The Pastor’s Piece – August 10, 2024

Village Voices

August 11, 2024

When I was in high school, my shop teacher taught drafting, wood-working, small engines, and welding. I took all those classes at different times. One time, a friend of mine backed his dark blue, 1974 Pontiac GTO car into the shop, and another friend lifted a small engine in need of repair out of his trunk and set it on the floor and closed the trunk lid. At that moment, the friend driving the car, tromped down on the gas pedal and burned rubber from the shop floor, out the door, and into the street. The teacher was not happy about that at all, and he demanded to know who the driver was. And it was amazing, no one in the class could identify him. So the teacher took roll call, but everyone was present. (The GTO driver wasn’t in our class).

My shop teacher was a character of a man and would often get off topic and tell us wild tales of his days working at Dubuque Packing Company, and John Deere and when he was on road construction. He drove an old Rambler 4-Door Sedan. Probably about the year 1962. He owned a couple of race horses and as I remember, he talked quite a bit about going to the track and betting on his horses. He was a fouled mouthed man, and not particularly likable.

In shop class, we’d work diligently at the projects we submitted and which he approved, and every day, at exactly 8 minutes before the bell rang, he had a person assigned to shout “CLEAN UP!” That’s how long he figured it should take us to clean up our work areas. So we’d get to work picking up the debris scattered around our work stations and organize our area for the next class coming in. I will say, in spite of his shortfalls and my own shortfalls, I learned a lot from this man. 

On another note, but in the same vein, as I write this, we have planned two baptism services at our church for this coming Sunday – one outside the church building between services and another at noon on property the church owns down by the Pecatonica River. Since we’ve never done a baptism in the river, yesterday my wife and I surveyed the area where the baptism will be taking place, and I even waded out into the water just to make sure everything would work as planned. I took a trimmer and whacked all the tall grass and weeds down on the bank so people can see the baptism while it is taking place. Turns out, it should work fine. It might be a little muddy, but who doesn’t like mud? I will keep you posted on how these services go. These are special times.

Also this past week, I met a technician who came to Martintown Community Church to service our soft-serve ice cream machine. We’ve had it for a number of years and use it when we have special events. Lately we noticed that the ice cream gets runny very quickly, so we decided to have the machine serviced by a qualified technician. The guy was really into his work. He has been with the company for 31 years. He knew our machine inside and out. He enthusiastically took it apart piece by piece, carefully explaining in great detail everything he was doing. I felt like an apprentice in training. He would take a piece out of the belly of the machine and ask me if I knew what it was? Of course, I didn’t. And if I thought I had it right, he was quick to correct me. For instance, he pulled a corkscrew like thingy out and said, “Do you know what this is?” I said rather sheepishly: “An auger?” “No!” He replied abruptly (implying but not saying, “you dummy”) – “This is called the paddle.” It took a couple of hours or more to disassemble and then reassemble the whole machine. We cleaned every piece, changed every O-ring, every bushing, checked every belt, and left nothing to chance. I’m pretty sure I can do it myself next time.

While we worked, I invited him to church. He said he lived outside of Milwaukee and that it was just too far to drive. I told him I lived outside of MIlwaukee too – just a little farther out than he was. He said he lived in Waukesha.  “That’s not too far to drive,” I said, “what else do you have to do on Sunday?”  He said we might see him sometime. I told him to tell me when he was coming and we’d be sure to have the ice cream machine running that day. The last thing he said before he left was: “You sure have a nice little gem here.” You can’t help but love a guy who loves his work.

“Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded … Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up,” (James 4:8,10).

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).