Michael was funny and could put people at ease. This was truly his gift! Everyone remembers how Michael made them feel accepted. Everyone remembers his enthusiastic, “Amen!” when he agreed with the preacher. Jim and I remember Michael because he was influential in changing the course of our lives.
I met Michael the first time at a Saturday table game night at Shelley Pecks house, way back in February 1994. Every room of the house was packed with people who were soon to become my friends, yet that night Michael’s jovial game playing almost scared me (I was fragile), lol. I’d recently moved and was in town less then a month when my sister said, “There’s some people starting a grassroots Sabbath School. Go to it, you’ll like it.” There were twelve people in class the day I showed up. Pretty soon I was asked to teach the 20-Something SS class on rotation with people I consider to be “the greats!” People like Berry Forbs, Eric Stenbakken, and Michael Jaques. These guys explained a personal, practical relationship with God in ways I still haven’t forgotten. In ways I still borrow when leading others to Christ! Michael taught the loudest by example, always inclusive, always looking to the good of others. That Sabbath School class soon moved locations because 120 people were coming regularly. Our SS membership larger than a lot of churches. Being included in leadership with these friends changed the course of my life; I stayed in the church I’d been contemplating leaving; I learned how to be a ministry leader.
What a goof! I’ll never forget Michael’s blessing over our pizza, when a group of us painted the Cedars Children’s home together in the mid-1990s. “Lord, please help us survive this greasy meal we are about to consume.” Michael always kept it real and kept us laughing.
The most monumental impact Michael made on our lives came in 1998. Jim joined the Seventh-day Adventist church in January 1997, about 5 months after our marriage. How it warmed our hearts to regularly have 30+ SDA friends come over to our home on Friday evenings or Sabbath afternoons. Michael and Shelley made that drive out to Bennet, to hang out with us, quite a few times. All those casual conversations about life and faith made following God the “in things” to do. Jim was so quiet back then that if he ever made a grunt of sound Michael would raise his hands and proclaim loudly to the full room, “Everyone be quiet, Jim has something to say.” Lol! I can still see Michael holding up his hands in our living room. Michael used his outspoken personality to encourage, and on occasion correct. He said to Jim once, “Hey, so and so is caught up in [sin]. How about you and I go have a chat with them?” And the guys went. Michael said things that caused the people they visited to repent and change course. Michael had a way of keeping things real, but light enough that the hard things seemed manageable. Like the time I pushed Jim out on stage for the first time in his life. There Jim was, mute, standing in front of over a thousand people at camp meeting. Playing opposite Jim in the skit, Michael managed to adlib a convincing monologue where there should have been a dialogue. So many memories! Anyway, Michael and Berry (maybe some others) showed up at out house in the autumn of 1998 with a proposal. “Jim,” Michael began, “We’ve been talking, and we think you should host NET '98 at the Bennet Community Church.” It was scheduled to start in one week. I can still see in my mind where everyone was sitting at this pivotal moment, as I looked on from the doorway of the kitchen. Michael and Berry bought the satellite dish, and Jim got permission from the church board to host the event at their non-denominational church and to mount a satellite dish to their roof. The pastor of the church, who graduated with her doctorate from Vanderbilt seminary, stood up after the Sabbath presentation and told her congregation, “This is the truth! Sabbath is on Saturdays. That’s what we learned in seminary.” Weren’t we all surprised when Dwight Nelson, speaking to the whole world, took time a few nights later to say a few words directly to “the Pastor in Bennet Nebraska,” during his satellite presentation. Eventually, there were several baptisms from those meetings. And, it was from hosting those meetings --suggested and strongly supported by Michael (and others)-- that Jim and I finally sold our house, got training, and entered full time ministry. Michael and friends from Digging Deeper Sabbath School sponsored us in those lean years of Jim’s education. It was these formative years, as young adults, that shaped our lives of ministry --and Michael’s encouragement central in the journey. Michael was influential in changing the course of our lives.
In August 2020 Michael and I had a chance to reminisce face to face about these Bennet-day events and how, in the year to follow, Michael ran sound for Jim’s first ever attempt at public speaking for an evangelism series. I’d just written all about it (in more detail than here), and wanted to see if Michael remembered things the same way (it’s one chapter in a larger project). “You should self publish,” Michael encouraged –always an encourager! “I’d read it!” he said. Besides being an encourager, Michael had good ideas, a bold risk taker spirit, and an eye always looking to help others.
Michael and Shelley visited us in our first pastoral post in 2002 and they cheered us again so much when they came to our 25th Anniversary gathering last August 2021. When Michael hung a hammock in the yard and Shelley stretched out to read a book on my couch it was a little glimpse of heaven for me. Friends comfortable enough to make themselves at home. Friends loyal enough to always be dependable. Friends whimsical enough to come on short notice. Friends bold enough, for the sake of Christ, to be influencers that changed the course of our lives.
“But who knows,” Michael said, while we sat out on the lawn visiting last August 2021. He tugged on his shirt a little and blinked his eyes twice, a Michaelism habit, “Maybe I’ll die of coronavirus in the next few months,” He shrugged. I had no idea how prophetic those words were. Yet those words, were spoken in a larger conversation about the importance of resting our full trust on Christ, come what may. In these confusing times, Christ is our constant! That was the conclusion of our small group, sitting around chatting on the lawn that Sabbath afternoon, in what was to become one of the last conversations we had with our dear friend Michael. And again, it has initiated a change in the course of my life –we have today to live for Jesus, today to trust Him, today to love others, and today to make up our minds to be ready to meet Christ when He comes! I think that was what Michael did everyday of his life, lived ready! Because he quite obviously believed in Jesus and extended God's grace to everyone around him.
Shelley, we love you! We pray for you and the precious children, and Michael’s sweet mother Linda. We look forward with you to resurrection morning at Jesus’ soon return.
--Blessings, Melissa Martin
