Lost in the Woods :

         My former pastor, John, was a passionate man.  He was passionate about preaching the gospel of Christ.  He was passionate about playing the piano.  And, oh yes, he was passionately in love with Ruth.   

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Preaching The Gospel

As a young man, John preached the gospel in tent-meetings across the South with the Rev. Glenn V. Tingley.  One of the churches which had its roots in those tent meetings was the Alliance Church in Gadsden, Alabama.  After finishing Bible school, John became pastor of that church.  

Down through the years, he and Ruth raised four children and preached the gospel as the pastor of several other churches.  He preached the gospel on a missionary trip to India.  He preached the gospel as pastor of an International Church in Cambodia.  He preached the gospel as a traveling evangelist.

From the evangelist road, he and Ruth came with their travel trailer to pastor our church and stayed on to shepherd us for several years until failing health led him to resign.  After a time of recover, he began to accept an occasional evangelistic engagement.  He went back to his first pastorate, the Gadsden church, for a series of meeting and while there he fell sick and went to be with the Lord.  

John was one of the few men that I have known that throughout his daily life carried on a running conversation with God.  I do not mean that he stopped what he was doing, bowed his head and addressed God in a formal way.  He would just blurt out something like, “Father, that sure is a beautiful sunset you have for me today.”  Or, if faced with a decision, he might say, “Father, help me decide which way to go.”  Because of this trait, in my mind, I compared him to that great friend of God, Abraham, and to Tevye from the Broadway play, Fiddler On The Roof. 

Playing The Piano

    John loved music.  John really loved gospel music.  John really, really loved gospel music on the piano.  John really, really, really loved playing gospel music on the piano.  When John arrived at our church he immediately assumed the duties not only of the pastor but as pianist for special music and for congregational singing.  John played with a flair and much enthusiasm.  His style was great for piano specials but not too comfortable for congregational singing and when accompanying singers, he tended to overpower them.

Apparently, he was unaware that our longtime pianist was one of the best, if not the best in Huntsville, Alabama.  Whether congregational singing, piano solos, or accompaniment of singers, her style was always appropriate and beautiful.  After a few weeks of sideways glances and whispered comments, a delegation visited John and tried to tactfully advise him of the situation because we were afraid that our pianist would find somewhere else to serve.  John understood and gracefully began restricting his playing to occasional specials which were appreciated and enjoyed by all.

Ruth

Ruth was an instructor at Toccoa Falls Bible College in the mountains of north Georgia.  By her own admission, she was an old maid school teacher and intended to serve the Lord in the capacity of training preachers and missionaries for the rest of her life.  John took some of Ruth’s classes and was quite taken with her.  On the close-knit campus, their paths crossed almost daily.  Perhaps, John even began to plan chance meetings.  Ruth was several years his senior so he knew that it was unlikely that a real romance could develop between them.  The rules of the college did forbid such fraternization between staff and student, so their relationship remained that of student and teacher and of good friends.  Still, for John, there was an attraction that he could not lay aside all through college.  

After the graduation ceremony, John found Ruth in the crowd to have one last conversation with his friend.  When he told her that he was headed to pastor a new church plant in Gadsden, Alabama, she asked him to promise to come back to the campus in a year and tell her about his first year of ministry and how the work in Gadsden was doing.

John plunged into his task for a year and the Gadsden church grew as souls were added to the family of God.  John was consumed in his ministry but as the days went by, he became more and more convinced that Ruth was the woman that God had chosen for him.  He determined that he would pursue a more serious relationship with her.  As a successful pastor, he could offer her a house and home and an opportunity to serve the Lord in a growing work.  

He was convinced that this was the right thing to do, but still, there was a lingering doubt.  What if she rejected him.  With much prayer, he set out for Toccoa.  If his plea fell on deaf ears, he was ready to take that as a sign from God and to go on without her to the work that God had laid before him. 

He arrived on campus on the last day of regular classes.  He went directly to Ruth’s class which was about to begin.  He entered the room with the students and quietly slipped into a seat at the back of the room.  A few students noticed this intrusion but Ruth seemed not to notice her extra student.  She proceeded with a final lesson and then a concise review of the semester's work.  John sat there content to be back in her presence but soon found himself listening intently as if he had to take the exam.

She concluded the review, reminded the class of the scheduled time for the exam and dismissed them with a prayer.  John remained in his seat as the others exited the room.  Ruth sat at her desk intently looking over some papers on her desk and seemingly oblivious to her admirer.  John moved up and took a seat directly in front of her desk and patiently waited for her to finish.  After a while, he cleared his throat just to make sure that she knew that he was there.  She looked up, smiled at him and went back to her task.  Finally, she gathered her papers into a stack and looked up again.  He started to speak but the words would not come out. 

She smiled again and said, “Yes, John.”  

Taking her words as permission to speak, he found his tongue, 

“Miss Gaff..er, Ruth, I have a question for you.”

“John, I said, yes.’’ 

“But, I haven’t asked the question yet.”

“Yes, John, I will marry you.”

When the exams were over and graded, John and Ruth went north to be married in her home church.  They were driven there by an older minister and his wife in their Ford A-Model Roadster.  If you remember, the Roadster had only a front seat in the cab and an open-air Rumble Seat which was where the trunk is on modern autos.   When the weather was clear, Ruth and John sat in the Rumble Seat.  When it rained, all four of them crowded into the cab on the front seat.  Now, that seat is not wide enough for four so when it rained, Ruth sat on John’s lap.  In later years, John would reminisce, with a chuckle, of that time of closeness as symbolic of their closeness through the years.

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John never wavered in the afore-described passions, preaching the gospel, playing the piano, and loving Ruth.  He did, however, develop other passions which he would throw himself into and enjoy for a season and then abandon.  Before he came to us he had been an ardent scuba diver.  For a while he was a rock hound, digging and polishing rocks and making jewelry and belt buckles for his friends.  He studied and worked each of these until he mastered them and then lay them and the associated equipment aside.

THE HUNTING TRIP  

Some men in the church were hunters.  They took John deer hunting and he was hooked.  He hunted with one or more of them every chance he got.  Once, he and one of his hunting buddies had planned a hunt but the friend had to cancel at the last minute.  Contrary to good hunting rules, John decided to go alone.  

As the sun was coming up he arrived at the place on the edge of the National Forest where the group had taken him the week before.  He followed an old logging road back about two miles.  About half way in, he had to drive through a small stream.  Fording the steam was not a problem as long as there had been no recent rain.  It was a clear day and rain was not predicted so he was not worried about his ability to cross the stream on his return.

His intention had been to hunt through the morning, eat his lunch, hunt some more and leave in mid-afternoon.  After lunch, he found a place in the sun and sheltered from the breeze where he could look over a large open area of tops from harvested trees.  He had seen three deer earlier.  Two does came close to him but the buck traveling with them never got close enough for a good shot.  Maybe if he sat very still a large buck would wander within range.

When he awoke the sun was going down.  He hurried to his car.  He was sure he knew the way back but was somewhat apprehensive about finding his way back to the highway if it got dark.  As he drove along the trail it was defiantly getting darker.  

He approached the stream confident that crossing it would be no problem even in the fading light.  Perhaps he hurried a little too much.  He entered the steam with a great splash and the engine died.  Try as he might, he could not get it restarted.  He decided that if he was to get out of the woods and back to the highway for help he had better get started while there was still some light.  He stepped out of the car and into very cold water just deep enough to fill his boots.  Well, he would just have to walk with wet feet.  The temperature was dropping and he knew he would have to get help soon or be in real trouble.  

Following the old logging road in the daylight had been no problem but as it grew darker the trail began to look more and more like the rest of the forest floor.  Soon he was not sure whether he was on the trail or not.  He paused for a moment to listen for some sound that might indicate how close he was to the highway.  He thought he heard a movement behind him.  He turned to see a large head and shoulders silhouetted against the now starry sky.  He thought to himself, “I didn’t know that there were bears in this forest.”

Suddenly the bear was shining a flashlight in his eyes and saying, “Is that your car parked in the middle of the creek back there?  Man, we better get you to some place warm before you freeze to death.  Follow me.”  He sat off at a rapid pace through the woods trailing the flashlight beam some what behind him so John could find his footing.  Even though he was cold and shivering, John would have liked to go slower but he was not about to let this man out of his sight.  

Shortly, John could see a light up ahead. He kept following the man and soon they were at the door of a small log cabin.   The interior of the cabin was quite rustic but neat.  The man went straight to the fireplace and added a couple of logs while instructing John to pull up a chair in front of the fire and get out of his wet boots.  For the first time, John got a good look at his host.  He was large, well over six feet and perhaps 250 pounds.  He had a full beard and a long pony tail pulled through the back of a BAMA ball cap.  He wore a camouflage parka and military style boots.  He told John to make himself comfortable while he went for help. Without another word, he was out the door.

John finished taking off his boots, got out of his coat and propped his cold feet up by the fire.  He leaned back in the chair and enjoyed the warmth emanating from the fireplace.  He noticed a large porcelain coffee pot setting on the hearth.  Lifting the lid, he determined by the smell that it, indeed, contained coffee, very strong coffee.  He rummaged around for a cup and poured himself some.  

While being warmed by the fire from without and by the coffee from within, John sat there remembering the events since he awoke in the woods.  As was his habit when in a contemplative mood, he was conversing with his Heavenly Father about the wonder of it all and thanking him for the help sent his way.  

An hour or more must have passed for when John checked his socks,  which were hung over the back of a chair in front of the fire, the were dry.  His shoes were also considerably dryer.  Soon the door swung open and his host entered.  “Get your boots and coat on.  Your cars out of the creek.  I’m gonna take you to it.”

Once again they were moving fast through the woods.  The man must be able to see in the dark for he had handed John the flashlight as they left the cabin.  After about twenty minutes of up and down hills and crossing small streams they emerged onto the highway in sight of a Quick-Stop gasoline station.  There sat John’s car, none the worst for its ordeal.  

For a moment John was left speechless, then he turned and handed the flashlight back to his benefactor.  He extended his hand and said, “My name is John.”  As his giant hand firmly gripped John's, his only reply was, “I’m Pat.”  John began thanking Pat for his help and was trying to ask what he owed him for his trouble.  “Man, you don’t owe me nothing, just have a safe trip home.”   With those words, he gave John’s hand one last squeeze, turned and disappeared into the woods

John got into the car and was about to drive off when he thought that he should call and let Ruth know that he was safe and would be home before long.  He went into the station to make the call.  While there he asked the young attendant about Pat.  The attendant said that all he knew was that Pat lived over in the woods somewhere and came around sometimes, usually when he was helping someone.  As John drove home that night, he had much to talk over with his Heavenly Father.

Copyright 2017© Willie E. Weaver 

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