The Easing Of A Burden

I had an unusual feeling while driving to Kittanning this morning that reminded me of something that took place many years ago.

In the early 1990's (25 years ago), I was leading the Oakland Free Methodist Church in East Liverpool, Ohio.  I was 40 years old.  A friend, John Kelley, and I had designed a program of small groups that was being used in the Pittsburgh Conference at the time to help its pastors stay healthy and connected.

I was leading a Pastoral Support Team for my area that included a fine group of local Free Methodist leaders:  Dave Stout, Norm Eckert, Fred Schreffler, Wilbert Bischoff, and Delmar Logston.  We met monthly for a couple of hours to study, share, and pray together.  We had a good group and enjoyed challenging and supporting each other.

Fred was leading the First FMC in East Liverpool at the time and was drawing near to his retirement.  At our meeting, he shared the following story [testing my memory here, but I think most of the details are correct]:

[I'm going to tell Fred's story in the first person]
"Many years ago, while serving as associate pastor to Glenn Hughes at New Brighton, I received my first appointment to the New Cumberland, West Virginia FMC.

Esther had just had a baby, so I made the early Sunday morning trip to New Cumberland alone.

As I drove down the Ohio River and crossed to the West Virginia side, I felt a burden of responsibility settling down on my shoulders.

With retirement now just a short while off, I'm just beginning to feel that burden lift!"

Fred was such a respected member of our group!  He had more wisdom and insight into the scriptures than most of us and we loved it when he began to share his thoughts with us!  If anything, Fred was probably under-appreciated over the years for the contributions he made to his churches through the deep teaching that he provided.  I know that he had a powerful impact on my father-in-law, Ken Whippo.  Fred's teaching grounded Ken in his new faith and consequently bore tremendous influence in Debbie's family system!

I am now a little over a month away from my own retirement.  I was praying as I drove to Kittanning this morning (a great way to redeem the time). Somewhere along the way this morning, I felt the burden beginning to lift.  It was a good feeling!

PS  -  Fred,  If someone directs your attention to this blog, please know that you had a good and strong influence in my life!  Thank you for being a faithful student of God's Word and an even more faithful teacher of His eternal truths!  I believe you've earned a great reward in Heaven!

We ate out twice on Friday!

My Dad worked for forty-eight years at Townsend Company;  mostly in Fallston, but a few years in Elwood City and about two years in Butler (I didn't see him much those two years).  It was not a major steel mill like J&L or Crucible;  it was a subsidiary that focused on making nails, rivets and fasteners.

He also worked part-time in the evenings at a Children's Home on Oak Hill. He was a general maintenance man.  I occasionally went with him to the home where I would play with the kids in the play-lot.

Dad never made big wages.  I discovered that rather painfully when I came home from Kentucky after being married for a year.  I excitedly told him that UPS had gone on strike to focus on higher wages for the part-time workers.  I was back to work making $4.70/hour!  I immediately noticed that he didn't seem excited.  When I questioned him about it, he told me that he had never made that hourly wage!  I was shocked!

I do recall an evening at the dinner table when my mother quietly announced that my Dad had made over $10,000 that year (it must have been tax time). She quickly added that it was due to lots of overtime and his part-time job!  I was mesmerized.  Then, to my surprise, she announced that we would be eating out every Friday night!

You need to understand:  we NEVER ate out - unless it was in our backyard! When we traveled, Mom packed these wonderful lunches:  roast beef sandwiches (specialized for each of us), chips, pickles, radishes and maybe even some potato salad!  A thermos of coffee pleased Mom and Dad;  she brought lemonade for me!  Chocolate chip cookies or brownies were for dessert!  Mmmmmm...

I remember stopping for gasoline along the highways and looking longingly at the people dining in the Howard Johnson's restaurant.  I promised myself that someday, when I had a family, I would buy them a meal at a Howard Johnson's.

But then, in the mid-60's, fast-food restaurants started to flourish! McDonald's restaurants were only 'walk-up' restaurants then;  you couldn't go inside.  A few had picnic tables sitting around, but most people ate in their cars.  Then came others:  Burger King, Arby's, Red Barn, Sandy's...

They kept their word!  Almost every Friday after that, we went over to Beaver Falls and ate at the McDonald's (hamburgers were fifteen cents - there were no specialty sandwiches yet).  Sometimes we would drive to Northern Lights to shop;  this meant eating at Sandy's - or occasionally, Arby's.  I felt like a rich kid!

I would guesstimate that I was fourteen before I ate my first meal at a restaurant.

Last week, Debbie and I had breakfast at Dizzy's in New Middletown.  Later in the day, we were in Chippewa and decided to grab a quick dinner at the Hot Dog Shop!  Can you imagine?  We ate out twice in one day!  Actually, we've probably done it a few times before also!

But most of my meal memories were cultivated around a beautiful oak dining room table (that resides in Tracie's home now).  Dad sat at one end and Mom at the other.  Beverly sat on one side with me on the other (she went out on her own when I was about eleven).  We ate wonderful home-cooked meals and LOTS of left-overs!

My Dad always led in the meal prayer.  Conversations happened, opinions were exchanged, plans were discussed, birthdays were celebrated and laughter erupted!  It was comfortable.  It formed me.  It was a safe place.  The dinner-table was the family meeting-place;  eating in front of the TV hadn't been invented yet!

Anyway, times have changed.  Young people who might read this would be stunned that I turned fourteen without having eaten out!  Not to worry!  I'm making up for lost opportunities!  But I still love a good, home-cooked meal!  :-)

Travel Journal 13

February 18, 2013  -  Monday

Our friend, Lena, arranged for us to have breakfast at 7:30 AM.  We reunited with our team-mate, Rie, and met many of the other foreigners teaching English across China.  Then we went back to our room (after a walk to 7/11), where I began to catch up my journal while Deb read.  Lunch was also provided.  After reading and napping, it was time for the evening barbecue – steak!!!!  Wow!  [One of the great things about the annual conference is that we get to eat American food all week!]  Then the whole evening was worship and instruction.  

I'm not going to write much about the conference, although it is a highlight of the year for all of our teachers!  I will, however, include one vignette:  (February 20)

VISITING SAMUEL LAMB

We were ushered to a small room on the second floor where we met Pastor Samuel.  He insisted that we sit close to him around a small table.  He greeted us and gave us gifts:  his testimony and about six of his sermons in pamphlet form.  He is a very gentle man, yet quite proud of his accomplishments.  He repeatedly reminded us that his church includes over 4,000 people, who meet in groups of 1,000 at four different times.  He walked us through some of the pictures in his book of testimony. 

He speaks English quite well, but at times didn’t seem to understand questions (it may have been a hearing problem).  One of our teachers translated some of our questions for him and that seemed to help.  He was curious to know where we were all from and asked about our home states.  His father had been a Baptist preacher in Detroit for many years.  He seemed surprised that several of our group could speak Chinese and that over half of us lived in China!

He talked about his years in prison briefly.  He was held in a prison in the extreme western province and was forced to work eight hours a day in the coal mines.  He was fed well because they needed the men to stay healthy to be able to do the work.  When he was released, his church had grown significantly!  He is proud of those who have been baptized under his ministry!

Today he preaches the first week of every month;  his associates take care of the other Sundays and train the people!  He is presently 88 years old and assumes he will be going to Heaven soon [he died August 3, that year].  He told us that the police used to bother him quite a bit.  One particular officer would come to his services every Sunday and insist that he join the Three-Self Patriotic Church.  Each time Pastor Lamb refused to do so.  Finally the officer insisted that he join!  Pastor Lamb looked at him and said, “Arrest me!”  The officer left and didn’t come back until four years later. 

Today, local police often direct foreigners to Pastor lamb’s church.  It is the only reason that foreigners come to this particular part of Guanzhou!  J  The government hasn’t bothered him since 1999.

He spoke with pride of having Billy Graham preach in his church; he translated for him!  He has been interviewed by 180 news organizations and 80 heads of state.  This now has become a barrier of protection for him and his church because if he was to be arrested again, it would become an international news item!

We toured his building at the courtesy of his young assistant.  We sang some hymns in his upstairs sanctuary.  He is an accomplished pianist and wrote forty hymns (he gave us a copy).  He reports that they have no difficulty getting Bibles now that they are being printed in China!  A few of our members brought Bibles and presented them to him.  Debbie and l left a gift in his hands as we said our good-byes!  Others may have done so, too. 

         

Glenn Teal and Samuel Lamb – 2^nd floor meeting room.    

Third floor sanctuary where the preaching originates.

              

A bench slides out when as the room fills to capacity!       

Outdoor seating behind the 3^rd floor sanctuary.

         

The 1^st floor sanctuary.                                                        

The church’s foyer – notice the tree.

          

  

             

Front of the church – looking one way……………………………and the other way.

Some thoughts on visiting a Chinese mega-church!

I remember the first time I visited a friends' large church in central Ohio.  I was so impressed!  It blew me away!  The building looks like a mall with 360 degree parking.  It has a café and children’s departments with play areas that equaled anything you’ve seen at MacDonald’s.  The youth area was cavernous and was set up like a night club with refreshments and pool tables and fooz-ball tables!  The sanctuary was a massive double gymnasium with a platform that is bigger than most churches.  Everything about the place impresses you!  It is home to close to 4,000 worshipers.

Now I’ve visited Samuel Lamb’s church.  It is tiny.  It is inconceivable that 4,000 worshipers gather here at four services every week!  Most sit on floors where they only get a video feed of the message and worship!  The restrooms are tiny and crude and accommodate one person at a time.  The stairways are narrow and steep!  The building is old and the rooms are small.  There is no parking at all!  You could easily walk by the building and not recognize that it is a church!  The whole building would fit inside the Ohio church at least 100 times! 

How did buildings become so important when the New Testament Church went for its first 400 years without any????

Honor Roll Bus Stop

Occasionally, as I drive back and forth from Kittanning, I get behind a school bus.  You know where I'm headed, right?  It's remarkable to me that every kid now gets picked up at his/her door!  The bus stops at every driveway - even if they're just fifty feet apart!

Some of you may want to tune out now because these are going to be the ramblings of a sixty-five year old man!

When I was a kid, we occasionally had an older person talk about walking six miles to school;  up hill both ways!  They talked about plowing through snow storms and thunderstorms to get to or from school!  We all knew they were exaggerating, but it was considered polite to let them reminisce evangelistically!

They helped me to realize that I had it made.  I only had to walk about two-tenths of a mile to my bus-stop. I lived on Brighton Heights.  It was divided from Crescent Heights by Mercer Road (which I, of course, had to cross).  All the kids from both areas caught the bus at the 'Honor Roll Bus Stop'.  It was a small, grassy area with a World War II Memorial in the center.

I loved this arrangement!  We could play games, have snowball battles, and find other types of mischief while we waited with about forty other kids for our buses to arrive.  No parents!

I know!  I know!  It was a safer day!  Parents could let their kids walk to and from the bus-stop without any real concerns.

Notice!  If it was raining or snowing, then I walked home in the rain or snow. Nobody picked me up! Now, I see parents who drive down the lane to wait for their kids to get off the bus every day!  No walking home in the elements.

Occasionally (not very often), I missed my bus!  No sense going home, I knew what my Mom would say.  I simply headed out walking to school.  If I was late (which, of course I was) then that would mean being kept after school as punishment.  Which, of course, meant that I also had to walk home from school!  I lived about two miles from the school!

Ah, but the best time of the day came when we got off the bus at the Honor Roll!  I would take off running for home, hollering over my shoulder to my best friend, Bob:  "I'll meet you at the Honor Roll in ten minutes!" Then, we would walk out Mercer Road a half-mile to meet two more friends, John and Larry.  We'd play football until one of us had to go home for supper!  I didn't realize at the time how good I had it!

Culling Through Books

Back in 2008, I preached myself under conviction regarding the abundance of my possessions.  It was a Lenten series that did me in.  My response was to determine to reduce everything that I (personally) owned by one-half!  [I didn't try to mess with things that Deb and I owned together - I know my limits!]

I started with pants, shirts, socks, shoes, belts and other clothing items.  This area wasn't too hard for me. Then I went to the garage.  That was another story.  I felt the pain of parting with tools that I might someday need!  I legalistically proceeded through every category of my life and strictly enforced my 50% rule!

My greatest struggles came with books!  They're the tools of my trade.  But, I was persistent.  Some folks from New Middletown may remember that I set up long tables in the fellowship hall and gave them an opportunity to grab books before I hauled them to the Goodwill Store.  I ran into another wall of opposition when I came across a couple of boxes of old record albums.  I was tempted to fudge, but resisted the temptation!

Then, in 2012, the Spirit opened doors for us to go to China - much to our surprise!  Here we go again!  We rented a 10' by 20' storage unit and decided that it would have to hold our precious items until our return. This meant a massive reduction of 'stuff'!  At the time, we lived in a four-bedroom, tri-level parsonage;  and we had it packed.  So many things had to go:  pool table, table saw, lawn mower, living room furniture, Haire-loom dining room set, antiques, Christmas decorations, old files, etc., etc..  It took weeks for us to go through everything and kept us busy until the day we left town!

All this is a prelude to my culling through my books again.  Kittanning Free Methodist is having its bi-annual yard sale and I figured it was a good way to dispose of a lot of my books.  Other pastors will understand how challenging this is.  When people see the extensiveness of my library (which is half what it was before 2008), they often ask, "Have you read all of these books?"  The answer:  "Most of them!"  And most of them bear evidence that they've been read;  underlined passages, marginal comments and final page notes.

As I browse through books today, I'm creating two piles:  one to share with fellow pastors at an upcoming meeting, and another to give to the yard sale.

It's those final note pages that have me concerned!  It has been my custom through the years to write my personal opinions on the final page.  I will reveal how much I liked (disliked) or benefitted from the book.  I will indicate how it impacted me and if I made any changes as a result of reading it.  I'm tempted to tear some of these out before I release them into someone else's hands...

Here's an example:   [From the last page of Breaking the Discipleship Code]

Finished 5/21/08.  Read it in three days.  Pretty much straight through.

Good but not great.  It was a fast read.

The essentials were valuable to grasp.  I definitely need to be a missional follower of Christ.

At present I am not - nor have I ever been.  The church has spoiled me.

I literally wonder if the church can be redeemed.  

It feels, to me, that it is desperately entrenched in institutionalization and traditionalism.

I feel like the only way to be a missional follower of  Christ would be to leave the church as I know it!

Other final page notes have even stronger confessional elements.  Do I really want my private evaluations and thoughts to be read by others?  Maybe even printed in their blogs?  

Anyway, if you pick up a used book someday and find the last page ripped out, there's a strong possibility that it used to belong to me!  :-)

Travel Journal 12

February 17, 2013  -  Sunday

We both got up early to pack, having made arrangements to rent a room for Sunday night at the Conference Center.  I read while Debbie packed.  Then we had a delicious breakfast together and commenced picture-taking! 

We loaded the car and left for The Fountains Conference Center.  Along the way we saw and heard LOTS of fireworks!  Jessica explained that today is the first official day back to work for most people!  The festivities will continue for another week or two, but many businesses will open again today!  As each business reopens, they set off massive amounts of fireworks in front of their shops to insure that their new year is prosperous! 

Although Mr. Jeong had looked up directions on the internet, we got terribly lost!  Frustration!  After examining the directions I captured enough to get us pointed in the right direction and then Randy recognized where we were and within two minutes we were pulling into the conference center – just as the shuttle left for the Union Church Grace Fellowship (10:04 AM)!  However, the director’s wife, DeAnn, was still on the grounds and agreed to take us in her van with her family.  We quickly stored our luggage and took off.

We arrived plenty early for church which was located on a seminary campus.  It is an unusual situation where Chinese and ex-patriots are allowed to worship together.  It was a lovely facility with theater seating.  The service was typical of what one would expect in the U.S.  A man led worship with his guitar.  There were announcements along with an offering.  It had a homey, informal style.  There was scripture reading and a long prayer.  Then, a message, a closing song, and a benediction.  I would guesstimate that there were 100-150 people present with a 50/50 mix of Chinese/others.  This is the church that our friends, Mark and Lena attend;  we sat with them and their son.

On the way to church with Andrea (the conference center director’s wife), while we sat at a stop light, a little girl approached her window and begged for money.  I noticed this little girl immediately – I was in the back of the van on the other side.  She obviously tried to ignore the little girl, but she did not leave.  Twice Andrea waved her off, but she was persistent.  She had a pathetic look on her face and was dirty and dressed poorly.  There was an older man standing nearby.

Finally, Andrea and Stacy explained to us that this little girl was probably being used by her grandfather to make money.  They explained that she was probably not as poor as she looked.  They never wound the window down and never directly addressed the little girl.

I opened my Bible to a scripture I had read that week and showed it to Deb.  Luke 6:30 (ESV)  “Give to everyone who begs from you…”

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (ESV)

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.  Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, “The seventh year, the year of release is near’, and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin.  You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.  For there will never cease to be poor in the land.  Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

I think God has made Himself pretty clear on this subject!    

Then we boarded a bus for the ride back to The Fountains where we participated in a church-family luncheon (which they do every Sunday).  It cost 25 yuan/person and was mostly American food.  They prepare for 180 people.  There was quite a rush for the food tables, we took awhile to catch on and didn’t get to sample everything.  It kind of caught us off-guard.  This crowd was faster than the Whippo family at a wedding!  J

Then Andrew Page, The Fountains director, showed us to our room (120 yuan for the night).  We settled in and unpacked.  Deb laid down to read and I walked to a 7/11 for a Coke and some candy.  The internet at The Fountains (WiFi) is terribly slow!!!  I sat in the café for awhile and spoke with Lena.  Eventually Debbie joined us.

She had invited us to her home that evening, but her invitation was very unclear, so we gradually drifted back to our room and read for a while.  Eventually she came and told us it was time to leave.  Then we realized that she had invited the whole ULS group (of early arrivals) to come to her home.  So, about twenty of us walked out of the conference center to catch a bus for a long ride and then a long walk to her apartment.  She served vegetable soup and other refreshments.  Some who were experiencing jet-lag were obviously struggling, but the younger members – who knew the way back – were not showing signs of leaving.  So Deb and I prepared to leave indicating that we would catch a taxi.  Everyone else set out to go too.  Lena walked us to a nearby street where we were able to stop three taxis and get back to the conference center (28 yuan).

Debbie did two loads of clothes.  I did some emailing and reading, then took a shower and went to bed.  She came to bed at 1:30 AM.