Thanks For Serving

On this Memorial Day I would like to share something my father wrote from a hospital bed in Northern Africa.  William La Barge was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea during WWII.  He wrote the following on American Red Cross stationary and his story was later cleaned up a little and published in The Catholic Digest.

                                                               THANKS, GOD!

It was just a routine "recco" over enemy territory looking for possible targets for the day.  There were four of us and we were Black flight.  I was in number four position.  These are my thoughts as they occurred to me.

Got in formation pretty fast this time, kind of misty out.  Gosh, but these first thirty minutes are boring.  Nice time to fly though, the air's always smooth this early in the morning. Hope it's clear over the coast and we can spot something - - would like to be busy today.  Hope we don't have any trouble on this flight though - oh well, we probably won't, never have yet.

There's the coast - there's that funny feeling in my stomach too.  Keep looking around now.  Can't be surprised, that's when it's bad, when you don't see them.  If you see them they'll never hurt you.  Well God, please get me through this once more.  Turning up the coast now, keep watching.  Fairly clear over here.  Let the leader spot the shipping.  I'll just keep looking behind.  They are bound to jump us one of these days.  Have to be ready for them.  Wouldn't mind if we see them first - shoot hell out of'em.  Keep looking, keep that head on a pivot.  Bet my neck has grown three sizes since I came overseas.

Sure is beautiful country here.  Hope I can take my wife and visit all these places someday after the war is over.  Damn it, quit daydreaming and keep looking or you'll never visit anyplace.  OK, OK, FLACK!  We always get it here.  Damn, but they're getting accurate - heavy stuff too.  Holy Mackerel, they're busting in front of us!  That's bad, better get the hell out of here quick.  Let's get violent on this evasive action - change direction - change altitude - that's better - bursting behind now - damn, but that stuff shakes hell out of me!

"Black flight from black leader, C'mon, let's get back in formation now."  Damn, but that guy's cool.  After hearing him talk you wonder what in the hell you were scared of anyway.  Sure like to fly with him - gives you a lot of confidence.  Keep looking around now.  Doesn't seem to be much stuff down there today.  Sun's up now.  That's where they'll come from if they come.  I'll be glad when this is over.  Pretty easy flight so far anyway - all instruments normal.  Guess none of that stuff hit me - was too damn close though.  Those boys are getting mighty accurate.  Keep looking now, don't relax - that's when they'll get you.

"Black flight - Ninety right."  Starting home now, not safe yet for awhile, but I always feel better when we are heading home.  Keep looking - now is when they'll come.  Wish I had a few more sets of eyes - would sure save my neck a lot of work.  Have to watch like hell for another fifteen minutes yet.  Be glad to get home.  Be damn glad when we can see the airdrome again.  Most beautiful sight in the world - your home field.  Keep looking now, don't relax yet.

"Black leader from Black three, slow down a bit, my engines running pretty rough."  "Black three from Black leader, OK.  Are you all right?"  "I'm OK Monty.  My engine is running pretty rough though.  I think I can make it all right."  Wonder what's the matter with Tommy's crate.  Hope the flack didn't get him   Seems to be making out all right though.  Keep looking, getting closer to home now.  All right to relax a little now, not too much though. Never safe till you're on the ground.  "Black three from Black leader, are you OK?"  "She's getting pretty rough Black leader, but I think I'll make it OK."  Hope he does, I'd sure hate to have to bail out in that water - looks mighty cold.  There's the field, guess he'll make it OK now.

He's picking up speed, guess I'd better clear out my engine too.  HOLY MACKERAL!  This thing's shaking apart.  "Black leader from Black four, my engines very rough, the whole damn ship is shaking apart."  My glycols normal, oil temperature's OK.  Oh, Oh, there it is, the oil pressure has dropped to zero.  "The oil pressure has dropped out Monty.  I'm bailing out."  Slow her down now and gain some altitude.  I'm pretty damn low.

"Black four from Black leader, try throttling back.  I think you can make it."  Hell, I can't make it, the prop is barely moving.  "Can't do it Monty, the engine has just about stopped and I have no oil pressure."  Get that safety harness off now - Get the door open - All ready.  Good Lord!  Only four hundred feet!  Can't crash land in the water though - not in this job.  Roll the stabilizer back, stand on the seat.  The last guy that bailed out this low didn't make it.  Hand on the rip cord - barely clear the ship and pull it - no time to count - dive over the trailing edge of the wing.  That water looks close enough to touch.  Here goes nothing.  Do your stuff God, please.  That's the only way this'll open in time.  SNAP!  Damn, that opened quick.  MY GOD, I must have fouled the ship.  No, I didn't, there goes the ship in.  Holy Mackerel, I'm barely above the water myself.  No time to get my chute off damn it.  I'll never get my dinghy out now.  Here I go into the water - not as cold as I thought it would be.  There's the plane circling - hope the rescue launch gets here in a hurry.

Better get out of this chute in a hurry now.  Hell, I can't get it unfastened.  Get the legs first - don't panic.  Damn, things won't come loose.  Better unfasten the chest and get this Mae West inflated.  There, that's undone.  Well, I'll be damned, it won't inflate.  Don't panic now, keep your head.  Better get the rest of the chute off.  Ah, there's the left leg.  Damn it, I can't get the right leg strap undone.  Chutes starting to sink.  Barely keep my head above the water.  Don't panic now - guess I'll have to get my knife and cut my way free.  Got the knife out.  Will have to go under water and do the cutting.  Take a big breath.  Just a little more now - there she goes.  Sure glad I carried that knife - glad I sharpened it the other day too.  Knife, you are beautiful!

Guess I'd better swim down and try and free that dinghy.  I'm going to need it.  Damn it, I can't get it loose - out of breath - don't give up - have to go up for air - getting tired - swallowing too much water - out of breath - don't give up - the boat should get here soon - water is getting pretty cold - I'm getting damn cold - can't get my breath - relax - try and float - don't panic.

This can't happen to me.  I can't drown, got too much to live for.  I'm Bill La Barge.  This kind of thing happens to other people but not to me.  Wonder what's taking that damn boat so long?  Hell, I can't drown, I'm married, gotta wonderful wife - gotta get home to her - can't drown.

Thanks for opening that chute in time for me God, but for the love of mike get that damn boat out here - can't last much longer.  The only reason I was on this flight was so I could get to church today God, so let's get that boat out here.  Sorry God, don't mean to be issuing ultimatums - sorry for all the wrong things I've done in my life too, God.  Guess there's been plenty of'em.  I don't want to die though God.  Please get that boat out here.

Hey, what's that!  It's the boat.  Damn it, they don't see me.  Hey, here I am over here.  They see me, they see me!  Take it easy, here they come.  They're throwing ropes.  Hell, I can't reach them - too weak.  Damn it, why don't they do something, why don't they get me out of here?  There's a pole - they've got hold of me now.  I'm safe.  I'm on board.  OK to pass out now.  THANKS, GOD.  THANKS A LOT!

Note:  My dad said it was not until the boat returned to shore that they were able to finally pry his fingers off the rescue pole.

So You Think My Job Is Easy?

At least a dozen times I've been out on a road test with a young man, always between ages 18 and 24, who look over at me calmly titching off little marks with my yellow number 2 pencil upon the score sheet nestled comfortably upon my lap, when they ask this question.  "How do I get a job like yours?"

Agreed, it may be 92 and the A/C doesn't work . . . but it's not a ten hour factory shift with no A/C either.  What those bright young minds don't know is that:

(A)  The powers that be in the Driver Training and Testing division for the State of Michigan don't like to work too hard either and because of Federal regulations controlling interstate commerce all examiners have to periodically be observed clandestinely.  Or to put it more simply, it is in the State's interest to reduce the number of examiners.  Over the past 4 years a total of 12 new people have been certified in the entire State, hardly replacing those that have retired or been decertified because of those observations.  Dream on boys.

(B)  In the test prior to theirs I could have had an inexperienced driver run through a red light, entered the freeway at 35 mph without looking into traffic going 70 to 75 mph, or tried to turn left at a red light.  As two different Saudi men have asked me in the last week;  "You mean you can't turn left when the light is red?"  Not in this country.

I do get my down time.  A right turn signal and brake light was not working on the car of one of my clients today.  I give Chantel and her mother 20 minutes to get it fixed and send them across the street to a tire shop where some people have been lucky enough to get some quick help in time for us to still do the test.

I say some because the place did not have the correct bulb for the last two I sent their way.  One of those guys, who was yelling at his wife and she back when they first pulled up, thought it somehow was my fault for his blinker not working and "being a veteran who just wants to get this thing done today" offered to settle things with fist-a-cuffs. 

So I'm sitting in the shade waiting for Chantel and a truck moves allowing me to see across both the parking lot and street to where her little black Pontiac Sunfire is parked.  A young guy is knelling behind the car trying to undo the red plastic light case.  He is working on the left side but not on non functioning right side.

Six times he heads back to the shop to get what I'm guessing is the correct size screwdriver, then knells again behind the left side, never able to remove the cover.  Finally he opens the front car door, turns on the left blinker, walks back and sees that it is working,  goes back to the front, turns on the right blinker, heads back again and looks at the right rear light, which stays dark.  Satisfied, he saunters into the open overhead door and a minute later the two women get into their little Sunfire and drive back over to where I am.

"Were they able to fix your turn signal and brake light?" I ask.  "Yes" is their reply.  "Please do your right signal.  Please step on the brake."  The right signal and brake light remain dark.  When I tell them that nothing has changed they smile, told me the man said he put a new bulb in, then drive off unconcerned.  Did they think I wasn't going to check a second time?

Just then a large extended cab pickup truck, back box filled with a lot of junk, pulls up.  Driving is the dad of a kid that failed the driving portion of his test earlier in the day.  His son and two other guys are also in the truck.

His boy's name is Jody with the last name of Town and when our secretary phoned me earlier to inform me of the appointment she said the person's name was Georgetown.  I didn't know if Georgetown was the person's first name or last name or two names, but Chelsea said they phoned from a pickup truck and everyone in the truck was talking at the same time so it was a little hard to hear.

So this rough looking, unshaven guy, barks out; "Tell me why you failed my boy!"   "He tried to turn right when the light was red without slowing down and there were cars moving through the intersection.  I had to tell him to stop and also used the brake on my side of our rental car to keep us from a collision."

"He's just a young boy (18 and still a junior in high school).  Young kids make mistakes.  You should think about that."  I just looked at him sternly because this was not a logic situation.  Logic says that I'm partly responsible if he passes after doing that and one of those mistakes kill someone.  The dad got to let off his steam and drove off.

Now you might think those things rate my job a little tougher but an even worse thing happened today.  Just turned 16 year old Aaron and his mother came in a Saturn Vue.  We are out driving the curve on Roger B. Chaffee and I remark that a car just like theirs didn't make the curve last week and drove straight into the building ahead.  "That's terrible" the mother says.  I respond, "Oh, not so bad.  The man living there said he always wanted a room with a Vue."

Dead silence from both mother and son.  Now that's tough.    

The Gift Of Prophecy

"Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Forty days after Jesus rose from the dead and just 10 days before the Feast of Pentecost Jesus appears to His disciples. He commands them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised;

“John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. . . . You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses.” (Acts 1, 5-8).

Jesus is then lifted up into the clouds before their eyes, the apostles and more than 100 others do as Jesus instructs, and 10 days later on the Feast of Pentecost they are all filled with the Holy Spirit as promised. The infant Church, the living Body of Christ, has now begun.

Before the verse above in 1 Corinthians Paul makes the following argument concerning spiritual gifts:

At one time the Corinthians were pagans, and as pagans they were led to worship and follow after idols. The idols were inanimate objects with no life in them. Now they are believers in a living God, and more than that, they have dwelling in them the Spirit of the Living God. This Holy Spirit brings revelation that Jesus is Lord. And this Spirit works in each of them, giving gifts, ministries and effects.

The Spirit distributes these to individuals, but they are given to benefit the common good, so that the body of believers would be a healthy body. Although there are a variety of gifts and ministries and effects, and although some of these rank above the others, each one is considered by the Spirit to be important to the health of the body. Even though the Spirit has not distributed the same gifts and ministries and effects to everyone, all are encouraged to desire the greater gifts.

The greater gifts and higher ranking ministries are not given to elevate the individual. They are provided by the Spirit because God loves the individuals who make up the body, and He wants the body to be healthy. Those who operate in the greater gifts have a greater responsibility, and they need to show the same love for the body as does God. While the gifts and ministries of the Spirit are perfect, they operate through imperfect people.

Thus, although there may be times when the gifts will fail, an attitude of love will never fail. Love then is even more powerful than the greatest gifts. It is the reason the gifts were given. It enables the gifts to operate more purely, and it reflects the personality of the One who will one day make the body perfect.


This argument holds true just as much today as it did then. The Holy Spirit has the same gifts, ministries and effects available to any in the body who will ask for them. They are still given for the health of the body of believers. We are advised to "desire" the gifts, which indicates first that some are available to all, and second that seeking may be part of the process to receiving. We should especially seek after the gift of prophecy because when used in love and discernment it can be an important way for God to move in the lives of others.

Prophecy usually operates, not as a revelation about future events, although that may happen because God has a plan for every life, but as a message of encouragement that speaks to the needs or desires of a person. Sometimes the Spirit will give guidance and other times correction. Sometimes He will just let a person know that He is with them in their pain or struggles and that He loves them. 

However the prophetic word will be empty if it is not met with a response. This can be a quite "thank you" to God for an encouragement, or a conscious effort to remember and to pray through the prophetic word. Why would the Spirit give direction or an encouragement to do something if we were just to say "neat" and then forget about it? The prophetic word will usually be a confirmation as to what the Spirit has already been speaking to a person.

The Holy Spirit can speak prophetically in a variety of ways. Someone may be praying for a person, and while reading the Bible they see a passage that just seems to leap out at them. The response then is to pray with the wisdom that the Spirit has given in that scripture, or to share that passage with the person being prayed for. 

In a group setting someone may feel a leading from the Spirit to speak out a message in tongues, and someone else, not understanding the tongue, but receiving a word from the Spirit that they know matches what was just spoken in tongues, will give the interpretation. The word may come as the person opens their mouth to speak, or they may have received a sense or an outline of the message. The combination of the two is considered a prophetic message, and tongues here is a different gift than what is available to all as a private prayer language.

A prophetic word will often come without being preceded by tongues. The speaker may just have a word or a phrase to begin with or they may have a more full sense of the message. In either instance, if it is appropriate for where they are, they need to trust God and speak out what they have, sensing what the Spirit is saying as they speak. If the Spirit stops, the person should stop, not adding personal desires or theology to what the Spirit is saying.

I have seen times where one message is given by several people, one pausing and the next picking up in mid sentence. Jackie will often see a picture in her mind of the sense of what the Spirit has, and it becomes more clear to her as she speaks out. At times a person may have a vision, or perhaps a dream that comes from the Spirit.

One time before going to bed I was praying for a relative who was very sick. I woke up just after a vivid dream in which I was praying for that person, the Spirit having given me directions as to how to pray. Sensing that the dream was from God I felt the correct response was to travel to see that person and to pray as I saw in the dream. When I got to the hospital there was a group of other family members present and we laid on hands and prayed as directed. My sister-in-law's white blood cell count increased dramaticly and she was able to leave the hospital the next day.

There are other ways in which prophecy may come from the Spirit and it is important to understand that our souls can often get in the way, either in the proclaiming, or in the receiving of a prophetic word. We need to grow in maturity, having the desire to seek the gifts, the courage to begin to operate in them, and the willingness to be mentored in them by more experienced Christians. We need to grow in spiritual discernment, being able to distinguish between what comes from the Spirit from that which comes from man or from the evil one. And if all things are done in love, we should do well.

Good Morning Mother

I awake this morning as Jackie is coming back into the bedroom from the shower.

"Good morning mother" I cheerfully announce.

"I'm not your mother" Jackie grunts back.

"You're the mother of my children" I reply.

"That I am" says Jackie.

"You're the mother of my grandchildren."

Chuckling Jackie responds; "That I truly am."

"You're the mother of all my dreams!" I exclaim.

"Keep talking" says Jackie.

Finding Our Way On The Road To Pentecost

Shortly before Jesus was to head to the garden to pray and wait for son of perdition to betray Him, He spoke these words to the remaining eleven.

"Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father".

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
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If you love Me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of Truth, who the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you". (John 14: 11-17)
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Look at all the words connected with the way the Helper works. He reveals who Jesus is and the mysteries of God.  He draws men and women to encounter the Christ, and He convicts the conscience, bringing to us awareness of our sins and weaknesses.

He brings Christ's healing to the body, soul and spirit. He is the power that discerns the intent of man's heart and the presence of evil spirits, providing power as well for deliverance from evil spirits and from all things that bind us. And He gives us scripture as a sword to fight the evil one.

He creates out of nothing, moving and changing our understanding of time and space and physics in ways we call miracles.

He comforts those who are hurting. He restores both the body and the soul and builds up the individual. He unites those in the larger body of the church to honor and serve the Father for a common purpose.

He explains things to us, and directs us in the way that God desires us to go. He teaches and interprets, He exhorts and inspires, He excites and enables.
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In doing all of those things the Holy Spirit never seeks to draw attention to Himself.  Instead He always brings the focus toward Jesus, and ultimately toward the Father. The Son in obedience to the Father sent the Holy Spirit. The Spirit draws man to the Son and then brings the Spirit of Christ to man to unite with man's dead spirit, bringing about a rebirth of our spirit. The Holy Spirit then works in man to conform him to the image of the Son so that the kingdom of God may be proclaimed and established on the earth.

One day we will be with the Son in the presence of the Father. And the Son, by the power of the Spirit, will one day complete the restoration of all creation. Sin, sickness and death will be no more. And He will give this all to the Father.
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There is a word found in scripture that describes Jesus but can also be applied to the Holy Spirit, and that is "advocate". An advocate is a witness, or someone who will go to court to testify for you.
  

"If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world". (1Jn. 2: 1-2)
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"Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high". (Job 16: 19)
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When Jesus told His disciples that He would send them another Helper, the Greek word for "Helper" is "Paraclete", and it is the same word that is translated "Advocate" in 1 John. The Spirit testifies to us concerning the truth of who Jesus is, and in doing so He also gives us the power to testify to the world. And the Son gave us the Spirit not just to testify in word, but also through the "greater works".
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The Holy Spirit as described in the words above has already been given to those who belong to the body of Christ.  It already is the will of the Father that we have the Holy Spirit and that He will work in power in our lives so that we may grow in spiritual maturity, having as evidence the fruit of the Spirit.
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It is already the will of the Father that the Holy Spirit will flow through us in power to minister to others so that the "greater works" will be evident in our lives and in our ministry to others.

Salvation brings a change to our spirit and makes us a temple for the Holy Spirit.  But we also need to surrender the lordship of our souls to allow the Holy Spirit to move in power in our lives.  I liken our souls to a house with many rooms and closets.  We want to let the Lord walk through parts of our house but at the same time we keep some doors locked to Him.
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What do we accomplish when by singing or praying we ask God to send more of His Holy Spirit, or to send the Spirit in power, or to fill the place where we meet? The best way to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and to have the power of the Holy Spirit evident is to focus our prayer, our praise, and our worship on the Father. When we surrender our voice, in understanding and in the Spirit, when we cry out to God to exult and to glorify Him, when our focus is not on what we can get or what we can feel but is instead directed in surrender to the Father, we are doing what we were created to do.
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It is not an easy thing, living in a carnal world and trying to live a Spirit filled life.  The world tells us that surrendering control from the soul to the Spirit will both hurt and make us look foolish.  We would rather have works and rules that satisfy the pride of our souls and present us well in the kingdom of this world instead of humility and prayer where only God may know.  But praise God, we have been given a Helper.

A Word Of Advice For Brendan And Dugan

A ringing phone woke me from a sound sleep at 6:30 this morning.  After I say Hello a male mechanical voice begins;  "This  call  is  for  Rob  bert  LoM  barge.  If  you  would  like  to  ac  cept  a  teach  ing  po  sit  ion  to  day  please  press  one."   Because I already have tests scheduled for today I press 2 without waiting for the next prompt and hand the phone back to Jackie, who unfortunately for her is the guardian of the phone.  She mumbles something before managing to place the device back into it's charger station.

My last name happens to be LaBarge, not LomBarge, and it would be nice IF my name WERE to change that I actually had something to do with the decision.

The clan LaBarge has been in this country for over two hundred years.  Each LaBarge individual has the option of putting a space between the lower case A and the upper case B.  When handwritten it always looks like La Barge, but typed it may appear either LaBarge or La Barge.

My dad told me that one time in the 1940's a door to door genealogy salesman convinced my Grandmother LaBarge that his firm could do research and come up with a great looking LaBarge coat of arms for "only a few hundred dollars".  She was pretty excited until my Grandpa Henry came home and put the kabosh on it.  Henry told the salesman that there were some things in his ancestry that he wasn't sure he wanted other people to know about and that it would end up "costing more to shut you up than it did to get the coat of arms."   That's when I knew that Uncle Jack came by his quips naturally.

I remember one time that my Grandma LaBarge called up and said that Henry had fallen in the tub.  My dad and I rushed over, got a very shaken up Henry into his bed and my dad pulled up the covers.  Looking at his father my dad whispers: "Dad, how do you feel?"  Opening his eyes a little Henry sticks his hand up and rubs two fingers together.  "Like this."

Despite Henry's warning there has been quite a bit of genealogical research done on the family.  We can trace our ancestry back to an individual who married a Marie Poitevin in 1636 at Columby on the Theon, Calvados county, located in the Normandy region of France.  This area is on the west coast facing England and the person's name was Jacques de la Berge.  de la Berge means "on the bank of a river" and that makes sense if the name was derived from the location.  The name can also mean "on the edge of a mountain" so there is speculation that the de la Berge family may have emigrated from another region a generation or two prior.

Jacques had a son who was named Robert de la Berge.  In 1658 my name sake sailed to New France (Canada), on a three year work contract and settled at St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec.  I find that bit of information really cool because I met Jackie on the train we were both taking to that same place for a ski trip while at college.

After the three years were over Robert de la Berge decided to stay but he started to sign his name in a variety of combinations of de la Berge.  After about 10 years it consistently became LaBerge.  Our ancestry in North America flows from Robert to his son Guillaume (the French word for William) to his son Gabriel, who is credited with changing LaBerge to LaBarge.  Gabriel also had a son named Gabriel and he was the father of Joseph.  It was this Joseph Marie LaBarge in 1808 who traveled from Quebec to St. Louis using a birch bark canoe.

Joseph Marie was a scout for the US army in the war of 1812, losing two fingers and incurring a tomahawk wound to the head.  His son was the famous riverboat captain, Joseph LaBarge, whose life and career from 1815 to 1899 spanned the rise and decline of the riverboat as a prime factor in opening up the American Western Frontier.

One of Captain Joe's sons was named Henry and he was the father of my grandfather, Henry Jr.  My father's name is William (Guillaume in French), and then we make it all the back to me, Robert.  Looking forward I have one son, Benjamin and he has two sons, Brendan and Dugan.  They are the 12th generation of LaBarges in North American and hopefully they will not change their last name to LomBarge.  Besides, living "on the edge of a mountain" in Tennessee currently suits them both quite well.