Cmas 1970-Filling in the Blanks

September 12, 2007

Dear Family,

In the 1970 Christmas letter, I said I was back in the ministry where I belonged. It’s a long story.

In 1965 I resigned the work in Juniata. Mom about had a heart attack. I never told her I was going to resign until I announced it from the pulpit. If you want to have a happy marriage, that is not the way to do it.

So now I’m looking for another job/pastorate. I had been working at WVAM as news director in Altoona when I accepted the call to the Juniata church. After resigning at the station, I sold yellow pages for a while and then bought some ice cream trucks [that’s another story]. In the middle of that fiasco, Pastor Ward Tressler resigned, and I accepted the GBC in Juniata. I was at the church for about 9 years until I made the abrupt announcement. Mom had worked at WFBG for about five years (two different times—between babies).

Then for a reason I don’t remember, I attended a ministers meeting of some sort in Canton, OH. A man named Willard Smith was present and learned that I was looking for a church. They had started a church in Minerva, OH and were looking for a pastor. I accepted the call. There was a problem. They could not support me. I had to find additional work. Today they call it a “tent making.” So we sent letters to everyone we knew and asked if they could support us by sending a dollar a week for the next year. That’s what happened. We had a post office box and our paycheck came in dollar bills. Praise the Lord for taking care of us. When we left Altoona, Merril McConnell became a part of our family. He had a bad marriage and needed to get away from the situation so he moved to Ohio with us. Grandma Susie (my brother had died in 1960) was living alone at 715 Second Street in Juniata. Mom [Arlene] was pregnant with #7. We moved into a rented farmhouse north of Minerva. Uncle Jerry moved us on his flat bed tractor-trailer. The ‘dollar a week’ program was almost over and I got a part time job with WTOF—the Tower of Faith—a Christian station in Canton, OH. I had to use a fictitious name—Bill Ryan. The station owner was pastor of a large church in the area and did not want me to be recognized as an area pastor.

We had experienced some growth at the Minerva church. We met in an old one-room schoolhouse in Bayard, on the eastern edge of Minerva. The church decided to apply to Home Missions to become a mission point. Rick was a senior in high school. When the Home Mission director came to see us that spring we learned that they/he did not approve of my being on the radio. Another pastor was painting houses and many of them (H.M. pastors) drove school buses but I was in the wrong kind of work! When we asked what we should do, we were told that Mom should go to work! Jon—who was born in November in Alliance OH—was now about six months old. Rick graduated high school and was ready to go to Grace College.

A little later Mom decided it was time to get into school teaching. Her college major was English Bible with a minor in History. She had taken enough education subjects to teach our own children if and when we went to the mission field. So she was confident she could handle it. By September she had a special education position in Waynesburg, OH –just south of Minerva. [That’s another story]. It was about this time I resigned the church and went to work fulltime at the radio station!

WTOF was a very good job. I did most of the announcing and was in very good favor with the boss/owner (Dr. Mortenson). After a while I was also selling radio time. He planned to buy another station in Erlanger, KY, and I almost accepted the offer to manage it. (Wow!) Anyway, he started asking me to do things that were plainly unethical and I resigned. I did tell mom, but I had no place to go and we had a large family to care for. I was out of work again!

I had several jobs during this time just to keep food on the table. I began going back to Altoona on weekends because the Juniata church had split and I was anxious to hold the little group of breakaways together. Most of the people who had come to live for the Lord during our ministry there had left the church and were meeting in the old Juniata theater building. I don’t remember how long we did that but it was during that time Grandma Susie sold her house and came to live with us in Ohio. At one point, I had three different jobs going: a newspaper route at night supplying the bundles to newsboys and stores [Roy III often went with me to help me stay awake], a dry cleaner was one of my advertisers at the station and he allowed me to go door to door and start up a dry cleaning route, and selling insurance for New York Mutual Life. I even passed the test for a state license. In the meantime, I was still looking for radio work—something I knew a little about. Mom was teaching school and the family was attending church in Middlebranch—22 miles from where we lived. Ardi was in Teens for Christ—a musical group out of that church.

I camped on the doorstep of WJAN TV, channel 17, in Canton. I wanted a job and they thought I was over qualified. Finally, they gave in and allowed me to start sweeping floors—really. I did move up a little, but not enough. I was building TV sets [not TVs but constructing sets for interviews and various activities], rewired the lighting system, ran cameras, directed cameras, and even set up a film chain for processing film to be used on the evening news [It was black and white—before color took over]. The news anchor was a pain. One night he complained that the lights did not show him at his best. So I reset all the lights and the next night I had the sweat rolling down his face. He had more light than he could stand and never said any more about it. I did turn the heat down the next day.

I was still looking for something better. I tried WCRF in Cleveland. They said they were not hiring.
It was snowing when I left there and I dropped my single car key in 7 inches of snow. I thought I’d never find it. Next was an audition for a news station in Akron—I don’t remember the name anymore. They wanted me to start in 2 weeks. I told the TV station and they seemed surprised. Anyway, they (Harold Gorsuch was his name) offered me a better salary and promoted me to Production manager. I replaced a guy they fired, but was assured that he was gone whether I accepted the job or not. It was rather embarrassing to call the Akron station and tell them I didn’t want their job after all.

The TV job really did boost my morale. I had been feeling pretty low and thought I’d never have a church again—or a decent job. I was still concerned about my call to the ministry and sent a letter to the BMH director [same guy] telling him about my new position and my continued interest in a church. I heard from him right away. He said he would be passing through Canton the next day and wondered if we could have breakfast together. We had a long conversation (a breakfast meeting that lasted until the waitress asked if we wanted to order lunch!) I told him I no longer needed his help and was doing very well at the TV station, thank you. However, I said, “If you ever find it in your heart to recommend me to a church, I would appreciate it.”

Shortly after that meeting I received an invitation to candidate in Radford, VA. I accepted the call. The TV staff thought I was out of my mind, but it did give me an opportunity to share the Gospel with the manager—Gorsuch.

So began our Virginia saga!! Now we’re back to the rest of the 1970 Christmas story. You never know just what the Lord has in store for you. Praise the Lord for His leading.

Gpa G