MY WIFES DEATH chapter 253

As it has most likely become painfully obvious to the few of you still attempting to follow my blog, I am no longer making entries. The time has come to bring it to an end. There will be 2-3 entries following this one in order to deal with the major events of my life.

I am currently writing a book and am on a deadline. I fine that I cannot write in both places and keep up the pace. Then there is the issue of this old man’s eyes getting tired.

In fairness, I was never sure what I was going to do regarding my story after I left Canby, but here’s a summary.

My wife dies on Fathers Day in 1992. Her diagnosed illness was short lived. We knew her breathing was becoming more difficult in the fall of 1991. We were repeatedly told it was asthma, but she responded to none of the treatment. In January of 1992 we were finally referred to a specialist and told it was emphysema and informed there was no cure. We were told is was likely she had at least two years to live.

It was obvious that she was going to need more care than my traveling was going to allow. Sensing this, I turned down the job I had always wanted for two reasons: 1) it would increase my travel, and 2) it would removed us from a very good support group. I wanted to be home nights to care for her and her friends would come around her when necessary. They were so wonderful I could not bear to take her out of the environment.

When an opportunity came up to apply for the job as job as executive pastor at Salem Alliance, I believed it could work. I would be home most nights and we were close enough to Canby to have her support continue. We candidated at Salem at the end of April. She went to the hospital the next with pneumonia. After two days there, she returned home. Everything appeared better until the a week before Father’s Day. She appeared to be getting pneumonia again on Friday. On Saturday friends John and Donna Barach arrived for a visit. Donna and Della had been childhood friends and we were all in Bible College together. Clearly we could all see that she was no feeling well, but being a very stubborn lady, she refused to rest or leave her guest or ask them to leave. She wanted the there.

After they left (early then planning), I told her I was going to take her to the hospital. She refused. I felt like I would have had to knock her out and carry her to the car. I accepted it, but told if that if she was not better on Sunday, she was going. She was worse. At the hospital they eased her pain a bit and said they were going to do a biopsy Monday morning. I was with her early on Monday staying until she was taken for the biopsy. I told her I was run some errands that needed to be done and be back when they brought her to her room.

When returning, I was taken to ICU. I was told she was not year ready to be moved and that the doctor would come and talk to me. I had returned to the hospital be 1:00 and was the only one in the waiting room. The doctor did not come out until 4:30, Meanwhile, I am watching a lot of equipment being taken into ICU and it didn’t take long to believe it was for Della.

Eventually, the doctor came and told me that her lungs has collapsed droning the tests and she was on a ventilator, but she would never be able to breath on her own. She doubted Della would survive more than a day or two. She never spoke to me again after I kissed her, said goodbye and told her I would see her later.

She passed away the following Sunday as I was returning to the hospital after sleeping that night. Her mother, brother and sister were at the house.

Rod was living on the streets of Portland and during that week, people from the church searched Portland try8ing to find him. He had a certain look and they approached everyone with a similar appearance and asked if they knew Rod please give him a message to call his father. He got back to me, but would not come to see her. After she passed away, we found him again and asked him to come to her funeral. He refused, but showed up in time.

I had resigned at the district and was to begin in Salem in September. I had two responsibilities left. Family Campo was first, but it pretty well ran its self. Many stepped in to help. The other was administrative director for LIFE 92. At that point in time I one wrote down what others needed to know. I had normally stored my part in my head and had done that with a great many details of LIFE 92. Rob McCelland, a good friend and former pastor in our district flew out and spent a week with me to glean the details and get them on paper. I could not have done it without him. I was still deeply stunned by Della’s death. Rhonda and Chris came to help out. They were not yet engaged.

That August, I took both my kids to New York and the east coast to build new memories. They were new alright. While Rhonda and I had a good time, Rod separated from us and told us he was not coming back. We left him and returned, but my heart was broke.

NEXT: Rodney’s life

QUIZZING STRUGGLES chapter 252

I have always had quizzers who thought quizzing would be fun. I was, but it was also a lot of work. I somewhat viewed to program as an outlet the studious kid. You needed somewhat of a love for study to do well in the program.

I never minded the quizzers coming along for the fun of the program. I believed there was always some spiritual benefit and I loved them for sticking with it. On the other size, keeping quizzers motivated was why I developed so many games for practices. Simply quizzing only at a practice was very hard on the bottom ranked quizzers. So turning it around in as many ways as possible kept them interested. I included every game I every created and ones from other coached in the Coaches Manual I wrote for the C&MA in 1974. I haven’t a clue what even one of them was any more. I doubt there are even any copies of the manual around. I was shocked to realize I had a copy of my thesis. I had to get rid of so many things every time I downsized. The next move will have me living in a cardboard box.

I greatly struggled with kids in the program who never made a connection is Christ. There weren’t very many. If the interest in knowing God and getting deeper into a walk with Him wasn’t there, most left the program fairly quickly. There was one however, who gave me pause. I did not believe one could or would ever become a top quizzer while rejecting Christianity and knowing the savior. I didn’t really know what to do. I confess I really did not want him representing our district at top-level competitions. There were no rules that said you had to be a believer. If anything I always believed if one stuck with the program for a whole year they could come to know Christ.

The boy was never antagonistic, not did he demonstrate a rejection of faith in quizzes, but you ran into it in personal or small group conversations. Sometimes his actions would be embarrassing. I could not understand what was happening and why God had not changed his heart. Believe me, I prayed for that often.

I tried to keep track of him from time to time and each piece of news I would get did not bring news of a transformed life. I did reach a point where I accepted that he was in Gods hands and that I may never know what was going on in his heart, nor did I know, nor would I likely know the end result of God’s work. I choose to believe in the power of the word of God to transform a life at anytime.

Not every quizzer has or will remain faithful to Christ. I know that. It was his position that was a concern. I would a great deal with recovering addict at this point in my life. In fact, the writing project I have undertaken is the life story of a woman who has touched the lives of thousands and continues to this day. Her own story is one of a redeemed shipwreck. I understand better the ebb and low of relapse and recovery. As I reflect on my own life and the lives of most believers, we are not much different from the men and women I now see every week. Their uses are in the open for all to see. Many of us good church going people do a much better job of hiding the ups and downs of our walk with God.

I like, everyone I know, have had the ebb and flow of a strong to weak and maybe even non-existent walk with God. That is why I love the life of King David – the man after God’s own heart.  What a terrific God believing and God following youth he was. Maybe it was power that went to his head, or maybe it was simply the sinful and lustful natural of man that took over, but he not only committed adultery, he had a man murdered to cover it up. Then, by the grace of God he is restored to a wonderful and positive walk with God. Later, one son rapes one of his daughters – maybe a problem of multiple wives and the lust of life. But the law requires that Amnon be stoned. He does not do it. He puts it off and tries to let it slide under the carpet. However, his daughter’s birth brother does not forget and begins to hate his father David for not doing what was right. Absalom plans his revenge and punishes his father for his lack for his lack of obedience. He attempts to overthrow the kingdom of David.

This is only two of possibly many ups and downs in David’s life with God. He is on track, he falls away, he is on track, and he falls away. Maybe in a more drastic way that most, but he was not a straight arrow always going higher and higher in his walk with God. And this we know, but reading the Psalms, David’s thoughts on life. Only God knows and we do not know whom he will choose to build His kingdom or at what point in their life he will call them out.

THE NOTES I RECEIVED Part 3 chapter 251

I attempted to try and find out who won International Championships each of the years until I left the district Office. I went online to see if Alliance Life, our national magazine, to see if they reported. Well, as long as Dan Rinker was Youth Director, there was an article every year naming the top three teams. Next was Robert Mar quart in that job and he never wrote a report. Sadly, Robert didn’t care much for the program and mostly just let it go on with little or no enthusiasm. Daryl Dale took over at the National Christian Education Director when I came to replace him in the PNW. He was spread too thin taking on the entire field when there had been two people before. He was a fried of quizzing, but his heart was a friend of Sunday School. Articles were rare. But I only found two reports during my years in the Pacific Northwest District: 1990: 1. Western Pennsylvania, 2. Pacific Northwest, 3. Canadian Midwest. 1991: 1. Central, 2. PNW, 3. South Atlantic. And I think it was 1992 that we finally one when Tony was the coach. We always did very well as I recall. Usually in the top three. Often a bridesmaid, but rarely the bride.

Andrew Campbell – staccato comments

- The invitational trips to Montana- I have one particular memory of being stopped by road construction, and you got out of the second van and "Oreoed" the first one's windows. We would stay on the Thursday night at Garland Avenue Alliance in Spokane, and that was always a highlight- sitting in a circle and talking about what we hoped to get out of the trip.

- Dave and Gini Lincicome coached Internationals maybe twice, 1985-86?  Jim and Diane Westfall coached from 1987 or 86?) through 1991, when they overlapped with Tony.  Tony coached from 1992 into the 2000s.  PNW finished 2nd in 1991, losing in the third quiz of finals on another quizzer's (a pen-pal paramour of mine from Ohio, to be exact) perfect 4th answer.  PNW had finished 3rd in both 1989 and 1990, and finally won decisively in 1992 (losing only one quiz the entire meet) and then again in 1993.

Melinda Lipsey Grow

I quizzed 1983-85, went to internationals in 1985 with Jayna, Steve Forrest, Kevin Donaldson, Toby Bass, and Roy Fenn coaching. Then went to china for a year, and returned for 1986/87. Our internationals team in 1987 was Toby, Jayna, Terri Taber, Greg Lincicome, and me, with Jim & Diane Westfall coaching. I continued as a coach (at North Seattle Alliance with Kyle Hogan) and was a quizmaster until at least 1996, I think.

FROM JAYNA  (Peterson) SAMUELSON

I quizzed from '82-'87 and know that you took us to Life '86 in Colorado Springs. In '84 I don't remember where Internationals was held, but we studied Romans/James that year. In '85 we went to St. Paul (on Gospel of John); in '86 it was in CO (on Acts); then in '87 it was in Nyack on 1 & 2 Cor.

NOTE: We did not go tot Colorado Springs, but to Fort Collins. I was there at LIFE, but not the coach. I was directing the daily programs in the gym.

Kristi Kroon Kong

I quizzed for North Seattle Alliance from fall of 1984 through spring of 1987 (John/Acts/I & II Corinthians). Roy and Dave were quizmasters. Abbotsford team quizzed in our district through '86, I believe. In college, I helped out with scorekeeping and married Tony in May 1990.

Alan Sohn

Dallas fielded its first team in fall of 85 - I remember Kevin Oberg, Robin, Dale Miller as well as myself all being on it. I only quizzed for 2 years (Acts and I/II Corinthians) but made lasting friendships and grew in so many ways because of it.

Dawn Morris Reed

I started in the fall of '81, the first year Canby Alliance fielded a team, and continued until '86. The first year was Matthew, and is it my imagination or was that year still KJV? (ED: it was the KJV) I never was good enough to make internationals, but I did get to make the Montana trip in '86. I was one of your youth group kids, too, and attended LIFE '86. If you want more info on the Canby kids, I can send you a different message so I don't hijack this post! I think I have several of the PNW Quizzer. (ED: Thanks for the NEWSLETTERS)

LINCICOMES

We started with the May Valley quiz team in 1976 and stayed around till 1996. Went to internationals twice as coaches and an additional 2 times as parents of quizzers. Quizzing gave us some of the best times shared with students we loved. The trips to Montana, San Fran. (ED: Another one I don’t remember) plus all the weekend meets........ We got to watch you in action and were always impressed with the skillful way you managed and loved the entire program and all the unique individuals who came through the quizzing experience.

Doesn't take long when old quizzers get together to get the stories flowing. Was a blessing in our lives and a blessed time that continues to put a smile on our face and joy in our hearts!!

I had very clear goals for Bible Quizzing. Ones I had from the very beginning. First, I never wanted the competition to overtake the Spirit of God at work in the lives of youth. To that end there was never to be applause for a missed question, only support and encouragement.

Second, There would be an emphasis on prayer and the application of the word. That also meant meetings would end with the opportunity for quizzers to share what God was do0ing in their lives.

Third, and this has been a goal in all my life and ministries replace myself. Therefore, as the program grew and we moved to multiple quiz locations, I wanted and needed more quizmasters. After a number were active, I wanted to turn the whole thing over to them as they were all doing a great job. The entire youth program of the district was expanding as were speaking opportunities. Something had to give.

Thanks to all you sent me notes. You have blessed me and reminded me of many great memories

Maybe this long post will make up for the many I have missed lately.

THE BIBLE AND GREAT FRIENDS Part 2 chapter 250

The great benefit of Bible quizzing, apart from learning the Bible, was always the friends that were made. Teams looked forward to getting together, spending the night in each other’s homes and catching up with one another. I also loved that connection.

Someone I had completely forgotten about going to Montana for meets with two or three Canadian districts and the Rocky Mountain District. It seems impossible that would happen when so much happened.

It was an interesting challenge to get everyone picked up along the way for that trip. I would start out with any quizzers from Oregon, then we would hook up, usually in a couple of different place, with Western Washington quizzers then head out for a night on the hard wooden floor of Garland Avenue Alliance Church in Spokane. The next leg took us to the Montana camp with everyone would get together for a weekend of fun and competition.

The concept of this meet came out of two ideas. First I had a letter from Tim Vincent from the Canadian Midwest District. Tom was from Outlook, Saskatchewan and a member of one of CMD International Championship teams. He was directing the quiz program for the CMD at that time. From that discussion came the idea to reward a larger number of kids than could go to Internationals with higher level of competition. To that end, we took the top 15 quizzers.

I forgot who first brought up the Montana trip, maybe Andy? but that lead to a photo of me in the van on the trip. Then, of course, there was the Oreo thing. Andy said it happened at a stop for construction, I think it was at a stop for food and gas. One person in my van wanted to spray shaving cream on the other van. I didn’t want that to happen as there is (or was) some chemical in that stuff that could take the paint off a car. So, I admit, I came up with the idea to pull Oreos apart and stick them on the windows. You have to understand that it was a compassionate decision. I CARED. Besides, Oreos come off much easier.

We always introduced the team at Family Camp before leaving for Internationals. Two reasons: The team was spread all over the district and we needed to get in another practice and there was always the hope that another church would join in. Sometimes it worked.

I always loved Bible Quizzing. When Dan Rinker was the National Youth Director for the C&MA he would call me “The father of Alliance quizzing.” I would tell him that was impossible; I was too young to be a father. Now I must be the grandfather.

QUIZ NEWSLETTERS #2 chapter 249

I cannot remember how many newsletters there were, but this on is from 1986. It is possible the newsletters were only done at the end of the year. There newsletter reports a quizzing master change from Roy to Tony.

Seeing these photos reminds me that for a time we had an International competition on a regular bases since Abbotsford competed right along with out district Churches. Then there was Kevin. He started at may Valley and the family moved to Alaska and he continued to commute for quizzes. That was commitment.

QUIZ NEWSLETTERS #1 chapter 248

     I am indebted to Dawn (Morris) Reed for scanning and sending me these copies of some of the PNW newsletters from back in the day. It may be of some interest to the old-timers. I was trying to check out some info to prepare for writing about quizzing and ran into a current PNW sight. That gave me an ideas as to how big quizzing is these days. Must be a great number of churches and teams.

     Back to the matter at hand. Enjoy the memories.

Memories. There are names here I can barely remember. These newsletter sizes were all over the place. 2 pages, 4 pages and at least one that had 8 pages. I think that happened because we began to include more photos. 

BIBLE QUIZZING part 1 chapter 247

I arrived to a nicely organized and well-run Bible quiz program in the fall of 1980. I wish I could remember the churches that were involved, but I mostly remember some of the kids and not where they were from. It wasn’t a very large program and with the size of the district, I knew it could be much bigger. I set out to make sure every church knew about the program. Quizzing was part of my plan to help bring district youth together. If they saw each other at quiz meets they would want to see each other at camps, retreats, LIFE and other event planned for you. I tried to expose the district to quizzing through the newsletter posting scores and team placement. Since LIFE always followed family camp there was an exhibition most years and family camp was a place to bring the sometimes wide spread team together for their last practice.

Andy asked what lead to the growth of quizzing and I would say the promotion helped, but nothing was more affective than enthusiastic quizzers.

My memories of the program are not linier and as has been the case at most places over the years it begins to appear to me that everyone I knew was involved in quizzing at the same time. So my thoughts will be rather random.

One of the strangest incidents was a church involved for only one year with a pastor better suited to a different denomination. He was not happy at how our girls dressed. He wanted them in skirts or dresses below the knee. The slacks and shorts were certainly apropos from his point of view. We went round and round about that and he ultimately pulled his team out of the program over the issue. I most bothered by the damage I saw being done to those kids.

Because of the size of our district, ever meet was an overnighter and each church had the responsibility to house and feed the visiting teams. There is no questions that part if not all of the fun had to do with that side of the program.

When I arrived the program would be run with one quizmaster and I left needing three in three locations all running at the same time. We started with a group of kids and ended with a mob. I understand that now there is a herd.

I got involved in quizzing at the beginning for one reason: to see teen’s lives impacted by the Word of God. I believed and still do that having memorized scripture it will be in your head the rest of your life. Not to that same extent, but sufficient to influence your life and life’s decisions. I have seen it hundreds or times.

I have always believed that the point of ministry is to equip others to use their gifts to serve the Lord. To that end I have always tried to move myself to the side remaining only in an administrative role. To that end, I like to work myself out of a job, so to speak. To that end, no program I ever ran was more successful t doing that that in Bible quizzing. I didn’t know when I began to step aside, but Andy tells me it was 1987. First we need more quizmasters. Second other responsibilities kept me from taking the team to Internationals and several people clearly wanted to do that job. I didn’t want to take that joy away from them, or more honestly, I didn’t have the time. Another side of it was that I began in quizzing in high school and had been at most every year thirty years and was getting a little tired. Not enough to quit, but enough to want to step back. The wisdom of the decision was more apparent when I knew I would need to leave the district, but had no idea that was going to happen when I began including more and more people.

Besides adding quizmasters and encouraging several others to coach at Internationals, there was score keeping. I hope I have this right, but I believe it was Mr. Beatty who approached me about designing an automatic score-keeping program. I was very enthusiastic. It took some time to get it right, but he did an absolutely fabulous job. It made it so much easier to do that job and to determine the top quizzers and quickly determine averages. That improved the program immensely.

NEXT: some of the fun, the newsletters, and observations of others