oral was Peter, the miracle worker and proclaimer of the word, Clifton was the Apostle John, the man of strength and love. I grew up with this legacy.
Dee and I married in late 1967 and went to church on occasion for two years. In 1969 Dee's mother got sick and to say thanks we visited a church that helped her. On the way home, actually coming up the hill to Fayetteville near where I helped set the first tent with Pastor Gaylor in 1949 I looked over at her and asked, “You know what we need to do.” She responded, “Yes, but I don't know how.” And thus began ten and one half years of travel to and from a church, fifty miles from our home, where we were fed and we were able to minister. We made three services almost every week. In fact our attendance was generally better than many who lived nearby. We often made most of a two week revival, missing one or two nights in the middle to catch up on whatever needed to be done, then getting back to the word. We were regular enough in attendance to fill positions like Sunday School Teacher, Sunday School Treasurer and Sound Technician. During that time we had our second and third child and took a graduate course in commitment. Even after the births of our children we were back at church within a week after the birth. It was difficult for me with a demanding job and for Dee with three small children at home, and for a time she kept two of my brother in law's children too. And the gas crisis in the 70's didn't make it any easier to keep a car on the road that was accumulating over 300 miles a week.
