I fully expected to find an active
Bible quiz team in Vancouver. After all, I had competed against them for the
past three years in Regina and at Internationals. Same girls, same coach! But
they were nowhere to be found. I asked around and could not find anyone who
knew who they were. Some remembered there had been a quiz team, but nothing
more. They did not appear in the church records. I could not figure that out at
all.
 |
| Not the Vancouver CSB guys |
What I did find was a very active Christian Service
Brigade with a group of guys as excited about floor hockey as anywhere else in
Canada. It had to be the indoor equivalent to that grand Canadian sport —
hockey. Ron Hoskyn was the sergeant, and Gord Jarvie was one of the corporals.
Tenth had a great gym and plenty of room to play. The guys got very thirsty scrambling around
for that puck so we rewarded the top squad; the one would with the most achievements,
shares, and best behavior with a coke at the end of the night. That was a huge
motivator; of course only one squad would win which meant most would go home
dehydrated. Well, there was water. I think we got the pop form Bob Remple who
worked for coke. 
I did not teach a Sunday school class regularly, but often filled in
for one adult class. I remember an on going conflict over a comment Ken
Sugarman made one morning. Ken was an offensive lineman for the BC Lions (CFL)
who I saw as living his faith in the real world. He was not living in the
protected and rarefied world of isolated Christians. He casually mentioned that
he usually went with teammates after a game to a bar to wind down. He did not
drink, but he enjoyed being with the guys and did not want to be standoffish. I
could not believe the reaction. He was jumped on for going to a bar. Jesus ate
with publicans and sinners, what was the problem? Jesus turned water into a
wine, what was the problem? Also, and I did not want to bring it up so didn’t, but
the word was that pastor Brooks attended the wedding of a prominent members
daughter and got into the wrong punch bowl. One was spiked and one was not. No,
I did not hear if he was tipsy. I heard it from several sources but who knows
the truth.
I jumped to his defense and as gently as possible attempted to get the
class to see that Ken was being salt and light. He was doing the right thing. A
few came around, but many were not so sure a Christian ought to ever be found
in a bar. I understood their perceptions as I grew up in that same environment
but wanted them to see a much larger world, a world where believers mixed and
reached out to their friends and neighbors. It was no secret that several
church attendees were drinkers, why come down so hard on a man trying to
witness to his teammates. Was it because he was a prominent member of the
community?
Ken and I were only acquaintances, but I admired him for how he lived.
When I did leave the church and received a farewell love offering, more than
50% of that gift came from Ken. Who gave what was to be a secret, but Kay sent
me a list of who gave what so we could send thank you notes. Subtly, she also
wanted me to know who gave nothing because of a great deal of hoopla from one
person who promised what he did not deliver. Della and I only laughed. We were
not surprised at all.
There was a sliding glass window between my office and the secretarial
office. Pastor Brooks was the only pastor in the Canadian Alliance still on a
love office salary basis. He had no fixed salary and what he received did not
go through the church books. No one really knew what he was making. While that
was how all pastors were paid in the early days of the C&MA in Canada,
those days were over, except here. There was a person who came every week to open offering envelopes and remove the
money marked “pastor” They sat on the other side of the window from my desk
facing my office. I could not see what was being done without standing up, but
I could hear them talking to themselves. I had ideas, but never knew for sure.
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