(Cont.) Bill & Alice Friesen’s 22 year marriage ended on May 9 when Bill Friesen slipped into the arms of Jesus. He awaits his resurrection body, but his dementia from Alzheimer’s disease has been healed!

Our family trekked back to Holly, MI for the military funeral at Great Lakes Military Cemetery. It was short (22 military funerals that day), solemn, dignified and heart-rending. My sister Cindy made the arrangements with stepmom Alice. Cindy summarized his life. “As a born-again Christian, Bill considered his most important role in life to be the family’s spiritual leader. His quiet and steady personality encouraged his four children to set and achieve positive goals, live lives of integrity, cherish family, and serve a living God.”

I read Scripture from 1 Corinthians 15: “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, then will come about the saying, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ The sting of death is sin, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

A family friend sang “Amazing Grace” and we joined in. Step-brother Doug thanked God in prayer for the life of our father, husband and grandpa. A military gun salute pierced the air followed by the haunting beautify of bugle Taps. The flag was unfolded, displayed for a moment and refolded. A military serviceman presented the flag to Alice and thanked her for Bill’s sacrificial service to keep our country free. You wanted to stay and just think about family, country, freedom and Bill Friesen. But, 21 other families were lined up to remember their dead and we had to quietly disperse. (to be cont.)

G

When I was young I did not know what a normal family vacation was. Our family was so close to four other families that we took road vacations together. These families from church became “uncles” and “aunts” and we knew them better than our own wonderful uncles & aunts. The caravan would stop at a camping ground, food put on top of one of the pop-up trailers and 25 people would pray and then grab for dinner. Evening camp fires gave us stories to share as our fellowship grew closer and closer. My “uncle Ernie” died and later my mom died.

“Aunt Alice” and dad lived next to each other after their spouses died. One day dad called each of us kids with a question. “Do you think it would be alright if I married Alice?” I said, “Get her before someone else does.” We never dreamed that these two 70 yr olds would be married for 22 years. One of the old black and white photos shows the two young couples together. When we view it we always say, “There is Bill and his two wives. There is Alice and her two husbands.” (to be cont.)

G

I recently was sending out prayer letters for my summer teaching trip to Kigali for this summer. I got to one and my heart sunk. The letter was addressed to Prof Howard Hendricks. As all Dallas Seminary alum know, “Prof” is very much alive, but neither snail mail nor email have his celestial address. At his death, we all remembered our favorite “Prof” moments. His one-liners were potent. Even when they were average, they were potent because they came from “Prof.”

“Heaven is a person: Jesus”
“Never traffic in unpracticed truth.”
“You are able to do many things. But be sure you find the one thing you must do.”

“You never graduate from the school of discipleship.”
“If you’re just like someone else, we don’t need you.” (excuse us Prof for all wanting to be like you!)
“The size of your God determines the size of everything.”

“You cannot impart what you do not possess.”
“The Bible was not given to make us smarter sinners, but to change our lives.”
“It is a sin to bore people with the Word of God.”

“You can impress people at a distance, but you can impact them only up close.”
“Experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is.”
“If we stop learning today, we stop teaching tomorrow.”

I can remember Prof saying, “This is the most important truth of the Christian life.” He said it over and over with a different truth each time. And I believed him every time.

G

gfriesen@multnomah.edu

One of the reasons that I love Multnomah is that it seeks to honor those who have served well. Recently, we had a chapel to honor Prof. Daniel Christiansen, soon to be Dr Dan. In our recent cuts, he lost his teaching position after 18 years. Multnomah did not want to loose him and for him it felt like a death. He loves teaching and loves students even more. One of the men of Aslan’s How recently said, “No offense G, but he was my favorite Bible teacher at Multnomah.” He is often in pain from the injuries of a past car accident. He knows suffering, but his trust in the suffering God is greater than his pain. His commitment of caring for elderly parents will keep him in the Portland area. This is perfect since we are praying that his time away from Multnomah will be temporary. He described walking onto campus as a student. After five minutes, he said to himself, “I could spend the rest of my life here.” The honor chapel ended with the whole school praying in unity that he would be back soon. We are praying for a huge new class of freshmen so that Prof Dan will be able to spend the rest of his life at the college he and I both love.

G

I’ll be the commencement speaker at our graduation Friday May 10 at 7:30pm at Rolling Hills Community Church, 3550 SW Borland Rd, Tualatin, OR 97062

I just had my final class of approximately 25,000 classes periods at Multnomah. Over the 37 years I had approximately 12,000 students in class. I decided to hold class in the Dirks Prayer Chapel in the center of campus. We prayed for Multnomah that it would so prosper that the faculty and staff who were cut would be able to return to the school they love. One student quoted from Jeremiah 29 and reminded us that God has “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

I read from Ephesians 1 before we prayed and had a flashback. It was not caused by drugs, but by a vivid reminder of my first time teaching at Multnomah. In the spring of 1976 I interviewed and taught five classes. One of them was on God’s sovereignty and I used Ephesians 1 as the key passage. I started my first class in August, 1976 with prayer and ended my last class praying with 15 students that the sovereign God would give all of us a “future and a hope” and especially the school we love.

G

In preparation for Africa I’m cleaning out old files and boxes. I found a “Clergy Record” from Sept 8, 1975, when I was a young seminary student. That whirlwind day came back in a moment.

On this Monday I went to the seminary pastoral ministry office. As I waited, the phone rang. Someone had looked up the seminary in the phone book and asked for a minister to do a graveside funeral in two hours. The secretary looked up and asked me if I would do it. While a million unknowns flitted through my seminarian frontal lobe, I said, “Yes”. I arrived for the funeral of a 52 year old man and met the strangers who were family. The most disconcerting thing came shortly after I stepped out of my old car. The widow came up to me, pulled me aside, and said, “Don’t say he was a good man. He wasn’t.” I think she expected me to lie about someone I didn’t know! No need to lie since I knew what Jesus did in John 11. He came to a funeral, he wept, he prayed and He promised that He was the Resurrection and the Life. I did my best to comfort and passed on the promise of Jesus. I also prayed that I would get more lead time for the next funeral!

G

It is always enjoyable to sign one of my books for a friend as I did in Jan. 1982. The book was Decision Making and the Will of God and the recipients were Gene & Linda Moore. Doug Moore recently had his parents’ signed book in hand. He stopped me and declared, “You are a prophet.” I smiled and tried to look humble. “You wrote a detailed note in this book that you gave to my parents AND IT CAME TRUE!” I was thinking, “I’m a lucky guesser”, but “prophet” did have a nice ring to it. “Do you remember what you wrote?” he asked. But, I reminded him “I’m a prophet, not an historian.”

It read, “Gene and Linda. I praise God for our fellowship and friendship together. My next book will have an illustration from your kids, so keep me informed.” I also added a Bible verse from another prophet. Doug reminded me that in Lion Sightings in the Rose City, there was an illustration about his and Vania’s wedding called, “Advent Conspiracy Wedding.” Prophecy Fulfilled!

Doug & Vania are expecting a son in one month. He will don the beautiful name, Josiah Lewis Moore. I predict that there will be an illustration about Josiah in my next book. And if I’m a prophet, there WILL be another book – so I better start writing. I think I’ll name it, Prophecy and the Will of God or maybe, Lion Prophesies in the Rose City. Whew, so much to predict and so little time.

G

Aslan’s How just finished its competition to pick the college basketball champions. Debbie Chin, who is the unofficial president of Multnomah ruling from her administrative desk, asked if she could join us. She had a lot of questions since every profession is a conspiracy against the layperson. But, we freely offered her our wisdom. “March Madness” is the basketball tournament that picks a national champion in April. A “bracket” is a genealogical chart that goes backward from 64 teams to one. “Sweet Sixteen” refers to the 16 teams who don’t make hard fouls. “Elite Eight” are teams from the Ivy League. “The Big Dance” is a pep rally for all the teams. The “Final Four” are the teams that survive the “Big Dance” in their region. A “power forward” is the same as a power washer, but he cleans backboards. She was so full of basketball knowledge that she went from inquisitive to “sagacious”.

Debbie started making her picks and recording them on the genealogical chart. There are hundreds of internet sites giving tips, but Debbie asked her lady friend down the hall. The seven charts were soon filled and taped onto the large bay window at Aslan’s How. Six men versus Debbie. She selected Michigan to go far since she believed all the bluster that I was making about my team. She picked Louisville because it sounded like a nice rural town. She picked Wichita State because all the guys said, “Don’t pick them, they’re a 9 seed.” Debbie the president is now Debbie “The Queen of March Madness.” She was crowned in April when Louisville beat Michigan in the finals. Final totals: (1 pt first round winners, 2 second round, etc.)

The Queen 71
G 61
Ryan Tallmon 58
Austin Way 57
Chris Graham 52
Drew Fajen 49
Thomas Wilson 35

G

Our Thursday dinner always includes a discussion at Aslan’s How around the table. This time it was “If you could ask any historical character a question, who would you ask and what question?”

Jesus, why did you create Satan? Why did you choose Judas as a disciple?

Hitler, what was wrong with you?

Harry Truman, why did you decide to use the Atomic bomb?

George MacDonald, how did you learn to pray?

Henri Nouwen, why did you chose a celibate ministry when you struggled with sexual issues?

Lincoln, what kept up your resolve to end slavery with so many enemies?

It was a beautiful night of more questions than answers. And that can be good too. I may be wrong, but I expect that part of the beauty of heaven will be looking back and learning from the sovereign God why, and what and how, but especially “Why?”

G

Recently, Multnomah did a final interview for one of their publications. Theirs will probably be better written, but mine is a “scoop”!

Q: “What did you enjoy the most about teaching Multnomah students?” Have students over time changed in terms of beliefs, or have they generally remained the same since you’ve been a prof. at MU?

Multnomah students are my favorite. They are sacrificing to come to college and learn the Bible. So, motivated Bible students for a Bible teacher is like a dream come true. I love to be with students for class, lunches, Days of Prayer and especially Days of Outreach. Having six men students in my house, Aslan’s How, for the last 12 years has been one of the best things that I have ever experienced.

Students have changed, but the joy of watching the lights come on and the Bible making sense will always be a highlight for me. Someone asked me why I did not get tired of teaching Pentateuch for 35 straight years. Finally, I realized that I’m not teaching the Pentateuch. I’m teaching students and the Bible class is our reason for meeting. Students are new every year and so teaching them will never get old to me.

Q: “What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment teaching/being apart of the Multnomah community?”

This question is best answered by others, but I can tell you what I have enjoyed the most over the last 37 years?

Mentoring over 80 men in Aslan’s How has made coming home as exciting as teaching at college.

With the high cost of education, my heart was moved to start scholarships for deserving students. The Norm and Muriel Missions Scholarship supports our school family on mission trips. The Lonie (Friesen) Tucker Bible Scholarship for students who value and read their Bibles like our founder, Dr. John Mitchell. The Holly Miller Missions Scholarship for students like Holly who have a heart for getting the gospel out to the world.

Teaching freshmen their first Bible class – Pentateuch. They think it will be an uninteresting bunch of laws and I get the first crack at demonstrating that Scripture is alive and the “Walk Thru the Pentateuch” is fun.

Ten years of being academic dean and finding some great teachers that will lead Multnomah into the future. These include current profs: Wayne Strickland, Ray Lubeck, Brad Harper, Karl Kutz, Doug Schaak, Domani Pothen and past profs including Tom & Bonnie Kopp and Jeff Arthurs.

Serving eight years as chair of the council of elders at Imago Dei Community which was planted by Multnomah alum Rick McKinley. Many current and past Multnomah students are a part of this fellowship.

Taking the truth of Scripture and bringing its theology to the church in the form of books including Decision Making and the Will of God, How Then Should We Choose, Singleness, Marriage and the Will of God and Lion Sightings in the Rose City. Two other books are pending: C.S. Lewis Scripture Index and Spirit Filling and the Will of God.

One of the most exciting was watching God bless the Kigali Project where we organized our student body to create a college library for the new Bible college, Africa College of Theology in Kigali, Rwanda. The library is named “Multnomah ACT Library”, it has over 20,000 titles, and our students trained 15 Africans to set it up and run it.

Q: “How has God used Multnomah Students and/or faculty to impact/change your walk
with Christ?”

Dr Mitchell was a friend and mentor during the last ten years of his life. Our regular visits and teaching a course together left me in love with God’s Word written and God’s WORD, Jesus. The students have ministered to me with a contagious faith and enthusiasm which keeps me young.

Q: “If we have questions about CS Lewis after you leave, who would be the next best person to ask?”

There already is another teacher of C.S. Lewis teaching in the degree completion program. And (don’t tell any faculty I said so), but the internet is surprisingly helpful since there are so many C.S. Lewis sites about his life and writings.

Q: “If you had to describe in one sentence your experience at MU, what would you say?”

Multnomah has been my dream job blessing me with joy of teaching my passion (Scripture) and my hobby (C.S. Lewis).

G