In my early days, if you were hungry, you ate at home or, if you were taking a short trip, mother would pack a lunch and on your journey you would stop at a friend’s house and have a hot drink (usually tea) with your lunch. If your visit was planned, you would have a meal with them. There was always room at the table for one more.
Category: Stories
Remembering Christmas Past
In my early days of ministering, as well as pastoring a church, I sometimes worked at a secular job. One Christmas Eve, the storekeeper I worked for decided to keep his store open (when all the other stores were closed) and that meant I had to work too. I admit I didn’t have the Christmas spirit! We were open for about three hours and in all this time one lady, who somehow had put off her Christmas shopping, came in with her family allowance cheque and purchased a sizeable order. If we hadn’t been open she would have had next to nothing for Christmas.
Christmas At The Shelburne Youth Center
In March 1988, I took over the position of Protestant Chaplain at the Shelburne Youth Centre. I maintained this position for over eleven years until my retirement in December 1998. This was a part-time position so, along with this, I was pastor at a part-time church.
Christmas Gifts
Matthew 2: 11: “They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
Christmas On Folly Mountain
In the early 1940s, Christmas would always start early on Folly Mountain, about the middle of November, usually before the first snowfall, when the “Christmas tree men” would arrive to cut down Christmas trees and tie them in bunches, all by hand. This was before all this modern machinery that we have today.
My First Sermon
Matthew 10: 38 & 39: “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it.”
One night, Donna and I, before we were married, went to a Young Peoples meeting at our church. The assistant minister was in charge of the service. When we arrived at the door, each person was given a number. We asked what it was for and we were told that it would be explained to us later.