Back in the middle 1980s our church was known as Calvary Chapel and we were worshiping in the brick building located between the Waterloo Elementary School and the Waterloo Library (now owned by Head Start). Our church was small and I served as the Jack-of-all-Trades in the maintenance end of things. This building, constructed in the early 1950s, had overhangs on both sides of the sanctuary which concealed long fluorescent tubes that reflected light off the ceiling.
One day one of those light tubes needed replaced. I got out the stepladder and crawled up there to replace it. While up there I discovered a Welch’s grape juice bottle cap that said, “Howdy’s Favorite Drink”, and a picture of Howdy Doody. Apparently some kid had thrown it up there decades earlier when his/her parents were preparing communion.
I kept that cap in my office as a reminder that our church is always about children. When the Head Start system purchased the old building and renovated it, I was asked to officiate at the official dedication of the new Head Start program. After I had finished speaking, I presented the Howdy Doody bottle cap to the Director of the Head Start program reminding her the building had always been about children. She was delighted.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever found?
Tags: children, communion, Howdy Doody
A young man was accepted for the African mission field and reported at New York for passage on a ship. On further examination he learned that his wife could not stand the climate. Heartbroken, he prayerfully returned to his home and determined to make all the money he could to be used in spreading the Kingdom of God over the world.
His father, a dentist, had started experimenting, on the side, with an unfermented wine for the communion service in his church. The young man took the business venture over and developed it until it assumed vast proportions – his name was Welch.
Today, the Welch family still manufactures the famous ‘Welch’s Grapejuice’. He has literally given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the work of missions.
Sometimes it is trouble and disappointment that leads us down the path God has chosen for us.
Tags: communion, missions, trouble
Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with Neal Armstrong’s historic statement as he stepped onto the moon’s surface: “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” But few know about the first meal eaten there.
Buzz Aldrin had brought aboard the spacecraft a tiny communion kit provided by his church. Aldrin sent a radio broadcast to earth asking listeners to contemplate the events of that day and to give thanks.
Then, in radio blackout for privacy, Aldrin poured wine into a silver chalice. He read, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5). Silently, he gave thanks and ate the bread and drank from the cup.
God is the God of all creation. Buzz Aldrin celebrated that experience on the surface of the moon. Thousands of miles from earth, he took time to commune with the One who created, redeemed, and fellowshiped with him.
How far from God do you feel today? He’s really right there. Embrace Him.
Tags: communion, hero, moon