TUNNEL HILL - 1

I was attending Asbury Theological Seminary.  For the first year-and-a-half, I held several jobs:  a UPS loader, pumping gas at a Phillips 66 service station, a prison guard, and a bellman at a Hospitality Inn. 

But then an opportunity arose that I couldn't turn down.  I became the student-pastor of the Tunnel Hill Free Methodist Church in English, Indiana.

The name?  Down over the hill behind the church was a train track that disappeared into a long, dark tunnell.  The sound of the train would interrupt our services until the engine hit the tunnel! 

English is located due west of Louisville, Kentucky in the Hoosier Mountains of southern Indiana.  In 1975, it was not a thriving area.  Many made their living in the lumber industry which fell off during winter months.

We would drive 150 miles from Wilmore, Kentucky to English every Friday or Saturday.  We lived in a very nice mobile home beside the church for the weekend. 

The building was a simple, wood-frame church with a basement.  It also had an outhouse.  The women appreciated Debbie's offer of making the bathroom in the mobile home available to them. 

I was paid $47.50 per week.  Don't ask me how they came up with that figure.  I was obviously in it for the experience - not the money!  After we'd been there for a year, the official board sent me out while they considered my salary.  They gave me an increase to $65 per week! 

I led worship and preached every Sunday morning and evening.  Then, we'd  return to Wilmore.  We'd leave around 8:30 PM, but since we'd crossed a time-line, it was actually 9:30 PM.  The three-hour drive got us home after mid-night!  I drove since Deb worked on Monday mornings. 

Two things kept me awake on those long, dark drives back to Wilmore:

1. I stopped in Louisville at a White Castle and scrimped up enough change for some hamburgers, french fries and a Coke.
2. I listened to a radio station that skipped in from Rochester, New York, that played episodes of "Mystery Theater" [I also listened to Herbert W. Armstrong who kept me awake because I disagreed with so much of his teaching].