LET’S ALL GO BACK… TO HELPING EACH OTHER

By: E.L. Holley

Progress need not take from us certain past experiences. As we grow, however, we can retain a place for valued moments. We can go forward and still hold to all that is worthwhile and beneficial.

Salt Lake City promises to rekindle the fire of holy desire in our hearts. The determined approach to seeking the face of God and glorifying Him alone can result only in renewed dedication with a strengthened brotherly love. It will be a special conference.

Perhaps it is also time to go back to some practices of our past!

The first General Conference I attended still holds some great memories. I was unable to go financially. As a home missions pastor, I found it difficult to have two nickels to rub together. There was no hope.

That is, until a neighboring pastor asked if I was going to the General Conference. I was embarrassed to explain why I could not. But he said, “You and your wife get ready to go, and go with us.” He would not take no for an answer. We prepared and went with him and his wife.

He had a carry-all installed on his car to accommodate the additional luggage. We drove. (He could have flown!) At the city limits of the conference city, he looked for a motel with two bedrooms and a kitchenette.

Finally, he located “just what he wanted.” It just needed a little clean-up work. We found a store, and he purchased a mop, a broom, Ajax cleaner, and other cleaning supplies. It dawned on me during these efforts at making things commodious that this man could have stayed in the Hilton Hotel and eaten at its fine restaurant. But he bought two big sacks of groceries, and soon we were set up for housekeeping for the next week. It was “just what he wanted.”

I have forgotten the matters discussed on the conference floor, but I have never forgotten the pastor’s acts of kindness. To this day it chokes me to talk about it. The pastor never mentioned the inconvenience of the arrangement or the cost. I was his “fellow pastor” and he cared!

Let’s all go back to the practice of helping a fellow minister attend the General Conference. Let’s find a pastor who needs our helping hand. Maybe you can buy him a plane ticket, let him use your credit card, or provide for his needs in other ways. But you can help a pastor to go to General Conference who otherwise will not be able financially to attend.

These are things we must never lose. Let’s keep them alive!

(The above material appeared in the April/June 1992 issue of FORWARD).

Christian Information Network