I also shared how my
Heavenly Father led me to a Godly family when I least expected it – the Stewart
and Maxine Wight family. When I was
young airman stationed on the island of Taiwan I was uniquely led to them and was
looked after and given council by them in a most unexpected time and place.
That was my second encounter with the presence of the Lord. The year was 1956.
The place was the capital city of Taipei.
After initially finding
the church in Montgomery, Alabama I found myself in 1954 assigned by the US Air
Force to Japan. I soon found the small group of church members in Tokyo and
worshipped/fellowshipped with them every other Sunday. There I soon asked for
baptism. The leader of the mission was
Carl Crum who worked in the American embassy. He guided me in the study of the
church and how it began and what we believed. Then – on December 4, 1954 he
baptized me in a Seventh Day Adventist Church whose pastor had kindly made
their baptismal fount available. I had become the first member of the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that had been baptized
in Japan. Imagine – a young man born in Germany and now baptized in Japan!
I visited with Carl Crum
and his hospitable wife often in order to learn more about the church and what
its member believed. But in May 1955 I was suddenly (and secretly) sent to the
island of Taiwan to assist the National Chinese Army and Air Force in the
installation and use of radio equipment all over Taiwan and the Pescadores
Islands. It was during that time that I became “lost” to the church until our
Heavenly Father directed another member of the church who was also stationed in
Taiwan – to find me. You will find that account in my earlier blog.
I returned to the United
States in May 1956 and since that time found myself and soon my wife to be in
churches in Montgomery, Alabama, Evergreen, Alabama, Pensacola, Florida, Oak Ridge Tennessee, Columbus, Ohio,
Mansfield, Ohio and finally in Richland, Washington. We were privileged to
attend several World Conferences. When in Ohio we had frequent visits to the
Kirtland Temple and on one occasion I had the privilege of marrying a couple in
the Temple – the last such event to be allowed to be performed there.
It was around 1979 when we
were worshipping in the Richland Congregation that I shook hands on Sunday
after church services with our Patriarch – Lloyd Whiting. I had given the
sermon that day and spoke of the time when I joined the church in Japan. Brother Whiting was in his seventies then and
walked forward leaning because his back hurt. To reduce his discomfort he would
usually prop himself against the door post at the back of the church to greet
people. That day when I shook his hand, he asked me: “Did you ever hear the
story of Carl Crum?” I confessed that I did not. Actually I did not even know
that Brother Whiting knew Carl Crum. He
continued: during the mid-1920s Brother Carl Crum had been called to be an
appointee in the RLDS Church. However he had barely entered that service when
the Great Depression “hit”. Reluctantly, the church leadership had to dismiss
Brother Crum. Carl Crum was understandably
unhappy about his dismissal – so soon after he accepted his appointment. In
response to his dismissal he quit attending church in defiance – for several
years.
It was not until the mid-
thirties that Brother Carl and his wife again felt a hunger for the fellowship
of the “Saints” as they were called then. They chose Silver Lake reunion in the
hope that nobody would know them there.
So it was that they
attended a morning prayer service at the reunion. As they had hoped nobody
seemed to know them there. But the Lord
knew where his son and daughter were as they soon found out. There was a young couple there who had come
grief stricken to the reunion. They had
just lost their little boy who had been killed in a roadway by an
automobile. It was sometime during the
prayer service when the little boy’s father – knowing nothing about the Crums stood
up and pointed across the aisle at Brother Crum and spoke under the influence
of the Spirit: “Thus sayeth the Spirit: “Unless
you - Son of Man - repent and rejoin the fellowship of the Saints you will lift
your eyes in hell with regret. I command you to return to the flock. There are
those souls who live now and there are those yet to come who await your
ministry!” (I cannot vouch for each word but the part about “lifting his eyes
in hell with regret” and “those souls who await your ministry” I will always
remember.)
I stood there stunned
looking at Brother Whiting. I knew then that I had been one of those souls
whose life had been touched by Brother Crum’s ministry because he obeyed the
Lord. And I remember the Sunday when I
stood in the baptismal font in Tokyo, Japan with him and heard the words,
“Having been commissioned by Jesus Christ …….!” He remained faithful to his
commission all his life after that fateful encounter with God’s presence. My life among many were touched by his
faithfulness. Not only his faithfulness but his companion wife’s as
well.
On my business trips I
usually travelled through Seattle. On those occasions I tried several times to
phone Brother Crum in Seattle. My only regret was that I never reached him. But
I will always remember Brother Whiting’s story of him and the times we were
together in Japan.
