Today we said a final goodbye to our good friend Dennis Strauser who was a member of the Jonestown Male Chorus.  Dennis stepped into eternity on September 14th after a long battle with cancer. He had been a member of the chorus for the last four years. I remember him joining the chorus and initially singing next to me in the First Tenor section for the first year or so and then deciding to move to the Baritone section. He was always a very positive and happy-go-lucky guy. He wore a “ton” of wrist bands that reminded him and others of the various good causes and charities in which he was involved or supported.

His “Celebration of Thanksgiving” service today was a real blessing. We learned a lot about Dennis, things we didn’t get to know about him from just spending time at chorus rehearsal on a Tuesday night and the occasional concerts. Dennis apparently loved to dress up in extravagant hats when he would go out and minister with his guitar for various holidays. I’m sure he spread a lot of joy at the many retirement homes and hospitals he visited.

Dennis was also a chaplain for the Boy Scouts of America at Camp Boeshore in Northern Lebanon County PA. A spokesman for the Scouts spoke highly of Dennis’s spiritual service and the blessing he was in giving just the right verse of Scripture or appropriate encouragement in every situation.

An extra special blessing today was to actually hear Dennis sing his favorite hymn “It Is Well With My Soul”. His pastor had recorded Dennis playing his guitar and singing this song for her at his home just a short time ago, apparently as Dennis knew his time on earth was inevitably coming to a close. This song speaks of trusting in Jesus in very difficult situations and circumstances and the fact that you can know, through faith in Christ, that it can be well with your soul no matter what your future holds.

Now to the “coincidence”…. The chorus sang two songs to honor Dennis in the service today. Our director picked the two songs each for a specific reason. The first song entitled “Cool Water” we sang at the beginning of the service and it was a song that Dennis, in previous concerts, had sung the solo portions of the song. One of his fellow Baritones stepped in and did the solo and it was a nice touch done in his honor.

The second song we sang at the very end of the service as a kind of a last hurrah or crescendo. Our director picked the song because it’s one of the most inspiring songs we perform and, if I must say so myself, we do it excellently! Our audiences have been thrilled and lifted to emotional heights every time we do it (that goes for the singers and director as well :). In fact, a lady commented to me afterwards, “I just wanted to jump to my feet and applaud!” Can you guess what song it was? Yes, it was Dennis’s favorite “It Is Well With My Soul”. Our director introduced it appropriately when he said, “God works in mysterious ways”! He had unknowingly picked Dennis’s favorite song! He didn’t know but God did!

That’s the kind of loving God we know and serve. He is Omniscient and Omnipresent and Omnipotent. He loves us with an everlasting love and coordinates the circumstances of our lives pouring in His grace and love all along the way like a mighty fountain. I hope it is well with your soul today.

Here are some pictures of the Jonestown Male Chorus that include our brother Dennis from 2017 back to 2013.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Check out other messages here: New Blog Index

 

Miss Elinor Mansfield was a night club entertainer who hobnobbed with Hollywood celebrities. Her testimony re-emphasizes the hollowness of Hollywood and the darkness of the bright lights. Here’s her story.

What a wonderful thing it is to know that I have been forgiven of my sins! Oh, thank you, Lord for saving my soul! It was hard for me to become a Christian because it had been so easy to be a sinner. I loved the world and all it’s glamorous attraction. I enjoyed all the pleasures and people attached to it. I could see no harm connected with it.

I was eighteen years old when the devil called me to serve in his kingdom. Before I was seventeen, his earthly handsome agents had been preparing me and teaching me to enjoy the “privileges” of his courts. I learned to do everything well, to dance, to drink, to smoke and I was popular. And I thought my parents were stuffy, old fashioned, narrow minded church goers. I was breaking their hearts with my folly.

From the time I can remember, I was taken to Sunday School. My father was choir director, and my mother was church soloist, and both have always been good Christians. I remember I used to love Sunday School when I was a child. But I started growing up. School and different people held new and fascinating attractions for me. I had started studying piano when I was five years old. God had given me a dramatic and musical talent. I was developing it to be sure, but I was not using it for His glory.

At the age of six I began to appear on the stage, learned to feast on applause. I worked twice as hard for each performance so I might keep that applause and gain for myself still more recognition. Soon I was presented in real concerts. What for? I didn’t know. In the mean time all love for God, His Church, His people, had made a quiet exit backstage. I was given the part and I became a prodigy of satan.

After a year of college I decided I wanted to take a trip to the West Coast. I was barely eighteen, and because my parents loved me and thought it might help me, they let me go. I bounded off with a girl friend, and I felt that at last I was free and could go and do as I pleased.

Such a high and extravagant time we had! Such glamour we saw! Famous people in swanky night clubs! The devil’s world! I associated with the people of the movie land and stage world, and, before I knew it, I was one of them, playing piano and singing in one of the “high class” night clubs in California. It was new, and so exciting, I thought. People watching me, smiling, clamoring, becoming “my public.” And instead of living for each Sunday, as I had once done, I lived for each payday, so I could go and buy glamorous clothes and accessories so that I could be as well dressed as all the highly paid night club singers were expected to be.

I lived the life of a night club actress. I reigned as a princess in the court of the devil; sleeping by day, being the life of the party by night; cocktail parties for my pleasure, card parties for my leisure; attending all social affairs; and accomplishing….. nothing! What goal did I have in mind? I do not know.

But soon I began to grow tired. The brightness began to become dull, tarnished; and so did I. I decided I needed a rest, and headed home. On my way home I flew through a terrible storm. I sat beside a young man who was studying to be a preacher. I was strangely impressed when he almost laughingly said, “I’m glad I’m studying to be a preacher.” Just the thought of religion did something to me. It was like a crashing modulation from a mournful minor key to a majestic key. Religion? Why it hadn’t occurred to me.

God? I awoke to the fact that I had taken Him so for granted that I had forgotten Him completely. That was it! That was the reason for my state of being! And God didn’t cause it, I caused it and was suffering the consequences. I figuratively missed the bus, had to return barefoot, and my feet were scorched. I had turned aside from God and had been whipped to my knees as a result. Something within me exclaimed, “You must get right with God!”

It was then that I found what I had been hunting so desperately. Perhaps it was that I found the key to the door I had locked so long ago. I had been serving the wrong god, with the wrong people. I had always heard that God forgives sin. And I remembered the story of Christ’s death on the cross to save the world from sin. It had been to me only a childhood story to remember. But now I suddenly realized the true meaning of it. Without Christ the world was lost, I was lost, only through Him might my sins be forgiven, I must confess those sins to Him, I must repent from my sins, I must put my whole trust and faith in Jesus, that Divine Savior who shed blood for me.

I could hardly wait to get home and be assured of the glorious truth of eternal salvation. I must admit that it was difficult at first to be a part of God’s congregation, but I was determined to try Him and prove Him as He has challenged us to. It was my only hope, and it worked! Thank God for His patience and mercy!

How about you? Have you been looking in the wrong places for fufillment and peace? Look no further! Jesus Saves!

Looking for assurance of your eternal destiny? Check: Out Behind the Barn!

Also see a full list of available blogs: New Blog Index

 

I was going through my bookshelf when I came across a book published in 1946 which my pastor had given me that was being purged from the church library. The title was “I Was Born Again” compiled by a Norman A Wingert. It contained scores of testimonies of people, some famous others not, and how they came to trust Jesus as their Savior. I’ll be publishing some of these in the hopes that they will be as much of a blessing to you as they have been to me!

A pastor tells this story.

Frank _____ had been a member of the church which I served for about fifteen years. During a large part of that time he had served as secretary of the Sunday School and pianist for the church. He was very loyal. Rain or shine I could depend on him for both morning and evening services, and no one listened to the Scripture expositions more attentively than he. The more earnest and evangelistic the messages were, the more appreciative he seemed to be.

But somehow I felt that something was wrong inside. One rainy evening I called at the home. That evening I asked him bluntly, “Frank, are you a Christian?” “No, I cannot say that I am,” he replied. “Why not are you a Christian?” I asked. Revealingly he countered, “Well pastor, I wish you could tell me!” I referred him to John 1:13 and 14 and asked him, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that He became a man; that He died not only for the sins of the world but for your sins?”

He answered, “I believe all of these things.” “Have you ever confessed your sins and received Him as your Savior?”

“Yes,” he replied, on two or three occasions I said to the Lord, ‘Take me as I am; I accept You as my Savior from sin.’ But nothing happened.”

He had evidently been looking for some immediate feeling of ecstasy of joy or other manifestation. I said to him, “Frank, do you know what is your trouble? You do not believe God. Although you have fulfilled the requirements for salvation mentioned in these verses, you do not believe that God is ready, now, to give you the right to become His son, and you are not ready to claim your right. In other words, you do not believe that while you are doing your part, God is doing His.”

He looked at me for a moment, tears welling up in his eyes. “I never saw it that way before,” he said. “Is it as simple as that?” We knelt in prayer and poured out our hearts in thanksgiving for the utter simplicity of the way of salvation.

For more on the topic of Assurance of Salvation check out: Out Behind the Barn!

The next testimony is about how a Hollywood “Starlet” came to know Jesus!

Corrupt communication! That’s what the Apostle Paul calls the trash talk that spews from our mouths on a daily basis, whether it be verbally, on the internet or with our thumbs on our smart phones! Paul, on the contrary, exhorts us this way, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but (instead) that which is good for the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers”. (Eph 4:29 KJV)

Our words should encourage and build up rather than tear down! I was driving my special needs school student transport van yesterday, and I passed a church sign which read “Be a fountain, not a drain”! I actually laughed out loud! Not in derision for sure, but that message just hit a chord with me!

Let me take a right turn and move our conversation in a different way with a question. Do you include God or Jesus in your daily verbal communication? Or on the other hand, do you stay “incognito” or “under cover” as a Christian by not ever mentioning the Savior or our Heavenly Father in your speaking with others? Our communication with others can let them know of our faith in Christ in a very natural way. Sometimes as a result, our words can open a door of fellowship with a fellow believer or even be a doorway of faith to a searching person who may step through to find more out about our Savior.

Back to my van run yesterday. I picked up the aide who was assigned to help the special needs student who we were transporting, and within a minute or so she mentioned in passing that she was “thankful to the Lord” for something. Of course that reached my spiritual antenna very quickly and within minutes we were having fellowship around our Savior! Just with a few words the door was opened to share “edifying words of grace to one another” as the Apostle Paul encouraged us to do!

My uncle distributes mints to business establishments as a fund raiser for the Lions Club. One day he told me that he was in a local bar (yes a bar! :)) to refill the mint container and that he had given a “witness” while there. Now to my mind “giving a witness” was presenting the plan of salvation, the Romans Road or Four Spiritual Laws! But when I questioned him he indicated it was none of those but was the fact that he brought up God’s name in a positive way. He simply planted a spiritual seed, if you will, for the hearers in that establishment to consider.

He was doing what the writer of Psalms said to do, which I came across in my quite time this morning in Psalm 44:8 where he said, “In God we boast all the day long, And praise Your name forever.” My uncle “boasted in God” and who knows what those “edifying” words may have accomplished in eternity? Only God knows!

So let’s “Be a Fountain, not a Drain” in our communication today and may our words point others to the “Fountain of Life” our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Check out more inspiring messages at New Blog Index

You probably never really totally regain your previous self after almost dying from Melanoma Cancer, but my brother Pooch has gotten very close! It’s a year this month since he was declared tumor free after an incredibly arduous and torturing regimen of treatments to attack the scores of tumors that were attacking his body back in April of 2016. The tumors were actually eating away at his rib cage! Doctors said his body actually re-grew the bone that the tumors had attacked!

We Wolfe Brothers (Irene’s boys) have breakfast together the first Saturday of the month and even during his treatments Pooch would somehow drag himself (with the help of his son Matthew) to our times together. We saw him in the deepest of deep valleys and little by little through his strong faith in Jesus and the prayers of the Saints we saw him climb back out of that pit until just yesterday he was back to his jovial and jesting self as you can see by his sly smile above!

He has gained back all the weight he lost (around 50 pounds of fat he says:) and is back doing projects (for Thelma) and for the ministries he has so often supported. They even spent a week at the Child Evangelism Fellowship camp serving in the dining hall kitchen. Though they needed some extended “recliner time” when they got home!

Their lives back in Green Point in the middle of their 80+ acre mountain hideaway has it’s ups and downs. Just the other night they heard a banging behind them on the picture window of their living room and amazingly beheld a huge black bear on his hind feet pounding on their window! How’d you like to see those beady eyes staring in at you? The bear was trying to reach an elusive Humming Bird feeder just out of its reach! Pooch spread a pepper mixture repellant around the house and hasn’t had too much trouble with the big guy since!

Thank you SO much for your continued prayers for Pooch as he still deals with a 24/7 headache from a case of Lyme disease which has been with him for years. Even before and after the Melanoma. Maybe we could entreat our Great God to grant this worthy servant of the Lord some long desired and prayed for relief! Though like Job, I know Pooch would say “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!” (Job 13:15)

Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You. Psalm 33:20-22 (NKJV)

Check out my “New Blog Index” to read some of the 144 blogs I’ve posted since June of 2015. New Blog Index

The above picture is of my brother Larry’s office where he studies (his well worn Bible) and prays for the many people and requests which the Lord puts on his heart. On Monday he had a heart attack and is still in the hospital. Please pray for him. He wrote the below very extensive Bible study from his hospital bed! He sends these devotionals out daily to scores of truckers which he meets at his truck stop ministry on I-85 in South Carolina.

From Evangelist Larry E. Wolfe:

This Psalm is regulated by three positive pledges David made in response to the great deliverance the LORD gave Him from ‘All his enemies, and from the hand of Saul’: ‘I will love Thee O LORD my strength (v.1)…I will call upon the LORD (v.6)…Therefore will I give thanks unto Thee, O LORD’ (v.49). The first pledge he makes is the only time this statement is found in the Word of God: ‘I will love Thee O LORD’, but it is not surprising for David to be the one to utter this pure outpouring of his great devotion to the LORD for he, above all others in the Scripture, received the most recorded personal revivals, compassionate forgiveness, manifold blessings and powerful deliverances through the never-ending mercy of the LORD.

 

And here, this promise of love for his LORD demonstrates his unwavering affection and devotion for the LORD Who alone could provide him with these supernatural rescues from impending danger and death. Saul was his chief enemy and made multiple attempts on his life when David was just a young man. It was not for his insurrection against this first king of Israel, but instead it was because of his loyalty to king Saul that he was wrongly pursued and hunted as prey by this insanely jealous man. But, through it all, David received these miraculous deliverances and this Psalm is his love song to his LORD for all that He had done for him as it thoroughly describes his deep distress and the LORD’s working in the warfare and the vicious assaults of the enemy. His initial pledge in (v.1) is followed by an eight-fold description of David’s LORD: ‘The LORD is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my Strength, in Whom I will trust; my Buckler, and the Horn of my salvation, and my High Tower.’

 

This is the most extensive list of titles recorded in the Word of God and underlines the depth of David’s understanding of the person of God. He sees God as The Unchanging Rock, The Place of Refuge, The One Who is able to rescue him from danger, the One he worships, his Source of Strength, the Object of his faith, his Protecting Shield, and the All Powerful One Who is able to provide deliverance, and the God Who is able to keep lift him up out of reach of the enemy. This full and complete declaration of David provides us with a real good perspective of how we should view the LORD in order to receive the blessing of His person in our own everyday circumstances. This is one of the basic reasons David is said to be ‘A man after God’s own heart’ for He understood His person and utilized this knowledge in his own daily experience. Then in (v.3) he makes his second promise: ‘I will call upon the LORD, Who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from my enemies.’

 

This familiar action of David’s demonstrates his dependence on the LORD and his recognition of the LORD’s value in giving him the necessary deliverance from his foes.  His immediate illustration of the LORD’s working is seen in (v.4-6) ‘The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed =me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears.’ The multitude and magnitude of David’s troubles are unfolded here including death, ungodly men, and hell itself. But, he persisted in making his plea to God knowing that He would hear and respond, and respond He did as described in the next lengthy section of this Psalm (v.7-19).

 

God’s immediate and thorough actions are mighty and miraculous in nature including shaking the earth, emitting smoke, fire and coals, coming down with ‘darkness under His feet’, riding upon a cherub, flying upon the wings of the wind, making the darkness and thick clouds His secret place, with His illuminating Shekinah glory going before Him, hail stones, thunder and coals of fire accompanying ‘His voice’, sending out arrows and lightning scattering and shattering the enemies of David, the mysterious ‘channels of water’ and the ‘foundations of the world’ were uncovered by His ‘rebuke O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils’. All this awesome demonstration ushers the God of heaven into the scene of David’s dramatic rescue.

 

Then, ‘He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me.’The actual deliverance of David is described in detail here, delineating God’s intervening presence, He personally sent, took, drew out and delivered him from this multitude of enemies that he described as strong, hateful and too strong for David to deal with on his own. They went before him in the ‘day of my calamity’ and then he gives a personal description of his God describing Him as his ‘stay’, the steady and strong anchoring place of David!

 

He also gives a beautiful description of the actions of the LORD telling us of the nature of the place God put him as large, broad, a place of prosperity and protection, with plenty of room for him to realize the full blessings of his God. The bottom line here is the found in the word ‘deliver’ which means to rescue or save from destruction or distress. Yes, God delivered David from his enemies, but the reason for this mighty display of God’s power is found in the end of (v.19) ‘because He delighted in me’. David was a man who caused the heart of God to pulsate with joy. David was just like a favorite desert that is relished, eliciting this awesome rescuing response from the God of heaven.

 

David then gives the reasons God delighted in him: ‘The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath He recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also upright before Him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight.’

 

David’s personal testimony concerning his obedience to God’s commands are the reasons for this reward of deliverance from heaven. It’s as simple as that. He, by his holy living, keeping God’s ways, and his upright lifestyle which was regulated by the Word of God brought the reward to him right then, in this life. But, not only in this life but also the rewards are now bringing fruit to David in his eternal life in heaven. In (v.25-29) David sets forth justification for God’s actions: ‘With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright; With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward. For Thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. For Thou wilt light my candle: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. For by Thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.’

 

His explanation here demonstrates God’s like response to the conduct and character of man ending with the LORD’s ability to miraculously bring light to those in darkness and cause a mere human being to have the ability to perform wondrous supernatural physical acts as the LORD empowers him. Then in (v.30-36) He continues to magnify the LORD by giving a grand assortment of praises and acclamations to his God: ‘As for God, His way is perfect: the Word of the LORD is tried: He is a Buckler to all those that trust in Him. For who is God save the LORD? Or who is a Rock save our God? It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like hinds feet, and sets me upon my high places. He teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.’

 

These first four verses are addressed to his audience of believers. In the last two verses he turns his heart to heaven and speaks directly to the LORD ‘Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath held me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.’ (v.35, 36) All of the accomplishments of David’s life are here ascribed to the wonderful working of the LORD showing that his greatness is directly attributable to the LORD’s gentleness which is the key statement of this group of acclamations.

 

He continues his address to the LORD in (v.37-42) describing the actual conflict which he encounters with his enemies: ‘I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. For Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.’ His down to earth blow by blow description uncovers the reality of the physical conflict he encountered day by day paralleling the spiritual battle we as New Testament believers face in the heavenly warfare with the devil’s army defined as ‘Principalities and powers the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ (Ephesians 6:12)

 

This is the application for us today and David’s tactics are as good today as they were then as  he gives us three definite expectations of victory from the LORD:

1. God will provide us with the ‘Strength unto the battle’ through His Spirit as we look to Him by faith when under the enemies assault.(Ephesians 6:10,11)
2. We must expect Him to bring us the victory by faith (Hebrews 11:6)
3. We must also expect Him to have the victory in hand ahead of time through the actual destruction of the Devil’s ability to be effective in our lives ( Hebrew 2:14)

 

His statements in (v.43-45) are examples of his exaltation of the LORD when he looked forward to becoming  king ‘the head of the heathen’ with ‘strangers’ submitting themselves unto him all along attributing this future action to the LORD’s working. In conclusion to this great ‘love song to his LORD’ he expresses a beautiful chorus of praise: ‘The LORD lives; and blessed by my Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God that avenges me, and subdues the people under me. He delivers me from mine enemies: yea, Thou lifts me up above those that rise up against me: Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore will I give thanks unto Thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto Thy name. Great deliverance gives He to His king; and shows mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.’ (v.46-50).

 

     The last of the ‘I will’ pledges from this lover of the LORD is given: ‘I will give thanks…and sing praises unto Thy name’ which typifies the whole tenor of this great Psalm showing David’s full  dependence and marvelous praise of the God of Deliverance, Jehovah, His Rock and the God of his salvation! So it should be with us Drivers, for we truly have a great God!

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Chaplain L.E.Wolfe www.btmi.org  I-85 Exit 35 SC  McPilot  Stop in, and please pray for our ministry!

A tribute to our mother by my brother Larry Wolfe.

“The Life and Times of Irene Violet (Anspach) Wolfe”

It was the day after Christmas in the year 1922, and even though it was the day after The Lord Jesus Christ’s birthday is celebrated, one of the greatest gifts to me, next to my wife and The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, was born into the world. It was the day my mother Irene Violet (Anspach) Wolfe was born! Born to Margaret Soliday and Clarence Anspach near Indiantown Gap, PA she was the first of their seven children, five girls and two boys. Mom’s Mother, Grandma’ Anspach was the glue that held together their family and Mom learned much from her Mother and her steadfast Christian faith which she learned from her Mother Grandma’ Soliday.

Mom, the oldest, was educated in a one-room schoolhouse along with her siblings, Minnie, John, Wayne, Dorothy and Betty Lou (Mary Anne [youngest] died as an infant) who all appear on a school picture we have except for Dorothy & Betty Lou because they were more than seven years younger than Mom. The school only accommodated the first eight grades! Did I say only? Eight grades with one teacher seems like an impossibility but it was the right combination for learning as these schools produced many top notch students, which if I may brag a bit on Mom, she was one of them.

She showed us her ‘Straight A’ report card many a time when we, me and my brothers, were draggin’ behind!   We still have that report card of hers and the school picture to remind us of her determined ‘Get the job done’ outlook on life. You can almost see it in her expression in her eighth-grade picture! Her name, Irene, means ‘Peace’ in the Greek language, but peace never seemed to be something she possessed. Her life since I can remember was filled with turmoil, for the most part due to her father, a reckless sometimes ruthless man, and a wayward veteran of World War II, her husband, my father Warren A. Wolfe.

Although Dad was described as a friendly, likeable guy by those who knew him, he definitely came home from the war, a different guy, with a multitude of bad habits including a dependence on alcohol. Drink and the surrounding lifestyle it brings wrecked our home for it was his priority, not his family.

Mom had to go to work to pay the bills and put food on the table before I was in school, and that was only the beginning! We lived in Fredericksburg, PA then, although Dad and Uncle, my mom’s Uncle John, tried to make it in D.C. working in a large supermarket, while we commuted, movin’ on, from an apartment in D.C. to Fredericksburg. The ’41 Buick Mom drove back and forth on the weekends was the first vehicle we owned that I can remember, and Mom knew how to get us home in that ‘ol straight eight, the first car she dubbed: ‘The Jet’.

My twin brothers, Bruce and Brian, were born in October of 1951 while we lived in Fredericksburg. My oldest brother Warren Jr. was eight years old and I was six. We lived in a right nice Cape Cod brick ranch which they bought with G.I.bill money. You had a choice, higher education or a lump sum of money. They chose the money for a down payment on our beautiful brick home.

We walked to school through the town of Fredericksburg, past one of the first cut-up poultry plants in the USA, but it wasn’t long until we moved to Ono, PA where ‘Butch’ later nicknamed  ‘Pooch’ (Warren Jr.) and I walked to a one room schoolhouse just across new Rte. 22.  We lost our home in Fredericksburg through a storm window scam which caused us not to be able to make the mortgage and the payment on the windows. So,   our home was sold, and we used the minimal equity to buy another place in the area.

The twins were still in their high-chairs, just one-year old babies, when we arrived in Ono, only a few miles from Fredericksburg.  Pooch and I didn’t realize it then, but Dad was now ‘On the run’, owing money to other creditors! Before we knew it we were living in Annville, renting a house on Sheridan Avenue, no longer owning our home as Dad drank away the money from the sale of our house in Ono. All this in just a few short years…the spring of 1952 to the winter of 1953!

We stayed in Annville for only a couple of months it seemed, and suddenly one day when we came home from school, Dad and Mom were packing up for yet another move, throwing ‘stuff’ into cardboard boxes! The dreadful toll it took on Mom was beginning to surface. She lost most of her lovely belongings and all of her dreams in just a few short but tragic years. It was now the summer of 1954 our next destination was a two-story frame house ‘In the curve’ back in Greenpoint, a few miles from Dad’s home and birthplace.

December 14th, 1954 Mom had a ‘Nervous breakdown’ and was committed to Wernersville, the state mental institution! Pooch was eleven and I was almost ten, and we moved in with Grandma’ Harriet my Dad’s mother who lived in Greenpoint. The twins just turned three years old and they went to Mom’s family. She was released six months later and briefly moved in with her parents, Grandma’ and Grandpa’ Anspach and my Aunt Betty mom’s youngest sister who was just a few months younger than Pooch. This was Mom’s attempt to get away from Dad, and, of course us four kids went with her.

Dad and Mom were now separated. A few weeks later we moved into Billy Stichler’s ‘Trolley-car like’ three rooms in a row cabin in the Appalachian mountains just a mile or so from Grandma & Grandpa Anspach’s place. No running water, just a spring out in the woods, a woodstove, and plenty of wood to chop for us young-uns’! I can still remember the Christmas we spent there in 1955, Pooch’s most memorable he told me recently.

He and I went out into the snowy woods looking for a Christmas tree that would be suitable for Mom and us kids. We topped a few hemlocks after we couldn’t find anything else, and finally, chilled to the bone, we drug (One of the topped hemlocks) home. With scarcely any of her belongings intact after the harrowing experiences she had gone through in just the past couple of years, Mom gathered ‘Her boys’ together and we had a Christmas regardless of how the outward circumstances seemed!

But, Mom wasn’t really in the best mental/spiritual condition after her stay in Wernersville, and the ‘Cabin experience’ was really hectic with Mom driving Pooch and I to school in Hershey, saying that the ‘One room school’ where she went to school wasn’t good enough for her boys. Her old one room schoolhouse a couple of miles down the road is where Pooch and I were going to school at the time. The twins turned four while we lived there and finally got rid of their baby bottles, throwing them out into the deep snow one wintry afternoon!

I remember Dad visiting on one occasion driving a black ’40 Ford four door sedan, and after the dust cleared, he went on his way with one half of the windshield broken thanks to Mom’s pot! Mom and Dad somehow reconciled, and eventually they got back together early in 1956. Mom was only thirty-three! What a life!

We were movin’ on, on the road again, moving to a huge farmhouse north of Annville we called Herr’s, which was the name of the other family that rented the opposite side. It was while we lived there in the spring of 1956 that Grandpa A. J. Wolfe (Our Great-Grandpa who owned the store in Greenpoint) died! It was the first death in the family that I can remember and it had a somber effect on us all, especially me as I spent a few summer’s day at Grandpa’ and Grandma’ Wolfe’s place enjoying the beauty and blessedness that was there.

We stayed at Herr’s less than a year, once again movin’ on, on the road again, moving into a garage on old Rte 22 near Ono that had an upstairs where we slept. That’s right…a GARAGE! The downstairs was wide open, concrete floors, with a garage door on one wall. It was now the winter of 1957 and Mom’s fifth child, my brother Frederick John, was born on February 21st. Pooch and I treated Freddy like a new toy when he was in his playpen, flashing the camera causing him to throw back his arms…he hasn’t gotten over it since, HAH!

Grandma Harriet was there to help Mom during the first few weeks of Fred’s life, and handily caught Pooch and me playing hooky from school to boot! The twins would turn six in October so off to school they went in September. You guessed it, a one room school was where they started, about a quarter of a mile from where we lived on old Rte.22. I’ll never forget the day Mom dressed them and they just walked out the door, by themselves, off to school as though they had been doing it for years! But, that was life in the ‘50’s.

Dad was working in Harrisburg doing interior and exterior painting and somehow decided that we should live closer to his work, so after awhile we were movin’ on, on the road again. It was early in 1958 when we moved to Piketown in the mountains of Dauphin County north of Harrisburg. Mom and Dad bought another home with the help of our Great-Grandma Kate Wolfe and it was here that we, the whole family, lived for the longest period together as a family, early spring of 1958 to the spring of 1962, a little over four years!

It was also here that Pooch and I received a sound high school education in a good school with the twins attending a modern elementary school in West Hanover township. Fred would start school down the road a little later, and have the privilege of attending one school system for all of his school days! Mom’s last son my youngest brother Steve would also have this same blessing of living in one place most of his childhood days, due to Mom’s determination to keep her boys together and raise them the best she could.

Pooch graduated from Central Dauphin High School in 1961, but before he did, Dad kicked him out of the house! This was a traumatic event for Mom and the rest of us kids. Our family was splitting up, it seemed, and turmoil abounded! Pooch moved in with his future in-laws, having dated his future wife, Thelma Moyer, for over a year and soon joined the Navy. But, he was still a strong influence on our family even though he was away for quite a while.  He served his country for four years during the build-up to the Vietnam war.

I graduated in 1962, but three months before that happened Mom separated from Dad permanently and divorced him not long after their twentieth wedding anniversary, February 28^th, when she was only thirty-nine years of age! Her boys were her priority, and she decided it was time to get a place of her own! We moved on once more into another old farmhouse near Grantville on old Rte.22 where we once again rented one half. This was the twelfth place we had lived in ten short years if you count our stays at the two Grandma’s! I think we were called to be ‘Professional Nomads’ hah!! Maybe that’s the reason we’re so comfortable ‘On the road’!

The twins and I finished our school year commuting in a ’48 Chevy tudor Fleetline I bought for $75 from U.J.(Uncle John) but it barely lasted me the three months we needed it to get the job done. True to U.J.’s prophecy, the engine blew, throwing a rod out the side, when I exceeded its previous owner’s limits, which was ’50 mph and no faster’ I remember U.J. saying! Hahahah…that limit lasted only about two weeks, and the old Chevy couldn’t take the pressure of 65mph on new Rte. 22, the only four-lane highway in the area! U.J. the prophet, no?

But, thankfully, Mom’s moving days were almost over. She gave birth to her sixth and last son, my brother Steve, while living there in Grantville in 1966. She lived there for six years, the longest she ever lived in one place since she was a child, until Pooch bought her a mobile home in 1968 and set it up on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the valley where she spent her most carefree and peaceful days.

She lived there twenty-three years, some of the happiest days of her life, in a place which was truly her own, to move on no more…except for her final trip, the one she made to heaven in October of 1991…movin’ on no more…no more tears…resting in the arms of Jesus…Irene…our Mom found PEACE at last! In those sixty-eight plus years Mom spent on this earth, some would say she didn’t amount to much. But, when viewed from God’s vantage point, we will easily recognize that God used her to keep her boys together and influence them all for eternity! Now I’m surely not trying to paint a picture of Mom the ‘Saint’, because she certainly was not, even though she did become a saint, a born-again child of God!

No, she had her faults to which we all would admit, but her determined mindset to do what she could to keep her boys together and raise them the best she could was one of the keys to her great success as a Mother, which is probably the greatest single calling anyone can have here on Earth! It was this driving desire to see her boys turn out to be good that caused her to send Pooch and I to confirmation classes at Faith United Church of Christ in Grantville in the summer of 1958. At the end of these religious training classes we went to a revival meeting at the Methodist Church by Memorial Lake.

Pooch, Aunt Betty and I attended, and we all ‘went forward’ to the altar in response to the fiery Gospel preaching of Pastor Arthur Miller. And when the invitation was given Pooch was born again, yes, by faith he received the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior at age 15 and this single event not only made him an eternal child of God, but it influenced the rest of our family for all of eternity!

It was Pooch that led Brian to the Lord in the spring of 1975 up at Pooch and Thelma’s cabin and he too was born again becoming a child of God! It was Pooch that told me ‘to read the Gospel of John if I ever had any questions about God’. And, after attending a powerful Bible Seminar in 1979, the Lord led me to read the Bible Betsy bought me when I was desperate/suicidal in 1980 after struggling with drugs and alcohol addiction for almostt 15 years!

It was while reading the Gospel of John that I was born again and miraculously delivered from the penalty and power of sin! Fred also was saved in 1980 while attending this Bible seminar in Hershey, PA. And so, the loving, sacrificial influence of Mom, putting us in the right place at the right time became the very reason why we, ‘Irene’s boys’ as we were called by the people in the area, are children of God today! Yes, it was and still is the miraculous working of God throughout the history of our family that is the MAIN reason why we can truly say today, “To God be the glory, great things He hath done!!” As one Bible Preacher has rightly said: “It takes a thousand pounds of Preacher to equal one ounce of Mother”, Amen and Amen!

Evangelist/Chaplain L. E. ‘The Wolfman’ Wolfe

www.btmi.org

I-85 Exit 35 ‘McPilot’

Easley, SC

I have recently been reading Grandma’s diaries from the years 1954-55 which was during the time when my mother Irene was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown and my twin brother Bruce and I stayed with grandma from time to time (we were only 3 years old). What I found was that Grandma’s house was a literal magnet for people! She demonstrated an amazing record of hospitality. People just felt welcomed and loved there! Both family and friends would just stop in unannounced, not just on Sundays, but practically every day of the week!

Here is an example from 1955:

July 3rd Sunday Hot & dry 90 degrees. Betty went to Sunday School with John & Laura. Marion & Snack were here a little this morning. Socky Snyder was here, also Geo Feaser. Minnie & Mickey were here for dinner. Chicken was delicious. Pop went to club this afternoon. Betty and I were home. This eve Totty & Jack & Susie were here we had icecream. John, Laura, Minnie, Mickey, Henry, Hazel, Warren & Irene were here.

That’s 17 adults, not to mention children! This routine was repeated week after week, month after month. There is no other home in the Anspach family that I can think of which had this amount of human traffic. And Grandma loved it! She thrived on family fellowship and was even sad when a day passed with no visitors! Like this day:

Jan 2nd Sunday, Went to see Irene this afternoon. Minnie, Mickey, Tottie, Jack & Me. Pop didn’t feel so well so he didn’t go. Irene is about the same as last Sunday. She loved her red shoes. We stayed until 3:45. Got apples on the way up. Saw Totties tree and gifts. Dull evening, no visitors. Bed at 8:15

Some of her visitors even came AFTER she went to bed!

Mar 25th Real nice out. I cleaned upstairs. Bruce and Brian were outside all day. Pop cleaned out his trunk. Wayne was here he borrowed $25.00. Warren came for Bruce and Brian at 4:30. They were glad to see him. Pop went away at 3. Edna & kids came at 10:30. I was in bed already. Pop came home drunk.

Mar 26th Edna and I talked awhile before anyone else was up. It’s raining again. Edna, Charles, Charlene & Betty went to Annie. Annie gave Edna a Toni. Pop and I went for groceries to Annville. We were at Snack. Marion and I baked shoe fly pies and cinnamon buns. Edna came home at 8:30. Sky Long & Peiffer were here. I burned a bun. HaHa! Smokey Maggie!

And So what did all these people do while in Maggie’s humble abode? In PA Dutch tradition they ate! Grandma wasn’t rich but somehow she always had something to eat.

June 29th Sunny & Hot 90. Made breakfast for Pop & Johnny. Mended all the rips and tears in his shirt. Made a pair of shorts for Betty. Snack was here this dinner. He had lunch with us. Had a pig stomach for supper. I was real real mad cause Pop was drunk again. I really let loose. Felt a lot better too! Good day. Ha Ha!

Sept 24th Still raining this morning. Gus came down and we went for groceries. Jeanie was here this afternoon. We had corn on cob, hot dogs and watermelon for supper. Minnie, Mickey and Laura came for Jeanie. Pop came home drunk. Irene bought me a new dress. Betty & I watched TV. Pop was in an uproar.

Dec 25th Sunday 40deg A lovely day! Nice and sunny and warm. All the snow is melted. I washed the Ford in a hurry it was a mess. Put turkey in at 7. Minnie, Mickey, Snack & Marion were here for dinner. We had a happy time. Turkey was delicious. Bertha & Oscar were here this afternoon. Perfect day! We were at Irene’s for supper had turkey also. Were at Amos and Emma too.

Jan 3rd Cloudy 38 deg, Up at 7:30 fire was very good. Snack came home at 8. He and Betty went to Sunday School. Had steak for dinner. No guests!

Yes, it was the exception to have NO GUESTS at Grandma’s house. The Bible says that when we entertain guests that sometimes perhaps we have entertained angels. I think that is especially true for Grandma’s house and there was likely a guardian angel or two watching over her and her family. Actually, SHE was an angel in disguise!

Life these days is just too hurried and we are SO distracted! Did you ever see a family sitting around a table and everyone is staring into their cell phones?? Grandma would NOT put up with that! We should live by grandma’s example and encourage family and friends to come and visit and fellowship and stay awhile.

Consider these admonitions from the Apostle Paul:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (Romans 12:1,2 NLT)

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. (Romans 12:9-13 NLT)

The above passages from Romans truly describes the life of my grandmother Margaret Anspach! Other than my own mother, I can think of no other hospitable, humble servant of the Lord that impacted my life more than she did. Every time I grab those salt and pepper shakers, in my mind’s eye I can see her in that everpresent apron, smiling and with a twinkle in her eye…. come and dine!