If you are here by invitation of a friend or family member who worships here please know that you are welcome. If you just happen to be visiting Napa this weekend you are also welcome. If you are a former member who has chosen to come for this special Homecoming Sabbath you are very welcome, and if you are currently a member here then you know you are always welcome, loved, and valued.
You are in for a real treat today. We have the Bay Area Men’s Chorus with us this morning and that is always a treat. You’ll get a shorter than usual sermon (maybe) and that’s not bad either. If you decide to shift over to the school gym after our service here you will be treated to a fantastic fellowship meal and the chance to visit, catch up on news, share prayer requests (we don’t gossip here), and just be part of the family. If you live in the area we would like to extend a warm and sincere welcome and invitation to join us week by week. You won’t find a better or more loving and accepting church family anywhere.
Last Sabbath I was almost sorry that we invited John and Cristina to come and work with us here. (I’m just kidding you know.) The whole worship experience was marvelous and each of their ministries to us as a congregation was just wonderful. We have been blessed beyond measure in being able to have a completed team once again and especially to have the quality, training, and experience that comes with them. Of course I have more experience in years than both of them put together, but they bring a level of current thinking that we truly need. I loved hearing the comments many of you made as you came out of the sanctuary last Sabbath. “Best sermon you never preached, Pastor,” was one often shared. You guys are such great kidders. You were kidding weren’t you? In all seriousness it is wonderful to know that when I am not in the pulpit that the message of God’s grace and the truth about His character will come shining through. Again, we are blessed!
As I write this today, Monday, I am recalling that it was 34 years ago today that we started ministry in Iowa. My, I wish you could see some of the memories that come to our minds. Last night Ingrid and I started sorting through some large plastic boxes that we have moved around for years so that we could see what truly needs to be kept and what needs to go. I found a stack of letters that we had written to each other over the first three months of ministry. Our first assignment was as an intern in the Davenport, Iowa district with Dubuque as the smaller church that I would primarily care for. Well, when we arrived the parsonage was not available so we had to rent a house temporarily. They then informed me that I was to go to Nevada, Iowa (150 miles away) to work with the evangelist. I was given a room in the boy’s dorm and an introduction to ministry. When the meetings were over the pastor immediately left town without bothering to give notice to the conference office. I got a call from the president informing me that I was now the interim pastor of the Academy church. This was a congregation of 350 and here I was with no experience. In fact I had been a Seventh-day Adventist for less than two years at that time.
The real trial came from the fact that Ingrid and I were so far apart in our new role. I was allowed to go to Davenport every other weekend, leaving after church on Sabbath and returning on Tuesdays. On the other weekends Ingrid came to Nevada with Hanna and the children. We had a car with no heater and this was in the cold months of October through December and on into January. When they came to visit me we were given access to an empty house on campus with no furniture and no heat. Mattresses were made available to put on the floor and we had to supply the bedding. Wow, those were sure the good old days!
As I read those letters from a young pastor’s wife expressing the loneliness and frustration of having to make decisions by herself and yet encouraging me in the work we were doing together, it brought tears to my eyes. It was a tough way to start a new career to be sure, but it did teach us that if we just hang in there and trust God He will always help us through.
I had six more months of internship when I finally got to rejoin Ingrid in Davenport, but they pulled me away twice more to work with the evangelist in other campaigns. In addition we managed to hold a series of our own in Dubuque and the greatest thrill of our lives was the one baptism that resulted from that effort. Now we knew we were truly in the ministry. I thank God every day for the wife who has stood at my side and put up with a lot through years of service. Well, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since those days and we continued to sort through all kinds of memorabilia from those years of pastoring across the country and overseas. What a life it has been thus far, and now we feel like we have been allowed to come home to Napa.
I know when we are in heaven we are not going to remember all the pain and suffering and hardships that we endured here, but I hope we have some recollection of the joyful parts of the journey and even how God’s Spirit held us through the valleys. That is going to be some kind of Homecoming to be sure. I know it won’t be like this, but I can imagine Jesus sitting down with us and opening a big box and showing us all the keepsakes He has kept. He’ll bring out pictures and report cards and brochures of meetings we have conducted and sometimes there will be tears of joy in His eyes as He recalls past events. Then He’ll somehow wrap us all in His arms and say, “Welcome home, children. I have waited for this day for so long.”
