Seventy-five years ago (Part 2)

When I started writing this, I wanted the emphasis to be on Calvary Baptist Church, which is celebrating 75 years of existence this year.  Someone told me that because of the virus, the celebration will probably be postponed until next year.  

I mentioned in my last post about the Sunday School teachers.  The granddaughter of Mrs. Thompson commented on the blog mentioning the stories being illustrated with flannel graph.  Do you remember those?  Some became quite elaborate with the background and overlays.  It surely made the stories live for us.  Two other teachers that I remember were Mrs. Fannie Foster and Mrs. Lyons.  Both taught us so faithfully and guided us.  

The first pastor that I remember well was D. E. Luttrell.  He was quite evangelistic in his preaching and very interested in missions.  His son, Don and his wife, Ruth, went to Vieques, Puerto Rico and began a radio station, WIVV, (West Indies Voice of Vieques,) which is still operating today.  If I am correct, that was probably the beginning of the missions program at Calvary.

In the mid-50's, the church outgrew the sanctuary, and a new sanctuary was built. (That building is now the gym.)  It was during these years that each winter Calvary had a three-month Bible conference.  Each week there was a different speaker who came and faithfully taught the Word of God.  One I remember, in particular, was J. Sidlow Baxter...a wonderful teacher from England.  We all enjoyed his British accent.  One favorite pastor who came for a week each year was Andy Telford from Berachah Baptist Church in Philadelphia.  Yet another Bible teacher was Lehman Strauss, who at one time taught at Philadelphia Bible Institute.  When I think of these times, the memories are so special.  We at Calvary were so blessed to have such wonderful Bible teaching.  The music was great too!

In 1959 we got a new pastor at Calvary.  Dick and Joy Hubbard came from Ohio to become the pastor.  They had two children when they came and added to more to their family while they were in Bradenton.  They arrived in January, and he didn't begin preaching for three months because of the Bible conference.  This was the beginning of our being spoiled with pastors who were such good teachers of the Word.  That was the year I graduated from high school, so I went off to college and missed a lot of his teaching.  I moved to Cincinnati to teach after graduation, and in January 1964, my phone rang one morning, and it was Pastor Hubbard calling me to tell me that my daddy had died during the night.  He told me later that doing a funeral for a parent was hard because he still had both his parents and had not experienced that loss.

After being in Bradenton for six years, the Hubbards took a church in Cincinnati, so I enjoyed being with them and getting to know them again.

During the early years of the church, as I mentioned before, we were introduced to missions.  Being young, I don't recall a lot of the missionaries from the early 50's.  I do remember Dick and Jane Reed, who were missionaries with ELWA in Liberia.  I learned later on that Jane was the sister of Shirley Morley who began attending Calvary at a later time.  Another lady I remember was Carol Turner, who was a nurse working in Africa with AIM.

During days at Camp Gilead, I became acquainted with Art and Evy Yohner, who were workers with Children's Bible Mission, now known as Children's Bible Ministries.  Art and Evy felt God's leading them to Surinam to work among Indians in the jungle.  Before going to Surinam, they served as interim pastor at Calvary and everyone fell in love with them.  Roy and Margaret Lytle also became missionaries with West Indies Mission and also served in Surinam.

Edwin Wyman became pastor after Pastor Hubbard, and Cliff Hicks was the assistant.  After Pastor Wyman left, Cliff became pastor.  During that time, several couples from the church were planning to go to the field.  Mike and Nancy Elwood, Mike and Marna Reece, Sam and Bonnie Thomas all went to the field.  I went to Haiti for a term to teach missionary kids.  During that time, or before, George and Ellen King had left to go to Japan.

(To be continued)  As I write this, I'm trying to be accurate.  I'm not sure that all of the chronology is correct.

Seventy-five years ago

Seventy-five years ago - 1945 -a long time ago.  A lot of events being remembered this year.  World War II came to an end.  Auschwitz was liberated.   Celebrations have taken place in remembrance.  

I was a little girl back then, living in the little town of Lacoochee.  Lacoochee was a company town.   The Cummer Lumber Mill was there.  Cypress was milled there.  That is where my daddy worked.  The mill had housing for the employees.  There was a hotel where my mother worked.  If I recall correctly, she was the manager.  

I was born in September 1941, just before the US entered the war in December.  All the men went to Camp Blanding to volunteer.  My daddy was among them, but he was 4-F, so he was not accepted into the service.  He returned to Lacoochee, and during the course of the war, German war prisoners were brought to the States to camps.  There was one in Dade City, and each morning, the men were transported by bus to Lacoochee to work in the mill.  My daddy worked with, or supervised them, if I am correct

I was watching a movie the other night about families in France hiding Jewish children in their homes and getting them into Spain for safety.  At the end of the movie, when the war ended, people were dancing in the streets and cheering.  I remember that in Lacoochee.  When news came that the war had ended, people were honking car horns, laughing and crying, and hugging each other.

The other thing that I remember (I was not quite four yet.) was hearing my parents say, "When the war is over, we're leaving Lacoochee."  I don't know if they had the foresight to know that the lumber mill would not last forever or what, or if they were looking forward to a better life somewhere else.  Sure enough, in August, after the war was over, they moved from Lacoochee to Bradenton.

My parents bought a little house in Bradenton that was out of town, just inside the city limits.  On the block was our house, the house across the street, and one house down the street.  To the west, there was nothing until you came to old Palma Sola and Palma Sola Park.  Someone said to me one day, "Beverly, you lived way out of town."  It isn't that way any more.

One other thing of note happened in 1945.  Calvary Baptist Church was started.  It was the church that was closest to our house, and that is where Mother and Daddy took me to Sunday School.  I often look back and think how God leads and guides.  I remember well my Sunday School teachers.  Mrs. Thompson, the wife of the gentleman who was instrumental in starting the church was my first Sunday School teacher.  One of the pastors we had encouraged us to memorize Scripture.  Five of us enrolled in Bible Memory Association.  For twelve weeks we had passages to learn, and if we successfully learned those, we earned a free week at camp.  We learned 250 verses during those twelve weeks.  The only problem was the camp was in Alabama, which in the early 50's was a long distance.  

Our pastor knew of a camp in Polk City, Florida which had a similar program.  Their requirement was 300 verses for a free week.  He worked with them, and they permitted us to learn an additional 50 verses and go to camp there.  We did, and that became an activity each summer.  After the first year, there was a series a lessons to do to earn camp the next summer.  By the time I was in junior high, I went to camp to work in the kitchen.  Later on I worked as a junior counselor, and then as a senior counselor.  

(To be continued)

Jambo

"Jambo" --"Hello"  the only word I learned in Swahili.

On January 23, I boarded an airplane for Nairobi, Kenya.  This trip was sponsored by Africa Inland Mission.  AIM is celebrating 125 years of existence this year, so the trip was especially meaningful.
After a day in Nairobi, we were on our way to our first lodge and safari.  I have posted lots of photos of animals on Facebook.  While the animals were not the main reason I went on this trip, they surely added much excitement.  It was so neat to see rhinos, elephants, giraffes, baboons, Cape buffalo, and all kinds of gazelles and impala on the plain.

After our days on safari, we traveled to Kijabe to visit Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school for missionary kids.  We attended chapel while there and were served chai by some of the staff.  Later we went to the Kijabe Hospital.  Because our scheduled was crowded, we did not have the opportunity to tour the hospital in its entirety, but one of the doctors spent about a half hour with us, sharing with us the work that they do.

From there we stopped at the AIM Children's Feeding Center.  

There we visited with the children who had gathered for lunch.
At the end of our visits, we boarded a single engine aircraft, operated by AIMAIR.  We traveled back to Nairobi and toured the work of the airline.  The pilots travel to remote areas to deliver supplies and passengers and are an integral part of AIM.  Our hosts on the trip were Jim and Bev Streitt.  They are long-time missionaries with AIM and were wonderful in their role as our hosts while they took care of business.

Before leaving to come back to the States, we visited AIM's Eastern Region office for a time of prayer and coffee before going to the Giraffe Centre.

This trip surely was a trip of a lifetime, and I'm so thankful I was able to go.

My Sheep Hear My Voice

This past Monday, my friend Bettie took me to visit her cousin and his wife down in Raphine.  I had been wanting to go there so much, and I finally had the chance.  Pat and Suzy have a sheep farm.  When we arrived, my breath was taken away by the beauty of the rolling hills, their big old farm house, her clothesline with the wash hung out, and the sheep.

It was so much fun to watch the babies running to their mamas when they heard their bleats.  After walking around some, we sat out on the porch overlooking the meadow where the sheep were, and it was just so peaceful.  I told Suzy that if I lived there, I'd probably never leave.

After a while, we went in, had a little dessert, and then went out to the barn where there were some orphan lambs being held in a pen and being bottle fed and getting other food until they're ready to go out into the field.  As we walk out toward the barn, and the sheep heard Suzy's voice, they began to call for her.  They knew their mama was coming!

We stopped and looked at the babies for a while, but there was still one little lamb crying for Suzy.  That baby was in another section.  Suzy went over and picked him up and brought him for us to see.  What a cutie!

While we were sitting on the porch, enjoying the gentle breeze and taking in all the sights and sounds around us, I could not help think of young David, as he took care of the sheep.  Probably the most familiar Psalm is his, Psalm 23...The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want.   Beautiful choral music has been written with this psalm as the theme.  Choruses has been written using the same theme.

Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd."  He said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.:

Florida in February

I don't want to call myself a "snowbird" since I am a native Floridian, but I guess in reality I have become one.  I can certainly understand why people flee the frozen north for the wonderful winter weather in Florida.  Blue skies, gentle breezes, and mild temperatures are great.  The beginning of spring training season is in the air.  Games will be beginning on the 23rd of the month. 

I have been enjoying seeing old friends and making some new ones.  I have been attending the church that I attended from the time I was four.  There have been lots of changes  over the years, but one thing has remained constant.  The church is very mission minded for fields overseas and right in the neighborhood.  A young pastor has taken the reins, and he is loved by all.

Today after I took all my tax stuff to my accountant, I drove out to DeSoto Memorial and walked around.  I wandered over to where a couple was seated, and the gentleman struck up a conversation.  They invited me to sit down on the bench with them.  As we talked, he told me that he had moved to Bradenton in 1980 and had a cabinet business.  He then went on to say that he was a one-man business.  I started asking him if he knew certain people.  He did.  Then I asked him if he knew Don Whitcomb.  Don was a one-man business, as well.  He did, indeed, know Don.  We spent quite a bit of time talking about different customers that they both had had over the years.  I must say that made my day.

January 23

When I woke up this morning, I had not thought about the date.  Somehow, when one is retired, the date is not very important.  However, on the television the announcer said that it was January 23.  My mind immediately went back to January 23, 1964.   I awoke that morning and  got ready to go to school when my telephone rang.  It was my pastor from my church in Florida, calling to tell me that my daddy had died of a heart attack during the night.  Heartbroken, I boarded a plane and traveled to Florida to be with my mother and grieve with her over our loss.

My daddy was only 55.  As a twenty-two year old, fifty-five seemed "old."  When I arrived at that age, I realized it wasn't old at all.  My daddy had had a heart attack ten years prior to that when I was in the eighth grade, but he had recovered and had continued to work hard.

My daddy was born in Adel, Georgia and then lived in Trilby, Florida.  He met my mother in Lacoochee.  They married in 1933.   He worked at the Cummer lumber mill in Lacoochee, and then in 1945 when World War II was over, we moved to Bradenton where I grew up.

I was daddy's girl, and I loved him so much.  He thought I could do not wrong, nor I him.  Years later, I found myself missing him in a new way.  I would go into a restaurant or any place and see adult children with their parents enjoying their time together, and I realized that I was missing not having known my daddy in that relationship.  He will always be "my daddy."  I miss him today.

The photo below is the last picture I have of him, along with my mother at my university graduation.

Seeing old friends

First of all, I didn't realize that it had been so long since I had posted here.  I do miss blogging, and I miss the friends that I have lost contact with. 

This past week I took a road trip to western North Carolina to visit friends from my distant past.  I started out by visiting Sharon, a friend I sort of grew up with, except she is a lot younger than I am.  Her mom was like a second mom to me, and I spent a lot of time at their house.  She moved to North Carolina a few years ago after her daughter had moved there.  Her brother Glenn was already there, and not too long after, her mom joined them.

We enjoyed talking about "old times."  Sharon lives out in the country.  They have chickens, a garden, quite a bit of acreage, and a lovely back porch with hummingbird feeders.  I enjoyed sitting in the rocking chair watching the birds coming for food. 

The next day I left and drove to Morganton to visit Don and Peg Windmiller, my former pastor and his wife from Bradenton.  They have retired and moved to North Carolina to be in the mountains.  They are not quite in the mountains, but when you drive up to their house, you feel like you are there.  Sitting on the porch you can see them since they are not far away. 

We had a good visit.  On Tuesday, Peg and I drove over to Black Mountain, where Don and Peg's son, Dan works at Black Mountain Children's Home.  What a wonderful place!  It was good to meet Dan's two little girls and his wife Elise.

On Wednesday  I left and drove up to Boone to see Mary Jane Uttley, one of my dear friends from Haiti days.  She was up visiting David, her son.  David was one of my students in Haiti when I taught down there in the early '70's.  David works now for Samaritan's Purse, as does his wife , Cindy.

While there I had the opportunity to visit Samaritan's Purse an learn more of their work  As the group was gathering for a tour of the facility, we were seated around a table, and the tour leader asked us to introduce ourselves.  When we got to the last two couples, the lady introduced herself and her husband, and then introduced the other couple.  She said, "And this is our friend, Damaris Carbaugh, and her husband.  You may know her from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir."  My heart took a leap.  Our choir at Bethel sang many of their songs, and her songs were among my favorites.  That was certainly a highlight.  After the tour was over, I had the opportunity to talk to her some...such a joy.  If you click on her name, you can hear one of her songs.  Be blessed.