1979 PART TWO

     Okay, back to 1979! Let me resume! We are now in the month of September. I'll begin with my academics. Like I shared, I really struggled in school. As I entered the 10th grade, my parents enrolled me in a program in high school called "The Learning Center." It was a department in the school where you received personal tutoring, teaching and training. They also taught you how to study...something I was not good at. I remained in this program until I graduated and I will forever be grateful to the teachers who were there. I was also put in an English class that was called "Plus." It was far from honors and not middle of the road. Lets just say many of the other students came in smelling like cigarettes and pot and wore leather jackets as well as denim and were seriously "out of it." This helped boost my confidence big time being in a this class.

   During the summer of 1979, as I mentioned, many of the kids in my neighborhood were not interested in playing sports like I was. They would rather experiment with drugs and pot. It was then I could see my friends were changing and I prayed that God would give me friends who were Christians who loved God. The Lord did not disappoint! On Saturday nights, I started faithfully attending the church Coffeehouse. I will never forget one Saturday in early September. I walked in before it began and two girls my age walked over to me to say "Hi." As a shy kid, I was shocked two girls would want to talk to me but they did. There names were Sarah and Linda. We quickly became friends and they also faithfully attended Coffeehouse. They even surprised me once at my high schools football game. I played in the pep band and Sarah and Linda came running over to me in the stands and we sat together. I put my saxophone down and sat with them. We talked the whole game! Thank God my music teacher didn't notice or get mad at me! I will never forget walking back to the band room after the game with the girls. When I went in, a few people said to me, "Hey, Harff. Who are those to girls?" I think many were shocked that shy Dave was talking to 2 girls. They were both neighbors who lived in Fort Salonga and went to Kings Park. Linda was my age and Sarah a year younger. 7 months after we met, I dated Sarah for a few months and after we broke up only saw her once after that.

     I also was getting an education about "Christian Music." I put many of my rock albums in storage and started listening to Keith Green, The Imperials, Chris Christian and David Meece. Earlier in 1979, a Christian radio station began it's broadcast on the AM dial WLIX. I thought it was so cool that there were groups out there. My record library grew threw the years and to this day I still enjoy the "classics." 

     God was doing a work in my heart. Not only did I go to Coffeehouse, I also went to Youth Group, I attended Sunday school class and I absolutely loved the Sunday night services. I started taking notes of each service, and continued to read my bible. All I really wanted was to get close to Jesus. I even saw a difference in my life while I was at school. As the year drew to a close, I looked back on that year and thank God that Jesus got a hold of me at Couriers Camp, at Coffeehouse and at SGT. Looking back, I never in a million years ever thought God was preparing me to be a pastor at SGT. He certainly has a sense of humor. I am so glad he is and will always be #1 in my life!       

1979 PART ONE



     We all have those special years in life when everything just seems to come together for us. Mine are 1979, 1987 and 2005. The years I want to forget are 1985, 1988 and 2013 but we are not going to discuss them! 1979 was 40 years ago! Songs like "Heart of glass" by Blondie and "My Sharona" by The Knack were popular. Movies like Rocky 2 and Kramer vs. Kramer were being shown. Disco was on the downside and it was the last year of the decade of the 70's. Little did I know that on New Years Day 1979, God was about to do a work in my life during 1979! 

     I was a 14 year old shy, insecure kid who was in the middle of 9th grade at Smithtown High school West. Although I attended church and Sunday school, I did not have very many friends who were "Christians." In February right after my 15th birthday, my Mom encouraged my to attend the Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle's Youth Group Winter Retreat. I don't remember where the retreat was held or how long it was. I do remember the speaker was from the Stony Brook School. Although I did not know anyone, I do remember laughing a lot and making new friends. It was a great introduction for me with kids my age at my church. I really hated being so shy and wanted to fit in with everyone else.

    During that spring I got along great with the neighborhood kids. If we weren't playing hockey, we were playing football. If we weren't playing football we were playing basketball or baseball. I loved playing hockey and each neighborhood played against each other. We played well into the month of May. That year I was very happy that my team, the New York Rangers beat the Islanders in the playoffs only to lose to the Montreal Canadians in the Stanley Cup finals. I would have to wait 15 years before I saw the Rangers hoist "The Cup" and the next 4 years the Islanders would win 4 in a row. Oh...the pain!

     That year in school I really struggled a lot! Again, I just wanted to fit in and be like everyone else. I wanted to do well in school, get good grades. Throughout my life I always struggled with a bad reading comprehension. I felt like I was always one step behind my other classmates. It was always a struggle. In June when I got my report card I did absolutely horrible. I remember crying uncontrollably. At that point in my life, I wanted to become a writer. With the horrible grades I received, I thought I would probably be lucky if I were an assistant plumber. God had other plans. I'll get back to my schoolwork later in Part Two of this blog.

     Without knowing it, God was working on me. It began with my friendship with a guy named Doug. Our Mom's were and still are best friends. Doug and his family literally moved one block away from my family. He was the very first friend I had who was a Christian. Doug would always tell me about a place he went to on Saturday nights called "Coffeehouse" that our church hosted. That June I attended the "Coffeehouse" right after our church picnic. It was held at our churches school cafeteria from 8p.m. to Midnight. The night included Fellowship, a musical guest, a speaker and at the end more fellowship. The gym was open at the end of the night where we played hockey, volleyball or basketball. The catch was it was open to all young adults. I was only 15 yet everyone accepted me with open arms. I was a mainstay there for the next 5 years well into my college days. God was beginning a work on me, yet the devil was trying hard to keep me away from church. My sister Paula graduated from high school that year and my parents had a huge party for her. I was so proud of my sister and wanted so much to like her academically.

     My Mom worked for a Jewish ministry called B'Nai Yeshua which was later renamed Messianic Life. During the summer she brought home many Christian books and I really enjoyed reading them. One was a biography written by Joni Eareckson who is paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident. Today, God is using her mightily. The other was a book called "Tortured for Christ" written by Richard Wurmbrand who suffered in a Russian prison. I was very interested in learning more about Jesus and wanted to get close to him but I didn't know how. During that summer, my neighborhood friends were changing. Instead of playing sports, the wanted to smoke marijuana. Something I would not do...ever! Besides Doug, I had no other kids in the neighborhood to hang out with. Late in July, my Mom invited me to hear a guest speaker at B'Nai Yeshua named Randy Cutlip. Randy was involved in the music industry back in the early 1970's and shared his testimony of how he came to accept Jesus into his life. His testimony changed my life and I was glued to his every word.

     My turning point in my life came later in August. I attended a Camp called Couriers Camp. The Couriers were a singing quartet who used to visit my church periodically. Each summer they hosted a youth camp in Pennsylvania. I was nervous about going but was anxious to not only make new friends, but to learn more about Jesus. The speaker that year was Dave Roever, an evangelist who had an amazing sense of humor but also an amazing talent in communicating to young people. All I can say is at that camp, I rededicated my life to the Lord! One of Dave's messages at the end of the camp was about the effects of Rock music. I loved my secular rock and since 1976 I was a huge fan of the Rock groups Kiss, The Beatles and Wings. Let's just say after hearing Dave speak on how that music did not glorify God whatsoever, I went home and got rid of those albums. I came home from that camp a changed teenager. This blog is getting long so I will continue next time with what took place in my life September through December 1979.

                    STAY TUNED

THE PUPPET GUY

     So what I want to announce to you has been in the works for quite some time. I did a lot of soul searching and spent a week praying and fasting about this. I AM STARTING MY OWN MINISTRY! When you are involved with something for almost 30 years and do it minimally for 6 years, you realize you really miss it a lot. I really miss ministering to kids and being creative.

     I will be calling myself, "The Puppet Guy." The ministry will not only be puppets and will not only be for children, my goal is to reach families. When I was at Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle as the children's pastor, whenever I spoke at the Smithtown Christian School Chapel or other Christian school chapels, the kids always called me "The Puppet Guy." The plan is simple! I want to travel to area churches as well as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and basically wherever God opens doors and share the gospel through the creative methods of ventriloquism, gospel illusions, music and games as well as being a consultant to children's pastors, children's ministry directors and leaders. In the future I want to add a bible quiz game show theme I will be calling "Do you Know the Answer?" The characters I will be using are Grandpa Lou, Shelton the Shark, Buster the Basset Hound and Loudmouth as well as a new character I will be introducing "Tony the Talking Pizza." I also want to expand my ministry by doing some stand up comedy. I took a class on stand up comedy earlier this year and hope to use that to reach people. I will be available on Sundays and in the evenings. Due to some debts I need to pay, I will continue working at Chick Fil-A.

     During my soul searching and fasting, the Lord impressed on me one thing. He said "Your life now is a clean piece of paper, It's time now to rewrite a whole new story." I want to get back to what I love doing. During these last 6 years I have truthfully seen the "Real World" while driving a limo, selling door to door with TruGreen and now being at Chick Fil-A. Let me just say, the "Real World" is lousy. They need Jesus. 

There are a few things I do need to do as I begin this ministry:

1. Prayer - This is the most important area. Without it, it will be just entertainment. I don't want to entertain people, I want to minister to them!

2. Website - I need someone to develop a website for me

3. Logo - I need a creative artist who can design a logo for me

4. New materials - If you know of anyone looking to sell a sound system, please let me know. I do want to also purchase a buzzer system as well as other props. Please keep this in prayer for me!

Lastly, I will be test driving this ministry, the program and the whole concept for the next 6 months. Just like when you buy a new car, you give it a test drive. I want to see what works and what doesn't work. I have one idea of doing a Noah's Ark theme to start.

I realize this will be a lot of work but if you know me, you know I love a challenge. In the next few days, I will be launching a Facebook Group page inviting people to join. I am very excited about this new adventure and can't wait to see the doors God will open.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!!  

JESUS LOVES THE "NIMROD'S"!!!

     I have to admit (in a nice way) that the month of February and so far March has been difficult. No, not because of finances, personal issues and other nonsense. It's been difficult because of one thing. I have had to deal with a lot of Nimrod's! Although Chick Fil-A is a Christian owned business, it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who walks into the restaurant loves Jesus. Some, with all due respect, can be true Nimrod's.

     So, I'm sure you are asking, what is a Nimrod? I look at it as a Christian or nice way of calling someone extremely annoying. I truthfully try not to let people get to me, but I have noticed lately there have been a lot of Nimrod's I have seen in the past 5 weeks. The purpose of this weeks blog is not to complain at all. It is, in fact, to let you know how God is helping me deal with the Nimrod's of this world. Jesus loves Nimrod's!

    

     When I was hired by Chick Fil-A in Port Jefferson, NY and started on day one, our owner/operator Stan showed us a video. The video took place in a restaurant and depicted people walking into the restaurant all with things on their minds. They had words over their heads of the struggles they were facing. Some had family members with cancer, others had financial worries, some were even young kids struggling with suicide. That video really hit me hard. Stan also explained that he wanted to bring southern hospitality to New York. My first reaction was "good luck with that one!" A week later, when our trainers came in to train us, they emphasized "great customer service." We were encouraged to "go the extra mile" and "create raving fans." In a nutshell, we wanted to see guests come back. I will have to admit I was very impressed with how our trainers handled our New York friends. In no way did I ever see anyone get rattled by a guest, especially dealing with a Nimrod. I even said to one of the trainers "You're going to let that man speak to you that way." His answer was simple. "You can't let people get to you. Treat everyone the same. You want them to return to your restaurant. You honestly don't know what they are going through." Great answer!

     In my 3 1/2 years of working in 3 different restaurants (2 Chick Fil-A's), I have dealt with my share of Nimrod's. Here are a few.

• A man brought a free breakfast biscuit card after breakfast was over demanding I give it to him then cursed me out.
• On a holiday when we opened for lunch, a man wanted a plate of scrambled eggs and demanded the phone number for corporate because we did not have eggs after 10:30 a.m.
• A lady received the wrong meal and threw food at me at the drive thru.
• A man purchased two meals and wanted 37 sauces. When I tried to sell him an 8 ounce container of Chick Fil-A sauce, he told our store leaders I was extremely rude.   

          During this past month, I will admit I allowed people (Nimrod's) to get to me. I made a great decision that I know will help me. I prayed that I would see people the same way Jesus does. Boy, did that help! I didn't allow anyone sarcastic or rude to spoil my day. I realize that there are people in this world who are truthfully not happy. I will never forget an old saying I heard years ago. HURT PEOPLE, HURT PEOPLE! The same God who sent His one and only Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins is the same God who sent His one and only Son Jesus to die on the cross for their sins. Jesus loves me, he loves you and yes...He loves those rude, obnoxious Nimrod's who try to ruin your day. We can't let them. Life is too short!!