SCHOOL FRIENDS chapter 179

Having made a specific choice to focus on family, education and work there was very little time to make friends with people at school, but there were some.

In was in a small group of six for an evening communications class while at Biola. I liked most of the people and we got to know each other reasonable well. Some hung out after classes, I never did that. That made me one of the quieter communicators. We had been in the same small group for the semester and near the end of the semester were saddled with an assignment that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. We were asked to rate everyone in the group from best communicator to the worst.

Everyone reacted negatively and did not want to do it. I suppose I had the strongest reaction. I told them I believed the assignment would cause great damage. The top two would be very pleased and feel better than maybe they should. The bottom four would be crushed, maybe permanently damaged. There was strong agreement and we decided to call the instructor in and challenge the assignment.

When he came we expressed our position and asked that we be released from the task. He told us that to do it or not do it was our choice, but we would receive a failing grade if we did not comply.

After he left I said I would be happy to receive a failing grade if that was necessary. I did not want to rate the group. A long time was taken to convince me that we had to do it. What about our grade point averages? What would happen if we failed the class? Etc. They voted to proceed. I did not participate. I sat there, but did not vote. I was rated number 5 out of six. One girl was rated worse than I and she was visibly hurt. She left the room crying. I refrained from saying, “I told you so.”

At the next class we were told one group refused to do the assignment and he gave them all A’s. He admitted it was a destructive exercise. I asked why he did it then. He went on a long tangent about the value in resisting peer pressure. Some of the class argued that it was a directive from authority, not peer pressure. He used the Nazi example of lambs being led by the wolves. He must have been Hitler.

I let the debate go on and said nothing more. As I left the class of angry and frustrated students I asked him, “Who is going to put Isabelle hack together?” There was only one more class and I did not return. The group was no longer friends. I passed the class.

I met one C&MA pastor at Talbot. Don Sappington was working in an area church. We became friends and Della and I had them over to the house a couple of times. Since we were both with the C&MA, I guess I saw it as a connection. I ultimately came to work with Don at Salam Alliance.

I had also become friends with Bill Higgins. He had never been in ministry but we had a number of classes together and often continued the class discussion into our next free period. Near the end of the semester he announced that he had received a ministry appointment for after graduation. I was very happy for him, He went on and on about his job description and the make up of the church. When he finally told me it was to Hillsdale Alliance Church in Regina, Saskatchewan, I could not believe my ears. How did he even make that connection?

There was a position opening posted on the jobs board, he sent a resume, they called and talked with him several times and finally he was hired. “Did you go to Regina for an interview.” He had not. It was all done by phone. I asked what he knew about Regina. Not much – so he began asking questions. I was a bit concerned since he and his wife Jan were southern California people. It was going to be a big change. Della and I began to pray for them and what we knew would be a big adjustment. Could they handle the winter? It didn’t matter, as they were moving north. We began to make plans to travel to Regina together. One rental truck would be better than two.

ALL SHOOK UP chapter 169

While we still had the girls living with us, Canadians began to show up because they wanted to “visit us.” I don’t want to question their motives, but if they wanted to see us why did they spend their days at Disneyland?

We were never deceived. We lived very close to the hottest tourist attraction in southern California – Mickey’s House. While few Canadians had ever heard of Knott’s Berry Farm, most ended up taking that in along with Universal Studios. It was a good thing they took off for most of the day, I have very little time for visiting and with the number of people coming, we could not afford to feed them three meals a day. As it was, we usually only had them for breakfast and usually only saw them about 10-11 o’clock at night.

A couple of our earliest guests arrived unannounced. It was the middle of the night, Maybe 3:00 a.m. when we heard the kind of knock on our door that makes you jump and feel like something terrible had happened. Della was startled and I flew out of bed and ran into the living room. I could see flashing lights through the curtains. I decided I really needed to put pants on before opening the door. The knocking continued. With some fear I returned to the front door, opened it and was confronted with two policemen who had flashlights pointing in my eyes. I couldn’t see anything.

“Are you Clyde Walker?” It couldn’t have been me they really wanted I had done nothing that would draw the police. “Yes, is something wrong?” “Do you know these people?” One of the officers stepped aside and turned his flashlight on two very nervous looking guys. Ron Hoskyn and Dale Klassen were standing down the steps like two kids caught with the hands in the cookie jar.

When I saw the guys the temptation to say “No,” was overwhelming. How did they get there? More importantly, why were the police standing with flashlight directed at the guys? What had they done? “Yes, I know them.”

“We needed to check on their story. A neighbor saw them getting into your car and called us because they believed they were trying to steal the car.” The boys said they had just crawled into it to get some sleep. I smiled and then broke into a small laugh. “Officer, I’ll take them in the house. Thank my neighbor for me.”

The guys were left in my charge. Since I had no cell to put them in, we sat in the living room. By that time, Della was up smiling and laughing. “What are you guys doing here?” “We just came to see the area and…” “Wait a minute, back up. How did you get here?” They had hitchhiked and did some walking. When they finally found the house it was late. Ron was depending on his memory for driving us to Buena Park. They considered sleeping in the backyard, but it was colder than they expected. When they found my car unlocked and decided to sleep inside – it would be warmed.

They were right about that. Even though we were pretty far from the ocean, the nights were cool. We were up for a while longer. Della wanted to make sure they had eaten. They were hungry. Naturally, they were teens. She fed them and we heard the whole story. We had no room for them, but grabbed some pillows and blankets and invited them to enjoy the floor.

Rodney found them sleeping the next morning and came in our room to tell us that Ron and some other man was in our living room. He wanted to watch cartoons and they were in the way. We convinced him to crawl into bed with us and in time we all fell back asleep, well Ron didn’t but he was pretty quiet.

The next morning Rhonda was contentedly playing in her room and didn’t know there were people in the living room. I can’t remember the time of year they came but we had time for the guys. These were two guests we were happy to have. It made for great stories.

I can’t remember what we did or even how long they stayed. But it was a very pleasant surprise. We probably took in the area and maybe even went to Disneyland. I know we went to Universal as Dale reminded me that I had a role in one of their quick little movies to demonstrate how films were made. I played a rescue worker and some guy was lying on the ground. Their plan was to cast as many tourists as possible into the scene and then try to sell them the film. I didn’t buy it. It wasn’t that good.

Yes, we were surprised, but pleased to have them. We have always loved having kids from our youth groups return for any reason. I told them the next time they come, knock on and we would let them in.

THE CHURCH chapter 157

The church was an interesting and attractively well kept small church. There were probably about two hundred and fifty people in regular attendance. The building sat in a “T” formation right next to a hospital. There shared part of their parking lot. The church had very few parking spaces. The education wing was to the left and the sanctuary to the right. The pastor’s office was on the second floor at the top of the stairs.

I don’t think I had an office. I could be wrong but I usually just used an available classroom. I never had a relationship with the pastor. I was never in his office except for board meetings. We never met for anything, not even to get acquainted. He never asked to meet with me and he delayed every attempt I made to set up a time to meet. I just wanted to know his goals and dreams for the church. I assumed he had some. I thought they might even be written down somewhere. I think I was wrong. It was clear that lay people ran the various ministries of the church. Faith had served as their Christian education director but it was a big load for her as a full time elementary school teacher. As far as I could tell, the pastor preached. He may have done some visitation and met with some people, that’s what he said, but I didn’t see that he did much else. I honestly didn’t understand his role.

The church had some past difficulties with pastors and let one go that maybe they should not. This made them somewhat cautious in confronting him. Besides, he was a great storyteller and people seemed to enjoy his preaching. He was humorous. I did not find him inspiring and didn’t really pay that much attention, but I laughed with everyone else. I should have been more focused. I know Della never liked the man. The first time she met him he hugged her and she felt contaminated. She promised that she would never let him touch her again. He tried, but she managed to avoid him every time.

I was at the church so seldom and had to make every moment I was there count so I finally gave up trying to meet with him. I didn’t know what was going on, but the church was running smoothly and I wasn’t real sure why they needed me, but I was glad for the job. Della and I debated how involved we should be and whether to even let ourselves get too close to the people since we would only be there two years. The deeper the commitment the harder it would be to leave, and we were leaving. I had a future commitment. In the end we decided is would not be fair to the church or to ourselves if we held everyone at arms distance. We would only have a ministry is we jumped in with both feet. And that we did! That was a good decision. We established some of the deepest relationships of any place we ever lived.

I spent the first several weeks meeting with the heads of the various ministries attempting to get the pulse of the church. The worst problem I could see was that because of everyone’s busy schedules and commitment to their ministries they just weren’t talking to one another and that created some schedule and cross purpose problems. I set out to establish a Christian education committee to pull them together.

I spent a great deal of time with the Rouses and Stanwoods talking about the church. These two families in particular took us in and cared for us in ways we never expected. They invited Della and I to join them and some other couples in their supper club. We were taken to some of the most wonderful and unique restaurants in the area.

 Our first visit to Disneyland was with the Greater Los Angeles Christian Education Association. Faith had secured tickets for everyone at the church who wanted to go. Disneyland was rented for a party and as most first time visitors we were also in awe.