But as 1980 approached we knew that we must move, that God was calling us out, that the long mileage to church was taking its toll on us and we began to realize God was ready to relocate us. Our current pastor, Brother Mouer (who incidentally came to know Jesus in the tent Brother Gaylor had in Pond Bank) saw this and suggested we look for a church in York that had a Christian School. He had met the pastor at a ACE School meeting. We looked and didn't find it initially because the directions were really bad. One day my wife took her niece to a dental appointment and returned by a street we rarely used called Taxville Road. She passed a church that obviously had an ACE school because she saw the students in uniform waiting for the bus. We noted that with a few corrections to the directions this was the church. But we did nothing because wanted God's will and although God had prepared our hearts for the move we had no order to execute. He has generally spoken to us that way. It is much like the admiral of the fleet running up the flag to make a turn but the convoy does not turn till the flag goes up that says, “Execute.” One Friday night we went past the church and looked at the service board, noted the time of the Sunday service and I told Dee, “The next time it snows, we visit here.” (Ironically I was on the site of this church when it was under construction in 1953.)
We went to bed the next night, the last Saturday in 1979 with no snow in the forecast and woke Sunday morning to over four inches of the white fluffy stuff. Now this was generally not enough to keep us from church. We discussed it and decided that we would visit Taxville. Within a few weeks this became our home and we have only been back to the old church a few times to visit since. We know God protected us, had we visited the church only two months earlier when we were told about it we would have probably have backed out. We came just about six weeks after a pastoral change and missed the fireworks. By not being able to find the church we were protected and we became the first new couple after the change. Had we come in during the change we would probably have not stayed without some real revelation from God.
We at first did little in the church for several months while they got to know us. Then someone asked Dee to teach Sunday School and a few weeks later I was asked to serve as a helper in a 10 to 12 year old class. I had little experience teaching. I generally handled the physical and electrical items to keep a church running. When you get the reputation for doing these things most churches pigeon-hole you as non-spiritual and that is what you do till the day you die. We agreed to take the positions. Dee started teaching. I served a Sunday to maintain order and after I was there one week, for six weeks the regular teacher didn't show up. The first Sunday Gary Mummert came into the room and asked if I was prepared to teach the lesson. I replied I did not have a quarterly to study, he responded that he would teach today, I would have a quarterly before I left. And I did. He saw to that. I taught till the teacher came back. She took over and I resumed my role as helper when she was there, teaching when she was not.
During the summer of 1980 we did a kid's musical presentation, “Down by the Creek Bank” and Dee and I helped with the production. We made rocks, decorated the stage, pulled in some of our own equipment for sound and in general helped with whatever was needed. The night of the last rehearsal I sat on the floor in the church aisle, propped up against the end of the front seat, so tired I could hardly move, and the song from the musical, “Is there anything I can do for you, dear Lord” kept bugging me. The pastor came in while I was on the floor and asked me if I would teach a new Sunday School Class. The decision had been made minutes earlier, “is there anything I can do?” This and another song have been somewhat of watchwords to me, the other is The Cameron Family's “I'm going on” which has the line, “So many lives depend on what I do” which is one thing that has made me go on at times when I see the path ahead is difficult. In the last six months it has been a stay to me, I cannot quit, back up or even flinch. I must face the enemy, eyeball to eyeball and no matter what pain he inflicts I cannot give him quarter.
