(It was in Korea where Bill used his extraordinary talent of fishing- with hand-grenades!)

Bill and wife Lucy came to faith in Jesus through the kindness of total strangers while out Christmas shopping in Anchorage one evening.

 

   Bill smiles when he recalls the day when his friend dropped by and told him that he was going into town (A small town in Ohio) to enlist in the military. He suggested that Bill come along and join up too. He figured he didn’t have anything better to do that day so he and his friend went in and joined the Army. Of course, being only 17, he had to lie about his age to get in. Things were a little easier that way back in 1951. Later that day, he suggested to his friend that he really didn’t want to be in the Army. He had heard of their reputation for liking to crawl in the mud and eat nasty food and it was not really what he wanted to do. The town recruiting station was ran by just the one guy they had signed up with so they called him up and told him they would rather be in the Air force instead. It was simply a matter of checking one box instead of the other so, he simply switched it and their Army career was over.

 

   Bill spent the next 26 years, 1 month and 7 days in the United States Air force. He served in the Korean and Vietnam wars and worked as an airborne electronics specialist. He participated in the development of the famous SR-71 Blackbird, supersonic reconnaissance plane. He also participated in development and implementation of various missile and radar systems. His work took him and his family to stations in various U.S. States as well as Korea and Japan, with other stops along the way in places like Hong Kong, The Philippines, and Thailand. My favorite story was the one mentioned above where he and his friends used to go fishing in lakes while stationed in Korea with hand-grenades. I didn’t ask him what kind of shape his dinner was in by the time they finished ‘fishing’.

 

   One evening, toward the end of his time in the service, Bill and his wife Lucy were in Anchorage doing some Christmas shopping. He recalls that it was a very cold night with temperatures down to around –25. They decided to go to a local steakhouse for dinner and get out of the cold. They ended going to one of the most popular places in town and on top of it, the restaurant was celebrating their 25th anniversary and was having a big promotion special that night. The line was very long to get in. The long line, their aching feet and cold temperatures made the wait seem all the longer.

 

   A couple who had already been seated, noticed them in the line and sent word with one of the restaurant staff that Bill and Lucy would be welcomed to join them at their table if they didn’t mind sitting with total strangers. They felt a little awkward at first, but agreed to join them. The two couples had a wonderful dinner together and Bill and Lucy were invited over to the other couple’s home that same night to continue their visiting and also to help them with the complicated wrapping of a chair they were preparing as a gift. (They never got around to the wrapping.)

 

   The friendship grew over the next few months. The couple was not shy to share that they were Christians but they didn’t push their faith either. It was a heartfelt and genuine friendship. Bill and Lucy never once felt tricked or ‘set-up’. The couple certainly wished for them to know about their faith and they were praying for a door to open so they could share it but when they asked them to sit with them at the dinner table that night; it was truly a gesture of kindness that was just as natural to them as breathing. The couple did not put on some sort of act or show in order to ‘lure them within preaching distance’ so they could pounce on them as a captive audience at their table.

 

   It was not until nearly a year later that the door really opened for them to share the gospel in a more thorough presentation. Lucy had grown up in a Christian family but had not been actively walking in her faith for a long time. One day, while Bill was away on a fishing trip (without grenades this time) Lucy went to a meeting and the Lord showed her that she needed to re-dedicated her life to the Lord.

 

   Years prior, Bill had attended a crusade where he had gone forward where he prayed to ask Jesus into his heart. He believes he was sincere at the time but afterward; he had never followed through or done anything about it. When he came back from fishing he was surprised to learn about Lucy’s experience but agreed to begin going to church together.

 

   Bill had retired from the Air Force and had started a new career as oil field instrumentation specialist. His work involved installation and maintenance of the equipment used on oil drilling rigs to monitor things such as, well depth, drilling speed, and mud-pressure.

 

   He also had by now re-dedicated his life to the Lord as well and found himself becoming much more active at church. He eventually found himself serving on the church board in a position which he held for many years after. He still serves faithfully at the same church as one of the main ushers and Lucy is an indispensable part of the church’s greeting and hospitality ministry. He and Lucy still have fond memories of the day they met their good friends who invited them to join them for dinner that night and many many dinners thereafter. The wife has since gone on to be with Jesus, and the husband has moved out of state. Yet, they still are close to the couple’s kids and grandkids who to this day attend the same church that their parents did.

 

 They have also taken on the same ministry approach as their mentors. They are some of the friendliest people you will ever hope to meet. There are some whose ministry is to go out and bring people into church. There are some whose ministry is to love and make people feel welcomed when they get there. These are the ones’ who make people STAY in church. They themselves stayed in church because of the ministry of a couple that was a good mixture of BOTH ministries.

 

   There are some in the greeting and ushering areas of ministry who look at their function as simply to shake the person’s hand, give ‘em a bulletin and point them to a chair. I think Bill and Lucy go further because someone went further in their lives. They will shake your hand at the door, give you your bulletin and make sure you find your seat, but they also take time to come up and ask how you are doing and they REALLY want to know! They take a genuine interest in people’s lives and it shows.

 

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   Jesus said, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain;…” (John 15:16)

 

   Bill and Lucy are fruit that has remained from the ministry of a couple who were willing to reach out and show kindness and friendship to total strangers. Bill and Lucy have themselves become ministers of kindness and friendship and have been blessing to countless souls over the years and their fruit remains also. I know because I have personally been a beneficiary of their work and fruitfulness in the Lord’s service.