TIME TO RETIRE

In the back of my mind I was thinking that I would like to retire when I reached my 70th birthday.  That idea changed when in January of 2000, I ended up in emergency in the hospital.  I started thinking.  How many years did I have left and did I need to keep working?  The senior pastor had spoken to me in the last year or so prior to this, asking that when I considered retiring that I would give him plenty of notice so he could start looking for a replacement. So, I gave my resignation notice that January, effective May 31, 2000. I reached my 69th birthday, three weeks after I retired, a year earlier than I had been thinking.

Good Friends Fellowship retirement program

All I can say is that we were spoiled.  Leona and I were given the royal treatment with two retirement events.  The Good Friends Fellowship had a wonderful program and lunch for us at one of their regular meetings.  Gertie Best was the president of the GFF and she did her BEST in planning and presenting a very memorable event.  She went above and beyond the luncheon and the program.  She asked for a couple of my radio broadcasts, which I had on reel to reel tape, one from my ministry on CJDV Drumheller, AB and one from CJIB Vernon, BC.  She wanted me to read some samples of my newspaper articles which I had written for The Delburne Times, when I was pastor in Lousana, AB.  She had a mixed trio sing the song that I wrote, back in the 1970's, "Our God Is For Us."  Gertie had all of these recorded on cassette and had several copies made.  She sold them for $5.00 each and gave the money to us as a gift.

That was not all.  Pastor Rick took a Sunday evening in May where the whole service was a fun service, yet very encouraging for us as we stepped aside from full time ministry.  He had asked different people who had worked with us to say a few words.  Churches that we had served in had been contacted.  Letters were received from those churches and excerpts from some of these letters were read. Some of the seniors had written a humorous drama about our life and ministry and presented the same.  We were given a gift of money, sufficient for us to go on a cruise.  We didn't go on a cruise, but found good use for the money.  That service was followed with cake and delicious goodies in the gym. 

Dan & Leona cutting the cake 

After forty-two years of ministry, suddenly I found myself without a job.  Fortunately, Leona had been a big part of my ministry, all through our married years, that she was used to having me around.  We had visited as a team, were at various functions, anniversaries, conferences, weddings, funerals, etc. that being in the home with her, now that I had retired, was not too big an adjustment for either one of us.  I think the biggest adjustment was not for me, but for Leona who missed our visitation ministry and inter-action with people. 

Initially, we spent our Sundays going to different churches.  We wanted to distance ourselves from Sevenoaks for a few weeks.  We were hoping that the church would have a replacement soon, seeing that I had given notice of resignation in January.  My successor never became a staff pastor until November.  By then, we had returned to Sevenoaks Alliance Church.  I should say that I had written to the pastor and church board to secure their blessing and permission for us to continue as members of Sevenoaks, after we retired, seeing that we had been staff members.  

Retired!  A different life.  Someone has said that "Retirement is wonderful.  It is doing nothing without worrying about getting caught."  Well, I didn't do nothing!  How's that for grammar?  Retirement became a full time job that I began to wonder how I had ever, before I retired, had the time to work. 

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