At the then Berean Baptist Church here in Penrith, I was assisting in various ways including Sunday School. During this period the aforementioned Pastor Gilbert. and his wife returned to the USA on Furlough. We were short on transport for the Sunday School kids and Pastor Gilbert. had bought this ancient VW Kombi Van. I learned later, and too late he had intended only using it to transport his own furniture and other stuff in. One Sunday after they had gone back to the States, I used his old Kombi to pick up some boys for Sunday School.
 
There was a main street running straight down the hill across the highway from where our, now Church building is located. In those days we met in a Hall right in the City of Penrith. I had dropped off the boys at their homes after Sunday School and I was driving the Van down Maxwell Street, empty. Back in those days, there was virtually NOTHING in Maxwell Street. Just ONE LONELY STOP SIGN. For some stupid reason, it was facing the traffic in Maxwell Street, a long straight, major road. Evan St was coming in at a T intersection. Unfortunately, I missed the Stop sign and hit a vehicle coming in from Evan Street. I got out, and spoke to the lady and said it would be ok,  and the insurance would cover her damages, and I gave her my details as required by law. Shock horror; I get a phone call from her insurer to inform me the Kombi Van had NO insurance. I would have been more than happy to pay the "Excess" of about $AUD120 if the vehicle was insured. But, I had to get a loan to pay the $AUD550 damage to the lady's car.
 
At the time I was still a Bible College Student on very low casual wages. I was relieved to be DEBT FREE when I entered Bible College, and I think getting the loan was the catalyst that led to further debt and so on, this incident having been a long time before matters you read elsewhere in this book. To cut a long story short, an eventual meeting of the church members agreed to pay half of my cost - a long time after the incident, I have to add. And only after cutting off a sort of gratuity they paid me each month, seeing I was driving out to the church to help, twice a week. I had been prepared to pay off the loan myself as long as I was getting some help from the church, but when it stopped, was the time I felt I had to say something about the uninsured vehicle accident cost. I was most grateful that our current Pastor actually put things right 12 years later and had the church repay me the remaining $AUD250. It was not my fault the vehicle I had driven on the church's behalf was uninsured. This had caused real bitterness in my own heart against the former pastor, but I eventually forgave him.
 
I had an occasion, one time, to be practicing a song with a "Pastor" and, not his own wife but another "Pastor's" wife. The "Pastor" had been in the Bible College when I was, he graduated, I didn't. I turned around to speak to him about the song I said...
"Patrick you remember this song?...." The other Pastor's wife begins to upbraid me with...
"PASTOR!" She was chiding me for addressing the guy by his first name. Although we were in a School environment, at the time - there was no-one else around and this woman, I believe was  "usurping authority" I thought, hehe, over me. It really got to me, and I left the room, visibly upset. "Pastor Patrick" came down the stairs to me, outside and literally crying (remember, at that time, I still had untreated hormone problems) and instead of trying to comfort me; he insisted that the woman was right in correcting me and that I should defer, (or "kowtow" if you like), to his "Authority!" In talking about this "authority usurper"...
 
I still remember the story someone told me about the time a new Mum came into the church and offered her "A *NURSE!" of her baby. OK, Amurrikuns calm down! Remember this is in Australia. It seems no matter how long American Missionaries are in my country, they still don't get completely familiar with our differences in English terminology.
 
I guess I should not proceed to talk about this "Pastor's" yet another one not the one I referred to earlier - unfaithfulness to his wife and disqualification from the ministry. This woman I speak of above, (you know the one who wanted to push the "authority button") for many years would "sing" oh me! It would appear Pastor's wives take it upon themselves to sing - ie "he-do-de-preachin' she-be-de-singer and organist," or whatever. This one could never really hold a note, properly. Also, a difficult one to work with, as her accompanist, as I was a number of times, and I was a lot more gracious in "them" days and put up with a lot more.
 
We have this awful tendency to put up with "Joyful Noises" in churches that are supposed to be honouring to God. Another thing is - soloists forever choosing a piece to sing that is way out of their range. I know my more recent pastor who was for many years a wonderful Welsh singer, today misses my accompaniment. I was fortunate, as I mentioned way back, to have "perfect pitch" and I also played by ear. This enabled me to play at a pitch most suitable for the voice of the soloist I was accompanying on Piano or organ.
 
One fabulous story I must not deny my readers was a wedding I played for at our church more than 20 years ago. We, recently, were just watching a movie and I was reminded of this. I had been playing the pre-wedding music for nearly an hour and the Bride had still not arrived. Then someone came in and announced:
"The Bride will be late due to a car accident en route to the service holding her up." Up till that time, the mood in the church had become pretty sombre as people were worried about what was going on. ...
 
Straight after the announcement, I launched into that great song from "My Fair Lady"..."Get Me To the Church On Time" and it broke the ice!  People started laughing, then everyone just got talking again. Every time I see that couple, (even though they have not been at our church, for a long time, now) we all remember that day.