My Years at NFCC...CONTINUED

                                                             By:  Pat Stillwell

 

(See the March newsletter for the first part of Pat’s story)

 

     Faith overcomes fear.  Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, which is His written Word.  Faith increases when the Word ‘speaks’ to our hearts. 

 

     Solomon writes what the Word can do for us.  He said, “My son, attend to My words; consent and submit to My sayings.  Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart.  For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.  Keep your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:21-23). 

 

    As we have the Word deep in our hearts, he continues to encourage us by saying, “When thou goest, it (the Word) shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee” (Proverbs 6:22).

 

     When we memorize the Word, we can more clearly and easily hear the voice of God.  The voice we hear in our spirits and the Word agree as Truth.  Isn’t that what we all long for, to be sure we are in God’s will?

 

     This initial time of memorization was my most precious time at NFCC.  I could work and read the Word and be inspired by abundant revelation, which was very personal for me.

 

      I continued in this for two more years until my time as maintenance man for the Center came to a close.  September 9, 2004, was my last day on the job...a very sad day.  I still feel this loss as I write these words. 

 

     God’s plan is to prepare us to use us and He took me from maintenance to school to become a correctional officer in the prison system...from heaven to hell! 

 

     By at least three different signs the Lord let me know it was time to leave my favorite sanctuary I called ‘a job.’  Even with the signs for leaving the Lord gave me, I was not ready to let go of NFCC.  Then my back began to ache - morning and night -

with no relief.  God does work in mysterious ways.  Later, when I went to the gym at the prison  an

 

and worked out with high repetitive weights, my back pains cleared up.  Praise God!

 

Saying Goodbye

 

     Leaving my cherished position as maintenance man at NFCC was done with great reluctance.  Leaving NFCC was in almost total opposition with what I wanted to do.  With my back hurting so bad and the sure signs God had given me, I knew my wonder-filled ‘position’  at the Center was at an end.  I say position instead of job because of my certainty that God allowed me to have this privilege so that He could turn me to become a person He could use much easier to fulfill His will for me (see Romans 12:1-2). 

 

     Every aspect of leaving was a tearing of my heart.  I found myself going through the motions in my body and words while disconnecting in my mind and heart.  I think of it as almost involuntary self-preservation.  A broken arm or leg can be mended, but what good is a man with a broken heart.  Who can mend a broken heart, except God?  

 

     It is hard to find words and phrases  to adequately relate, if only partially, what the years at the Center meant to me.  I have sincere gratefulness for the personal sacrifices of Roxanne and Retha because they did what God said they were to do.  Through the past 30 years, there are many others whose lives have been changed by coming to the Center.

 

     It is much easier to do a task when you can watch someone model it for you.  I had many teachers at the Center...and still do.  They have been sent by God to the Center and their ‘classroom lessons’ are displayed in their daily lives.  The Almighty truly has put the Center together.

 

What’s Next?

 

     Human nature likes to know what is coming next.  We like to understand and believe that what we do has lasting and eternal purposes - to know our steps were and are directed by God.  The fact is our hope is in what we cannot see.  Romans 8:24-26 puts it this way:  “For in this hope we were saved, but hope (the object of) which is seen is not hope.  For how can one hope for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.  So too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.”

 

     The vision for myself is to be an overcomer.  NFCC supplies the environment and atmosphere both naturally and supernaturally for this quality or understanding to be developed.

 

     One of Roxanne’s visions for the purpose of the Center grounds was the training of those drawn here.  It was for people to learn to be led by the Holy Spirit in all their ways. 

 

     Through the past 30 years - and personally for me through my 12 years here - many precious peoples’ time, sweat, tears, prayers and love have been planted at the Center. 

 

     I believe God has and is continuing to have NFCC evolve into a unique and special place for God to mold those who wish to be used in these exciting last days.  For as long as God allows, the Center will be ‘proving grounds’ for those He sends.

 

     My family and I are members of the Center church and continue to be involved in it and its outreaches     God has allowed me times to speak  and I can pray at all times...silently...for employees and  inmates, and be used in my job in the prison system.   I do not know how long God will have me in this job, but feel He has more for me to do for His kingdom and His glory.

 

      I feel my years at NFCC prepared me spiritually to launch out into new areas so that I can  fulfill God’s purposes for my life at this time.

 

                              †††

 

(Retha’s comments)

 

     Many, many times when I would go outside our Center office complex, I would hear Pat somewhere on the grounds.  As he mowed the multiple acres of grass here, I could hear him over the roar of the tractor quoting Scripture or singing. Pat was every watchful and careful in his job.  I marvel that during his years here, he never had an accident while using the tractors, mowers, weed eaters, etc. There are many gopher holes and stumps he had to circumnavigate on an almost daily basis, and yet God protected him.   Only one time do I recall that a low-hanging tree branch scraped across his eye.  We prayed and he suffered no consequences. 

 

     During Pat’s years of memorizing Scripture, hwould write out Scriptures on small pieces of paper, tuck the paper under his watch band, and quote Scripture as he mowed.  In the summer especially, the main job  of the maintenance man here is mowing,  and mowing, and mowing grass.  While some acreage does have tree stumps and holes to avoid, there are many acres around the Center office complex and church that are cleared and level.  It was while mowing these acres that Pat memorized Scripture and sang. Pat would be cleaning the Center swimming pool and singing to the top of his lungs.   When we heard him, we just laughed and enjoyed his enthusiasm. He really was being scriptural by this.  Proverbs 6:21 encourages us regarding the Word of God, “Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck…”  Pat just used his arm.  Not everything is learned while in a church or  classroom!

 

     It was sad for me and our office staff when Pat moved to his new job; however, we knew God was moving him into the next phase of his life.  He has not really left us...he comes back to drink coffee with us and visit regularly.  We, of course, see him during our church services as well.

 

     Actually, I really did not know the full effect I and the Center had on Pat until I typed what you are reading here.  How many times I heard Roxanne say, “Some things are caught more than taught,” and I think Pat caught a lot of things while he worked here.

 

     Pat’s story should  remind us that our daily lives really are ‘living epistles...known and read by all men’  (II Corinthians 3:2), even when we are not aware of it.   

                              ††