Tin Can Fishing

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

I was listening to my mother tell stories one afternoon about her ancestors in central Wisconsin.  She has very fond memories of her grandfather John.  He lived for about thirty years on the family dairy farm where my mother grew up.

She shared with me how after the evening supper, grandpa John would walk to the lake to get the boat ready and dig up some worms from the barnyard.  My mother would be in the house washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen.

When she was done, she would run down to the lake and get on the boat.  They were ready to go and row out to a good spot.  They both fished with fishing line tied to wooden poles.  No modern fishing poles back then in the 40's and 50's. But grandpa mostly just used a tin can for fishing.  It was also called "Hobo fishing."

Grandpa John would put a worm on the hook for my mother, and he used a daredevil lure.  My mother has that same lure framed and on her wall. When they caught a fish, and they always caught fish, sometimes many, they wrapped the fishing line on a tin can to reel in the fish.

That's how poor country people fished back in the day.  There was no need for all of the fancy equipment that they use today.  The simple ways still work!  If you enjoyed this story consider following this blog.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Unexplained!

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

My new book is now out! The book is about my experiences with ghosts, demons and angels. Here is the link for the book on Amazon is below.

The Unexplained!

Book link

William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

Roop-Crappell Ministries

The Truck Tango

Johns' and Mary's

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

I was listening to my mother tell stories a few days ago about our family ancestors.  On her side of the family, a Polish couple with their two small children, immigrated from Poland to New York City, then traveling by train to Chicago.

The funny part of the story, but not to my mother, was the fact that this Polish couple were named John and Mary.  Their son was called John and their daughter was called Mary.  Both the father and son was called John!  Both mother and daughter were both called Mary!

I could just imagine what the immigration authorities in New York City thought of that as they were being processed into the country!  It might have given a few folks a small headache, or at least a laugh or more than a few heads scratched.  

They did have four other children born to them in Chicago, and they did have different names!  That was helpful in our genealogy research.  Some folks would read this and say, "so what."  I can respect that, but I thought it was kind of funny situation that they were in at that particular time.  I always like the little odd things in our complicated world.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

The Way Into The Holiest

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is an article that was first published in 1906 in the Azusa Street Newsletter, written by William J. Seymour, published by the Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles, California.

A sinner comes to the Lord all wrapped up in sin and darkness.  He cannot make consecration because he is dead.  The life has to be put into us before we can present any life to the Lord.  He must get justified by faith.

There is a Lamb, without spot and blemish slain before God, for him, And when he repents toward God for his sins, the Lord has mercy on him for Christ's sake, and puts eternal life in his soul, pardoning him of his sins, washing away his guilty pollutions, and he stands before God justified as if he had never sinned.

Then there remains that old original sin in him, for which he is not responsible, till he has the light.  He hears that, "Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate,"  and he comes to be sanctified.

There is Jesus, the Lamb without blemish, on the altar.  Jesus takes that soul that has eternal life in it and presents it to God for thorough purging and cleansing from all original and Adamic sin. And Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses him from all sin, and he is made every whit whole, sanctified and holy.

Now he is on the altar ready for the fire of God to fall, which is the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  It is a free gift upon the sanctified, cleansed heart.  The fire remains there continually burning in the holiness of God. 

 Why?  Because he is sanctified and holy and on the altar continually.  He stays there and the great Shekina of glory is continually burning and filling with heavenly light.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Hello Mary!

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

My mother's grandfather was named John, the same as his father.  His father, with his wife Mary, and their two children, John and his sister Mary, immigrated from Poland to The United States.  They had landed and were checked in at New York City.  They then took a train to the south side of Chicago.  They had some family there, and there was already a large Polish community already established.

John, the son, would eventually be my mother's grandfather.  He was a very strong man and would live to be ninety-seven years old.  More importantly he kept his sharp eyesight, hearing and all of his original teeth until the last day of his life!  That's very rare, even today.

In his old age he still could remember Chicago when they still had dirt streets.  For years he was a wagonmaster and helped in the paving of those streets!  He could remember everything and told all of his stories of those wild Chicago days.

John had lived to be ninety-seven, but his sister Mary died on November 1, 1918 of the swine flu.  In those years millions of people from around the world died of that horrible disease!  Mary was one of them. She died at the age of forty-three, leaving behind five children!

John, at the age of ninety-seven years died fifty-four years after his sister Mary.  John died peacefully at Wild Rose hospital, a small country hospital in Wild Rose, Wisconsin. Just minutes before his death, while surrounded by family members, John had seen his sister Mary!  Just before he died, he looked up and said with a surprised voice, "Hello Mary!"  

John had seen Mary and recognized her after all of those years.  She had come to his bedside to take John away to where she had come from, the afterlife, heaven, but somewhere!  Some people are troubled by these stories, but I never have been.  I have always found great comfort in knowing that a loved one would come to my bedside to take me away!

If you enjoyed this little story, like and subscribe to the blog to read them all.  Feel free to share your story, or leave a comment in the comment section.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

The Bible and Life

The Trucking Tango

In Jail For Jesus' Sake

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is a story written by Henry McLain for the Azusa Street newspaper in Los Angeles, California in 1906. It's his personal testimony when arrested for street preaching.

When I first went down to Whittier from Los Angeles, as soon as I got on the streetcar to go down, it seemed the power of God came on me, and all the time I was there and during the trial in the courtroom I felt the power of God.  I could hardly sit on my chair in the courtroom.  I knew it was all in the order of the Lord for me to be arrested and put in jail.  The Lord wonderfully used me.  I never had such power of God on me as when I was in that jail.

As soon as we we would come in after supper, after working on the chain gang during the day shoveling dirt, I would get my Bible and call the men into the big room and the Lord gave me their tongue, the Spanish language.  I did not have that tongue, until I went into the jail. 

 As I would talk with them, the tears would run down their faces.  There was not one of them but was weeping bitterly.  Then when I went into my little cell, after I got done preaching, two or three of them would come in and talk with me a long while.  Most of the men were from Mexico. Two or three could talk English and they could interpret English for the others.  I did not know what I was saying in tongues, except as they interpreted for me. 

 When I was preaching to them in tongues, I read the 55th chapter of Isaiah to them in the Spanish language, with my Bible in my hand, but I did not know the chapter, nor that I had read it until they told me.  I never had the Lord use me so much before as in jail.  It seemed wave after wave of power would run over me.  There was hardly a night I would sleep more than an hour or two.  The Lord was giving me messages to give them.. Bless His holy name.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

The Bird Man Of Beaverton

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

The picture below is of the "Birdman of Beaverton,"  We met him at a little United Brethren Church near Beaverton, Michigan, last summer.

My wife and I were traveling through Michigan last summer when we stayed in Beaverton for a week. Beaverton is a small town in north-central Michigan. There are a lot of Amish in this area.  While we were there, we visited different churches every week.  One week were went to a local United Brethren Church.

It was a church of modern construction.  In an area of old churches, a modern church was not just  everywhere.  The people there were very friendly!  They opened their arms to us as if we were long lost family members that had found their way home.  We really enjoyed their company.

After the service, they had food in their fellowship hall, which they eagerly extended an invitation to us. There we meet many interesting folks. On of these was the Birdman of Beaverton. He was a very nice gentleman, single, and very plain spoken.

He shared with us that he received his nickname because he raised parakeets.  He had been raising them for decades.  He also raised homing pigeons, and even competed with them.  He told us all about his little bird operation.  he was a very nice guy and was pleased to tell us all about himself and his activities.

Its always nice to visit new people in different areas of the country.  You never know whom you will meet at any given place.  The Birdman of Beaverton is just one example of an interesting person in an unique area of the country.

William James Roop, M.A.B.S.

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango