Vince Deagler

sorry it has been a while. my father-in-law, dr. e. robert jordan, (chief for short…he was a chief petty officer in his navy days) died last wednesday so my wife has not been home for several weeks leaving me to scramble to get everything done. blogging was shorted. but i really feel this particular blog is important for several reasons. first, chief really was a great man. since most of you don’t know him, let me tell you his story…at least as it intersected with my life. i became a christian through the church he pastored for some 50 years. building it from a start up meeting in a tent to a church of 2000 complete with private christian school, bible institute, seminary, and a 50 plus acre church camp. but that is not why i think he was great, my reasons are much more personal. you see i grew up for most of my life without a dad. my mom married john deagler while i was in high school, he was the only dad i ever had. but not long after, on jan. 2 1975, i became a christian. chief had a son my age. me, 2 other friends, and his son, tom used to play ping pong in his basement for hours. i practically lived there it seems. if you have been following this blog from the beginning, you know i did not grow up on the right side of the tracks. lets just say i was a little rough around the edges, and far from your typical church kid. but he never blinked…at least not till i asked if i could date his daughter. yes, these were the old days, and he was pretty strict, so i had to get permission to date diane his youngest daughter. we dated off and on for three years, finally marrying in june of 1978. these were some of the most precious years of my then young life. i was just getting used to my new dad, and in chief it was like i had been given a second dad. i don’t have enough time and space to describe his influence. professionally as a pastor since 1980 i have often drawn on the training and the example i received from him. although hard at times, there was a tender side to him. on many occassions he reached out to me to encourage me. now please understand, back in the day, he was larger than life to me, a pastoral superhero. if you would have told me he could walk on water i probably would have believed you. and he was reaching out to me, he cared about me, he wanted me to succeed. i was blessed to have him in my life. and it wasn’t just him. his wife (marge…cool it on the large marge jokes), his other sons and daughter (tim, tom, tedd, debbie) all made me feel welcome, like i belonged. i cannot describe how important that was for a kid from west conshy who didn’t feel all that good about himself. you might say chiefs personna rubbed off on me a bit. i was proud to be in his family, in his church, and one of his disciples. let me mention one more thing before i move on. chief grew up in an orphanage, so i can only assume parenting was a process of trial and error. (but even in the best of circumstance, isn’t that true???) i know i entered the picture late, and his own children may have endured that whole trial and error thing. but one thing he had nailed, at least for my wife diane, she knew her dad loved her. she was his little girl, and as her husband i am eternally grateful he loved her so. and when it came to grand kids, well lets just say he never worried about spoiling them. when it came to his grand kids, the sky was the limit. he was great with all of them. we had 3, but there were a lot more, plus great grand kids (i have kind of lost count). but chief made every one of them feel special. i cannot think of a greater gift he could have given to me, than the love he gave my wife and our children. that is why i think he was great. not the external accomplishments. but what he meant to me and my family personally. having said all that, let me flesh out the rest of the story. we moved to michigan in 1994 to pastor a church in the detroit area, and then in 2000 on to california to pastor prescott, where we are now. time and distance have a price tag attached. over the course of 15 years a lot happens, and in this case it did. chief was diagnosed with parkinson’s not long after we moved. at first you couldn’t see what it was doing to him. he was the same old chief. but as the years went by, with each trip in to visit we could see the parkinsons had taken a little bit more. it really made me think of the words of christ in john 10:10…the thief comes to steal, kill, destroy. we could see it first hand with each visit. this man who taught me to hunt. whose idea of vacation was waking up at the crack of dawn to saw wood, split it, or mow the fields of his mountain house. was slowly being taken from us. his mind was there, but his body was betraying him. with every visit we talked about whether we would see him again. he died 9 days before our next planned visit. thankfully, my wife was able to get there and spend those last few days with him. as i sit here writing i realize satan has given chief and this family, my family his best shot. and not to be cocky…it wasn’t good enough. first, while satan was trying to steal, kill, and destroy, god had other plans. when my own dad died a few years ago i spent a lot of time in 2 cor. 5. paul talks about how we groan in this life, and we do. but gods plan is that our mortality would be swallowed up of life. i like to paraphrase it by saying god’s plan has always been that we would live with him forever in a perfect place. originally that was to be eden. saten interrupted that plan, but god never changed his mind. this is why jesus came, notice what jesus said as john 10:10 continues… the thief comes to steal, kill, and destry, but i have come that you might have life to its very full. chief no longer has parkinsons disease. he no longer needs round the clock care. there is no more pain or limitation. as jesus also said in rev. 21, behold i am making all things new. i’m not sure all that heaven is like. i don’t see chief floating on a cloud, and i don’t see it as an eternal church service. i kind of see it like our life on earth…only perfect in every way. i do know chief has a grandson who went ahead about 8 years ago… a grandson he loved. they are together again. aaron had a landscaping business, chief liked to mow, saw, and split wood as a hobby. god will not have to worry about grass needing to be mowed or wood being chopped and split these days…although he may have to set a start time because chief usually started about dawn and lawnmowers are quite noisy. haha. what a reunion they must have had. the last thing i want to mention is how we often speak in terms of our loved ones being gone. i know what is being meant in those words. but chief is not gone. in fact i saw him at his own funeral. he was there in tim, as he gave the message at the memorial service. i saw him in tom and tedd as they shared with us too. i saw him in debbie. i know he is in diane, i have known that and rejoiced in that for a long time. i’m pretty sure i have some of him in me, he’s in my son, the other in-laws (and out-laws as he was known to say), he is in the grand kids. none of us escaped his influence, and we are all much better people because of it. there are literally 1000’s of pastor’s and other christian leaders who carry chief with them. and who could count all the people he ministered to over the span of 60 plus years in ministry who also bear his imprint. no, he is not gone…he is right here. but what has happened is, the baton has been passed. he spent 60 plus years doing just that. his sons, me, our family, countless leaders and churches are a testament to that. we buried a great, great man last week. i’m glad to have been close to him over the years, and for how he rubbed off on me. but he left a great big void in our hearts and in the ministry when he went to be with jesus. even though we could see this day coming it was and is hard. i for one plan to take that baton, and by gods grace try to run as well as i can because chief poured his life into me so i would do just that. i hope you’ll join me. thanks for reading along. i wish you could have met him, because he broke the mold. blessings. vince