Brothers and sisters, this history of the C.O.B.U. is designed to be sketchy and surface in order to get a general background and history of our church. It is meant to acquaint you with the events in our past which led us to the present and the basis upon which our future rests.
A more comprehensive history will be written and indeed has been started by Brother Neil Pendry who was there to witness it.
This first part will deal with the events surrounding Stewart's conversion (in a very short and general way, because Stewart himself said that he will give us his testimony suometime at a Big Meeting), the conversion of Neil Pendry and his influence on Skip and Pam O'Neill and Patty Daniels which led to them being saved, Skip's first meeting with Stewart and the obtaining of the first fellowship house at 128 S. Church St. Here now is the start of our church.
In 1969, the Jesus Movement started. Thousands of young people got saved and began preaching the Gospel. Jesus coffee houses and communes sprang up everywhere and it even made the cover of Time Magazine. Now if you make the cover of Time Magazine, you've made it! And then, it died just that quick; within 3 or 4 years most of their places were closed down and a great majority had left Jesus altogether. Somewhere sandwiched in between those years was the start of the Church of Bible Understanding.
Our church began around a nucleus of brothers and sisters, consisting of Stewart and Shirley Traill, Pam Short, Patty Daniels, Skip O'Neill, and Neil Pendry. The rest of the story will center in the manner of their being saved, how they all found each other, and finally deciding to live together at 128.
In the summer of 1971 Stewart Traill had already been saved for over 3 years. Most of that time had been spent doing one of two things: witnessing, or studying. He was alone and spent a great deal of time in New York witnessing in the Village. Not many got saved, they weren't interested in hearing about the proof for Jesus, mainly miracles, but Stewart kept trying anyway and was getting really sharp in the process. Complementing his witnessing was his studying of the Scriptures, especially the Gospel of John, which at one point he almost knew by heart. God was preparing him for his work and he was aware of it even at that time. There is an old tape in which Stewart made a note to himself that states in essence that God was going to use him to reach the whole United States, but in the beginning of the summer of 1971, not much had been shown to him concerning this work.
In March of 1971, a very important event occurred and that was the rebirth of our brother Neil Pendry, who is now the leader of the three Montreal fellowships. His younger brother Tim, who lived in New Jersey at the time had gotten saved, and told Neil about Jesus. Neil was skeptical, but he knew Tim wouldn't lie, so he considered what his brother had said. He told himself that he wouldn't believe unless Jesus himself told him directly, which Jesus obliged to do. Needless to say, Neil got saved, and wandered around telling his friends about this for about three months.
Then in June of 1971, Neil ran into Skip O'Neill. Skip was an old acquaintance of Neil's, and they had gone to high school together. After high school they lost touch and both went their ways.
Now Neil never had an fellowship, and really didn't know how to witness. So when Skip began to spend a lot of time with Neil, Neil wouldn't exactly witness; rather, he sort of hinted about Jesus. He never really directly said anything. This was the end of May and the beginning of June. For about three weeks, they both lost contact with each other. Then on June 20th of 1971, Skip, Pam, and Patty and Rem Lederer (the ex-center leader of Philadelphia, now backslidden), were leaving Skip's apartment in the early evening, and went looking for a night of entertainment. As usual, there was nothing to do, and after an hour or two, we all came back to the apartment. Now a mood of depression was on all of them. They finally started to realize that life was boring and it wasn't getting any better. Besides this, the rent was due the next day, and the landlady was going to have the police there to make sure they left. They had no money and no place to go, and didn't even care. They were ready to just live in the woods. They were down. They walked up the steps and opened the door, and a package fell out. Skip picked it up. It was a record album wrapped in brown paper. They were mystified as to what this meant so they went in the kitchen and opened the package. Sure enough, it was a record album, but with it was a letter. Skip opened the letter and unfolded it. Out of the letter fell a quantity of money on to the floor. Skip's first thought was, "It's $75.00." He counted it, and it was $75.00; the exact amount needed to pay the rent! Skip then read the letter to the others who were standing completely amazed. In essence, the letter was a witness explaining about salvation and the new birth. Skip remembers a part of the letter:
"When Jesus smiles on you, the rent money just rolls in." The letter was signed, "A brother in Christ." They were totally unaware of who could have written it, much less who knew that they needed the rent money; the letter had said in the beginning that Jesus had directed him to give them this money. Skip was the kind of person who believed in signs and omens and all that, and he saw this as one. He went down to the porch, and while Pam was paying the rent, he tried to speak to Jesus. Nothing happened for a long time. Then he began to pray for the forgiveness of his sins and asked Jesus to show him that this was true, just like the letter said. Something happened then! He went upstairs grinning like an idiot and told Rem, Patty and Pam what happened. Pam and Rem thought he was crazy, but Patty was curious. Next day, Pam got curious when Skip kept insisting that it was true, so she prayed to Jesus.
Four days later, they discovered that Neil wrote the letter, and then he openly told the four of them about what they must do and about the committment they must make. Skip and Pam and Patty were interested in continuing, but Rem let that night and wasn't seen for six months.
From then on the four of them were always together driving around in Neil's big old broken-down Oldsmobile, amazed at Jesus and all that He was doing and showing them. They told all their friends but not many listened. They saw everything from the true point of view, and were excited about having the truth living inside of them. Skip and Pam went on a crazy four day fast and would only drink water and eat crackers in 95[degree] heat in a stifling attic apartment. Patty decided that talking was of the flesh, so she communicated only by writing notes. Neil would take them out into th emiddle of a field, and make everybody hold hands to try to get Jesus to zap us. They would get out of the car at two o'clock in the morning and walk into a park and stand there staring at the sky because they thught Jesus was going to appear to them. They were beautiful lambs, really in love with Jesus, but needless to say, they needed direction. Jesus wasn't slow in providing it.
In the first week in August, six weeks after the letter arrived, Skip was standing in the Parkway in Allentown, Pa. It was about seven o'clock. Pam was away that week with her family, and Neil and Patty weren't around. He was smoking a cigarette (some wonderful "Christians" told him it was alright to smoke, so he started again after quitting for a month) and just hanging around. There was a short bridge which connected this part of the park to the main roadway. Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw this strange parade coming across the bridge. It consisted of a woman in high heels and makeup, five skinny clinging children, and one six foot, three inch bearded man dressed in green work clothes with white sneakers. He was holding a baby. Skip's first thought was, "Well, what's this, a stranger. I'm curious." He liked anything that was new or different, so he walked over to get a closer look at this fellow. As he got closer, he noticed a large black button attached to his shirt pocket. It said, "Get Smart--Get Saved." And Skip was excited because he realized that this strange looking dude was a Christian. He walked over and introduced himself.
"Hello, my name is Skip, and I'm a Christian, too." The man responded by jumpimg up and down and waving his arms furiously and coughing at the top of his lungs and pointing to the cigarette. Skip was somewhat shocked, and didn't know what the guy was doing. Finally, it sunk through his skull that the man didn't like his cigarette and wanted Skip to throw it away. Skip said, "Okay, okay, I get the hint," and threw the butt into the river. The man immediately stopped jumping around and said, "Wanna go to a meeting?" Skip figured that an evening with this guy and his crazy crew would be interesting so he said, "Yeh, I'll go." Then he said, "By the way, what's your name?" He replied, "Stewart." Skip did not know it at that point, but this was the beginning of what became the Forever Family, then finally to become the Church of Bible Understanding.
So they rounded up a few more people who said they wanted to go (including John Griffith, who was to become our brother four months later) and they all jammed into an old, battered, noisy 1957 Cadillac filled with dirty vacuum cleaners. We went to a local revival meeting, and they heard their first preacher.
Soon after this, Skip told Pam, Patty and Neil about this guy and they wondered about him. About one week later, Skip and Pam had a serious argument and were walking around cooling off and trying to straighten it out. They walked into Dempsey's Diner, and lo and behold, who was sitting there but Stewart Traill!
"Well, look who's here." He told us to sit down. Later Pam told Skip that she did not trust this guy because every time he said something, it took her ten sentences to catch up with what he was talking about. Stewart says at this point he realized that Jesus was setting something up and it was with these people. "Oh, Jesus, you mean that this is what you are giving me to start with?" He obviously couldn't believe that there were two spaced out, immature, crazy kids that could be salvaged. Soon Neil and Patty met this man and they didn't know what was going on either. They rode around with him, talked with him, went to the movies with him, but Skip was the only one who trusted him. Neil thought he was a wolf. Patty thought he was strange and Pam wasn't too sure. But it sure was exciting, a lot of witnessing, a lot of Bible studies, and a lot of getting thrown out of diners, every night in fact.
About this time, Skip, Pam and Neil decided to get a place to live together. (Patty was only 16 years old and still lived with her parents.) They wanted a house and were going to dedicate it to the Lord's work. One night they were standing in the park huddled together, discussing what to do. Suddenly, a kid standing in a group of people next to them turned and siad, "Did I hear you say you're looking for a house for rent?" We all answered, "Yes."
"Well, my parents have a house that they want to rent and I've already promised it to some friends of mine, but I'd rather let you rent it because I like what you're into."
They couldn't believe that Jesus was doing this! They immediately went down there, with him and met his parents. They were around the house. There was a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an attic.
"How much?" Neil asked.
"How's $90.00 a month sound?"
They nearly jumped through the ceiling.
"Oh, that's a good price," Skip said, trying to be nonchalant.
"Okay, then, you can move in on September 1st. That was two weeks away. They went home that night praising God. Next week we'll take up from here to when they moved in and the early days of 128!
CONT. NEXT WEEK
Copyright, 1977, The Church of Bible Understanding, used without permission.
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