When I Get to Heaven
The Lord Willing
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
THE GUIDING STAR
It was a bitter cold night. I bundled up good and told Mary I was going out to try to find those kids, then left the parsonage with a prayer in my heart. At the end of the walkway, I could have turned left, but turned right. I made another right turn toward Worthington and could have continued on this street, but I turned down steep Worthington to Walnut. There I could have turned left again but this time turned to the right and started up the hill. Incredibly, there were the two young “darlings” coming toward me.
“Hi, guys!”“Hi, Reverend!”
“I’ve got a problem down at the church. You wouldn’t have time to help me out, would you? One of the women lost some money down there and I have to help her find it. You couldn’t go with me, could you?” (All this coaching came from the Holy Spirit.)“No, we have to go home, Reverend.”
I put my hand on a shoulder of each of the young men, and ever so gently started pointing them toward the church. I felt the resistance. I hunkered down on their level. I saw the tears starting.“Did you take the money?”
“Yes, Reverend.” The tears were really coming now. “We spent it on toys, Reverend, and hid them behind that gas station.”We returned the toys and the store refunded the money, then we went to the church. I told the boys that they must hand the money to Mrs. Jones. They cried a lot as they did, so we never told anyone else. But what really stayed with me through the years was how the “Guiding Star” led me unerringly from the parsonage to those two boys, who so desperately needed me!
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This beautifully crafted memoir explores the life of the Reverend Howard William Brown, a senior pastor with the United Methodist Church, with powerful stories of one man’s inner quest to grasp the very nature of eternity. When I Get to Heaven achieves a memorable portrait of Reverend Brown’s dynamic spiritual journey, from his early childhood memories to an enlightened vision of the great beyond. Penned in the final year of his life, the book reveals deep insights into the ‘great spirit of expectation’ that captivates us while on earth and illuminates our path toward life eternal. From his last notes:
I am not afraid of my journey past this life. Heaven is wonderful and I could talk forever about eternity, but I will only say that I am not afraid to go on. How did I come to be a believer? The walk I have taken began in a crowded bakery in the 1930s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I stood in line for my mother, waiting nervously to order one dozen coconut jelly cakes. Somehow, I found my way, many years later, to the steps of Drew Seminary where I found the grace ― and the words ― to begin to become a preacher. Yet there was more to come ― much more ― before I would step into my first pulpit. As life would have it, I would go off to war to find the prayer I did not know was in me, the prayer that would lead me to the ministry ― but that was years away, and I still had many life lessons to learn.
About the Author
An ordained minister for the United Methodist Church, the Reverend Howard William Brown served in nine parishes across the country, from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, for fifty-two years. He began his ministry in the Western Pennsylvania Conference until in 1961, a love of the wide-open spaces led him West to a small desert parish in Arizona, where he became engaged with global missions. He traveled to remote areas of South Korea and Japan along with a team of Conference delegates to spread the word of Jesus Christ in other cultures. From1968 to 1973, Reverend Brown performed the first of many biblical dramatizations in a theater-in-the-round style chancel in South Pasadena. A member of the Southern California [en dash] Hawaii Conference, he also served churches in Riverside and San Diego counties, delivering his message on the vitality of life beyond earth. Throughout his remarkable tenure, Reverend Brown focused on a deep commitment to ecumenical and educational ministries, and a love of the natural environment that led to thirty-seven years of backpacking trips into the Grand Canyon. He graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan University with a B.A. in psychology, and earned his ministerial degree from Drew Seminary.