The Greatest of Grandparents

I’m fortunate, though I didn’t always realize it.  I was blessed with two sets of godly, dedicated grandparents, who loved me even while I was aimlessly drifting.  So, a belated shout-out to W.F. (Bill) & Nadine Lown and Roy & Florence Moyer!  They were all faithful to God throughout their lives, even to the end, despite all of them dying in painful ways, of cancer, disease, or heart issues.   

Earlier this week, right before shutting down the computer for the night, I googled my granddad, Bill Lown.  He had crossed my mind for some reason, and I was curious what information or pictures were out there.  It was neat to read through a lot of the history he was involved in with the restoration movement, missions, the North American Christian Convention, and as the president of Manhattan Christian College.  I even found some audio files of some of his old sermons, and it was so good to hear his voice again!  

I always viewed Granddad as a very important, dignified person…but he was also very accessible and loving.  When I was a young grade-schooler, I would frequently send him fake ‘checks’ I filled out using order forms and receipt books, as a ‘donation’ to Manhattan Christian College.  I sent quite a few of these over a two- or three-year period, and it might have been annoying after awhile, but every time I sent a ‘check,’ he would send a ‘receipt’ and a thank you letter, with loving words of appreciation for my good intentions.  He was also one of my biggest cheerleaders, encouraging me to be a writer after I won an essay contest and had a poem published in fifth grade.  I’m belatedly trying to honor his belief in me!

Fast forward to me traveling in a rag-tag carnival with the guy I married after a whirlwind ‘romance.’  Imagine my grandmother and granddad…this lovely, dignified, respected couple…visiting me on the midway!  We were set up near Joplin, Missouri, where my granddad was teaching at Ozark Christian College in his semi-retirement, and it was near my birthday, so they came and visited.  They graciously met all of the carnies, and looked around at games and rides on the midway.  I’m sure they were dying inside at the state of their granddaughter’s situation, but they didn’t betray any negative feelings.  They were loving and supportive, as always.

We don’t often appreciate what we have, until it’s gone.  But we can honor those who have gone before us by continuing to walk in the way of faith as they did, treating others with love and respect, as they did.  I only hope my grandchildren can look back someday on precious memories of love and godliness they experience with me.

“Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.” ~Psalms 22:30

One thought on “The Greatest of Grandparents”

Larry Kuhl 

 

I have fond and wonderful memories of W.F. Lown – nothing but respect for this man of great integrity and honor. He always had something encouraging to say – even if it was a passing on the stairs at MCC.

If you can't roll it up in your apron...

When running a game, we all wore money aprons in order to keep close tabs on what we took in and to quickly make change.  Filling that apron with as much money as possible was most workers’ nightly goal, and at the end of the night, we all rolled up our aprons tightly, tied them, and took them to the boss for counting.  Throughout the evening, if someone was doing something that didn’t contribute to making money, they would be scolded (or yelled at, if the boss saw them), being told “If you can’t roll it up in your apron, don’t mess with it.”  The most common side-tracking issue that came up was flirting.  For some workers, that was their way to bring players to their games, but others just got people who would plant themselves at the edge of the game, not playing the game, just trying to get attention.  When someone yelled “You can’t roll it up in your apron!” that was the carney way of saying “Get them away from your game if they’re not playing!”  Workers who were side-tracked weren’t filling that apron with cash.
 
As Christians, we’ve been given spiritual jobs…we’re to make and teach disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) and to love God and our neighbors (Mark 12:30-31).  Ever known, or been, a Christian who got side-tracked on that?  Human nature wars with spiritual discipline…straying from, or staying on, the path…wanting things (possessions, attention, power) more than wanting what God would have us do.  

May we remember the crucial advice given to us in Matthew 6:16-20:  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.“  Now there’s something we can roll up in our aprons!

One thought on “If you can’t roll it up in your apron…”

Leaona Ellis 

 

Glad for another blog from you! I love how God is using your experiences!

Town Marks

Carnies have a name for the people in each place to which they travel…town marks.  They usually view town marks only as a way to get cash…as much cash in as short of time as possible.  Generally speaking, the ‘town marks’ view carnies in a certain way, too.  If you’ve read my book, you read about a time when a gas station employee tried to prevent a group of us from coming in, as well as another time local police came looking for me, simply because I fit the description of a suspect and being with the carnival made me even more suspect in their eyes.  Even though there was an “us vs. them” feeling, when people would take a chance to get to know some of us, or when we’d view townspeople as more than just ‘marks,’ there were some good encounters.  I met a lot of nice people from town-to-town, state-to-state, from younger people to local law enforcement.  The good experiences outweighed the bad by far, all because I was willing to look beyond the ‘us vs. them’ barrier.
 
I keep feeling that same “us vs. them” vibe in many settings this year.  Most current is the presidential election going on in the U.S. right now.  I reallytry not to make comments about current events, because I have good friends from various points-of-view, politically.  Sometimes people genuinely want to know what I think, and we can have a good discussion, but for the most part, the general national discourse is more of a trading of “gotcha” barbs and insults rather than exchanging of honest, kindly-spoken opinions.  Thinking back a few months, remember the whole Chick-Fil-A “us vs. them” bruhaha?  It also basically turned into an insulting, painting-everyone-with-the-same-brush situation, rather than a genuine and calm discussion of the situation.  Earlier this year there were the “Occupy” protests, as well as regular riots and demonstrations all around the world.  Angry.  Insulting.  Dangerous.  Wearisome.

1 Corinthians 14:33 tells us that “God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”  Even if you’re not a Christian, I hope you acknowlege a Creator and an order to the universe.  I also hope that you’ve only had peaceful encounters with Christians.  If there were angry, disorderly, hurtful exchanges, I’m very sorry you experienced a Christian on those terms.

For those who are Christians, there are nine fruit that we should display in our lives as the Holy Spirit shapes our hearts and character:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23).  So rather than having ‘us vs. them’ arguments and insults, we need to prayerfully analyze if we’re displaying these fruit of the Spirit.  Notice I’m not suggesting that we step away from living a godly life or having a Christian worldview.  I’m only suggesting that we step back and analyze motives.  Are we in verbal battles because we want to be right and clever?  I would urge ALL Christians to do more battling on our knees in prayer and less in the faces of others.

Cleanliness

When traveling with various carnivals back in the late 80s, getting and staying clean – hygiene – was a daily chore.  The game trailers have sleeping quarters built into the back, and if you’re lucky, some have toilets in them.  But showers?  Not likely!  Every day I either showered in makeshift shower areas on the carnival lot or did the best bathing I could in gas station or restaurant bathrooms (I remember an awkward time when I was washing my hair in a McDonalds bathroom and a worker came in and started talking.  I couldn’t understand her, and I felt obvious and weird enough, so I just would say things like ‘Haha, yeah,’ etc.  Then I discovered she was talking to someone else on her headset…..).  When we’d had an especially lucrative night of pay, we’d spring for a motel room…that was the best!  Until you have to make the effort to be clean, you tend to take the convenience of readily available showers and bathtubs for granted!  My sister, a missionary to North Africa, made a similar observation regarding the ease with which most of us Americans can access water.
 
I recently was remembering back to the ‘bathe in a restaurant bathroom’ days, and my scrambling to always find ways to stay clean, physically.  My mind turned to thoughts of being spiritually clean…prayerfully asking God to remove sin in my life, bad thoughts, harbored resentments…fasting…applying Truths I discover during Bible study…staying in fellowship with other believers.  I am ashamed to say that I’m not quite as diligent in getting spiritually clean, not as obsessed with finding ways to spiritually cleanse the filth of the world off of me.  There are days I pray as more of an afterthought than a meaningful conversation, and evenings I fall asleep realizing I didn’t study the Word that day.  May I ‘feel’ the grime of sin like I used to feel and seek to remove the grime of the midway.  Amen.

“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” ~Psalm 51:2

Spoofer

In the book Tales From the Midway, I talked about spoofers…the carny lingo for the elusive big prize that some carnival-goers chase after.  It spoofs the person into thinking that they’ll easily win, but they usually end up paying more for playing the game than they would have if they’d bought the prize in a store.  We were paid a third of what we brought in, minus the cost of stock (prizes), and the clever game operators knew how much they had to have each person pay to play, even if they were winning, to make a profit…they were good at talking the person into continuing laying down dollar after dollar.  I wasn’t that clever, just literally along for the ride, so my games weren’t huge money-makers for me or for the owners!
 
Life has its fair share of spoofers that we’re constantly hoping to win or achieve.  The mind might automatically jump to material goods, like a nice car or big house, but there are other elusive things that people chase after…things like attention, having to be right, or wanting things our own way.  My struggle often is with trusting God with finances.  He always proves faithful, and then I have the nerve to bring that worry up again?  Such a spoof….

There are two aspects of this spoofer pursuit…first, we need to stop chasing after non-eternal, empty things:  “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers” (1 Peter 1:18).  Second, we need to focus on winning THE prize, the real, eternal prize–”I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).  Now THAT’S worth winning!

The Joy of Being 'With It'

When a carny visits another carnival, if someone tries to get you to play their game or something, you just say, “I’m with it.”  That tells them that you’re a carny too, so there’s an unspoken understanding.  They’ll stop trying to sell you something…you now share a common ground, even though you’re from different carnivals in different locations.
 
The same is true for Christians that I cross paths with in different settings.  Sometimes even through just one or two conversations, a deep bond and mutual understanding is formed….we share a common ground, a faith in common.  When that happens, there just isn’t enough time to fellowship!  Conversations may go on for hours, but there will always be an endpoint…gotta sleep sometime!  I often tell my friends (I’m getting into that middle-aged habit of oft-repeating myself, haha!) that fellowship with Christians is one of the foretastes of Heaven, and when we’re there, there is NO end time!

In a week, I’ll be traveling back to Kansas to join with some of my dear friends and family for an event.  I’ll get to spend time with the Ellis and Wyans, who have served in the ‘ministry trenches’ with my family and I many, many times. Their servant attitudes are refreshing, inspiring, and infectious!

I’ll get to see Marcus (aka ‘Flame’) and Crystal…my family’s path crossed with Marcus seven years ago, and we just all clicked!  We’ve been fortunate to watch a Christian ministry, career, and marriage develop right before our eyes, and it’s so exciting to prayerfully watch behind the scenes!  We don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, but when we do, it’s as if we’d never been apart.

I’ll get to see my mom, dad, aunt, cousin, plus my sister who will be moving to North Africa two weeks later!  This will be a bittersweet time, because every time we do something lately, it has that ‘we won’t be doing this again for awhile’ feeling.  My sister, Melinda, has been my sidekick for her entire life, and still will be, but at a muuuuuuuch greater distance.  She and I have attended many a concert together (we’re the MAWWs, if you ever wondered…ask me later and I’ll teach you the handsigns!), so it will be great to get one more concert in before she leaves!

It’ll be a weekend of fellowship…..a foretaste of Heaven…..and we’re all ‘with it!’

Romans 1:12:  that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

Friendly Francis

When we traveled with a family-run carnival for a whole season, there were many game owners who traveled with the show (as it’s called)…they owned their games and made a pretty good living, paying the carnival owners a ‘nut,’ which is what they call the fee for setting up with the carnival for the week.  They were in the carnival business because they’d grown up doing it and had either worked their way up to owning their own games or took over their parents’ games.

One of the couples who owned their own game was Bob and Francis.  They were both characters, but Francis shined as the character to top all characters!  Her real name was Friendly, but she couldn’t stand being called that, so she had people call her Francis.  She was the most tell-it-like-it-is person I have ever met!  She and Bob would invite us into their RV some evenings, and Francis would get going with her stories.  She’d grown up in carnivals when they were shady, side-show, cheating set-ups…she’d been a woman without a head, a woman without a body, the world’s tiniest woman, and on and on!  She told us the illusions and tricks they used for the side shows.

Francis had some sad stories too, about her children, painful things that had happened to her in her life, and medical and personal situations, and sometimes tears would roll down her cheeks as she talked.  She came across to me as someone who wasn’t used to being listened to and valued, which is so sad, given all that she’d seen and experienced.  How many other Friendly Francis’ are out there, with a rich history and wisdom, just waiting for someone to listen….to take the time to listen?  I urge you to find your Francis and learn. 

“Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.“  ~Proverbs 1:5

Oh, for the love of money...

Money is valued by carnies, as it is with anyone else in their job or career.  People sometimes ask what the carny terms for various denominations of money are.  Here are the ones I remember:

       

                                            Single–$1

Fin–$5
Sawbuck–$10
Double–$20
Half-a-Yard–$50
Yard–$100

I’m writing about money today, because I think about money more than I wish I did.  I’m on a planning team for an annual event, and every year we have at least one ‘freak-out’ moment that we won’t have enough donations to cover the expenses.  The event has gone on for four years with everything working out, so we get mad at ourselves when we doubt a little…and mad that dumb little green pieces of paper have too much power over our thoughts and faith.

In my personal life, I don’t wish for jewels or fancy cars or mansions…I plan, budget, and think about having enough–enough to pay the bills, travel to see relatives, get the kids new shoes when they need them–things like that.  Some might argue that it’s not wrong to want to pay bills and budget.  But all too often, I don’t feel ‘okay’ until my numbers work out for the month…seeing on paper that we’ll be able to meet all of the bills and pay for the unexpected repairs or purchases that come along.  That means I depend on money for security, when I should depend on God.  That could even mean….that I love money.  That definitely means I’ve got an area in my faith to keep working on.  I’m not saying that budgeting, planning, and paying your bills is wrong, by any means!  I simply point out that I usually let my mood and confidence be dictated by how those numbers are working out.  Pray for me as I learn to lean more and more on God’s promises and less and less on security through worked out budgets.

1 Timothy 6:9-11:  “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Welcome to the Midway!

Where did the ‘Midway’ concept come from?  First, it’s a reference to a time in my life as a 19- and 20-year old, when I married a carny and traveled with a few carnivals…I learned a lot about people by watching and listening….as we traveled town-to-town, and as I observed my fellow carnies.  Second reference is to the fact that I’m in the midway of my life…the older I get, the happier I get….the more I appreciate life, my kids, my husband, and even the bumps in the road!  I firmly believe we’ve got to be authentic with each other, drop the masks, drop the pretense, and help each other through this thing called ‘life!’