In 1962, my dad and several other men under the leadership
of Brother Grant Nelson, helped to start Faith Baptist Church in Joppa,
Maryland. After meeting in Pete Beavers’
basement for several months, the new church had enough money to buy property near
the old Joppa post office. The ten acres
had a house, a goat barn, and a two-story block building used as a turkey
barn. The men shoveled out truckload
after truckload of turkey manure before they got down to the floor. But the work was a blessing in disguise: they
sold the manure to a farmer and made money for the renovations. Every Saturday was spent from daylight to
sunset working on the church property.
As a junior high boy, I learned how to be a Christian man by watching
and listening to those men as they worked on the new church. They sweated and laughed and worked together
to get the job done. What an impact on
my life! One particular Saturday, two
men were cleaning out the old hand-dug well. My dad had made a windless to
crank the buckets of sludge up and out.
Another man was down in the well digging while the bucket was being
emptied topside. My dad would unhook the
full bucket, set it aside, hook up an empty bucket, and then carry the full
bucket away from the well to be dumped.
But as he turned his back, the weight of the empty bucket was just enough
to overcome the resistance of the windless, and while no one was watching, the
bucket began to descend on its own. As
the rope played out of the windless it added more weight, and the bucket
plummeted out of control. My younger
friend, Richard, boldly reached out grabbing the rope stopping the bucket’s out
of control descent. Mt dad secured the
rope, and another man triaged Richard’s hand.
Richard’s palm was scraped, blistered, and bleeding from the rope burn,
but he was fine otherwise. Quick
thinking on Richard’s part was fortunate for the man down in the well. But Richard had a reason for his quick
action: the man at the bottom of the well was his dad. Hey, Richard’s brave concern reminds me of
the dear Lord’s concern for lost sinners like me. Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Thank you, Lord, for your love for me! Thank you for your sacrifice on Calvary!
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