One for the Books

“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV

It’s easy to downplay what we see as “small” acts of generosity, but God can surprise us by taking a simple gift and multiplying its blessing.

Barb Crider witnessed this after she was encouraged by Megan Tornquist at Valley Evangelical Free Church in Chaska, Minnesota. As Megan was leading worship that day, she shared a passage from New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp that had been meaningful to her.

“It spoke to me also,” Barb said, so she purchased the devotion book for herself. “Many times, as I would read the day’s devotional, it would be so timely for what I was going through right then. I was blessed over and over.”

Barb said God put in her mind people who might be blessed by the book. “So, I just started sending it to people.”

One of those people was Barb’s Bible Study Fellowship leader.

“She has thanked me over and over for it,” Barb said. “I sent one to a friend who is battling ovarian cancer for the third time. Then she bought copies for friends who had been recently widowed. I sent one to a friend in Racine, and she then decided to give one to her pastor there. Over and over again, people that I have given the book to have decided to give it to others.”

The Racine pastor has quoted from the book in some of his sermons, Barb said, and recently gave the youth version to his older son. One day after reading it, his son said, “Wow, that’s convicting!”

“My friend in Racine and her husband asked their three grandchildren if they would like to study the online version, and they are now working through that,” Barb said.

At Christmas one year, Barb received a package from a friend in Pennsylvania she hadn’t seen in a long time. Barb smiled as she opened the package and found a copy of New Morning Mercies.

“It was a special blessing to me, and now I had another copy to give away!” Barb said. “It’s fun to do. I just thought it was so amazing how a little thing like that could bless so many people.”

Seeing God encourage others through this book gives Barb a special boost, since her poor health has limited the ways she can minister to people.

“I’m sick a lot, and I have a lot of things wrong with me,” Barb said. “So, you do feel like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this, and I can’t do that,’ but there are things you can do. My ministry is not maybe what I thought it would be or what it used to be, or what I want it to be, but you can still have a ministry. There are still things you can do.”

It’s Not About Me

It was a strange time in Tom Keenan’s life. These days he sings every Sunday as he leads the worship team at Chaska’s Valley Evangelical Free Church. But in January 2022, the lifelong musician and vocalist with a two-octave tenor voice could not make a sound. He couldn’t sing. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t even whisper. What’s worse, the medical specialist told him that due to a paralyzed vocal cord, his voice might be gone — forever.

Even though the church’s pastor and elder board were aware of Tom’s prognosis, they hired him that month as worship leader. In fact, former pastor Mike Sindelar once quipped, “We’re probably the only church with a worship leader who can’t sing!”

The real kicker was that Tom didn’t want to be worship leader, even when he still had a voice. Tom had agreed to serve as interim worship leader, but at age 59, he was planning a different ministry since he’d retired from the postal service. He was going to use his handyman skills to help people in disaster areas.

“I had my pickup truck. I had my tools laid out,” he said. “I had built a bed in the back of my pickup truck because I was going to go with Billy Graham Samaritan’s Purse. I was signed up and ready to go.”

But God had a different plan for Tom. In numerous ways, He pointed Tom to serve as worship leader.

“I was wrestling with him,” Tom recalled. He sensed God telling him, “I thought you wanted to do ministry that I called you to? Well, I’m calling you to this. Are you serving me? Or are you serving yourself?”

The worship leader job had been posted for six months before Tom followed God’s call and applied. Then he lost his voice. Four months after accepting the worship leader position, Tom still couldn’t make a sound. He gestured and used a pen and notebook. He directed other team members to speak and sing. And this gregarious man of Irish descent, who had performed with a national singing group and on numerous stages in the past, was now avoiding social events.

“It made me withdraw into a shell, maybe not outwardly, but inwardly. I didn’t want to go to social functions anymore. I didn’t want to stand around church afterwards anymore. I didn’t want to be anywhere with somebody asking me a question. We tried to go to a birthday party with a bunch of people, and it was the most uncomfortable place I’d ever been for an hour and a half.”

That experience has given him more compassion for others, and he now notices people who are hurting, he said. But at the time, the entire situation didn’t make sense to him.

“I was really frustrated, because I could not understand how God had called me to do something, and then he didn’t allow me the tools to do it. It’s like a drummer without sticks, or a guitar without strings. They make no sound. The lyre can’t strum without strings and that’s the way I was with my voice. This is my primary instrument; this is how I lead. And God just took it from me and said, ‘Lead anyway.’ So, I was extremely frustrated.”

Pride

Tom said he learned some major lessons during this time — predominantly about pride.

“God absolutely ripped pride from my life based on my voice,” he explained.

Prior to attending Valley, Tom had served as worship leader of another church for four years. At that point, God made it clear that Tom should step down from the position. While God didn’t speak directly to him, Tom sensed what He was communicating: “Keenan, you’re done. Sit on the bench.”

“What did I do?” Tom asked God. He sensed God’s reply: “When you figure that out, we’ll talk.”

Tom realized that he had become “very prideful” in his role at the other church. “This was a big discipline thing for me,” Tom said. “I knew what I was doing (as a worship leader). I was good at it, and I thought that the congregation was going to grow spiritually through my leadership. God whistled me off the field, and He didn’t tap me on the shoulder or pat me on the back and say, ‘Good job.’ He put a hard hand on my back, and said, “You’re benched.”

When Tom and Martha began attending Valley, Tom was not part of the staff. He didn’t want to fall into pride again. “For that first year and a half, I was sitting there learning this lesson about pride, having no responsibility and no leadership at church,” Tom said. “I didn’t want it, and nobody was offering anything. Eventually, I got tapped on the shoulder by God again, after we’d gone through this, and He said, ‘Okay, I’m going to put you back in the game.’ ”

After Tom lost his voice, he said it was almost as if God was saying, “I’m going to give you this job that I want you to do, and I’m going to take away your voice to prove to you that it’s about me and not you.”

Peace

For about four months, Tom struggled to silently lead the Valley worship team, but he was planning to resign. “I guess maybe I finally came to the end of me. I thought, I couldn’t do this. It’s bad for Valley. It’s bad for the people. It’s uncomfortable for newcomers. I had this team of 20 people, and I felt like I couldn’t do the job adequately. Every morning, I would get up and pray, God give me back my voice. But it wasn’t happening.”

Then one morning, as Tom was on his knees praying, something astounding happened. “In my heart I was crying out to God, saying, ‘You’ve asked me to be a part of Valley worship team in a leadership position, but I need a voice to do that. You’ve got to give me my voice back.’”

Through tears, as Tom pounded his pillow with his fist, he heard God’s reply: “Tom, I don’t need your voice, I need your heart.”

Tom says he clearly hears God’s voice on occasion, and this time it was “very, very clear.” “That voice came into my heart, soul and mind. And it just leveled me — just broke me, and I wept harder into the pillow,” Tom recalled.

“I understood that I may not get my voice back ever again, but I also felt a deep peace in my soul. I’d had a voice for many years. I used it to His glory. I’d sung on stages. I’d done performance art and entertainment. And if that’s what God wanted to take from me to clean up my life, then I was okay with that.”

Tom got off his knees, telling God that he trusted him. I’m not going to have a voice again, he thought. God will provide, and I’ll be all right. Thank you, God, for what’s been. Tranquility overwhelmed him.

Healing

A few more months went by, with Tom silently leading the worship team. By this point, his doctor had sent him to a vocal coach in an attempt to “wake up” the paralyzed vocal cord. Tom hadn’t uttered a sound in eight months, but as he drove home one day after a vocal appointment, God surprised him.

“I remember exactly where I was,” Tom said. “I was on Highway 35 coming through the spaghetti intersection, getting on 62 doing my vocal exercises. And suddenly, my voice made a sound for the first time! Then a couple of minutes later, I was able to repeat it. And I was able to replicate it a third time, just that first sound. And then I heard the voice of God in my head say to me, ‘I’m going to give you back your voice now. Are you ready?’”

Tom’s eyes grew misty as he remembered this moment. In his mind, he immediately said “Yes” to God. He couldn’t say it out loud.

“Tears were pouring out of my eyes,” he said. “I knew exactly what God meant, God had underscored and removed my pride. We all have it, but that pride in me as a performer was gone. I didn’t have that anymore. I was not relying on a pretty voice. I was relying on everybody else, and I was just organizing and helping orchestrate worship on Sunday morning. I knew what ‘Are you ready’ meant. I had been disciplined by God for my personal pride which ran deep. Then the Holy Spirit could begin to reshape me, starting with my heart.”

Service

Tom’s voice didn’t instantly return. It took some time. Over the next two months, he was slowly able to make more sounds and say words, even though it sounded like he had laryngitis. On the worship team, he gradually added one note after another over the next year.

“It went from three notes to five notes to six notes to eight notes. Now I have one octave, and it is the church octave. It goes from B flat below the staff to C middle staff. It is the sweet spot for the congregation to sing,” Tom explained. “My upper tenor voice is completely gone. I do not have my full range of my ‘lovely’ tenor tones back. They’ll never come back, and that’s okay. I can sing, I can talk, I can share the Gospel.

“I just have a congregational singing voice. God has given me exactly what I need to do the tasks that He has called me to do. And that’s what I asked for. In my prayers, I said, ‘God, I just need to sing what the congregation needs to sing.’ He keeps me humble, because every now and then my voice will crack and disappear for a couple of notes at a time.”

Tom said his security is not in his voice anymore, and he’s never felt so good about his place in life.

“Right now, I know this is exactly what God has given me to do. God brings us to the end of ourselves,” Tom added, “so we realize that all we have left is him. 1 Timothy 1:12 says, ‘I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given us strength, that He considered me trustworthy, appointing me to His service.’ Wow, that is so true.

“I think my primary lesson was when God said to me, ‘I don’t need your voice, I need your heart.’ I suppose God could say that to anybody about anything. I don’t need your writing skills, I need your heart. I don’t need your mechanics ability, I need your heart.’

We’re all just here to serve Him in our current circumstance.”

Lost and Found

Karen Teigland has so many stories about her life with God that it was difficult for her to choose just one. Should the 78-year-old wife, mother and grandmother share how she came to know Jesus or about missions work she’s done with her husband, Arne? Should she talk about how God led their family into six Communist countries and around the world doing his work? How about the tales of God’s peace as she was diagnosed with cancer or how God led her to start a Bible study for neighbors? Karen decided to start with a simple story of a gift from God that strengthened her faith and became a testimony to others.

Karen was working at the Chaska Event Center in October of 2020 taking tickets for an outside celebration when she noticed it. A diamond in her wedding ring was missing. She’d been wearing that ring for 55 years, so it was valuable in more ways than one.

“Oh! My diamond’s gone!” she said. Her two co-workers immediately hit the ground, looking for Karen’s diamond in the grass. Karen realized she might have lost it inside the building when she was putting on tablecloths and knocked her ring against the tables.

“I told the gals, ‘I'm going inside just to see.’ So, I’m on the floor looking under tables to see if there's a diamond.”

When she didn’t find it, she returned to work. After she got home, she prayed about it with her husband.

“God, you are the only one who knows where this diamond is,” she prayed. “It’s a needle in a haystack, and I'm just going to rest in you. Lord, if you want me to have that diamond back, you will somehow show me where it is.”

Karen said she didn't grumble, complain or feel sorry for herself, even though resting in God doesn’t come naturally to her. “I’ll tell you that for sure, but I was able to rest in the Lord this time. And we just settled with it.”

More than a year passed, and the diamond stayed lost. Then one morning in November of 2021, Karen entered her bathroom as usual. “I came in to wash my face and brush my teeth in that sink, and there is the diamond,” she recalls. “There’s no way humanly you can explain it. I am convinced God put that diamond right between the faucet and the soap box, and it looked at me just like it was smiling at me perfectly. I just said, ‘Praise the Lord!’ It was so perfect, how he wanted me to see it, how he had arranged it. That itty bitty diamond sat right between the faucet and my soap dish, looking at me. Wow. It was miraculous.”

After this experience, Karen said she settled on a new philosophy: “God is concerned about what concerns me, and how big it is or how little is it makes no difference. He is concerned about what concerns us.

“He knew I didn’t worship this diamond or anything else I have. It’s all his. I know everything belongs to him, but he wanted to strengthen my faith at that point, and I was just overwhelmed with joy.”

But that’s not the end of the story: Karen returned to the Event Center and told some co-workers how she found the diamond after it had been missing for so long.

“I told the whole story about how God returned that diamond to me, so perfectly. God knew I’d do that because he wanted those girls to see that he is real. He loves them. I just really believe God used it in their lives. Yeah, that’s a very, very important part of the story.”

A Still Small Voice

Not many people compare their courtships to a biblical “Abraham experience,” but that’s how Bill Weber describes the long journey to marrying his wife, Rhonda.

Throughout the years when a future with Rhonda seemed impossible, God guided Bill, often speaking directly through His Word. Bill tried to listen and obey along the way, and now he can look back on 39 years of marriage with the woman he loves (and his best friend). Bill said he’s sharing his story for a reason: as a reminder to listen for God’s still small voice.

Bill and Rhonda, both members of Valley Evangelical Free Church in Chaska, Minnesota, met in 1978 in a campus ministry. Bill’s early attempts at romance, however, were “politely rebuffed” by Rhonda. As the years went on, though, Rhonda slowly became a friend and confidant as they ministered together on campus.

After Bill graduated with a master of business administration and was teaching a management class at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, he felt his heart drawn more and more to Rhonda. But he would soon leave for Germany for two years to serve in a campus ministry there. He was following the Lord’s calling to eventually end up in the Soviet Bloc, where Christians were trying to spread the Gospel behind the Iron Curtain. Attempting to develop the relationship with Rhonda further just didn’t make sense.

Late one night in January of 1982, about six months before he was supposed to leave for Germany, Bill couldn’t sleep as he wrestled with these dual desires.

“I was thinking, how does this stuff all fit together? I’m going away for two years, and yet I’m feeling this tug toward developing a deeper relationship with Rhonda. I just couldn’t figure it out.”

A Whisper from God

It was about 1 a.m., and Bill needed to teach at 8 a.m. After trying to put everything out of his mind and not having much success, he finally cried out to God, “Are you trying to tell me something?” Then he heard “a whisper.”

“It was like a still small voice saying, Go back to what you were reading … Go back to what you were reading. That’s the first time anything like that had ever happened to me,” Bill explained. “And I was kind of floored. I’d been reading in Luke 13. I knew the Bible talks about this still small voice, but I prayed: If this is really you, Lord, please make it very clear what you’re trying to get through to me, because this is really weird for me.”

Bill decided to read both Luke 13 and 14, because he wasn’t quite sure what Go back to what you were reading meant. Luke 13:6-9 shares a parable about a fig tree: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

“It dawned on me that I’d known Rhonda for three years at that point,” Bill said, “And the message I got hit me like a ton of bricks. For three years, I’d been looking for fruit in our relationship and not finding it. Why should it use up the soil? Why should it take my energy?”

The message Bill heard from God was, “Let me fertilize it. Let me deal with it.”

Bill teared up a bit as he told this story, even though four decades have passed since God gave him this message and another through Luke 14:8-11(which is about being invited to a wedding feast):

“Do not take the place of honor for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, give this man your seat. Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to your friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted.”

“The message I got from the Lord was if I were to marry Rhonda someday, I shouldn’t try to take the place of honor. I needed to take the lowest position and remember that there were people more distinguished than me who could and would want to marry her.”

The Lord whispered this guidance to Bill: “You need to focus on becoming the kind of man that she would want to marry, rather than thinking you’re the person she should marry.”

“That also hit me like a ton of bricks,” Bill said. “But it was the truth. And so, God speaks. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. The message I think He had for me was, ‘Focus on letting me fertilize this, and if you remember your place, I will take care of it.’”

The Abraham Experience

The following four years were what Bill calls his “Abraham experience.” Bill and Rhonda continued to develop their friendship through letters, and Bill eventually let her know that he believed she was the woman he was supposed to marry.

“That really threw her for a loop,” Bill said. “She was not interested in being more than friends.”

Even though Bill continued to hear messages through scripture and promptings from the Lord about Rhonda over the next two years, nothing was changing. So, after months of back and forth with counselors on both sides of the Atlantic, Bill’s mentors and friends said he needed to move on.

“By that point, I started thinking I was a nutcase,” Bill said. “And by the fall of 1984 I had to give it up, because I thought maybe I was just reading things into scripture and was really starting to wonder if I was going off the deep end.”

Bill stopped writing to Rhonda and prayed, “God, I think I’m going crazy, so for the sake of my sanity, I have to close the door on this. If you want me to marry Rhonda, I’m more than happy to marry her. But you’re going to have to open the door for that to happen.”

The following two years were an emotional roller coaster, Bill said. During that time, Rhonda eventually asked Bill if he still wanted to explore a relationship. And twelve months later, Bill hit the pause button so Rhonda could have some time to be sure that Bill — and not someone else — was the one for her. For Bill, surrendering the relationship with Rhonda was akin to Abraham placing his beloved son Isaac on the altar.

“I had to say, ‘Okay God, I don’t know what you're doing here, but I’m willing to let the relationship go if that’s what you want.’ That’s why I call it my Abraham experience, because I really just had to surrender her to Him.”

By December of 1985 it became clear to Rhonda that she and Bill were supposed to be together. They were engaged in January of 1986 and married in June of 1986.

The years-long wait to reach that resolution “was tough,” Bill said. Yet it was part of his ongoing transformation process, he added, as God wants to conform each of us more and more to the image of Christ.

“Part of the Christian walk is that we have to learn to wait and trust,” he noted, “and that doesn’t end on this side of heaven.”

God Speaks

“My conviction is that God does speak. He’s not like a vending machine; He doesn’t speak on command. And as C.S. Lewis describes the lion (Aslan) throughout the Chronicles of Narnia series, He’s not a tame lion. Occasionally, though, He’ll prompt us with a still small voice or even with a two-by-four — if we’re open to it and trying to listen,” Bill said. “My experience has been that God reaches into our lives, and He can speak when He wants. So, am I listening?

“I just try to keep in mind that God is present — that He’s here and He cares. It’s so very easy to forget that as I go about my day. But my experience has been that He cares about the little things as well as the big things, because He wants to be that intimately connected with each of us.”