We Welcome Our Third Child – Ruby (2)

On January 4, 1967, Ann and I went to see her OB/GYN doctor.  He told us that the anticipated the arrival of the new baby in about two weeks.  We went home and a few minutes later Ann’s water broke. It was a Wednesday evening so I called to let everyone know I would be missing church that evening.  We made arrangements for Elliott’s care and I drove Ann to WCA Hospital, which was only a few blocks away.   I wasn’t in a particularly big hurry.  Ann had been in labor with Elliott for eight hours, so I figured I had a long time to wait. 

WCA had an “expectant father’s lounge.”   I was the only person in there, and I sat there reading during the whole time.  In those days they didn’t allow fathers to be in the delivery room.  In about four hours, the nurse came into the lounge to tell me that my wife had delivered a healthy baby. She said, “But she wants to tell you what the baby is.”   I knew it was a girl.   Ann wouldn’t have insisted on telling me herself had it been a boy.  That would have been all in a day’s work.  A girl was something else.  

In a few minutes I was taken into Ann’s room, and she was holding Ruby in her arms.  The next day I had flowers sent to Ann’s room.  I explained to the lady at the flower shop that we had a new baby girl.  The lady said, “Well she’s going to be very expensive.  She’s going to want nice dresses, and lots of expensive things.”

Actually Ruby has never been all that demanding from a financial viewpoint.  Maybe it was because she understood our limited financial resources.  From the day she was born she’s been the “light of my life.”  When she was young, I often sat and sang as I rocked her to sleep.  There were two songs that I sang more than any other – “Scarlet Ribbons” and “Girl of My Dreams.”  Often when I tried to sing something else, she would say, “Daddy, please sing ‘Scarlet Ribbons.’”   In many ways she was a “Daddy’s girl.”  I did nothing to discourage that.

During her teen years she had an enormous conflict with Ann, and it fell my role to serve as the referee.  However, in her adult years Ann and Ruby have become more than mother/daughter.  They are best friends.  Ruby was still single when she won a trip for two to Jamaica at her place of work, so she decided to take Ann.  Her friends said, “Ruby, are you really going to take your Mom on the trip?”  She said, “Yeah! My mom’s fun.”

We Welcome Our Third Child – Ruby (1)

In 1966 we began anticipating the arrival of another child.  In those days you didn’t know the baby’s gender prior to birth, so we had names picked out for boys and girls.   We were really hoping for a girl this time.   Ann’s mother had six grandsons, but no granddaughters.  At one point Ann had hoped to name a baby girl “Geraldine Alene.”   Those were the middle names of her two sisters.  I strongly encouraged her to think differently. She came up with Ruby Francis.  

Ruby was my mother’s name, and Ann also had a deep love for her Aunt Ruby Eanes.  We agreed on that one.  However, I never thought to go over the spelling of the middle name.  Ann didn’t realize that “Francis” is normally the way you spell a boy’s name, and “Frances” is the way you spell a girl’s name.  She had the birth certificate application signed before I knew the difference, so Ruby got struck with a boy’s name. 

During her childhood years she was often resentful of having a boy’s name.  Like many parents, we had a habit of calling our children by their full name when they were in trouble.  That was even worse for Ruby because she didn’t like her middle name anyway.  She could hear it coming.  When one of the parents expressed anger, we sometimes couldn’t remember the name of the person we were “splainin’ the facts of life to.  So we would start – “William Elliott.  James Charles.”  Eventually we would get to Ruby Francis and that ended up being part of the punishment for wrong doing.

Once when we were at Midwest Bible Camp, I called her by her full name in front of her friends. For her that was the ultimate embarrassment.  She said, “Oh! Great! Dad, just tell the whole world what my middle name is.”   

 Later on I approached her about having the spelling legally changed.  She declined.  By that time she had made peace with her middle name.  Her mother-in-law’s name is Frances, and the similarity has strengthened the bond between the two of them.

Obstacles We Didn't Foresee (2)

Plan C

As we were making our plans, another unexpected hitch occurred.   We had been in the shopping plaza for two years.  We had paid our bills on time, and we had kept the facility up.  The landlord really had no problem with us except for the fact that we did not attract business to the plaza.  He felt churches were best suited to be in some other location, so when our lease was up, he asked that we find another place. 

So we were faced with the challenge of trying to get a building project off the ground, we had to find a place for the church to meet.  By this time we were having 50 or more people at our services, so there was no way we could go to a private home.

One day we noticed classified ad in paper.  The Seventh Day Adventists had built a new building, and they were trying to sell their old one.  We discovered that it had been on the market for some time.  We approached them about renting to us until we could get our building ready.  From their perspective some income was better than none, so we were able to rent their facility. 

It was an old, but nice facility.  We never entertained any real thought of buying it.   There was no parking, and the structure needed work.  It served quite adequately for us during the interim.  There was only one office area, but I moved my desk into a large multipurpose room in the basement.  It’s the only time I’ve ever had a piano in my office.  Even though we had a piano, we really didn’t have any problem deciding about the nature of our worship.  We would remain an acapella church.  We were there about a year.  There was no nursery and Ann had babies, but she managed.

I think there must have been a certain naiveté on our part.  We were young.  We were Texans with a “can do” attitude.  We thought we could overcome any obstacle.  At this age I would probably think a long time before trying to plant a new church.  I’ve seen numerous church plants fail. 

The Jamestown church is still active, and became a self-supporting church a long time ago.  The last time I was there, we burned the mortgage.  It never occurred to us that we wouldn’t be able to make it happen.  From the outside some might say we were dumb.  Admirers probably thought us courageous.  In truth we thought we were following God’s lead, and we figured he would make it happen if that’s what he wanted. 

Obstacles We Didn't Foresee (1)

Plan B

Before we actually constructed the building, we had to devise a plan B and then a plan C.

Plan B meant a change of location because of a building permit controversy.  A man, who lived in the neighborhood where had purchased property, took us to court in an attempt to deny us a building permit.  He thought our presence would damage property values.  At one point in the court proceedings, the grandmother of Roger Goodell - current National Football League commissioner, testified on her behalf.  She lived across the street.  She was in her eighties at the time.  When the city attorney challenged her ability to assess real estate values, she responded by saying, “I know exactly how much I want for my house.”   That broke up the courtroom in laughter.  Nevertheless we lost the first round.  The city attorney lived in a house owned by the man who took us to court.  The deck was stacked against us.

We finally realized we were going to be perpetually harassed and eventually purchased the property on Fairmount Avenue.  In the meantime, just to clear things up, we appealed to the New York State Supreme Court and won, but it was merely academic because we had already decided the new property was better.

THE “GOLD DUST TWINS”

We Finally Got a Building Constructed

After Jim left, Charles and I paired together to continue our ministry in Jamestown. Because we often appeared together at area functions, Lon Elkins, a friend from Bufffalo, named us “The Gold Dust Twins.”  Of course we were nothing alike.  I’m tall and Charles is short. Charles is quiet and I’m loud.  Charles is well organized, and I’m not so much.  Although neither one of us is given to loud outbursts of anger, Charles holds a lot more of his temper inside than I do.

We worked together very well.  We each had areas to which we were assigned, but we also made a lot of visits together, conducted the radio program together and engaged in many acts of shared ministry.  Our best times were those occasions when we would take a few minutes for theological chats.  Charles is a cautious individual, but he’s always thinking.  He’s not afraid to think new thoughts, although he probably would never think as many new thoughts as I do. He asks difficult questions, and forces one to think.  He and Joyce have a wonderful marriage, and their three children are outstanding.   I have enormous respect for them.

Because of his organizational skills Charles was selected to be the chairman of the new building project.   His attention to detail was incredible.  We employed a contractor who sent out a building superintendent.   The man he sent out was a former preacher whose personal life was messed up.  At one point he had been the partner of the contractor.   When the fellow’s personal life went south, he took assets from the company and fled the area.   Just before we got ready to build, he actually called the contractor and asked for a job.  

The contractor was a man with a soft heart and a fellow Christian.  I have a great deal of respect for him.  He thought he ought to practice forgiveness.   He told us the whole story and said, “He’s an excellent job superintendent.  I’m hiring him and sending him to Jamestown.  He will do you a good job.”   The man actually started out very well, but he didn’t count on having to deal with someone as thorough as Charles.

One Sunday morning Charles went by the construction site and found him loading up lumber on a truck.  The man had taken on a Sunday job, and was using our lumber for the weekend job.  As building chairman, Charles ultimately approved all materials.  When he got the bill for the roofing, Charles figured out the number of squares that were needed in the roof, and realized that the job superintendent had ordered about 20 percent more shingles than he used.  Those shingles were apparently being used in his moonlighting job.  

We reported all this to the contractor, and he ultimately had to pull the superintendent and finish up the job himself.   Of course we felt used.  One night we invited the contractor to our home for dinner.   I said to him, “I know you’re a good builder, and I know you’re an honest man, but your reputation is only as good as the people you send to work here.”   He agreed with me.  The experience left something of a bad taste in our mouths but when the job was done, we were proud of the building.

Jamestown was a union town and our contractor was non-union.   A union representative asked for a meeting with Charles.  When Charles got to the meeting, he faced union representatives from every construction trade in the city.  They told him they were concerned that our building be constructed by qualified union craftsmen.  It would have cost us 20 per cent more to construct the building that way.   We later learned that they considered picketing our job, but I think they eventually decided it wasn’t a big enough project to mess with.  

John Featherstone told us about going through the same experience when they built the building at Hamburg, New York.   They threatened to picket the job.  John told them, “I used to belong to a union.  I was a member of the  merchant marine union. If a missionary had been trying to get to Africa in a rowboat, it would never have occurred to me to picket him.”   They decided not to picket the job.  John had a creative way of expressing himself.