A Special Man

          Every Father's Day I especially think of my dad and what he meant to me.  He loved the Lord and devoted his life to serving Him.   He knew  how to trust the Lord when facing adversity.  My father knew how to work hard.  He was very wise. He loved his family.   He was a very special man.  I just wish that I could be half the father that he was to me.

          It would take pages for me to write about all that he taught me and what I observed while he was living.  But one thing that always impressed me was how he knew that all that he had was really the Lords.

          Dad didn't have a car until I was in first grade.  But when he finally had one, it was dedicated to the Lord.  For years every Sunday he picked up folks to take to church, even when it meant going way out of his way.  We picked up kids, or more often adults, who needed a ride.  One of those that he often picked up was an overweight lady - probably over 300 pounds - who had to be very hard on the springs of his car.  But dad never complained as we transported her to church.

          Dad was extremely influential in the founding of our church in Lancaster.  He worked with the denomination to get it started.  He helped the builders and spent hours doing things like painting the walls of the new building. and pouring cement walks.  He served as a teacher, an elder, delegate and financial treasurer for decades.  One thing that I learned later in life, that nobody else knew, was though he had little money, when our struggling church couldn't pay all of its bills, dad quietly gave enough to pay them.  Often he bailed out our church and nobody ever knew it.  He showed that all that he had - his, time, money and possessions - belonged to the Lord.

          Dad spent hours behind the scenes doing work for our church, our denomination, CBMC, Berean Bible School, Calvary Homes and Lancaster Christian School.  He was faithful in doing this work and spent many hours serving .  Actually, just hours before he died, he even completed reports for the denomination's Board of Directors which was meeting the morning of his death.  I found the reports ready to go and actually delivered them for him.

          In 1969 when our denomination closed our sister church in Millersville and could not find a buyer for the property, dad bought it.  He sold us what had been the parsonage.  Later he rented the basement church structure to a variety of groups and probably lost money on that.  Finally he was able to sell it to the local Lions Club.  But he still had about two acres of the land that would be too expensive for him to develop.  For many years we and a neighboring farmer grew things there.  I don't think he ever charged the farmer for using it.  So for years the land sat there with no prospects to sell or develop it.  And he still had to pay the taxes every year.

          Then suddenly a developer purchased some adjoining land and offered to buy dad's land,  In the Lord's perfect timing, this was the same time when our church was purchasing another property for our new church.  Dad was able to work out a deal to give his land to our church who then was able to sell it to the developer.  So this land which once belonged to our denomination provided a considerable gift to help get out new church started. Neither he nor I received anything from this sale, but dad was thrilled with the knowledge that after many years this "investment " could return to the Lord's work.

          Dad also taught me the importance of being faithful in attending the Lord's house.  Whenever the doors of the church were open, we were there.  I still remember when I was on little league baseball and football teams dad would pull up at 7 pm and I had to leave with my family to attend prayer meeting.  I now realize that dad knew that I would never be a star player, but he did know that I could become a man of God.  And today I thank him for doing that.

          But I guess one of the biggest lessons I learned from dad came with his experience at RCA.  He worked there for many years.  As a manager he was going through a process of laying off people in his department.  This was hard for him to do.  And after completing that process, when he walked in one Friday he was told that his job also was being eliminated.  He had to pack his possessions and immediately leave the plant.  While this was very hard on my mother, dad accepted it as the Lord's will.  He never complained but went about finding other jobs.  He did things like substitute in schools, complete income tax forms for people and a variety of other things.  He never missed a day of work.  Finally the Lord opened up a job as plant manager for the Osteopathic  Hospital.  Dad trusted the Lord and the Lord never failed him.  What a testimony that was for me.

          I could write much more about dad and his walk with the Lord throughout his life.  I was blest to have such a godly father who was a real example to me.  And I still miss him.