MEMORY LANE

MEMORY LANE

                Some of my earliest childhood memories are made of the years we spent in Canada as travelling evangelists. My dad was a singer and he formed a quartet called the Royal Ambassadors.  In those days they really did things up in a splendid way. The evangelist, GD Obrien preached in a Tuxedo and spit shined shoes and Dad, along with the quartet wore sharply pressed black slacks and white dinner jackets and mom played the organ and the meetings were generally held in ornate old theaters so that mom often played the resident pipe organs that had been used in the days before talking movies came in.

                I remember that my dad was very busy, not only with quartet practices, but with preparing the 35 mm slides that would be used to show the Bible texts on the screen every night. This involved setting out letters made of chalk onto a black velvet background then photographing them then developing the film (black and white of course) and then mounting the slides in metal frames  for the projector.(These were in the days before plastic)

                Dad also used what had to be the first copy machine… before mimeograph. It consisted of a cookie sheet sized pan filled with a sticky jell. You could lay a freshly typed sheet of paper on the jell face down… then peel it off and this would strip enough ink off of the first page so that you could lay another blank page on top of the jell and make a second copy of the typed page. Hmmm

                So we travelled from coast to coast in Canada holding meetings in every town. Every gathering in those days was laced with the pungent smell of Garlic because the Ukrainians and others used to fortify themselves for winter by eating lots of fresh garlic. In fact they would hold garlic parties; eating fresh garlic sandwiches and such so that every meeting house and church was “blessed” with the ever present aroma of garlic.

                These Canadians were robust people and after the evening meetings, we would often go down to a lake, crunching through the moon glistening snow to build a bonfire on the shore and to go ice skating on the lake for an hour or two after the meetings. I remember that one of the quartet members ( Ralph Diminitz) had been a pro hockey player until he lost a leg so that he had a wooden leg, but you wouldn’t know it. He was still the best skater on the lake and he would take us kids out for rides on his shoulders. Then we would go home for popcorn and hot chocolate.

                Paramount in my early memories was our trip to Newfoundland. We spent eight months there, having traveled to St. John’s Newfoundland by tramp steamer along with supplies going to the island. I remember well that we were standing at the rail waving goodbye to the Canadian church people as we set sail and we were standing a little too close to the ship’s horn when it blew. Man oh man!

                Our main headquarters in Newfoundland was a big white wood frame building that housed a school and mission staff and our evangelistic team along with a radio station that sent sermons and Christian music and such out onto the radio waves.

                The mission building was situated on a slope overlooking the ocean and I remember quite well the pungent aroma of drying Cod fish that were laid out by the thousands on high racks to be sun dried. Cod was a main source of food on the island, especially since the ground was rocky and the season too short for growing vegetables. Most of the “fresh” produce came by ship (the same one we rode on) and so it was pretty much wilted by the time it arrived and very expensive. To get our vitamin C we had to develop a taste for sea weed (Called Dulce) and it tasted a whole lot like those fish that were drying on the racks. (Salty and fishy)

                The local grocery store, a little building on stilts with wooden floors down near the docks, was stocked with mostly canned goods. I remember a big wooden barrel full of fish floating in brine along with something like Matzo balls or dumplings that they called “Bruise.” All the locals ate fish and bruise and the local children, instead of candy bars could be seen chewing on dried herring.

                To hold meetings in the various towns across the island we travelled on what locals affectionately called the “Newfy Bullet.” It was a narrow gauge train with a top speed of 15 mph. I remember the kids in small towns across Newfoundland, running alongside the train, jumping on at one end of town and jumping off at the other end. The Newfy Bullet was prone to jumping track once in a while and a crane would have to come along and put it back on its feet again. It was probably a good thing that it only went 15 miles per hour.

                Honestly, aside from the very loud ship’s horn, I don’t remember much about the ride over to Newfoundland, but I do remember vividly the ride back to Canada when our tour was over. The same tramp steamer that took us over would be the same one to bring us back and our route led us through what was called a ship’s graveyard where many a ship had floundered including the Titanic if I remember right. The area was called the Bay of Fundy.

                The trip from St. John’s Newfoundland to St. John’s Canada was a three day journey and we were about a day out when we were hit with one of those perfect storms where cold north wind meets warm moist tropical winds and when this happens it is a recipe for disaster. Wind and snow and ice pelted our ship and the waves began to build up until the captain said that they were about 60 feet high.

                Our steamer was not a large ship. It was about 350 feet long and as the storm grew in intensity I remember the sound of dishes crashing in the galley. We ate our meals on bolted down tables desperately trying to eat with one hand while hanging onto the table with the other and huge waves crashed over the decks and slammed against the portholes and it was a fearsome thing to be riding on top of one of those waves one minute and then plunging down to what seemed like the center of the earth in the next.

                Each time we were on top of the wave, the ship’s propellers would come out of the water and the ship would shake as the giant propellers would spin freely in the wind. Hour after hour this went on and I remember how hard we had to hang on to the rail on our bunks to keep from being thrown out. In fact one time the ship rolled so extremely far that it did throw us out and we, along with our suitcases landed on the far wall. We got pretty banged up.

                Everyone was desperately sea sick except for my brother Bob and me and so the ship’s crew offered to entertain us while all of the adults were hacking up their heels. The crew was French speaking and so we couldn’t understand each other, but they entertained us none the less, cutting masks off of the cereal boxes for us to wear and to play games with us, even as the ship tossed and floundered.

                After a couple of days of this, my dad, as sick as he was, made his way up to the bridge to ask the captain just how grim our situation was. In answer to dad’s question, the captain spun the ships wheel from one side to the other saying. “If any of you are praying people, I would suggest that you pray now. I have no control of the ship and in spite of our best speed we are being blown backwards. We are we are headed towards a dangerous reef and if we hit that reef it will be all over for us.

                Later on we found out that the captain had radioed in a distress call stating that the ship was foundering and apart from some miracle was going to go down.

                So when the news of this hit the radio stations in St. John’s Canada, the church people that were expecting us there, came right down to the docks and began to pray for our survival. They prayed and prayed until the storm began to abate and our ship was once again able to make forward progress.

                We limped into port 6 days later covered with ice and battle weary, but God had spared our lives. Our 3 day journey had taken 6 days and every one of us felt like kissing the ground when we made our way down the icy gang plank to the dock.

                And so I decided to share this story this week as we are talking about the goodness of God. His goodness and faithfulness is manifested in so many ways big and small. Our prayers can be heard even in the midst of the storm. And so in referring back to our key text this week, Psalms 34, we can see yet another aspect of God’s goodness:

                “I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4

                “This poor man cried and the Lord heard him; and saved him out of all his troubles. Ps 34:6

                “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them.” Ps. 34:7

                “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”         Ps.34:8.

                “The righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.”

                “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Ps. 34:19

                One of the great things I have learned from the Pentecostal people is that they pray about everything. At the drop of a hat… at the mention of some sickness or trouble or strife, they say “Let’s pray. And so all who are near gather around the distressed person or situation and they begin to pray and to minister in praise and worship to the Lord, much like David did. Prayer is as natural as breathing for them and it is a lesson that I am continually learning. My natural response is fight or flight. But there is a better way. We all need to be more Pentecostal.

                It is human nature to resort to the resources of our own flesh. When trouble comes our way, we either hunker down, or retreat, or charge forward with grim determination all of which are based on our own ability or the lack thereof. The first thing that should come to our mind is that the Lord is our refuge and strength. Why should we go into the battle without our armor on and our faith firmly planted in the Captain of the Lord of Hosts?

                Joshua, before the battle at Jericho came face to face with the Angel of the Lord. Not knowing who He was, Joshua challenged Him saying, “Are you for us or against us?” And the Lord answered him saying: “No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the Lord of hosts.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him. “What has my Lord to say to his servant?” And the Lord replied: 

                “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.” And he realized that the same God who had met with Moses at the burning bush was now in charge of His life also.

                If we can perceive it, the ground on which we stand today is holy no matter where we are. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. God is never far off, for His Word is in our mouths as we speak and His Holy Spirit is in our hearts.  Should we not live then as if we are in His presence at all times? Romans 10: 6-11 tells us that we don’t need to go into heaven to bring Christ down or into hell to bring Him up for His word is in our mouths as we speak so that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead we shall be saved.

                Let us not act and react in this world as if we are far from God. Let us not struggle on in the flesh, fighting losing battles in the flesh, when The Captain of the Lord of Hosts stands ready to fight our battles for us. Instead let us call upon the Lord for every breath and every heartbeat. Let us dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty.