WALKING EACH OTHER HOME

Walking Each Other Home

Christine and I have stepped off seven plus decades of time while we have inhabited earth. Our cadence was distinct and independent through our first two decades of life and then we met. Immediately we found a rhythm, a shared stride while dating at college. That uniform gait breezed us effortlessly past other sidewalkers to graduation and marriage. In unison we strode our way through unfamiliar terrain illuminated by faith in One who prescribes our steps. Came work. Came babies. Came Joys. Came hardships. Mutual trust was fundamental to our ongoing unified pace. Not easy for her to walk with a flawed partner for whom perfection was imperative. Not easy for me to recognize the defects in my own march. I didn't see. Not then. I didn't see that she walked to my beat. Always. I didn't see. She was entitled to tramp her own trail. So gifted she was that her own walk could have taken her farther. I didn't see. A trail not separate from but conjoint with mine. That even so we could have trekked together. She was patient. I didn't see and my culture didn't teach me. Exceedingly patient, she. Along our dual journey it was I who received an honour here, a recognition there. And she was always glad for me. Yet she should have been applauded. She deserves such celebration still. Wondrous person, she, I have sensed for a long time, that though we walk together, it is she who sets the pace. Challenges appear as time goes on and while our pace slows down, we each are content in knowing that we are walking each other home.    

© Ron Unruh, January 2019

ONE MAN'S REFLECTION ON A HISTORY OF CLOVERDALE BAPTIST CHURCH

CBC’s first service held in new sanctuary - photo from church website

A memorial service for a friend was my reason for entering the brand new facility that now contains the congregation of the Cloverdale Baptist Church. It is commendably well designed, spacious and sensible. Christine and I were there along with friends from numerous activity and interest groups to honour Ted Hewlett and reflect on our memories of him. Ted and Mary have been members of CBC for many years, dating to the ten-year span during which I served as lead pastor there.

Cloverdale Baptist Church being dismantled 

Well, not truly there, but rather in the structure that has been disassembled to make way for the new building and its required parking. In recent months, having intermittent glimpses of the vanishing older facility, my nostalgic memories gave way to thoughtful thanksgiving for all that happened in 85 years.

Cloverdale Baptist Church was a dream that became realized. It began simply enough, as a home Bible study for interested people whose increasing numbers birthed the notion of starting a Bible-believing church with a building in Cloverdale. These pioneers were convinced this was God's idea which he invested into their willing hearts. First, in 1929 several families rented the Liberal Hall in Cloverdale to hold worship services led by area pastors. The Home Missions Committee of an association known as Regular Baptists had been considering starting a church work in the area, and suggested that this fledgling fellowship affiliate with them. The group was formally recognized as a Baptist work on March 10, 1931.

Church leaders and members rose to the challenge with an eager desire to reach their community, so they visited homes and made contacts and extended invitations to attend and over a period of time, people responded to warmth and friendship, believed the good news that was preached, were baptized as new believers and became active members. Church membership grew throughout the 1940's so one acre of land was purchased at 17400-60th Avenue, where the congregation built a new facility and dedicated it to the Lord on October 11, 1962. That building was a catalyst to further growth which included various ministries for special groups, missionaries commissioned overseas, and daughtering other churches. 

Cloverdale Baptist Church, 1981-2015

Then in August 1981 the congregation moved to the present site which then was comprised of 12.8 acres, and there a new 22,500 sq. ft. building with a five acre footprint that included an auditorium seating 550-600 people, ample parking, a gymnasium, Christian education classroom facilities, a smaller chapel/fellowship room and a kitchen. Christine and I came in autumn 1991 to a church of 200 in a building surrounded by bush and farmland. On March 15, 1992 at an Anniversary Service charter members Helmut and Emily Seiler represented the congregation as they put a match to the mortgage certificate for the building as a symbolic gesture indicated the full payment of that debt, and everyone then praised God for his faithfulness in helping this congregation see accomplish this. The following years became filled with a Daycare program, a School of Music, a Skate Church to reach youth, a highly effective youth program, High Power Soccer camps in the community, a Seniors program and growing Sunday attendance. Bush and fields gave way around us to almost overnight housing communities and shopping plazas. 

A full auditorium and visionary people birthed two initiatives. First, in 1995 the launch of a congregation in Murrayville comprised of 50 adults plus their children who volunteered to go with a pastor and $100,000 to begin a brand new work. 

Southridge Fellowship Baptist

Today Southridge Baptist Church occupies a functional new building in Murrayville. Second, because this was a burgeoning area, blueprints were drawn for a new sanctuary seating 1200 people to be added to the existing building using the courtyard as a large glass-topped lobby. Concurrent with that, plans for the seven remaining acres of grasses, included three three-story saleable multi-unit condominium buildings and one similar size subsidized or affordable housing complex. All four buildings would be centred with a vast park area with walkway making it accessible to the surrounding community.

Cloverdale Baptist Church 2015

Some plans belong to God and some are set aside. The latter one was not realized. I concluded my service in 2001. In recent years, new leadership opted to sell seven acres to a developer, and to meet the demands of today with the construction of this new facility. Many new memories will be made in the years to come, yet for many of us, it is appropriate to be thankful for lives that were changed and challenged, and relationships that were deepened and healed because of God's presence and the faithfulness of his people in all of those earlier years.

OUR HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TRIP was a HAND UP

Two weeks out of December, two years in succession, and Christmas just around the corner. On December 7th Christine and I joined a team of volunteers to fly to Kauai where we served with Habitat for Humanity. Our 16-person group was daily divided on two different work sites, coming together for lunch each day, and of course driving home each afternoon. We met the Habitat leaders each morning in their Hanapepe work yard, did our circle, prayed, and then holding hands, extended out and then up as we recited, "we don't offer a hand out but a hand up."

IF ONLY THEY COULD SEE ME THEN

Cascading brunette hair falling over her shoulder, Christine would smile so infectiously that an entire room became happy. Waspish waist and with long legs under pleated skirts, she would walk with a confident stride. She had me. I mean I was a goner. I wish my children could see her like that and hear her sing with that young voice still finding its strength yet already hitting soaring notes. I wish they could know her with that fresh faith in God that emboldened her to be willing to follow God anywhere.

 

I wonder what my children might have thought of her, of us. And if they could see me as I was, lean, strong body, a sprinter’s legs like lightening on the two hundred-metre track.

And even before I knew Christine, that is, when my hair was full, a curly wisp falling on my forehead and the sides held in place by Brylcream. What might they feel if they could know my passion for art and see my artistic abilities then, and experience my depth of courage in telling God I would set that aside to serve him as a pastor.

EASTER SUNDAY FAMILY BRUNCH CELEBRATION

 As we have done in past years, Christine and I reserved a table for eleven at the Northview Golf and Country Club Buffet. Our five grandchildren eagerly look forward to eating their favourite indulgences and to getting their faces painted, and watching the slight of hand by one of the best magicians in the business. The six adults in our family group also anticipate being able to sample the variety of savouries and sweets. And the day itself, absolutely stellar, clear sky, bright sun, spring blossoms and flowers and weatherman promises of more days of the same. I love doing this for us all but not sure that the economy of it will be manageable after this year. That's life.

Back to two taxes on all items starting today, Monday. As much as people may not have liked GST, this reversion to the tax system is going to be a pain in the neck. And the redo, I remind you is due to the Liberal Party in power bungling yet another business item. The inept quotient of this government is demonstrably high. We have a provincial election in a couple of weeks and presently the Liberals are running behind the New Democrats which may not be the solution to ineptitude. NDP's track record as a party in power is abysmal here in B.C. So the sun is shining again today but it's grey on the horizon.

That, having been said, Easter Weekend was all about Jesus Christ. This is not an afterthought, even though I may have left that impression. Rather, Good Friday, as is customary, observed the events of that day when Jesus was executed by a first-century Roman form of punishment. His body was removed from the cross and placed into a secure tomb. I was invited to preach at Port Coquitlam Chinese Church and Pastor Tin Pong So was my interpreter. The seeming finality of Christ's death was affected supernaturally by almighty God's purpose for Jesus' incarnation, that is, that sin should be atoned, that death should be conquered and thereby Satan could no longer win victories in human lives. All that was accomplished on the morning that Jesus rose to life again, and appeared to more than 500 people over a space of many days. On Easter Sunday morning, Jeff and Gina and their children Kale and Kadence, and Cari and Tim and their children, Kailyn, Ryan and Jayden attended church in the Cloverdale plant located in the Clova Theatre. Christine and I attended our Fort Langley Evangelical Free Church service. Later we met at Northview.


Everyone came back to our Carriage Home for the afternoon. Kids found easter eggs that Grandma placed outside around the complex. The rest of us sat and sipped and talked and enjoyed a delightful day. To God be the Glory.