Houston – 1963 (3)

Preparing for our Move to New York

I actually wore several hats during the nine months we were at Garden Oaks in Houston.  I taught a college age Bible class.  The high school kids I had worked with during the summer of 1956, had grown up and many of them were in my Bible class.  I also taught the ladies class.  I preached every other Wednesday night, and on Sundays when Truman was out of town, which was often.  I did quite a lot of hospital visitation.  The Houston Medical Center attracts many people from all over the country, and I visited out of town people as well as those of our members who used those facilities.

A part of our ministry involved laying plans for our mission project.  When we first moved to Houston we had not settled on an exact location for our church planting mission.   Jim and Charles had done a good bit of research concerning Jamestown.  Bob Scott and Perry Newton, who had just planted a church in Albany, wanted us to go to Troy.   The capital district consists of the Tri-Cities – Albany, Troy and Schenectady.   Schenectady is the home of General Electric, and there was a well established congregation in Schenectady. It was decided that the only way to settle the issue would be to make a survey trip.  Charles and Jim were elected to conduct the survey trip.

When they got back they met with us, and then subsequently met with the Garden Oaks elders, along with the Tomball elders who would be providing support for Charles.  Nobody really wanted to go to Troy.  It was a textile city (home of Arrow Shirts at the time), and sort of depressing as Northeastern cities go.   There was no nearby congregation in Jamestown. The closest Church of Christ was 60 miles away.  At the time Jamestown was a furniture manufacturing center, and had several other substantial factories including Crescent Tools and the Art Metal Company.  The economy eventually went South – literally.   Crescent Tools sought cheaper labor in the South, and Art Metal closed up shop after a long unresolved strike, but when we moved there Jamestown was a viable Southwestern New York City.  It was about twenty miles inland from Lake Erie, and a shorter distance than that from the northern Pennsylvania border.

We made the decision to move to Jamestown.  I needed to raise some working funds, and some funds for equipment.  I visited several congregations on Wednesday nights and managed to secure all the necessary funding.  It was a busy time for us but also an exciting time.  The nine months passed rapidly, and we bonded with the church that would provide our support for the next five to six years.