The very first service of IHC, who to my wondering eyes should appear but my dear friend [arch enemy] Sandy Kolva from Siberia! She and I worked together in Ukraine 21 years ago before both of us got married to our sweethearts from Colorado. Then we disappeared from each other to the uttermost parts of the ends of the earth--only for Sandy to plop down at IHC, of all the thousands of seats there--exactly TWO seats ahead of me!!! "Great minds run in the same path"--or rather--choose seats near each other!!
As usual,
she is always ahead of me, and she and her parents got the seats AHEAD of me! That way, I
could sit behind her, however, and notice how exhausted she appeared from her long airline ride. I thought she was going to faint so I offered for her to rest in our motor home, which she declined, as they had a place to stay. We jabbed and teased each other every chance we got--
Wow, I could write a book about our experiences together in Ukraine. I
told Jonathan later, if he thinks I am a case, he ought to have to live
with Sandy for a while like I did!!!! Actually, we laughed and laughed
and laughed about the memories she regaled us with, without apology! It is so much easier to look back and laugh than live through
everything back there and take it so seriously. I teased Sandy about
managing to get all the attention focused on HER, in the last service when each state and country is called out and represented, when Bro. Sankey told about the can of Russian candy this "wisp of a lady" had given him, and called
out, "Siberia!" and was looking for her. When she yelled, didn't the whole IHC clap for her! She instantly
told Jonathan that I was just envious!!!! Boy, it's a good thing she
lives on the other side of the earth most of the time!
As for us, we wanted Colorado to stand out, of course, since there were so few of us. Jonathan had
suggested to Crystal and me that we yell, "Pikes Peak or Bust!" when
Colorado's state was called out, and I liked the idea, and our friend
Sis. Gault came trotting up to us before service to remind us to yell
really loud since there were so few of us from Colorado, so that is what
we did. So there I am shooting up out of my seat and yelling like only
that easily-embarrassed and goofy Anna can, and my big, strong, sturdy,
brave and wonderful husband who had that idea in the first place, roared but stayed
right in his seat! My mom was listening on internet and heard a yell
but didn't know what we said. We figure people heard something and
wondered, "WHAT IN COLORADO WAS THAT???" I was afraid we killed the meeting!!! (Thanks, Sandy! You could have clapped a few claps for us, since we clapped the loudest for you!) Next time, we'll do my
suggestion and just yell, "YEE-HAW!" (Or else we'll sneak a can of candy
to Mr. Sankey like Sandy did, just to get clapped for!!!!!! Would anyone besides Sandy Mosenthin DARE to do
something like that???)
These photos are out of order, but oh, well, that reminds me of Sandy. Boy, I hope she reads this blog. :)
While we were at IHC, our middle children were in the countryside of Kentucky with friends.
Below, Sam and Elias are feeding the sheep.
The younger boys had a ball riding a wagon down the hills in their yard. What beautiful bushes and trees they have there!
And what beautiful ticks landed on every last one of the children!
Here we are back at IHC again. The second afternoon during the International service, a group of about 12 Christian men from Papua New Guinea were represented. Below them in front of the platform are lined up a whole row of former missionaries to PNG. I knew many of them from the winters my family spent in Florida near Evangelical Bible Mission back about 30 years ago when the EBM mission work in PNG was thriving--the Thompsons, the Bob Brocks, the Weirmans, and others.
Some of these PNG men were products of that mission work. Some have become successful businessmen. Some are in government, and the laws of PNG require the Bible to be taught in their school curriculum! One of the men is the administrator of the largest ACE school in the world. Literally thousands of souls have been saved and the whole nation of PNG impacted with the gospel since EBM's work began there many years ago.
Here the men are getting ready to sing, and joking about how they brought their own guitar along all the way from PNG, because they did not know if the American guitars were the same! Someone is trying to collect about 500 accordians and all sorts of other instruments to send over to PNG.
The Inter-Church Holiness Convention is the longest standing convention in Dayton. Bro. Sankey read a special proclamation that the Mayor of Dayton made about the convention, proclaiming these days of April "Inter-Church Holiness Convention Days" in Dayton! If you will click on this picture, you might get it to enlarge big enough to read this proclamation that was set up in the entry of IHC. What a blessing to have the mayor of a big city in America recognize the holiness convention in such a special way!
We don't like to snap lots of pictures and disturb people around us, but we did get a few shots to put on the blog. Here is a scene from our seat on the side. I preferred to sit over in the center bleachers, as we could see better straight ahead to the platform, but we also had to mind our display between services, so needed to sit near them, and often sat in seats reserved for people who had exhibitions.
Here hundreds of children are singing during the children's time. The theme this year was "Servants of the King," or something close to that. I really liked the choices of songs.
The first evening service, Bro. John Manley had an outstanding message about the fact that if we want God to come down as in Bible times, we must go down before Him.
And then he was transparent about a time the Lord had to deal with him about his tendency to be a "people-pleaser." When he gave the invitation to go down before the Lord, hundreds of people poured forward.
I have never seen anything like it in my life--the aisles full of people surging forward.
Hundreds of people streaming down from the bleachers and going up to pray.
I believe the enormous response was related to his being humble and honest instead of trying to come across like he was some perfect saint and it was just us out there who needed to go down before God.
I could not imagine anyone sitting still in their seats when the invitation was simply to humble ourselves before God. Why are we not all on our knees before God? Do we not all need to humble ourselves before Him regardless of where we are spiritually?
A friend who prayed beside me, when I hugged her afterward, said she felt that the Lord helped her in an area she needed. It was a precious time of humility before God and each other.
Below, Crystal's friend, Hannah Moyer, is the girl furthest to the left in the Allegheny Wesleyan College quartet. The boy next to her is one we know as well, Seth Troyer, son of Andy and Shirleen Troyer, former missionaries to Haiti. We appreciated the AWC music styles. Crystal also really liked the GBS music.
During this service, Bro. Overdorf, the man sitting furthest to the left on the platform, was asked to pray because he was the pastor of a former Allegheny pastor who had just gone to heaven the day before. I was very touched when Bro. Sankey announced the name of the one who died--John Kunselman.
John Kunselman was the man who visited my mom and dad about 47 years ago when I was the baby of the family--and invited them to the church he was pastoring, Zion Wesleyan Methodist Church. My folks have always thought the world of this saintly man--partly based on the love and care he showed them when they moved into the area near him and were struggling about what direction to go as far as church.
I also have a memory of something I will never forget--of the son of John Kunselman, James, or Jim as we called him, when I attended Stoneboro Wesleyan Methodist School back when I was 8 years old.
I went to school that first day of third grade, dressed in my very plain, homemade dark blue and green plaid dress that came to my ankles. And a girl came over to me and boldly asked me why I dressed that way.
Jim came right over to my defense and told the girl to leave me alone!
I almost NEVER had any problem with anyone in that class after that! My sister Dorcas had no end of troubles in her class, especially from a boy in her class who poked fun at her and teased her a lot, but I never had any trouble. Thanks to a boy who was kind and stood up for the underdog instead of being a pain to someone who dressed differently. If I named the boy who made fun of my sister, it would be a shock, because he is now a very good, conservative preacher!! But I have always been grateful to Jim for that one kindly act which may have made the difference for me that one short month I spent at a Christian school before my family moved to South Dakota to home school. When I went to AWC for three semesters, Jim and his lovely wife Lydia were there as music teacher, librarian, and office manager. Their daughter Mary just graduated recently. Hard to believe.
The Kunselmans were a wonderful family. May the Lord comfort them in this time of loss.
We got a snap of this sweet song by the little daughter in the Daniel Edwards family. She sang a song about how God cares for us--very sweet.
A memory that comes back to me is the time 36 years ago when our Morley family
was on the IHC platform together with the former Edwards family, with
Daniel and Esther and Elizabeth and the other brother when we were all children--and our families
took turns singing. Our Morley family sang "I'll Walk With God," and "My
God and I," and perhaps "How Great Thou Art." A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.
I am grateful for all of us who have walked with God and who are still singing praises to Him, whether from platform or from humble pew--still striving to serve Him however He leads.
These three Heath boys astounded us. Parents were no where in sight, but they confidently went up to the microphones when they were called up to sing and they sang beautifully in 3-part harmony an arrangement about the love of God. It was tremendous, stupendous, outstanding--I don't have words.
Jonathan gasped, "Who are their parents?!" Because children don't just get up like that out of the blue!!!
Wednesday morning I think it was I attended the Women of Worth meeting. The theater room that was used was packed out. It was a privilege to sit with Sis. Byler from Mission Helps, and Kathy Sweigart who was representing the Ambassador Program with her husband. Plus, you guessed it, that notorious Sandy Kolva had to plop down two seats over from me, close enough to jab and tease and tell the young lady between us how "bad" I was! Sandy made the girl's eyes open very wide! Help! We had to explain that we had been missionaries together in Ukraine--that is why we were being so crazy!
I really enjoyed Rachel England's talk about God's purpose for us individually. One thing that stood out to me was her bringing out about growth in holiness as well as a crisis experience. She made a statement that I wanted to tuck away in my memory:
"If you fail in the process [of growth], go back to the crisis."
In other words, don't give up if you fail to be perfect, but remember that you have made the choice to be all for Jesus, and if you fail to be Christlike under every circumstance, don't give up, but refer to your root and foundation of consecration. I want to remember that statement. It helped me a lot. Funny how a select choice of words can rivet a truth into your mind and help you so much.
Just another scene of the crowds.
I got in one morning on part of the Bible study by Stanley Grabill. I suggested sitting with Sandy, but she had to wait for her parents. So I found a seat over in the middle on the main floor, and felt like EVERYBODY in IHC was looking at me, as I was all by myself down in that section. I could have dropped through the floor and asked for the tile to cover me up. Oh well. I tried to hang out near people I knew other times.
Stanley Grabill was a fellow student with me at AWC, so it was good to hear him preach after these 21 years! I am so grateful when those who were outstanding in college years are still being faithful to God.
Nathan Purdy was another speaker who had an outstanding message about who is really the God of our lives. Or are we giving our love and attention to other gods--maybe not of wood and stone, but
perhaps to media or technology or work or anything but God.
He talked about how easy it is to feel inferior or superior to others based on foolish and petty things.
"I check my Facebook only every 6 minutes when others check their phone every two. Therefore I am superior." How relevant!
Many of us went to pray after that message, too, as he invited those who felt the need of a refilling of the Spirit. Jonathan had gone up to pray, and I found a place to squeeze in near him by the steps to the platform, and then I just could hardly stop crying.
Dear God, are tears a prayer?
Sometimes you have no words.
There has been so much brokenness in our lives in the last while, so many broken people around us--we have felt overwhelmed and know we need God's grace and Spirit to keep going.
Nathan Purdy's wife Charity, was the daughter of missionaries we worked with in Ukraine. She went to the microphone when testimonies were invited, and was really broken about how she tries to please her husband and keep her home, but she was convicted that it all needed to be about Jesus.
Charity was always sweet and conscientious as I remember her. She used to help me with cleaning and taking care of the little ones when we were in Ukraine. I was glad to be able to give her a hug afterward.
I thought how we wives do feel often like our job of taking care of our home, raising children, and pleasing our husbands are mundane and not very spiritual. I mean, how spiritual does it feel to
mop a floor,
change a diaper,
correct a cranky child,
make a bed,
do the laundry and teach the sounds of letters and cook the 21st meal of the week? None of these type of things are extolled very often as being about Jesus.
But in reality, loving Jesus, for a wife and mother, is to do all the above
with love for Him and our husbands and children,
as Mother Teresa said, "to do the small things with great love."
That is truly about Jesus.
The mass choir including the choirs from AWC, Penn View, GBS, Hobe Sound and UBC.
Leave it to me to get tickled at this long row of baby strollers! I got Jonathan to sneak a little picture of this cute scene of one baby stroller after another parked here. And only later did I notice the little boys hanging over the sides of the bleachers!! :)
Crystal with her friend Larisa Kolva from Siberia where her parents are missionaries.
Crystal and her friend Hannah Moyer.
Oh, boy, there's that Sandy again! Also her parents. I hope she reads this blog before she flies back to Siberia, so she can post some comments to get back at me for all the mean things I said about her!!!
:) :)
What would life be like if it weren't for having people like Sandy around to keep it spiced up?
I don't usually wear crocheted, fluffy scarves like this. I, a simple country lassie, just don't have the class! But Rose crocheted it for me for Christmas, and I thought that at IHC people dress more classy than I am used to doing, so I would wear this scarf there. And wasn't there another lady that I knew, Sis. Mills, who had a scarf like it, almost exactly the same colors! I nabbed her to compare, and she said she had crocheted it herself. Jonathan thought I (or was it the scarf?) looked pretty, but when I saw myself in the reflection of the window outside IHC, I do believe the scarf looked almost as fat as I was--which is not very fat, of course!
Well, I guess that is all I will write about IHC for now. It was a privilege to be there.
