Recipes for Living Jim and Lynn Louk

Jim begins the story: Both Lynn and I were born in the hospital at Boone, Iowa. I have a brother who is three years older than I. Our dad worked for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, and Mother was a homemaker.

I attended school for eight years at the Gift Country School, which was about a quarter of a mile from our farm home. I attended high school in Boone and played football and baseball. After I graduated in 1958, I attended Boone Junior College (now a part of DMACC), where I was on the basketball team.

Lynn and I began dating in high school. After her graduation in 1959, we both decided to go to the University of Iowa. I enrolled as a math major, but later transferred to Business Administration. I paid for my own education, working at a variety of jobs. I also left school for one semester to spend six months in active duty in the military.

I had grown up in the First Christian Church in Boone, but after Lynn and I began dating, I began worshiping with her at First United Methodist Church. When I began learning about the beliefs of the United Methodist Church, I discovered that I agreed with them and wanted to become a Methodist. My parents accepted this decision. My father had been raised in the Jefferson United Methodist Church, and many members of his family were Methodists.

It was while I was working as an orderly on the surgical ward in the hospital that I began to realize and express my faith. I sometimes found myself in conversations with persons facing crises in their lives, many of them questioning their future. Many were hopeless and depressed, and I found myself witnessing to them about my faith. It was on New Year's Eve in 1960, that I felt clearly God's call to ministry. That crystallized what may have been a directive developing over many years.

There was never a moment in time when God struck me down, as happened to Paul. My seasoning was more a series of what John Wesley called "heart-warming experiences." From the time that I was quite small, I was in awe of the majesty of God's world. Sunday school was important and I believed that the more I knew about Jesus, the more I could understand the greatness of God. As I grew older, I sensed God's presence in the life of Jesus.

Lynn and I were married September 10, 1961, at First United Methodist Church in Boone. We were both students at the University of Iowa, so we lived above a funeral home and were provided with rent-free housing as reimbursement for our work at the funeral home. On April3, 1962, an arsonist set fire to the building, and it was completely destroyed.

My father was in Iowa City on business, and he was staying overnight with us. Even though it was past midnight, Lynn was awake and studying, and she thought she heard an intruder. She woke me up, and we discovered a small fire. We immediately alerted my dad and another couple who also lived in the building. The fire spread rapidly and, although the rest of us narrowly escaped, my father perished.

In a sincere attempt to express their sympathy, some people inferred that God had caused the fire to test me and see if l would remain true to my decision to enter ministry. I recoiled at that; this is not my theology! I believe that God can take the good and bad that happen to us, and use it for His own purpose. I believe God does not send trouble, but when it comes, He stands with us to help us through it. This has been proved to be true time and again.

The good that came from the experience was that I felt affinity with John Wesley, who had been rescued from a fire and referred to himself as having been "plucked from the burning.” It helped to confirm for me that God had a plan for my life. It also gave Lynn and me a different set of values. It is not often that persons realize, at ages 20 and 21, that life is fragile. We are not invincible and we should be ready to die at any time. Additionally, I gained a certain perspective so that later, when two children of our first parish died in a fire, I was able to relate to the family. I, too, had lost someone dear in a fire.

My first step toward ministry was to obtain a Local Preacher's License, following a course of study. Just a week or two before our fire, I preached my first sermon at Williamsburg, while the pastor was on vacation. I chose "faith" as the subject of my sermon, and night after night I practiced it in the chapel of the funeral home where we lived. Lynn listened and critiqued my message until she, too, knew it almost word for word. On the Sunday morning when I finally preached that sermon, I completely changed the order in which I presented the various points. Afterwards, when I asked Lynn if it had been a good sermon, she replied that she didn’t know because she had been in such a state of panic when the presentation was completely different from what she had heard so many times! Since then, she has never made it a practice to listen to my sermons in advance!

In June, 1962, I was assigned to serve as a student pastor at the Collins United Methodist Church. For the next three years, I served the church and commuted 100 miles a day to and from Simpson College, where I majored in Religion and Philosophy. I was graduated from Simpson in May, 1965, and enrolled as a student at Drake Divinity School in Des Moines. After my first year of seminary, we moved to St. Charles, and I served the St. Charles-Patterson charge.

Commuting to and from school during my years in college and seminary required a great deal of travel time. For several years I drove more than 40,000 miles per year, and at times I felt like a Circuit Rider! Lynn rode with me many of those miles, sometimes even typing papers for me on a portable typewriter as we traveled. She typed all my papers during college and seminary, and without her help, I could never have been a full-time student while also serving as a student pastor.

I was ordained a Deacon at Indianola in 1966, and an Elder in 1968. At that time, if the ordinand desired it, the Bishop would come to a local church for the ordination. It was quite different than it is at the present time, when all the ordinands are ordained as a group on Sunday morning during Annual Conference. Bishop James Thomas ordained me in the United Methodist Church at St. Charles, and more than fifty pastors attended. I chose C. Raymond Reed and 0. Edward Cooley as my ordaining Elders. Dr. Reed was the pastor at Boone who married Lynn and me, and Dr. Cooley was District Superintendent of the Newton District and later the Des Moines District. Both were very instrumental in guiding me into ministry, and they served as mentors to me for many years.

Our oldest son David was three-years-old at the time. Afterwards, his grandparents brought him through the receiving line, and he said he had something to say to Bishop Thomas. He stuck out his little hand to shake the hand of the bishop and said, "Great sermon, Bishop Thomas!" Bishop Thomas has the gift of being able to communicate the love of God to young and old alike.

Bishop Thomas came to Iowa two years after I began serving as a student pastor, and we had an opportunity to get to know him personally when he came to Collins to consecrate the educational unit that was built there during my tenure. I had a second building program while I was still a student, when the St. Charles Church built a new parsonage.

In 1970, we moved to Fort Dodge, where I became the associate pastor at First United Methodist Church, where Lloyd Latta was the senior pastor. Next we moved to Colo, where we had a number of memorable experiences. One very rewarding experience was beginning a campground ministry at a private campground just outside town. Each year from April to October, I had two congregations: one which met at the church in town and another which met on the shores of the campground lake or in the recreation building nearby.

During my pastorate at Colo, I served as Chair of the Conference Commission on Worship, the group which planned all the worship services for Annual Conference. Bishop Thomas called me late in the spring of 1973, requesting that I develop a worship setting for the conference, in addition to the traditional altar setting. As a result of a great deal of prayer, I had the inspiration for a design, but the credit for producing it goes to lay leadership in the Colo church. We had a strong class of young married couples, and they supplied the artistic talent and physical labor. Using as a theme the hymn Christ for the World We Sing, we built a model of the world, twelve feet in diameter, by welding together iron rods from an old windmill. The outlines of the continents were black, and a huge white cross dissected the world. Into the setting we incorporated words from each verse: "with loving zeal.... with fervent prayer.... with one accord .... with joyful song.... and with us the cross to bear." The "world" was suspended from the ceiling of Veterans' Auditorium in Des Moines, above the worship platform. I believe it was the first time a worship setting was used for Conference, a practice which has continued through the years to the present.

In June, 1977, I was appointed as pastor of the Forest City United Methodist Church. While I was serving there, I was asked to be the first chaplain at the Chemical Dependency Center, housed at the hospital. One day a week for seven years I served as chaplain there, in addition to my regular pastor duties at the church. In 1984 I was appointed to the Clear Lake United
Methodist Church as senior pastor. During those years, I chaired the Clear Lake Camp board for several years and directed confirmation camps there.

In 1991, I was appointed senior pastor of First United Methodist Church at Ames. During my ministry there the church had a net growth in membership of over one hundred persons, a contemporary Saturday evening worship service was begun, and a puppet ministry by the youth was developed. Several missionaries and mission projects were supported each year, including the
Appalachian Service Project and considerable flood relief work in Ames and Des Moines in 1993.

In June of 1995 we moved to Ottumwa to begin what proved to be an interim appointment as pastor of First United Methodist Church. When I received a phone call in March, 1997, from the Creston District Superintendent asking if we would come to Osceola, we were delighted to be moving back to central Iowa. Furthermore, the Osceola church has a good reputation in the Iowa Conference for being a mission-minded congregation with warm and caring members. At the time of this writing, we have been here several weeks, and we have found that the congregation lives up to its reputation. We have been received with friendly smiles, delicious food, and help in getting settled. At our first Administrative Council meeting, it was a delight to see so many energetic, enthusiastic people in attendance. With such fine lay leadership, I see much potential for evangelism and growth.

LYNN

I was raised in Boone, an only child of parents who had been married nine years before I was born. My parents were always loving and supportive; they were always there when I was in school, church or community activities. Dad died in 1990. Mom lives in Ames and came to worship services on our first Sunday in Osceola.

I played the clarinet in high school marching band, and the bassoon in concert band and symphony orchestra. Other activities, in which I participated in high school included chorus, synchronized swimming team, and the Pep Club. Jim has already mentioned that we met in high school and started dating the summer before I was a junior. We were married between my sophomore and junior years at the University of Iowa, where I majored in science and medical technology.

While in college, I was a member of Kappa Phi, an organization for Christian women in college, and I served as president of the chapter my junior year. It was during that year that we had the fire in our home, and my Kappa Phi sisters gave us much support at that time, as well as physical help.

They spent a whole day scrubbing and cleaning the smoke and grime off dishes and household items we were able to salvage from our apartment. In addition, one of the Kappa Phi sponsors had a vacant apartment in her home, and she and her family took us in and even provided furniture for us.

As Jim said, we moved to Collins in June of 1962, and I began my medical technology internship at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines in July. However, I developed a staphylococcal infection which lasted five months, so I had to drop out of the program. I began again the following July, completed my internship in 1964, and worked in the laboratory at Iowa Methodist until our first son, James David was born in April of 1965.

After David was born I became a full-time homemaker for eight years. Two more sons joined our family; John was born in February of 1969, and Jeff arrived in August, 1970. Ours were active, busy kids and I gave them a lot of time. I served as a room mother, Cub Scout leader, youth leader, booster club member, and unofficial cheerleader at all their ball games. Jim was busy with church work but he also found time in his schedule to help with Scouts and other organizations in which the boys took part. We rarely missed any activity in which our sons participated. One fall we attended four football games nearly every week. Jeff was on the freshman team, John was on the sophomore and varsity units, and Dave was playing college ball.

In 1973, while we were living at Colo, I took a part-time job at Mary Greeley Hospital in Ames, and I have had a variety of part-time jobs ever since. While our children were home, I limited myself to part-time jobs that allowed me to place the needs of my family and the church first in my life. Now I am employed as the Laboratory Manager of Clarke County Hospital, which is a much more demanding and time-consuming position.

In my role as a pastor's wife, I have tried to do the things I would do as a good, active lay person, not as an extension of or assistant to Jim. I’ve never been a clergy spouse, who would preach or teach, but I've been a member of vocal and bell choirs, and I’ve served as a choir accompanist and pianist for various meetings and services.

My dad was a very active member of Lions Club for many years, and Jim followed in his footsteps, becoming a Lion in 1966, in St. Charles. He has held many offices, including being President of clubs in Colo and Forest City. While we lived in Clear Lake, he served as District Governor for one year and Council Chairman for the State of Iowa for one year. I was a member of the Lioness Clubs in Forest City and Clear Lake, and served as President both places, and I have been a Lions Club member since 1992.

Jim and I have a number of hobbies, one of which is camping. We bought our first trailer when we lived at St. Charles, and we spent many happy hours of our family time with our sons camping in national parks and other places. We took the boys to every state in the continental United States. We especially enjoy camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains and find that time spent there is both relaxing and spiritually renewing for us.

We also love to travel to places farther from home. When Jim was District Governor and Council Chairman of the Lions Club, we traveled to International Conventions in New Orleans, Taiwan, and Denver. We spent several days in Hawaii en route home from Taiwan. In addition, we have hosted four trips to the Holy Land, including visits to Greece, southern Italy, Egypt, and Jordan. In turn, each of our sons accompanied us on a trip to Israel. Two years ago we hosted a trip to seven central European countries, and late this spring we hosted a group who traveled to the four Scandinavian countries. We are already planning a trip to the Oberammergau Passion Play in 2000, as well as trips to Alaska and several other destinations.

I love to record events on these trips and in our lives on film. This hobby has earned me the nickname of “Betty Kodak" among family and friends. Likewise, Jim and I hope that this sharing of some of the stories of our lives will give those who read it a clearer picture of who we are and what we believe.

MY CHILD, DO NOT FORGET MY TEACHING, BUT LET YOUR HEART KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS; FOR LENGTH OF DAYS AND YEARS OF LIFE AND ABUNDANT WELFARE THEY WILL GIVE YOU. DO NOT LET LOYALTY AND FAITHFULNESS FORSAKE YOU; BIND THEM AROUND YOUR NECK, WRITE THEM ON THE TABLET OF YOUR HEART. SO YOU WILL FIND FAVOR AND GOOD REPUTE IN THE SIGHT
OF GOD AND OF PEOPLE. TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART. AND DO NOT RELY ON YOUR OWN INSIGHT. PROV. 3:/-5