50th Celebration

This blogging venture started out from a very important event in my life. In the year of 2007 Leila and I reached the milestone of fifty years of marriage and ministry. God has been so good and we are so grateful. A memorable event took place in the month of May(2007). A Golden Anniversary Celebration in our honor was planned by our daughters and our Hobe Sound Bible Church family. The wonderful memories of that elegant occasion will never be forgotten.

I hope I don’t bore you with my pictures. But after 50 years of pastoral ministries, my life has taken a new direction. My anticipated retirement has gone out the window. I am on a new path. “I am now preaching for a living.” (Contributions are gratefully accepted! - Ha)

Here are a few pictures from this never to be forgotten occasion.


Leila and I with the new pastor of Hobe Sound Bible church and his wife - Paul and Sherri Wolfe...
Many of our family and extended family from the area that were there that evening....

Leila and I in front of the church sign...

L to R...my good friend Dale Hartle, youth pastor at the time Mark Potter and his wife Tammy; long time friends and my New York Pilgrim district superintendent Donald Myers and his wife Paula; and my minister of music Paul Peak and his wife Donna....

Our two daughters and our son in law sing a trio - Paula, Rodney & Vangie...

Scenes from the evening celebration....

Other than Donald and Paula Myersv- above and below are two tables of my cousins..
Our entire family and Leila's sister Jane Dieter...

Another significant event took place on Sunday morning, June 24th, when our 17-year role as Senior Pastor and wife of Hobe Sound Bible Church came to an end. Again, we will not forget the expressions of love and gratitude extended to us in that service. The services of the day culminated with the installation of our new Pastor and wife, Paul and Sherri Wolfe.

Pastor Wolfe and myself...

Among other farewell gifts, the church gave us a lovely vacation package. September 17-21 found us in Canada where we visited Vancouver and experienced "the train ride of a lifetime" aboard the Rocky Mountaineer. We beheld breath-taking views of the Canadian Rockies. Another memorable event.

Scenes from our 2007 Summer Schedule

The next two months found us in the North where we enjoyed a planned "Heritage Tour", visiting our former pastorates and being involved in three Camp Meetings. It was good to meet again so many of our old friends.

Camp Meeting at Etters, PA was my first summer assignment. We had a good team to work with. By the way, this was the last camp meeting that Sister Humble was able to attend before going to a nursing home, being seriously afflicted with medical problems.

Talk about going back home, I was one of the evangelists at my home camp, Binghamton, NY. Speaking about memories - WOW! The camp workers - The Paul Gray Family, Leila and I, Joe & Mary Smith, Don & Paula Myers...

While at camp, I went back in time(58 years) and visited the old Binghamton Pilgrim Holiness church. This was the mother church of the conference. I live in this building as a boy when my father was the pastor. A new church was built in 1950 on Chenango St.

The tabernacle on the Binghamton Camp grounds....

Harriman Chapel Camp took me to the state of MO. Do you recognize any of these people?

My next stop on our return was in Maryland. One of the biggest events of the summer for my wife Leila was a reunion on August 25th of more than 100 former members of the Saint Paul's Wesleyan Church (formerly the Pilgrim Holiness Church) in Oxford, MD, where she attended as a child. This was a day of reminiscing and enjoying meeting friends we had not seen for years. This is the church where Leila and I were married 52 years ago this coming July.

Moving into the Fall season - revival time....

The Ray Craguns at the Bible Holiness Church in Ponchatoula, LA treated me royally....

It was a joy to work with a number of Brethren in Christ Churches. I was shocked to see so many wonderful youth assembled at this mountain church. It was good to get acquainted with the Darrel Potteiger family. Darrel took the place of Bro. Holtry as pastor of this church after Bro. Holtry lost his life in a terrible accident. It was under Holtry's leadership that their new church building was built.

A great time with Pilgrim Nazarene folk at Winchester, IN. Many of you know the Bates family. Don Jr. is not only a good preacher, he is a great singer too.

It was my privilege to be one of the speakers at the IHConvention in Chattanooga, TN....

This concludes our out of state travels in 2007. I enjoyed being home for the month of December.