Tag / Tulsa Adventist Church

by In Light Of The Cross

This was my Hometown

Last week my sister and I moved dad to her home in Tennessee. For the first time since 1954 dad no longer lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dad was baptized in the Tulsa First Seventh-day Adventist church in 1958. Ever since then that is the only Adventist church he has ever been a member of. I find that interesting beings how I have been a member of 8 different churches, and have served in many more.

Now, for the first time ever, whenever I return to Tulsa I will have no family there. Since my mother died in Tulsa, and my dad just now finally moved, going home to see my parents has also always meant going back home to where I grew up. It’s always meant going back to the church I was born and raised in, with the church school I attended right across the parking lot. It’s always meant visiting Chimis Mexican restaurant where I started dining when it opened in the 80’s. Its also meant hanging out with the friends I grew up with and met living in Tulsa. I moved away from Tulsa in 1993, but have always come back to see family and friends.

I realized recently how I took going to see my parents and seeing my hometown for granted. What I mean by that is, I realize many of my friends moved as kids or their parents moved after my friends were grown. Therefore, for many, going to see parents does not necessarily mean going back home to where you grew up. Their parents live in different places now. But for me. ever since 1993 until now, going to see dad always meant going back home to where I grew up. For the first time in my almost 60 years, I have no family in Tulsa. Going to see dad won’t mean going home anymore. Except for the fact that he is living with my sister and I have also always considered that home too, but you get my point. Tulsa isn’t my hometown now. It was my hometown.

Of course I’ve always known you can never go home again. Tulsa in 2023 is not the Tulsa I was born into back in the 60’s. Actually the neighborhood my dad lived in the last 26 years did not even exist when I grew up in Tulsa. We lived by the Adventist church and school. Of course most of the members who worship there now were not around when I grew up there, and most all my friends have moved on just as I did. But some still remain. Of course when I go back to the Adventist school I attended its like walking into a school I never knew before. Walking into Tulsa Adventist Academy today is no more going home than walking into Atlanta Adventist Academy or Toronto Adventist School would be.

yes, you can never go home again and maybe that’s why I loved certain things about Tulsa. In some ways I could go home again. Chimis was nearly the same for over 40 years and I could eat there with some dear friends who I actually grew up in Tulsa with or met as a young adult. Braums, Mazzios Pizza and Quick Trips always took me back to my younger days. Still I miss Crystals Pizza, Casa Bonita, the Tulsa Roughnecks NASL team, and old friends who have moved away or fallen asleep. I miss the old revivals we had at the Tulsa Adventist church when Walter Wright would come to town. I miss the fresh fall breeze at the Tulsa State Fair. I miss zipping along I-244 as a teenager on my way back from seeing friends in Claremore, with my brand new driver’s license, listening to pop music on KRAV 96.5 without a care in the world, realizing my whole life was still in front of me.

But Tulsa has changed and so have I. We have both grown. And the cool thing is, I am realizing that while we can never go home again, in another sense we never leave home. When I left Tulsa in 1993 I moved to Fort Worth, Texas which at the time seemed a long way from Tulsa. But now that I have lived in the Tampa Bay Florida area for 20 years, I look back now on Tulsa and Fort Worth and they both seem so much closer to each other now. Why from Florida Tulsa and Fort Worth are practically neighbors. I am sure if I went to Australia Tampa and Tulsa would look like neighbors from there. I guess what I am trying to say is, Tulsa, Fort Worth and Tampa are all home now. When I go from one city to the other I don’t feel like I am leaving home or going home. I am home the entire time. Its like going from the den to the living room. Its all home. When I go from Tulsa to Fort worth to Tampa its all home now. While in one sense we can never go home again, in another sense we never leave home. We just expand the borders of our home to include our current home, friends, churches and hangout spots, and even new activities and traditions.

I am sure I will be returning to Tulsa, but it wont be the same, but then again it never was the same. While some people say things aren’t what they used to be, I say yes, but they also never were what they are now. Psalm 23:6 tells us God’s mercy and goodness follow us all the days of our lives. Why compare the past with the present when God’s goodness and mercy are always with us? I am not saying forget about the past. God blesses us with precious memories but He also blesses us with a precious present. I can’t go back to my childhood church of the ’60s, but you know what? The same God who was with me when I was baptized as a child in the Tulsa First Seventh-day Adventist church is the same God who is with me when I baptize a new member here in Florida. The same God who was with me when I was going to Tulsa Roughneck games with my friends in the 70’s is the same God who is with me when I go to Tampa Bay Rays games with my friends here in Tampa. The same God who was with me when I enjoyed Crystals Pizza with my family in the 70’s is with me as I eat at Cappys Pizza in Tampa with new family. God is my home. He aways has been and always will be,

Thank you for reminiscing with me. Sorry if I wandered and did not make a lot of sense. We tend to get that way when we get older and look back on a million different memores and try to make sense of them all, or think they can all be summed up on one phrase or theme. I may be a little melodramatic here too. After all, Tulsa is still there. It hasn’t changed in the last week since dad left. I can still and will go back to Tulsa to see friends. But still I know it will be different. Not bad just different. Thanks again for reminiscing with me. I owe you one.

by In Light Of The Cross

Leaving Home

My home town, Tulsa Oklahoma.

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. Genesis 12:1 NKJV

Some people can’t wait to get away from home. As soon as they turn 18 they marry or join the army and get stationed on the other side of the world. After being so far from home, some return as soon as they can. Others stay away forever-by choice. 

Some people never leave home. I have friends who I grew up with in Tulsa, Oklahoma who never left Tulsa. I am glad they are still there for me to visit when I return home to see dad. I meet them at our favorite restaurants that are still standing from the previous century. They watched me move off to Texas and then Florida, all the while staying in Tulsa. I am proud of my native Tulsa, and am always glad to visit, but I can’t imagine myself living all my life in one place. Then again, the Tulsa I visit now is not the Tulsa I grew up in. Dad doesn’t live in the house I grew up in. The stores we go to weren’t around when I was kid. I visit my childhood church, but its like going home to strangers. The people there now never knew me, which is fine, I love meeting new people, but you know what they say, you can never go home again. 

So I wonder about Abraham. Was he happy to leave home and go on an adventure, or was he afraid to leave home? Did he miss his family and friends? Did he miss the old places where he would hang out? 

I grew up in Tulsa always dreaming of living in Dallas. When we went to the baseball and football games there I was always impressed with the modern architecture. It just seemed like the place to be. Tulsa had the minor league baseball team for the Texas Rangers major league team at the time. So when the Tulsa players got good they went to Dallas. I knew people in the Oklahoma Adventist conference who went on to the Union conference in Burleson, close to Dallas. Somehow I had it my mind that once you “arrived‘ you ‘arrived” in Dallas. So you can understand how happy I was when I had the opportunity to be a Bible Worker in Fort Worth, which is Dallas’ neighbor. 

I remember when I left home, mom cried. I did not realize at the time how cool it was having my own apartment in Tulsa, but having my parents right there in town to see at church and meet for dinner and even run into at the store by chance encounters. At the time I could not appreciate all of that and was just excited to begin my new adventure. It wasn’t until years later when I stood at my mother’s coffin that I finally understood and appreciated her tears that day I moved away. 

So I “arrived‘ In Dallas. Actually it wasn’t Dallas, it was Fort Worth. And fact is, I never “arrived.” I just thought I had. My new church district fell in love with me right away and I thought I was doing great! I was living the dream in the Dallas area. The people loved me so much I thought I must be a legendary Bible Worker. It took a few years for me to grow up and realize I was no legend. I was not even one of the better Bible Workers. I had all kinds of weaknesses and faults. Finally one day I woke up and realized these people don’t love me because I am good. They love me because they are loving people. I realized they were not encouraging me because I was good. They were enduring my follies, and  patiently encouraging me because they saw my potential for good, if I ever grew up. Living in the Dallas area was good for me. Not because I had arrived like the sports stars who moved from Tulsa to Dallas, or the local Oklahoma conference officials who got called up to the union office. Living in Dallas was good for me because it got me away from home so I could grow up. I thought I had grown up and left home, but actually God had me leave home so I would grow up. 

I wonder, did Abraham grow up before or after he left home? How did his ordeal in Egypt help him grow up? His actions in Egypt showed he had not arrived yet. 

After more than ten years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area it had become home. I pictured myself living all my days in Texas. God had other plans. He let me live ten years where I had always dreamed of living but now He was calling me to another land. An opportunity came to serve as a Bible Worker in the Tampa Bay area. I had no interest. I did not know anyone there. Before I moved a friend assured me, “you will get to Tampa and make friends and start doing things with them there and that will become your home. You won’t miss Texas anymore.” Well I knew my friend was right, and that was what scared me! While my feet were still on Texas soil, the thought of feeling at home in another place terrified me. 

After much fleece setting and protesting on my part I was on my way to Tampa. It was much farther from home. Like I mentioned earlier, you had people moving from Oklahoma to Texas all the time for various reasons. I had connections in Texas from Oklahoma. I was only four and a half hours away from home, which made weekend visits easy. It wasn’t until I moved to Tampa, Florida that I realized how close I was to Tulsa while in Texas. 

When I left Texas people told me how easy it was for me to up and move to a strange new land because I was single. They thought being single made it easy. No, it made it hard. When you have a family and you move to a strange new place at least you have your family. I had no one. Just me all by my lonesome in a strange new place. In Texas I had connections from Oklahoma as well as all the friends I made in over ten years. In Tampa I had no connections and no friends. God knew what He was doing. I had even more growing up to do. Now I have been in the Tampa Bay area over 18 years. I went from being a total stranger all alone, to now not only having friends in my own church, but in most all the neighboring Adventist churches as well. My friend was right. I am comfortable and happy hear now. This is home. When I moved from Texas to Florida I knew exactly how many baptisms I had. Now over 18 years in Florida I have literally lost count. God moved me here because there were people He needed for me to reach.  He also knew I had more growing up to do that would never happen if I stayed so close to home. 

Did Joseph have more growing up to do when He was sold as a slave into Egypt? Did he have even more growing up to do in prison? Did God allow all of those things to happen to Joseph to help him grow up? Is that why God has some of us move around so much? By moving two times God has helped me to grow personally as well as help more people. Meanwhile thanks to Facebook, cell phones and plane tickets home is never far away. I still have my friends in Tulsa and the Dallas area. When I vacation and travel from Tampa to Dallas and then to Tulsa and back to Tampa again I never feel like I am leaving home or going home. Its all home now. I have a home that encompasses Oklahoma, Texas and Florida. I know God is with me wherever I go and He is what makes it home. God is my home. He is everywhere. 

Abram had to leave home so he could grow in faith. Abram had to leave home so he could meet those God wanted him to meet. More importantly Abram had to leave home to go home. Ur was not his real home. Canaan was his real home. 

I understand that while God calls some of us to the other side of the planet that He also calls some, like the demoniac in Mark 5 to go back home. Either way God was calling the demoniac out of his comfort level as it may have been awkward for him to go home after all the embarrassing things he had done. This is for sure, God will call us out of our comfort level to help us grow up and be all we can be for Him. That being said, I would like to ask you a question from Sunday’s section of this week’s lesson, 

What might God be calling you to leave behind? That is, what part of your life might you have to abandon in order to heed the call of God?