Pete’s Bible

              Looking for an old book to check something I was writing about in my next blog, I accidently pulled out my husband’s Bible off the shelf. I have saved this book because he used his Bible as a background and source for all his preaching.  As I began to turn the pages, I unintentionally forgot about the book I thought I wanted and began to go through his Bible.

              Pete – actually named Harold Richard Clark – began ministry on July 8.1951 at New Lisbon, Indiana. In 1957, we moved to Chesterfield where Pete pastored until 1995, when he retired because Diabetes was weakening his body.  He did some guest preaching and served Middletown Christian Church as an interim pastor for a while, but diabetes racked his body and took his life on January 29, 1999.

              In honor of his eleventh year of ministry, I bought this Bible (Obviously I don’t remember doing this).  On the first blank page, I have written, “Presented to Harold “Pete” Clark in commemoration of his eleventh year in the work of our Lord, July 8, 1962, From his family. “I and our four children signed this page covered with the kids’ “baby” scowls – their ages ranged from three to ten years.

This book is an Authorized King James Version, printed in Great Britain at the University of Press, Oxford, by Vivian Rider, printer to the University.  Interestingly enough, I cannot find a copy write date anywhere or any date stating when the book was published.  This really surprises me.  Pete never used a newer translation of the Bible even though so many have been published since the 50s.`                                                                                                                                   Believe me, this Bible shows the thirty-five years of use Pete gave it: the outside binding has almost pulled away from the pages; a few pages have actually torn loose; there are many marks (especially in the New Testament) that he underlined for stress and he placed marks of all kinds to indicate verses he wanted to emphasize.  I found some interesting bookmarks; an obituary for Mason E. Pritchard, no date, (Obviously a funeral he had led); a short editorial where he had underlined, “I wish that Ted Koppel would run for President;” A maroon sash from East Lynn Christian Church dated April 6 – 8 1997.  Pete preached there for their Spiritual Renewal meeting, about the last time he had enough physical strength to preach.

Tucked into the back cover are eight sermons, all typed on the typewriter he bought in the mid-40s and used for preparing the rest of his sermons – he never accepted the computer                                                                                      and wanted nothing to do with it.  All eight are filled with his handwriting where he had modified and revised his thoughts.  Obviously there were his favorites because he had dated them for the many times he has preached these sermons at various places. So he continued to carry them every time he used his Bible.

Pete was a fortunate man in that he decided when he was a teenager what he wanted to do with his life; he believed God had called him to be a minister; he prepared himself by attending Butler’s School of Religion in Indianapolis after graduating from George Pepperdine University in Los Angles, California.  He loved being a pastor; he loved the people; he loved his Lord.  He was a happy man. That is why I think he lived as long as he did because he was not a good diabetic.

Pete’s Bible is still snug in my bookcase.  Occasionally, I pull it out just to remember some of the events of his forty-four years of serving his Lord.