A World-Wide Ministry

As this issue of OLT was printed Ken Pagaard, Mona Pagaard and Clay Ford were preparing for a major trip. They were traveling to England, Zaire, Swaziland, and Columbia. Of course, this was not a journey for the sake of tourism. Ken had been invited to come and share about our life in community. Earlier, Ken had a major ministry in Zaire where a number of the missionaries had entered into the realm of the charismatic.


I think that the church was always somewhat uncomfortable with Ken's impact around the world. It wasn't that we weren't proud. We thought the world of Ken. We appreciated his ministry. We were glad that he was our pastor. But he was just, well Ken. He was our friend. We knew him. We took our life together as just the way it was. I think that it just kind of amazed us that others looked upon our life as something to be emulated.


The same thing was true with the way we looked at our newsletter, Our Life Together. I'm not really sure that we all read it. Most of us looked at various parts, but didn't necessarily really devour it. I remember attending one of our American Baptist Conventions and being approached by a Seminary President, holding his copy of OLT. He greeted me with, "I've just been reading this latest issue . . ." I was impressed and amazed. I don't think I had read it. As I look back I can see what an amazing thing that God was doing in our midst and I'm not sure that I really appreciated it. I was just more concerned with what was going on in my life and the lives of those around me.


Ken's article also pointed out the trust that he had for the Elders. Since I am a semi-retired pastor, I realize more than I did at the time how much it took to entrust his ministry to a group such as us. The eldership was an interesting group of men. Clay and Larry were theologically trained. The rest of us had strengths -- and weaknesses. Yet, God was able to use us in a way that emphasized our strengths and minimized our weaknesses. I was really privileged to belong to this group. Of course, at the time of this article, I was still in the Navy. My involvement in leading the congregation was pretty limited.