My Story 26.1

Shortly after we got married Trudy and I started looking for a church where we would feel at home. Our choice was Calvary Temple. We applied for membership, but there was a problem. I was not baptized. The reason for that was mainly my intense fear of water, to get dunked under with adult baptism was just out of the question.

Unexpectedly, one evening Pastor Barber, with Mrs. Barber, knocked at the door. Now, we were newly married, we had hardly any furniture and we were in no position to entertain unexpected guests. We had to gather up an armful of empty bottles to redeem the deposit and buy a pack of cookies. After I got back with my Peak Frean cookies, which Trudy called Peek and Freak, we got down to business and I explained that I was hydrophobic. I found it hard to be submerged with baptism. "Then God will know", said the wise Pastor, "that for you it will be a greater sacrifice then for anybody else!" Soon after that I was baptized in water, I survived and we became members in Calvary Temple.

It was hard, however, to make friends there, and we decided to change over to a smaller church related to Calvary Temple. In Weston Gospel Church we quickly settled down and made friends. We got involved in various minor aspects of the ministry.

One Sunday we met a guy there who introduced himself as a travelling minister. He was staying in a cheap hotel, and since we had a spare room, it seemed the Christian thing to do was invite him to stay with us. Later during the evening Trudy and I began to feel a bit uneasy. Our guest, before he was converted, had been a gang member in New York, and he was relating the times he committed crimes including shooting at police with his zip gun. I don't remember his first name, Trudy and I refer to him as "Killer McCaffrey." Later that evening a friend from church stopped by our house and told us to be careful. We were pretty tense by then, concerned about our safety and that of our baby, Ron. Time for a silent prayer!

Then the phone rang. It was Henry Redekopp, the man I worked for at the time. He asked me to open with prayer the next morning, as was customary in this place of business. I explained the situation we got ourselves into. He said to bring Killer McCaffrey along and he would settle him in the YMCA. After a tense night sleeping with a hunting knife under my pillow, I got to work the next morning. Henry Redekopp took our guest off our hands and did as he promised, took him to the downtown YMCA. What a relief! And I suppose we had learned a valuable lesson.