My dad, while in Chicago, went through a LOT.
Betrayed trust--by family and other.
Disillusionment.
Bereavement.
He was pretty down. He had tried a church or two--searching, but was disappointed.
Daddy was working as a driver's license examiner for the City of Chicago. I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but i know this part of the story. Daddy was at work one day, in some public building where people get their licenses renewed and such...when he saw a man wearing a little button on his jacket. Daddy says the small button looked like it was about a food wide instead of the half inch or so that it was, and it read "Jesus is Lord."
Daddy's searching heart couldn't let that go, and he stopped the man and said, "Young man, i sure hope you mean that!"
Well, the man wearing the button didn't wear it half-heartedly, and he sort of snapped to attention and told Daddy, "Yes sir, i sure do!"
And thus began a conversation that was divinely inspired. The man wearing the button invited my dad to the Philadelphia Church of Chicago, a fairly large, spirit filled church; and my dad accepted his invitation.
Daddy remembers that when he walked in he thought these people were pretty strange. People were singing and raising their hands, and sometimes one of them would start talking very strangely. He says he wanted to run out of there, but somehow the way out would always be blocked. But he kept coming back--said he couldn't stay away from the love he felt there.
It wasn't too long before the man with the button got to lead Daddy to Jesus there at that church. Soon thereafter, the youth group got to praying for Daddy, and he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Daddy remembers that moment too....says he thought he was gonna climb right out of there--like he had a direct ladder to Heaven or something. =) heehee
Daddy has a lot of good memories from that church. He got saved there, deliver there, baptized there, baptized in the Holy Spirit there, developed Godly relationships there.....got married there......
God's so cool.
I'm always in awe to the point of tears when i get to glimpse a bit of His tapestry--what He's weaving together through the smaller details in our lives......
You remember the man with the button--i'm sure you do. I have the pleasure of knowing him also. The man who was "the man with the button" is now my Uncle Chris. It happened that he had a younger sister, named Maud, who would catch my Daddy's eye........but there will be more about that later.
Friday, September 8, 2006
Monday, September 4, 2006
Daddy
I told you that Daddy was born to a Mennonite family and community in Fairview Michigan. He was raised in the church and taught many things.
***A Little Info on the Mennonite Church*** I am told that there are 19 branches of the Mennonite church, ranging from the Amish (the people in the horse-n-buggies) to the most liberal branch that doesn't look much different than your average Baptist church. The most of what i can understand about Mennonite beliefs is that they are against worldly things. For instance, Mennonite men do not wear ties (a rule many other men would love to adopt, i think) because ties are too worldly. Some Mennonite women dress very similarly to the United Pentecostal women who we see around here....with long hair and always wearing a dress and so forth. And in conformity with the scriptures that talk about a woman's need to wear a covering on her head, Mennonite women wear a little covering made of netting on top of their buns on their heads.***
Daddy was raised in the Mennonite church, but he didn't have a true relationship with God, and when he got old enough, he got some work traveling with a bunch of people who traveled and followed the wheat harvest and helped the farmers get their crops harvested in a timely manner. At least that's what i understand about it. =)
So in his travels, at some point, (we'll have to get Daddy to tell the story better at some point) he ended up in Chicago. And Chicago was apparently a great place for finding out about all those "worldly" things he wasn't supposed to do in Fairview, and Daddy found them. But also, while he was in Chicago, the Lord began His pursuit of my dad. One night, while he was asleep, Daddy had a dream that so impacted him, he couldn't talk the next morning. When he gained his senses again, he went to talk to a Mennonite pastor in the area. This pastor allowed him to share what he had seen with the church there. And if i remember correctly, the people really responded with repentance and changed lives and so forth. Well, Daddy, in his own words, began to get a big head about the whole thing. And as we all know, pride comes before a fall.
Daddy fell pretty hard. A lot of things happened in his personal life, and he quickly fell away from God. Daddy began to spend his time doing a lot of whiskey drinking, girl chasing, and he spent a lot of his time in "strip joints" and so forth. It's necessary to tell you that because one of these "joints" (as Daddy calls them) is where Jesus came to get his attention. Daddy says that one night when he was sitting and watching the "show," it was like a movie screen dropped down between him and the stage, and he saw again, a similar vision to the dream he had seen earlier. This vision, by the way, is one of Jesus coming back to the earth.
***A Little Info on the Mennonite Church*** I am told that there are 19 branches of the Mennonite church, ranging from the Amish (the people in the horse-n-buggies) to the most liberal branch that doesn't look much different than your average Baptist church. The most of what i can understand about Mennonite beliefs is that they are against worldly things. For instance, Mennonite men do not wear ties (a rule many other men would love to adopt, i think) because ties are too worldly. Some Mennonite women dress very similarly to the United Pentecostal women who we see around here....with long hair and always wearing a dress and so forth. And in conformity with the scriptures that talk about a woman's need to wear a covering on her head, Mennonite women wear a little covering made of netting on top of their buns on their heads.***
Daddy was raised in the Mennonite church, but he didn't have a true relationship with God, and when he got old enough, he got some work traveling with a bunch of people who traveled and followed the wheat harvest and helped the farmers get their crops harvested in a timely manner. At least that's what i understand about it. =)
So in his travels, at some point, (we'll have to get Daddy to tell the story better at some point) he ended up in Chicago. And Chicago was apparently a great place for finding out about all those "worldly" things he wasn't supposed to do in Fairview, and Daddy found them. But also, while he was in Chicago, the Lord began His pursuit of my dad. One night, while he was asleep, Daddy had a dream that so impacted him, he couldn't talk the next morning. When he gained his senses again, he went to talk to a Mennonite pastor in the area. This pastor allowed him to share what he had seen with the church there. And if i remember correctly, the people really responded with repentance and changed lives and so forth. Well, Daddy, in his own words, began to get a big head about the whole thing. And as we all know, pride comes before a fall.
Daddy fell pretty hard. A lot of things happened in his personal life, and he quickly fell away from God. Daddy began to spend his time doing a lot of whiskey drinking, girl chasing, and he spent a lot of his time in "strip joints" and so forth. It's necessary to tell you that because one of these "joints" (as Daddy calls them) is where Jesus came to get his attention. Daddy says that one night when he was sitting and watching the "show," it was like a movie screen dropped down between him and the stage, and he saw again, a similar vision to the dream he had seen earlier. This vision, by the way, is one of Jesus coming back to the earth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)