Tent Maker, etc.

March 3, 2020 (Tuesday)

The Apostle Paul trained from early childhood to become a Pharisee. Part of his preparation for religious work was learning a trade. Paul (known then as Saul) chose the vocation of tent maker. We can deduce from some of his writings that he found that ability very helpful at times as he made his way from place to place. He often found it necessary to support himself. He made tents, for which there was always a demand in those days of long ago.

I never did learn a trade that would give me an income in case I had no support from churches. I came along about 2,000 years after Paul’s term of service, and things changed.

It is worth knowing, however, that there are thousands of ministers in our country and around the world who make their living in some type of secular work while serving churches. They are known as “bi-vocational” ministers.

I had secular jobs from time to time as I grew up, went to public school, college and seminary. My wife, Wanda, taught school and supported us for a while when I was a student.

My first job was delivering items from a drug store to nearby homes in Houston. Two couples lived next door. The husbands were drafted, and one of the wives loaned me her husband’s “victory bike,” a bicycle with solid synthetic tires, manufactured during World War 2. I made deliveries, riding the bike from house to house. I was only 11 years old, and my grandfather asked the druggist to end my employment because he was afraid for me, riding a bike in busy streets at night.

My next jobs were in the produce sections and grocery departments of several grocery stores. In between those jobs, I worked for a man using his garage to produce some kind of liquid that was either a medicine or a cosmetic. I don’t remember, because I only lasted a day.

My mother and stepfather were in the restaurant business, and at one
time owned several restaurants. I worked in them, mainly waiting on people at the counter and at the tables and booths. Sometimes I was only the cashier.

After going away to college, I worked on campus at manual labor, and soon became a staff member at a church while still a freshman, then became pastor of a church for the remainder of my college days. I was paid by the churches and that helped a lot. I also went to work in a medicine factory, making “Baby Percy” medicine in Waco. When I went to Fort Worth to attend the seminary, I worked in an ice cream factory at first, and later at the General Motors Automobile Assembly plant in Arlington. After that, I worked in a feed store and granary. Along the way, I served churches part-time and received income.

I did not make tents like Paul did, but I worked at this and that, and finally made it through the educational process, graduating from the seminary in 1959, at the age of 27.

We had several old cars during those years, and I learned, out of necessity, to work on them.

OK, that’s all the room I have to write about all this stuff. I guess I just wanted to reminisce a little.