In October of this year, Ruth and I went to the Celebration of Life Service for Dan Gelatt, he was 93 years old. Many knew him as Pastor Gelatt from his years as Pastor of First Baptist in Elkhart Indiana. Others knew him as Dr. Gelatt, but after all the years we spent together just talking-he was just Dan to me. I’m not going to focus on Dan’s years at First Baptist today as I’m sure many know much more about that time and they could do a much better job than I ever could at that. But I want to go all the way back-to when Dan got out of Bible School and became a Pastor in an old country Church in New York state.
In 1954 Dan, his wife Joyce and their little boy Dan Jr. had just accepted the call to pastor at West Smyrna Baptist Church, Smyrna, New York. The building was an old country church like you could imagine-no indoor plumbing, potbelly wood stove for heat and it’s the pastor’s job to make sure the church is heated! 25 below zero was not uncommon up in those hills and Dan said he would start building a fire in that stove at about 3 am, run back over about every 90 minutes just to have a hope of getting it close to 50 degrees in the church. Everyone would wear their coats during the church service when it was really cold outside!
The church did provide a parsonage right across the road from the old church and although it was in need of repairs, Dan said it was adequate and they were very thankful for it. But the church couldn’t pay Dan much for being pastor and there was no vehicle or gas allowance in those days. A nearby dairy farmer (a deacon in the church) told Dan to stop by any morning during milking and he could have all the free milk his family could use.
During that first year Dan drove the 3 miles to my father’s general store. Almost instantly Dan and my father were involved in some stimulating conversations-something my father LOVED! Within weeks my family began attending at that old church. (I wasn’t born yet and Karen my next older sister was an infant)
I’ve already implied that Dan was BOLD, but he was also burdened because the area around the church for several miles in all directions was covered with small dairy farms…and the reason he was burdened was, it seemed to him that most every farm he stopped at, the farmer had no desire to come to or even visit the church. So, in a small way Dan thought of a way he could “take the church to the farmers”. He started going back to the farmers who said they couldn’t come to church and he would just start talking about how “he wants to help do chores”! Of course that was met with “I can’t pay you”. And Dan would say “I’m not looking for any money, I said I just wanted to help you out.” Some gave him the hardest, dirtiest jobs like shoveling out the gutters in the milking barn thinking that would get rid of him. But they didn’t know that Dan grew up doing all kinds of hard manual farm work for his dad. Besides, this was now ministry for Dan! It didn’t take too long and one of the farmers told Dan that he needs to find a way to pay him for the work he’s been doing for free. Dan reminded him that he was only doing it to help him, but if he wants to do something for him, come visit out at the little church on Sunday. This gradually started repeating with others and by the time Dan was in his second year there, that little old church house was starting to fill up on Sundays! People were coming to Christ and joining the church, many of them joining before Pastor Dan turned 24 years old!
“Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12 (NLT)
But now Dan was burdened again-he was praying for an answer and solution, but with a church full of mostly poor farmers, he knew what was really needed now was a miracle. Why? They were about out of space, plus the condition of that old church was, well to quote Dan “Let’s not talk about it!” After several weeks of praying, Dan went to the deacon who gave free milk to Dan’s family whenever they wanted it. Dan poured his heart out to him-he trusted him. Dan told this man, Jim that for the church to grow and be around for years, we really need a new building and it needs to be on the highway-not the little side road where the current church was. Jim asked Dan to hop in his truck, he had something to show him. They drove just past the little side road where the current church was and Jim slowed down, pulling over and stopping, “Let’s get out” Jim said. Then he said, “I own these several acres going back to that little creek near the church. I don’t ever use any of it and I’d be glad to donate it to the church to build on, that way the properties would connect.” Dan said he just stood there in silence…finally Dan said, “Well Jim, I can see why you’ve never used this great big pit.” Jim told him, “All we have to do is fill it in.” Dan said, “But Jim, it will probably take hundreds of dump truck loads of dirt to fill this thing in, someone is basically going to have to move a mountain over to here to do it.” Jim said, “Didn’t you just preach a sermon about having faith that will move mountains?” Dan said, “Close enough, I’m going to start praying for someone looking for a place to dump a mountain!”
“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20 (NLT)
About 2 weeks later, Dan was home one day working on next Sunday’s message when there was a knock on the door. There was a man who introduced himself as working for the State Highway Department. The man explained that they were close to starting a major road project nearby, in fact just a 1/2 mile or so down the highway they had to remove a large hill to straighten the road. So he is looking for anyone who could use a LARGE AMOUNT OF FILL DIRT. Do you know of anyone? Dan said, “I sure do”! The man from the highway department was overjoyed that he had found a place so close to the construction site and it most likely could handle ALL THE FILL!
Dan also worked it out with the state so that they left a small dozer there to level the fill dirt out daily as it was hauled in. (Be Bold) In just a couple of weeks “the pit” was gone and now they had a nice, level lot to build on. Phase one of the miracle was complete-AND AT NO COST.
Now… to be continued
Till Next Time…..
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