Too Old!

By Dr. John Murray Smoot, Pastor Emeritus

Too old! Much too old! And worn out! I served as Central Presbyterian's pastor for 35 full and exciting years. During my tenure we erected three new buildings, I married 400+ couples, baptized their offspring and led many to Christ.

I've walked through the valley with countless dear ones and sent off more than sixty to the mission fields and to the ministry of the Gospel. At 66 years old I suffered a heart attack and had a six-bypass surgery. It seemed to be the end of the trail. I'd earned my stripes and was worn out. It was time to retire.

Not quite! Dhaka International Church in Bangladesh needed a full-time pastor. Dottie, my ever-loving wife and companion said, "Where HE leads you I will follow." So off we went. As we left the airport, Dottie was in tears. "I don't need anymore friends!" Well, we made more friends: ambassadors from the United States, Korea, Australia, and Japan, missionaries, and rickshaw-wallows. Together we led the wife of the ranking diplomat from Japan to the Lord.

After two years in Bangladesh, we went for a year with Maynard Lu as the first English-speaking chaplain at Tunghai University in Taiwan. I thought the year teaching philosophy to English majors the most rewarding of my career. Our last night in Taiwan - pitch black and cobra-ridden - came "Little Emily" Huang to confess she had just received the Savior.

Immediately following our year in Taiwan, I received a call to teach classes at Cape Town and Durban, South Africa. While there we witnessed a fresh lion kill, came within ten feet of a massive cape buffalo, and were charged by an enraged bull elephant. Dottie and I taught at the schools, made up of blacks, colored, Indian, and white. Though forced to live separately by the government's Group Areas Act, the students found the Lord operated on a different level.

Back home, while Parish Associate at Central, we received a phone call from our son, Jonathan. No one was willing to tackle the daunting task of being the pastor of two discouraged and disgruntled parishes forced to be linked together, where he was in Scotland. Off we went, trusting Central to "pray without ceasing." Six months later we left Scotland, leaving behind a reconciled and joyful people of God.

In 1995 in our mid-70's, God led us to live at Oak Crest Retirement Community, providing a new "mission field." I am in my 10th year leading a Bible study there, having faced two of the dearest losses imaginable: the loss of my dear wife of 60 years and the loss of some mobility from a stroke.

Too old and worn out? At age 87 - not quite...there's the "Share The Vision" Campaign, classes to teach at Oak Crest, and friends at Central to collect hugs from!

(See also today's sermon: "Too Old")