Gardeners?

I vaguely remember people talking about the war between the Methodists and the Presbyterians. The AG may appear monolithic to outsiders but in reality it was created by the amalgamation of persons of various denominational backgrounds, including both Methodists and Presbyterians among various others, all united by the theme of the shared Pentecostal experience. Some time ago, perhaps 20 years ago, there was some sort of war between various factions within the AG. This is problematic because often we do not know who belongs to what faction. It is not apparent from the skin color or outward appearances or even associations of the various persons. I was somehow told that I would be discarded as a Methodist witch woman even though I have no Methodist background or associations and have no clue what they are talking about. The only Methodist link that I can think of is that my Dad's cousin Suzanne attended the University of Southern California, which is of Methodist origin, at some time back in the 1960s even though we were never Methodists. It was just her choice of college. I don't know anything about that. I barely knew the San Diego relatives and saw them only a handful of times in my lifetime.

Interestingly, in recent research we now learn of the existence of Ray Earl Gardner, whose parents were actually of Presbyterian background and were missionaries in Foochow, China, later living in Claremont where exists a Methodist seminary of which there is no evidence that Gardner ever attended, and serving under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions which is Congregational, which as far as I can tell is neither Methodist nor Presbyterian but somewhat interdenominational in its recruitment of teachers.

Interestingly, there was a Darrell Gardner who was a famous trumpet player and alumni of my college, Southern California College, which is AG, not Methodist or Presbyterian that I know of. I have no idea whether the trumpet player was in any way related to the Gardner family from China. It is not like I ever knew him personally. I only saw him maybe once when he came to the college to speak to students.

I also seem to remember a girl at SCC whose name was maybe Dara Gardner or something like that. She was a favorite of the Cederblom boys who invited her to go with them to churches and sing and give her testimony when they did their personal ministry and trumpet playing not in connection to the school. I don't know anything about that. I only remember Tim Cederblom explaining that they invited her to go with them because she has a testimony (the details of which I don't recall). I vaguely remember him introducing her to me and I said hello. That is about all I remember about that. I vaguely recall that Tim seemed a little perturbed that more conversation was not forthcoming from me in regards to Ms. Gardner but I really have nothing else to say about that. It is not like my future is in any way dependent on the Cederblom's opinion of anything. They don't know me anyway. It is not like we ever really talked.

Which Reminds Me...

At some time when I was in maybe fifth grade at the Escuela Americana I remember going to some girls' house for a party, a huge house with all kinds of furniture, and we were sitting around a table talking and these girls were saying that they never listen to Beatles music because it is bad, full of bad meanings and things. I do remember them saying that but I do not recall myself swearing any oath never to listen to Beatles music in the future just because they said that. Some of the Beatles songs are bad and some of their songs are not so bad now that I am old enough to think for myself. I am not fond of Paul McCartney's Catholic song "Let It Be." Also, I have no interest in Eastern religions so I have no use for a lot of George Harrison's yoga music. Still, some of their songs are actually pretty good. It depends on which song you are talking about in my opinion.

D

This Mr. Demeterius has caused us much harm, forcing us to think in terms of meters and liters and kilometers when the old English system of measurements worked just fine for me. Mr. Demeterius insists on making stupid jokes about meter maids and Beatles hit songs, as if that would advance the point. And why all these stupid jokes about "gets"? Is Laurie's last name Goetz? No, she only married a Goetchius so the joke falls flat in terms of rhyme. Also, who cares that Uncle Art's mother's maiden name was Downey? I never even knew that but anyway that is not half as bad as Larry Downs' last name. So? Besides, we all know that the Bates are the ones who financed the genealogy research so why is everyone pointing fingers at me? Did I ask for these relatives? No, they just are. (2 Timothy 4:14-15)

The BPWM

It goes without saying that we are not aware of MacGowan's children if she ever had any, although in surfing the Internet we saw that the former college classmate, a psychology major, was working for a university in Oregon. The McGowan children who came to the U.S. aboard the S.S. Gripsholm to spend the rest of World War II with their uncle Jack in Eugene, Oregon, are listed as of the Chinese race so I don't see any resemblance there. Besides, the McGowan children were apparently connected to the British Political Warfare Mission, according to a notation on the passenger list, so obviously their purpose in coming to the U.S. has ended. The war has been over for a very long time now and your answers to the questions were given before reaching the age of majority. We really were not planning to resurrect your answers to the boiler plate questions that non-U.S. citizens were required to answer upon entering the country as part of a POW exchange but if you insist on raising Cane you might find that the authorities are starting to wonder if you really were a prisoner, a poor man, a hospital patient, a mental case undergoing treatment, a polygamist and an anarchist all along and only lying to get through customs fast. Are you trying to tell us that you have changed your mind and that you really do want to overthrow the U.S. government after all? Perhaps in the intervening years you have been arrested or deported or excluded. Do you really want to go through World War II all over again? Then I think you must be crazy for sure and with your addle-brained head, lacking a teaching credential or similar working purpose, you will never qualify for a Chinese Visa. The Chinese authorities will never let you in the front door as just a nice ministry guy with good intentions. The rules state it clearly: "Any person suffering from a mental disorder, leprosy, AIDS, venereal diseases, contagious tuberculosis or other such infectious diseases shall not be permitted to enter China." Who defines mental disorder? The nation defending the integrity of its own borders will tell you who gets in and who doesn't. That is how that works, or ought to.

Funk

I always thought that he was referring to a certain type of music. He repeated himself thinking that perhaps I (or was it we?) had misunderstood and thought he was using a different word but it was always clear from the context of what he was saying that he was referring to a type of music so I did not think the clarification was required. However, I thought it was a good sign that he did clarify because it showed that he had a conscience in regards to word choice and did not want to be perceived as a guy with no vocabulary.  Thus I was not concerned about that later. There was no reason to wonder whether he was actually referring to Grace Funk, the Iowa-born Methodist missionary who spent 20 or so years as a single unmarried teacher in a girls' school at Shaowu, China, before marrying Herbert Edwin Victor Andrews, a missionary with China Inland Mission. Andrews' first wife Gertrude had died leaving him alone in China with five young children to raise so it was convenient that Grace Funk at age 44 agreed to assume the work of raising his children. Later, in 1943, during World War II the Andrews were among hundreds of people evacuated from China. After traveling to India, they boarded the S.S. Gripsholm, an International Red Cross exchange ship used for the transport of diplomats and prisoners of war. The ship sailed from Mormugao, in Portuguese India, on Oct. 22, arriving in New York on December 1. Interestingly, the passenger list also includes the names of Daniel and Sarah (Kugler) Sheets among many others. One might wonder whether the Andrews and the Sheets dined together on board the S.S. Gripsholm but it is equally possible that they never met and would not even recognize each other on the same ship. I really don't know. The passenger list doesn't reallly include that information. It only gives the names, birth information, citizenship, and address in the United States.

Which reminds me of talking to Sandy Santiago about singleness and she was saying that so many single women of the 1960s and 1970s generation were probably so because their potential spouses were killed in Vietnam. Ok, so that's one way of looking at it. Also, there were all those magazine articles saying that the odds of getting married for women of a more advanced age, meaning about 30 or older, are about the same as being eaten by a shark or struck by lightning. It could happen if you really put yourself out there but the odds are against you.

Dumb People

It was sad the way that Max and Ophelia always surrounded themselves with the most pathetically horrible people, Cheri and Terry being a prime example of trailer trash losers in my opinion. Another example of dumb people is provided in the story of the People's Republic of Ephesus. In this story we see that the stupid people were clamoring for their idols of Diana even when the Apostle Paul was preaching the truth of the Gospel which leads to eternal life. Go figure. The Apostle Paul was saying what was right and true, which is that God is worshiped in spirit and in truth among other things, and yet he was thrown in prison for doing the right thing. The stupid people preferred to believe a lie, which was that their beloved idol of Diana fell out of the sky. Ha ha ha! Who are you kidding? We all know that the idol of Diana was a crafty and devilish invention of the artists of Ephesus. We are not fooled by the back room dealings of the Good Old Boys. Truth be told, the people were wrong wrong wrong. But in the People's Republic of Ephesus the stupid people with vested interests in the economic structure of idolatry, which infused the entire culture, won the day. This is the sad truth that sometimes the wrong people win and the right people lose. Still, losing does not necessarily prove that you were wrong. It could just mean that the people were stupid or something like that.