Faith of our Fathers

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

God never blessed me with a family of material wealth, but He greatly blessed me with a rich spiritual heritage. I can trace my lineage back for generations on both my maternal and paternal sides. They were rich in faith.

Pappy and Mammy Gehman lived into the mid 1940s. They were Pennsylvania Dutch, born and reared on a farm. My grandfather became an entrepreneur of the first order but above all he was a staunch Christian. He was generally quiet except when it came to his Christian faith. My dad always took my mother and me on an annual pilgrimage to visit his parents and siblings. Pappy Gehman died when I was eight years old. So I knew him a wee bit. In the last few years I interviewed many of my cousins who knew him well. What a treasure of Christian faith.

He knew the Lord and wanted ever so much for his children to know God as well. In their Mennonite home they had a family altar where all the children gathered for Bible reading and prayer. In their farm house they gathered around their pump organ and sang hymns. The words of one song which Pappy loved were, “Will the circle be unbroken in the sky, in the sky?”

God did work. All his nine children knew and served the Lord. One became a preacher; one married a preacher; and one became a lay Bible teacher in a youth camp for many years. But especially among his grandchildren, many became ministers of the Gospel. Fifteen of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren became “full time” servants of the Lord as preachers, missionaries, and Bible College teachers. Numerous others served actively in the church as lay leaders.

The riches of being born in a vibrant Christian home cannot be calculated. When father and mother teach their children God’s Word, and inculcate in their children the basic precepts of God’s Word, the fruit leads to a rich and rewarding life in this world and eternal life beyond.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Dt 6:4f).

My own father led our family in family worship and taught me Scripture to memorize. This Christian tradition I carried on when rearing Nathan and Joy. The result is evident.

Most of our society’s ills are due to the poor heritage that so many have these days – absentee parents, working parents, single parents, alcohol and drug abuse, absence of godly teaching and example, absence of prayer and Bible reading in the family. When children grow up with this kind of poverty, government can do little. Society deteriorates. Christian families are the bedrock of society.

How blessed to have this Christian heritage passed on to me through the Gehmans, the Woodrings, the Ziegenfusses, the Hollingers and others.

[All my genealogy and history can be found in my 308 page book, “FAITH OF OUR FATHERS: FROM BARBARIAN TO MENNONITE AND BEYOND,” published by Masthof Press. You can purchase the book directly from the publishers or from me. Send a check for $15.00 to Richard Gehman, 1011 Media Road, Minneola, FL 34715]