The Legacy of a Godly Father

My dad came to know the Lord in his thirties. He became a Christian at a small country church in Beechcreek, PA, the home church of my mother. The pastor was preaching a salvation sermon, and the Holy Spirit was at work in his heart calling him to an acknowledgment of his sin and a need for a Savior. Change was radical. I remember the Lucky Strikes he smoked for many years soon stopped after his conversion. We soon found a bible believing local church that was meeting in members houses and other buildings as the ground work was being laid to form a formal church.

I grew up in Faith Church, in Trexlertown, PA. Before the buildings that currently comprise Faith were built, we met at the Trexlertown Grange for Wednesday night prayer meeting and at the Masonic Lodge in Allentown for Sunday church services. As a small child I clearly remember the land dedication and beginnings of the buildings that now comprises Faith.

My dad, a bricklayer by trade, was eager to have his building skills used by the Lord, so I remember many nights where after a long days work, we would go out to Faith, my brothers and I would play in the large mounds of dirt, while my dad worked, laying the foundation blocks to the first building built on the land.

My dad, James, is a storyteller. I thought I heard most of the stories he had to tell, but recently he told me a story he never told me before. One of the many brick laying projects he accomplished in those days was the two brick walls that flanked the driveway up to Faith, as you would make the turn off Hamilton and into the church drive way. For many years the white letters on those brick walls announced “Faith Evangelical Free Church” to all who passed by. My dad told me that when he was done laying that last brick, he knelt right there in front of those walls and prayed as the traffic behind him continued to pass by. He prayed this simple prayer “Lord, as people pass by these brick walls on the way into to this church, may they be different, changed people as they pass by them on the way out.”

Decades later, the then pastor of the church, Pastor Solburg, shared with the congregation one of the many letters he receives as a pastor during a sermon. It was written by a grown woman, who as a little girl attended Faith Churches VBS program. She relayed in the letter how as a 6 year old girl, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior in the VBS program. She also spoke about how her family was not supportive of the decision she made for Jesus. Soon she moved away and grew up far away from Faith, but she knew deep down inside something was permanently changed in her six year old little heart. As the VBS bus drove her home that day, past that brick wall and sign, she was a different little girl. Even though there was not much support from home, her faith blossomed, and today she is a singer, traveling from church to church singing about Jesus.

One day, some 20 years latter, she returned to the Lehigh Valley to find that church where she met Jesus as a little girl. She spent most of the day traveling from church to church all across the valley trying to find the church she remembered as a little girl. Exhausted by her search, she was about to give up as she was driving down Hamilton Blvd. and she saw those brick walls, flanking each side of the drive way, bearing the words, “Faith Evangelical Free Church”. She found it! She drove up the driveway, excited to find someone there that she can share her story with. It was a Saturday, and as she went from door to door, she discovered they were all locked up, no one was around. In the rear lawn of the church, she knelt down on the grass and prayed, just a few dozen yards away from where my father knelt and prayed some 20 years earlier. She prayed, “Dear Jesus, thank you for the people who started this church, thank you for the members who gave their money and time to make this church was it is, and I thank you that I met Jesus as a little girl in this church.”

The church my wife and I now attend recently dedicated a piece of land for a future building project, and attending the dedication made me reflect on my father and his faithfulness and brought back many childhood memories of a church that was the hub of my activites in my growing up years. The land dedication to me was more than a gathering of believers to pray for the future plans of Bethany. It is a hollowed piece of ground, where a church will soon be erected, couples will marry, babies will be dedicated and baptized, funerals will be held. With much prayer, the power of the spoken Word and God’s grace, I want my dads prayer of so long ago to be my prayer. That people will drive up the driveway on the way to church and be different people when they drive out. As my dad passed this wonderful heritage down to me, my wife and I wanted to pass it down to our children.

My dad was diagnosed with stomache cancer in the Fall of 2002. He underwent surgery that removed his stomache and today he is cancer free. However one of the side effects of the surgery is his strength has been sapped and he has trouble keeping on weight. Weighing in at 180lbs most of his life, he now struggles to keep his weight at 120-125. Keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers.


{{{Candleman}}}