REAL Holiness

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At 01:44 AM 9/4/98 -0500, Bro Tyler, me, wrote:

>When employment of P.A.M. ceased in 1988 (May), there wasn't anybody that
>said I couldn't grow my beard back (and my wife really likes the looks of
>it better anyway ... says it hides my baby face and doesn't feel like she's
>kissing a boy) ... including the pastor.... so I grew it back.  Have had it
>on ever since with the exception of a time when I got so anxious in trimming
>it that I had to shave it off completely because I made so many bad mistakes.

I remember that the pastor had no problem with me being a member of the
church with a beard... but... the only thing that they'd not allow me to
do ... is join the choir.  I could give a sermonette from behind the pulpit.
I could sing a special song.  I could usher and greet.  But I was never ever
allowed to sing in the choir.  I kinda felt like choir membership was a carrot
they dangled in front of me.  "Only if"....

The time I made up for non-choir singing was during church camp every year.
Even though I couldn't sing in the local choir, I was allowed to sing in
the church camp choir.  MAN!  They were usually really good choirs too!  I
remember a camp several years ago that I didn't get any time off for it,
and I'd get up at 5 am get read and drive to work (60 miles to Champaign)
work 8 hours and then drive back just in time to miss the first 5 minutes
of choir practice.  A week of that absolutely wore me out.

There was another time when God would move mightly with a particular camp's
choir that I was a member of.  The last day of that week, in the all-commers
vs Preachers softball game (going into extra innings ... peachers at bat)
I shattered my left ankle while chasing a ground ball into deep right-center
field.  They loaded me into Bro Schuller's van.  Bro Schuler, Sis Schueller,
Sis Treva, Bro Boone, and Sis Karen (a nurse) accompanied me to St Josephs
medical center where they got me medical attention.  I remember after they
wheeled me out of the emergency room to a room that I was going to have for
a few days (4 to be exact) because I was to have surgery the following 
morning to remove bone fragments and have a pin inserted into my ankle 
(because my left-inside ankle bone was behind my heel-bone and my outside 
left-side support bone in the lower leg was broken clean at about 4 in. up 
from the end of it).  I was in bad shape.  I remember everybody leaving 
after I got my room because they had to get back to go to church that evening
at the camp.  I tolerated the pain very well.  I have a pretty high threshold
for pain so that's normally not a problem.  But I remember crying in my room
because that night I'd not be allowed to go sing in the choir.  Even thinking
about it right now, brings tears to my eyes as that was my yearly joy in 
singing in a choir that'd have me.  If there was one thing I counted on, 
that was being part of the camp choir.  But I couldn't go.

I got a few visiters the next day after surgery.  I was in- and out- of
consciousness all day long.  I remember Sis Treva was there, I kinda remember
a few visitors as well.  I know that before my four day stay was over, I
think Bro Koonce came to see me, my parents drove in from Champaign, my wife
(obviously), maybe Sis Karen and Bro Boone, maybe even my in-laws dropped by,
maybe even Bro and Sis Martin.  I got out on a Tuesday.  I was back to work
on the following Thursday with a cast on my leg that went from my hip to my
toes.  The physical therapists marvelled at how quickly I adapted to crutches
(especially with my size ... I'm a big burly kinda guy).

I programmed for BankIllinois Co with both legs up on the desk and a keyboard
layed across the lap for the next six weeks.  The day before my birthday (on
Sept 23) I got the big cast off and a walking cast put on.  

Ever since then, walking's never been the same as well as running.  When 
we'd return to church camp, the UPCI camp caretakers would always ask how
I'm doing because the proprietors of the place *remember* the day that Bro
Tyler went down with a broken ankle.  They remember me lying there in a ditch
and they couldn't do anything about it.  As I understand, they even asked
about me this year even though I've not been at that ALJC church camp for 
> 1 year now.

Bro Tyler  
--
 ______ ___   __ _____ __    __   __  __ tnally@iquest.net tnally@mcp.com
|_    _|   \ |  |  _  |  |  |  |  \ \/ / tgnally@prairienet.org
  |  | |  |\\|  |  _  |  |__|  |__ |  |  T. Nally - "A M.I.M.E. is a
  |__| |__| \___|_| |_|_____|_____||__|  a terrible thing to waste."