I am in the process of writing my memoirs and was reminded of this remarkable example of divine providence - not really a miracle but an example of God's gracious care and providence.
We were living in Kenya. Nathan, our son, had just graduated from Rift Valley Academy, a school for missionary kids. I decided to give him a trip to remember. We left Nairobi August 3, flying El Al Airlines to Israel and Egypt. Because El Al left in the middle of the night for security purposes, we had booked a room in Mayfield Guest House for Flo and Joy to stay. We all hit the sack for a few hours that evening before the Mayfield taxi would take us to the airport in the middle of the night. Somehow we fell asleep and were suddenly jolted by an awareness that it was time to leave and our ride was waiting outside. We quickly got up, collected our things and off we went.
However, as we drew near to the airport I discovered that my keys were missing, keys to the suitcases and trunks. Desperate, we wondered, what we should do? Since El Al is always full, we feared that if we returned to Mayfield to find the lost keys, we would lose our seats, so we decided to hope for the best. (In the excitement of the moment I am not really sure I prayed about the situation.)
El Al has devised unique ways of protecting themselves from terrorists. Instead of examining everything manually, they asked many questions to determine whether we were suspicious characters. When the El Al officials came to us, I told them our loss of keys and that they would just have to break open the trunk. Their x-ray machines of course revealed pictures of the contents. “No, no,” they said. “You don’t need to break the lock. Just tell us what is inside.” I explained that the locked trunk had a four drawer wooden cabinet which Nathan had made, the drawers being full of cassette tapes. They consulted with each other and were satisfied and waved us through.
In Israel the customs gave us no problem. Fortunately, the suitcases with our clothes had never been locked so we had access to them throughout the trip without breaking any locks. In Israel we walked the streets of Jerusalem and saw the strategic sites from biblical times. We took a bus tour to Masada and stopped by the Dead Sea, floating on the top of the saline waters.
After a few days we flew to Cairo, Egypt. Once again, for whatever reason, they did not give us problems with this locked trunk and fortunately, the unlocked suitcases were left untouched by thieves. After seeing the pyramids, the sphinx, the Cairo Museum with Pharaoh Tut’s remains, and Memphis, we flew up the Nile (going south) to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. This visit to Egypt was most fascinating to me, giving me the feel of ancient history. Nathan always said that I arranged to take him to Israel and Egypt for my benefit. While that is not entirely untrue, I would hope that he would come to appreciate his own opportunity of a life time to visit these historic sites about which we read in books and in the Bible.
Our faithful friend, Al Russell, once again met us in J. F. Kennedy Airport and brought us back to Emmaus, Pennsylvania. When the Lord brought us home to Doris Hilbert’s home (my wife's sister)where we stayed, a letter was awaiting us from Flo. Inside were the keys we had dropped accidentally in Mayfield Guest House when we quickly got up from the beds in panic and failed to look around and take care. God surely was watching over us. It is quite incredible when you think of it! We had left our own suitcases unlocked so they could be used. The one locked trunk was not a problem, even when passing through Israel and Egypt. And now in Emmaus the keys for everything were in hand. God was good to us!
God does not always work on our behalf in this dramatic way, but when he does, we can only say, "Praise the Lord."
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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]
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]
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Learning from Genealogy
For two years I labored to trace my genealogy by names back to the 1500s – my paternal ancestors: Gehman, Hollinger, Horning, Bowman, Huber; and my maternal ancestors: Woodring, Ziegenfuss, Kemmerer, and Handwerk; then tracing my blood ancestors back to the German barbarians. It was exciting and fulfilling and I made some fascinating discoveries.
On my mother’s side, they were all Lutherans, Reformed and French Huguenots by religious conviction. They were also upper class and aristocratic. Vautrins (Woodring) were mayors of towns for generations who spoke several languages, owners of grist mills, successful entrepreneurs. The Kemmerers were the treasurers, the keepers of the wealth of royalty – the immediate officers of the Counts. A Kemmerer trudged off to the Holy Land as a knight during the First Crusade, bearing the official crest which symbolized crowned royalty. The Handwerk family can trace their ancestry to Count Handwerck who bore the title of nobility, whose abode was a forecastle of Greifenstein.
In contrast, all my father’s ancestors were German Swiss who professed their Christian faith as Swiss Brethren, several thrown into prison by Zwingli’s followers. They eventually became Mennonites. They were the peasants, the humble workers of the field – the low class which was ill treated by the landed aristocracy.
[All this 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]
In Scripture we find that BOTH HIGH CLASS AND LOW CLASS stand on level ground before the cross. All are sinners and all need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the Scriptures I have memorized in retirement is Psalm 36:5-9, a marvelously beautiful description of our great God who blesses BOTH HIGH CLASS AND LOW CLASS in one blessed family.
“Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the sky.
“Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.
“O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love.
“Both HIGH and LOW among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
“They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
Both the HIGH CLASS among my maternal ancestors, and the LOW CLASS among my father’s ancestors, feasted on the abundance of God’s house, and drank from the river of delights that flows from God. Both my maternal ancestors in the Lutheran, Reformed and French Huguenot churches, and my paternal ancestors in the Mennonite church had a vibrant testimony hundreds of years ago. What a rich heritage God has given to me.
On my mother’s side, they were all Lutherans, Reformed and French Huguenots by religious conviction. They were also upper class and aristocratic. Vautrins (Woodring) were mayors of towns for generations who spoke several languages, owners of grist mills, successful entrepreneurs. The Kemmerers were the treasurers, the keepers of the wealth of royalty – the immediate officers of the Counts. A Kemmerer trudged off to the Holy Land as a knight during the First Crusade, bearing the official crest which symbolized crowned royalty. The Handwerk family can trace their ancestry to Count Handwerck who bore the title of nobility, whose abode was a forecastle of Greifenstein.
In contrast, all my father’s ancestors were German Swiss who professed their Christian faith as Swiss Brethren, several thrown into prison by Zwingli’s followers. They eventually became Mennonites. They were the peasants, the humble workers of the field – the low class which was ill treated by the landed aristocracy.
[All this 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]
In Scripture we find that BOTH HIGH CLASS AND LOW CLASS stand on level ground before the cross. All are sinners and all need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the Scriptures I have memorized in retirement is Psalm 36:5-9, a marvelously beautiful description of our great God who blesses BOTH HIGH CLASS AND LOW CLASS in one blessed family.
“Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the sky.
“Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.
“O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love.
“Both HIGH and LOW among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
“They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
Both the HIGH CLASS among my maternal ancestors, and the LOW CLASS among my father’s ancestors, feasted on the abundance of God’s house, and drank from the river of delights that flows from God. Both my maternal ancestors in the Lutheran, Reformed and French Huguenot churches, and my paternal ancestors in the Mennonite church had a vibrant testimony hundreds of years ago. What a rich heritage God has given to me.
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