This is a story about my dad and God
My dad, Conward Farris, was born in Timbo, Arkansas. It’s even smaller than it sounds. Neither of his parents ever finished grade school much less high school. There was no running water in their home. And it was the Great Depression.
My dad volunteered for the Army in World War II and went to the Pacific. He served at Iwo Jima and other places in that theater.
...Because of the GI Bill, my dad was able to go to Arkansas State Teachers College. I was born in Conway while he was at ASTC.
He was hired to teach school back in Timbo. But in 1954, he and my mom decided to leave for Washington State. There were two reasons. 1. Teachers in Arkansas made $200 a month. Teachers in Washington made $400 a month. 2. The school system was a part of a corrupt political machine and my dad wanted no part of it.
They aimed to live in Vancouver, Washington where an Army buddy was located. But it rained every day the last week of June and they decided to go back to Arkansas.
On the way, they stopped in Kennewick—where it rains only 7 inches a year. He was immediately hired as an elementary teacher.
But he absolutely needed a job until September to feed our family. The school district let us rent a small house called a “teacher’s cottage” and hired my dad as a summer janitor.
Meanwhile, a tent evangelist was holding services on the other side of town. And not uncommonly for Kennewick, a big wind storm hit the community. The storm destroyed the evangelist’s tent.
Undaunted, the evangelist rented the high school auditorium. The head janitor was a Christian. He figured out that my dad wasn’t and assigned him to be the janitor on duty during those services with the express hope that my dad would come to Christ.
And on the first night, that’s what happened. He brought my mom the next night and in a few days she joined him in faith.
They joined the head janitor’s church, and he remained there for the rest of his life. He held every position in the church except Pastor over the years.
He led my older sister and I to Christ on the same day. All of my siblings are believers to this day.
He wanted me to be a lawyer to defend Christians in public schools. I learned at his funeral why he needed a lawyer.
He was an open witness for Christ as an elementary principal to both students and teachers.
He was a bold and faithful man.
But I want to focus on the tent evangelist. Here he was faithfully serving God and his tent was destroyed. He could question God’s purposes for this loss.
When we learn in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good for them that love God and are called according to his purposes, we can’t have a narrow or solely personal view of that.
I don’t know what good came to the evangelist personally because of losing his tent. But I know the good that came to my family and at least some of the good that has come to the kingdom of God because that tent was destroyed.
God clearly reached out in a supernatural way to my dad. And my dad responded to the claims of God and said yes in faith.
I had a great dad who loved me. And He had a great Heavenly Father who loved him and through my dad sent the message of His eternal love to me and countless others.