Opening Chapel
The opening chapel service for the Fall Semester at Heritage Baptist College was held on Wednesday, September 3, 2025.
Dr. Dave Martin spoke from Matthew 14 and he brought a good message on “Faith in Jesus in the Storms of Life.” Besides the preaching, we also enjoyed some splendid special music.
A wonderful group of preachers, friends, and visitors attended the first chapel, and the opening barbecue dinner was delicious.
What a special start to the new semester!
Just Show Up
It was Wednesday evening, September 6, 1995 and the Baltimore Orioles were ahead of the California Angels by a score of 3 to 1. Camden Yards, the Orioles home field, was packed with a sold out crowd that night, and they were all waiting for the top of the fifth inning to be over.
Thousands started to cheer with 2 outs, as California Angels infielder Damion Easley came to bat. The right handed batter hit a pop up out to the Oriole 2nd baseman, and then the baseball stadium erupted. The game was now official, and a 56 year old baseball record had just been broken.
Cal Ripken, Jr., the new Iron Man, had just passed New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played.
Cal Ripken, the Baltimore Oriole All Star Shortstop, began his streak on May 30, 1982. He had missed the previous game after he was hit in the head with a pitch. Now, the Oriole’s manager, Earl Weaver, decided he should get back in the game.
Neither Cal Ripken nor Manager Earl Weaver knew the significance of that day. But thirteen years later, the “unbreakable record” was beaten.
Cal Ripken went on to extend his consecutive games to 2,632, and he stepped down from the game on October 6, 2001. His #8 Jersey was retired that night by the only team he had played with, the Baltimore Orioles, although he had played for nine different managers.
Besides playing in the most Major League Baseball games consecutively, the Hall of Fame shortstop still holds several other baseball records: Fewest errors in a season for a shortstop (3), 19 years selected for the All Star Game, besides other Oriole club records. Cal Ripken would later write a book, and attributed his records to his father’s mentoring, and his own determination to be at each game and to give his best. He titled his book Just Show Up.
Applying that simple concept to the Christian life could also bring amazing results. If each Christian would “just show up” at the church house, if each Christian would determine to “give their best” for the Lord - how much good could be done on this Earth for God?
Surviving the Storms
As I grew up, we used to travel down to hunt in Noble County in Ohio. As a young man, I learned the story of the U.S.S. Shenandoah airship, on our trips to Southeastern Ohio.
One hundred years ago, America’s first rigid airship, the U.S.S. Shenandoah was traveling on a Midwest tour. She had been built two years before, using German airship technology learned after WWI.
The Shenandoah was 680 feet long (more than 2 football fields), and her crew numbered 43 scattered throughout the ship. Instead of using the dangerous hydrogen gas, the U.S. decided to use the rare and stable helium gas. At that time, helium was very scarce, and it took nearly all the supply in the United States to fill the Shenandoah.
In the early morning hours of September 3, 1925, the airship got caught in a violent thunderstorm. The updrafts took the craft high into the sky, ripping it into 3 large pieces. Parts of the craft came down in a six mile area.
It is amazing that anyone survived such destruction, but 29 of the crewmen, almost 3⁄4 survived the wreck. Most of the loss of life was from the fall of the control gondola, the engines, or crew tossed overboard. Because the helium was contained in large cells that remained intact, some of the men were able to slowly release the helium until their section landed. In the ripped apart front (bow) section of the airship, 18 men survived by taking nearly an hour to slowly land.
What a storm, and what an event. One of the survivors, Charles Rosendahl, later captained the heavy cruiser Minneapolis in WWII. He retired a Vice Admiral. Another survivor, Fred Tobin, led rescue operations, 12 years later, at the fiery crash of the German Airship Hindenburg.
We all go through storms, some even once-in-a-lifetime trials. But we can all learn from them. We can learn not to despair, we can learn to trust God, and we can learn not to give up. Who knows, you may get a chance to fly your tragedy all the way down to a soft landing on the ground.
Such is the Way of War
My Grandfather, Dr. D.W. Crankshaw was born on September 8, 1887. He went on to study medicine, and practice as a small village doctor in Michigan.
When his country called, Dr. Crankshaw responded and served as a doctor in battle zones in WWI and WWII.
His experiences, especially those of WWI, were kept to himself. The only comment that I ever heard him say was: “Grandson, it was a terrible war, and many fine young men lost their lives.”
Such is the desire of many who have seen the terrible side of mankind. Robert Graff ̧ a WWII veteran was such a man, and his words have helped me understand the reason for some of our military “heroes” to remain silent.
Later in life, as a broadcast journalist for NBC, Robert Graff shared his thoughts: “War is unlike life. It’s a denial of everything you learn life is. And that’s why when you get finished with it, you see that it offers no lessons that can’t be better learned in civilian life. You are exposed to horrors you would sooner forget. A disconnect needs to be made to get yourself cleansed.” (Hornfischer, James D. Neptune’s Inferno. New York: Bantam Books. 2011 [p. 427])