44The Sabbath

My parents were both Sabbath keeping Christians, and as sincere believers of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, passed on their love of that belief to me.  What caused me to accept that faith as my own as I left my childhood was their sincere belief in the bible as the word of God.  As they explained to me the bible’s answers for the dilemma the world is in, and explained the bible’s remedy, my faith was established.

My parents were far from perfect but I saw very little hypocrisy in their lives as they lived their faith and honored their fellow man.

From my earliest childhood their faith was lived in such a way that I was attracted to the man Jesus as being more then just a man, but a being whose ideals if practiced, instead of just being mouthed, would not only make the world a better place in the here and now, but also throughout eternity.

Some of the fondest memories that helped establish my faith go back to my earliest childhood days on Read Island.  I remember when my sister Dawna and I, along with mom and dad, used to get in our speedboat Sabbath morning, and head off to “Grandma Lambert’s,” for Sabbath School.  When it came time to start there might be as many as fifteen to twenty people gathered there to sing hymns and study the word.  There would be the Tanaka family and most of the Tanaka’s logging crew and all of the Lambert’s along with our family plus many of the locals from the island. The children always had someone teach them bible stories, while the adults studied the deeper things that adults like to discuss.

One of the biggest highlights of my early Sabbath experiences was Grandma Lambert’s lovely heavy black bread with thick creamery butter on each slice, which she always gave to us little ones, after Sabbath school was over.  My mouth still waters for it.

I still have beautiful memories of the summertime when the weather was warm and sunny and we would all get in our boats and travel to one of the many small islands in the vicinity and have Sabbath school.  This would be followed by a big potluck dinner after which some would just sit around and visit. 

As small kids we wanted to do the fun stuff with the older kids and adults, so off we would go to find the most unusual plant or flower, or maybe a one of a kind piece of driftwood.  Beach combing or climbing on the rocks or going on a hike was always great fun on Sabbath or anytime for that matter.

I remember one Sabbath picnic when we came upon a family of baby raccoons in a small tree.  My dad tied a shoelace to the end of a stick and lowered it over one of the little fellows head and lifted him out of the tree.  When he went to take hold of the cute little ball of fluff it bit and scratched like a wild cat, hissing and spitting the whole while as my dad slowly lowered him and wrapped him in a blanket to take home.  My dad placed him in a large cage but he was always to wild to pick up or handle. Even though he Iooked so cute and cuddly like a cute little stripped kitten he would fight like a wild cat with claws just as sharp.  I was glad when the little guy finally escaped out a hole in one of the cage’s chicken wire sides and gained his freedom.

One of my fond memories of Sabbath was when Thomas Corbett an old and very proper English gentlemen, who live by himself, would walk over to our place for Sabbath school every week. This was a number of years later when the Tanaka family and most of the Lamberts except for Jim and his family had left the island, and we met in our house for our weekly Sabbath school and bible study.

After Sabbath school each week Tom looked forward to our special Sabbath meal, which was the highlight of every Sabbath following Sabbath school.  I will never forget this particular Sabbath, when we had finished eating and Tom was getting ready to leave.  He was sitting on one of the kitchen chairs putting on his overshoes, when without warning; it suddenly pitched him off onto the floor.  Here is Tom sitting on the floor with the chair on top of him and his hat down over his eye and the most startled look on his face.  We at first were quite concerned but when we saw that he was all right we along with him had a really good laugh.