John Grant's Later Journey

Ted's Eulogy for Dad

Ted Rubesh might as well be John and Ruth's third son. They gave him that moniker. He is a dear friend. I asked him to give the eulogy at the memorial service. Below is a copy of what he read.

EULOGY FOR A FRIEND

John Grant – April 25, 2009 – Ted Rubesh

 

It is a great and solemn privilege to be asked to give a eulogy in honor my friend John Grant this afternoon.  It’s been said that “great things come in small packages”.  John was a strapping 6’4”, and for most of his adult life weighed 240 lbs.  Looking back on his life this afternoon, it’s apparent that “great things” also come in big packages.  John was a big man.  A big man in many ways.  He gave big hugs.  He had a big voice.  He had a big heart.  He had a big God.

 

Of course he didn’t start out big.  John came into this world, like everyone of us, a helpless little baby.   A British baby at that!  Born in Aldershot, England in 1923 to Neville and Faith Grant, John grew up in the East end of London in County Essex, doing what British kids did in those days … learning the Queen’s English, drinking tea and playing that most mysterious British pastime … cricket.  He became a life-long fan.

 

In 1938 at the age of 15, John found himself in a little Baptist church one evening.  As the Gospel was explained, he felt the conviction of God’s spirit on his heart, and gave his life to Christ.   It was a relationship that he was to take with him … and treasure … to his final day.

 

When the Second World War broke out, John eventually joined the Royal Air Force, loading bombs onto planes that were flying runs over Germany.  It was at this time … he was discovered … in the barracks shower … singing at the top of his voice.  Big John’s “big voice” so impressed the rest of his dripping audience, he entered a talent show for local troops … and won!  It wasn’t long before John’s voice was drafted into the RAF entertainment corps, and he was shipped out to India to sing for the entertainment of Britain’s troops overseas.    John never forgot the subcontinent of India … and in years to come, he was to travel … and sing there again, several times.

 

John came home from the war, his voice intact … and plunged into a world of traveling shows and musicals.  Stardom … he was sure …was what the future had for him.  But God had different plans in mind.  In 1950, challenged to use his voice for God’s kingdom, John dedicated the rest of his life … and his voice … to the Lord’s service.  When asked why he’d given up a promising career in show business, he simply said, “God gave me my voice. I need to give it back to him”.

 

In time John met a vivacious American radio producer named Ruth.  They fell in love, were married in 1952 and eventually gave birth to their two sons, Timothy and Steve.   Based in England, John and Ruth ministered with a well known British evangelist named Eric Hutchins, traveling with him to South Africa, Europe, North America and the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.  John became to the Hutchin’s crusade, what George Beverly Shey was to the Billy Graham crusade.  Singer … song leader, choir director.   God was getting plenty of mileage out of that big voice.

 

In 1969, the Grants left England and came to the United States.  They eventually set up home in Portland, living on the slopes of Mt. Tabor.  John now ministered independently as a traveling singing evangelist.  Traveling extensively throughout the Northwest and beyond, churches far and wide were blessed, the Gospel was preached, numbers gave their life to Christ … and John sang … and sang. 

 

And in the process, the big Briton, with the big voice, and a big heart for the lost …became our friend.  To some of us, he became more than a friend.  He became family.   I come from a missionary family with many years of service on the island of Sri Lanka.  In 1971, when my parents returned to the island for a further term of service, my younger brother Eugene needed to complete his High School education here in Portland.  The Grant home became his home.  When my oldest brother was ordained into the ministry and sent to the mission field, it was John who preached at his ordination service.  When I followed my brother’s footsteps some years later, it was John who preached at my ordination service.   When my mother lost her battle with cancer in 1979, it was John who sang at her funeral.  When I lost my own father to a tragic car accident in 1985, it was John who in a very real way, became a father to me.   As a single missionary at the time, whenever I returned from my work overseas, the Grant home was my home.  John often fondly called me his “third son”, and it was a description I took great honor in.  When issues of courtship and marriage came up, it was to John that I turned for fatherly advice.  Some of my sweetest memories of him are the slow lazy morning’s we shared in the Grant “coffee nook”, talking theology, putting the world to rights … and praying together.

 

In John’s later years, he had the joy of traveling several times back to India … and to Sri Lanka … preaching, encouraging, counseling … and as always, singing of the Lord he loved so much.  The words describing Barnabas in Acts 11:24, so aptly describe the John Grant we all knew and loved … “For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.”   I know that there are many many people who will stand before the Lord because of John’s testimony and faithful preaching of the Gospel.

 

It wasn’t that the road was always easy.  His beloved Ruth suffered with severe altzheimer’s in her declining years.  John nursed her, cared for her, and loved her to the end.  John’s relationships with his two sons also went through many deep and troubled waters.  But this I know.  He loved both of his boys with all his heart, and he prayed for them daily. 

 

The day before John passed away, I received a note from Steve that his father was in intensive care at OHSU, and was coming to the end of his journey.   I decided to spend the night with John in his hospital room and to keep watch over this old man who had been such a father to me.  Through the night John struggled between life and death.  His mind was foggy, and his speech was garbled.  But as I held his big hand, I knew this was a man who loved God and had run his race well.  At one point I began singing softly to him … some of the old hymns that I knew he had sung and loved.

 

·         Great Is Thy Faithfulness

·         All the way my Saviour leads me, what have I to ask beside;  Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide.

·         Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here.

·         My Jesus I Love Thee, I know thou art mine

·         Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him; how I’ve proved him o’er and o’er.

 

Instant recognition!!  His face broke into a smile, and I could see him mouthing the words along with me.  John was still singing!   And though you could scarcely hear a word he sang, I know the angels were listening.  It was his last concert and I know they loved it.  And I know his voice was beautiful.    

 

The next night, April 8, at home with his son Steve and his family, John was released from his struggles … and ushered into the presence of the God he loved and served so long.  “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.  Enter ye into the joy of the Lord”.  What a party they must have had in heaven … welcoming the Big Briton home! 

 

John, I don’t know if you can hear this … but if you can, we want you to know that we love you, we miss you and we’re deeply grateful for your life.  And as a mark of the esteem in which we hold you, we rise to our feet and honor you now with this minute of silence …

 

ONE MINUTE SILENCE

Memorials and Ashes in England

On May 13, Michelle and I will fly to England to return a portion of Dad's ashes home. We are arranging three Memorial gatherings. Details about those gatherings are still emerging. The first gathering will be in Eastbourne on Friday 15 May in the evening. We will bring over the slide show remembrance of Dad and have some time of sharing together.

The second gathering is just for the family on 16 May. And the third gathering will be held at 4 PM at Chadwell Heath Baptist Church in Romford, Essex on Sunday 17 May. It will follow a similar format to the gathering in Eastbourne.

I hope I will get to connect with lots of people at these gatherings in an informal way so that people have the ability to remember and rejoice.

The Memorial Service

We wanted to have a pod cast of the service to post. Unfortunately we don't as the church's digital recorder was out of space. What I will post below are the manuscripts that people shared. I am still in the process of gathering them together. As I get them together, I will post them. Today I will post what Thomas and Maggie shared, and the manuscript of my talk. I rarely speak from manuscripts and this was no different. But at least you will get the feel of what I had to say...

Thomas shared:

Thank you Mr. McMurry for helping me put this together. You are a great teacher.*

What will my legacy be?

Grandpa always bugged me about hanging up my coat rather than simply stuffing it in a pile of other coats. It really wasn’t about hanging up my jacket. It was about integrity -- doing the right thing. I need to hang up my jacket more than I do, even today.

What will my legacy be?

Grandpa would ask me about school. He’d ask me the same question over and over again. Of course I answered him each time without complaint. Finally, he understood. I could have run off frustrated, but that’s not what Grandpa taught me. I learned patience

What will my legacy be?

After a particularly heated argument with my step brother, Grandpa called me in and said, “instead of focusing on what you are arguing over, look for more reasons to love him.” I learned humility.

What will my legacy be?

The best soccer players play with both feet. Papa used to tell me to play with my left foot more. “You should spend time working on the things you’re not good at rather than taking the easy way out.” Papa was teaching me perseverance.

Grandpa accomplished great things in his life. He must have used perseverance. He practiced patience all the time. He lived with integrity. He was humble. He was thankful.

These are Grandpa’s legacies to me.

What will mine be?

*Chris McMurry is Thomas' teacher. He Thomas' favourite teacher of all time, and graciously agreed to help Thomas put his thoughts together so Thomas had something to read at the service.

Maggie shared:

Though this is hard for me it isn’t as hard as it was when Gramgee died. I was really much closer to Gramgee. Papa and I weren’t very close but understood and loved each other. Things got tough after Gramgee died and Papa had a rough time. I used to love Papa and Gramgee laughing together. It used to happen a lot.

He used to tell stories and I loved to listen to them. He also liked pecans. Just like me. And I loved music just like Papa.

Papa died while I was at Outdoor school. I was so looking forward to coming home and going to the hospital to tell him about all the things I did there. I never got the chance. Mom and Dad picked me up from the bus when I got back and we went out to eat. When I asked about how Papa was doing, Dad put me off at first and then later after we’d finished eating told me that Papa had died. My heart totally sank cause I was so looking forward to telling him about all the stuff that happened at Outdoor school. I was really worried that something bad would happen while I was away. And when it did, I kind of felt a little guilty. But I was glad that Mom and Dad let me finish out the week.

I shared:

This is a far different sermon than the one I talked to Dad about, the one that I rehearsed 100’s of times in my head, getting ready for today. Hopefully I’ll say many of the same things just from a different place.

The goal is the same: Dad revealed the Triune God to me by reflecting God’s image. I know he did for many of you too. Everywhere he went Dad revealed God to his world. My goal today is simple, to talk about a couple of the ways Dad reflected God to me. I hope that later, when we get downstairs to the reception I will get to hear stories of how Dad reflected God to you.

The opening words of Scripture are pretty revealing… “In the beginning God.” I think that is probably the hardest part of losing Dad. He always was. I’ve never known this world without him. He was a constant that I knew was there. Now he isn’t anymore. He’s gone and for the first time I have to wander this world without him.

Many of my friends remind me though that because of that first line of Scripture. I don’t really have to be alone. Later we read, “I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and end.” My Dad did have an end, My God doesn’t. He is always there.

The fact that God is, is a comfort. But he could be an ogre and the knowledge that he is would still be a comfort in a twisted sort of way. But he is so much better than that.

In the last few years of Dad’s life, occasionally people would say pretty nasty things about me to him. Many of them are undoubtedly were true, but Dad tended to not even listen to the comments. It was if he would put his fingers in his ears and go “Na… na… na…” He literally drove people bats by doing this. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know the truth already. Most of the things he heard from others he heard from me first. But it was as if he didn’t care. He didn’t want to think of me that way. In so doing he was just like God.

When people ask me about my faith journey these past years, I tell them, “I still believe the same stuff. I just don’t trust my ability to understand most of it anymore.” There are a couple of things I do know, however. I worship a triune God. He is Father, Son and Spirit. He is the perfect relationship. In fact, he defines relationship.

John says quite simply, “God is love”. He doesn’t say that he became love after he created something to love. He is love because that is his nature. When you look at the regulations in Scripture – the rules – they are all about relationship. The big ten all have to do with relationship either with God: the first four, or our relationships horizontally – the last six. “Sin” is only sin because it violates a relationship – because it violates the very nature of God.

When we decided in the garden so long ago that we weren’t going to trust God’s way and put ourselves in the center of it all we added something to the perfect relationship equation that hadn’t been there before. For there to be restored relationship the “part of God” that we had wronged had to die. That is the nature of forgiveness.

Dad showed that to me. All the hopes and dreams that he had tied up died back in 2001 when I threw them away. Most parents want for their kids to be better than them. Dad did too, just in a different way. I betrayed all of his hopes and dreams. People don’t realize that next to Tracy the person I betrayed more than any other was Dad.

He killed a part of himself in order to continue to love me. Dad forgave. In these last seven years, Dad and I grew closer together than we did before it all blew apart. While lots of people talked trash, Dad threw his arms around me, protected me and loved me.

The question for us, is do we love that way? Do we forgive that we? Do we mirror God to the world the way that Dad did for me?

One last thing… Dad always pointed me toward hope. There is one constant we face on this journey we walk. That constant is change. How things are today aren’t how they will be tomorrow. No matter how black your day is today, tomorrow is right around the corner.

So I have a suggestion. It is only that… a suggestion. Try living the rest of the day as if, “God is there:” he is all powerful and in control. But more than that -- he really digs you. He thinks you are groovy and funkadeliscious. Just try living as if it were true the rest of the day.

All those voices inside your head telling you how bad you are; reminding you of how bad you are – of the stupid thing you did which is going to cost you; of the angry explosion you had toward your kids trying to get them here on time. They are being whispered to God too. And you just know that He is going to nuke you right?

No… just like Dad, he plugs his ears and goes, “Na, na, na.”

He literally drives Satan bats with that. So instead of focusing on trying to get God to believe all the crap, the voices whisper in our heads getting us to believe them. But really what we believe about ourselves is none of our business. What matters is what God believes about us.

The question is who are you going to surrender to today, the voices in your head and your heart, or the forgiving arms of an all powerful all loving God?

Dad, to this loving, all powerful God, I commit you. And I will see you someday soon. I love you, old man. Thanks for revealing God to me so I can live.

I am tryig to get my hands on the eulogy that Ted read and the remembrance from Tom Baker. When I get them I will post them.

I Finally Got Him to Ride My Bike with Me

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. Shell and I climbed on our bikes and headed for the coast late in the morning. We took it slow, stopping a couple of times along the way.
It truly was a great trip.

I didn't know what to expect when we got to Ecola. Would the knoll where we spread Mum's ashes even still be there? It was.

We sat and talked. I cried, not from despair, but simply cause I miss the old Coot. I wondered out loud if this would be a spot I would come back to in order to talk with him and run things by him, or would it be a place I tried not to return to in order to avoid the pain?

Michelle asked if I thought that our spirit was somehow connected to our physical body. I responded, "I don't think so. Dad didn't care what happened to his remains. I brought them here for me, more than for him. That is why I want to take some of his ashes back to England too. It is for me not him. It is for me. Besides I want to make it interesting for God when it comes time for the bodily resurrection."

Shell asked why we chose this spot. "Was it a favorite of your Mom's?"

"No," I answered. "We chose it for us. Mum wanted to be dumped at sea but she was also a cheapskate and taking her here allowed us to remember her love of the sea and honour her cheapskatedness. I'm bringing Dad here so I can remember them together. It is a beautiful spot to remember."

And so Ecola will forever be, a beautiful spot to remember.

Dust to Dust

Today Michelle and I will climb on our bikes, ride to Ecola State Park and pour out Dad's ashes where Timothy and I poured out Mum's. Below are a couple of pics of where we will go.

Some of Dad's ashes are going to Timothy, and some are going back home to England when we travel there in May. I will post once all the ashes are given back to this Earth.

He Gave it All Back -- A Eulogy for John Grant

For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.   --Acts 11:24 NASU

It was the roaring 20’s. All was hope and optimism. The War to End all Wars had ended and evil had been vanquished.  A few brave men had seen the entire horrible event. Germany’s Kaiser derided them as “That contemptible little army”-- they had been the first of the King of England’s troops to ship out to meet the on rushing German horde and stayed until the job was done. Neville William Grant was one of those “Old Contemptibles” and he came home, found a woman to love and started a family.

A Link to Revival Who Post an Early Clip of Dad Singing

Revival, the organization where Dad really got his start have posted a clip that shows Dad singing at an early revival meeting. You can find it here.

An Obituary

On April 8, 2009 John Neville Grant who once sang at the Prince Royal Albert Hall without amplification and whose voice was heard world-wide via radio and performance was called to a command performance before His King in the Heavenly City.

The 86 year old singer / evangelist was born in Aldershot England to Neville William Grant, a Veteran of the Great War, and his loving wife, Faith Luisa. The family moved to Romford where he began his schooling and became a huge West Ham and County Essex Cricket fan.

A bomb fitter during the opening years of World War 2, John was discovered while singing in the barracks shower and he was recruited into the traveling show, Stepping Out to entertain the troops across the Indian subcontinent from 1944-1945.

Upon his return to England he joined the traveling Show of Annie Get Your Gun. Only a few month's later, his star quickly rising, he stunned the show business world by turning and walking away from his career to become a full-time gospel singer, stating, “God gave me my voice. I need to give it back to Him.”

A career that spanned over 50 years ensued. Beginning with the Hour of Revival in 1952 with his wife, Ruth beside him as a radio producer, he traveled around the world proclaiming the great news that we didn’t have to live as powerless victims of our own weaknesses or of our world’s carelessness or evil intentions. He proclaimed in word and song that Jesus Christ came to seek, save, and forgive all who would let Him.

In 1969 the evangelist, groomed to become the new head of the Hour of Revival walked away from the opportunity, moving his family to the United States where he was virtually unknown. Traveling mostly to small churches for evangelistic meetings around North America, he never asked for any money or made any demands on the churches he visited, choosing rather to live completely by faith.

In 1982, after his children had both left home, John and Ruth began to travel the world once again. He made eleven trips to the Indian subcontinent in subsequent years to proclaim the good news about a man named Jesus.

Continually growing in his faith and knowledge of his Lord and Saviour, John refused to follow the well worn paths of the church which seemed to focus its attention on dogma and doctrine. Instead, he insisted on Jesus remaining at the centre of all and relationship with Jesus being more important than perfect theology. At least one member of his Baptist ordination council walked out when all John presented as his doctrinal statement was the Apostle’s Creed. It was this focus on Jesus rather than dogma that always set him apart.

Until late in 2008 when he physically was unable to continue, John continued to preach regularly at Pacific Gardens Care Center – the facility that cared for Ruth at the end of her life. In addition he would still occasionally go to churches that invited him to sing and preach.  

John is survived by his two sons, Timothy and Stephen and their five children: Travis, William, Margaret, Kellan, and Thomas. He will be sorely missed. Services are planned to be held at Montavilla Baptist Church, 9204 SE Hawthorne Boulevard 97216 on April 25, 2009 at 2:00 o’clock PM.

A Place to Find Solace

The obituary is written and I am just waiting for a final edit before I post it here -- either later today or tomorrow.

Today I went to a site that was recommended to me. I found solace there, so I offer it here to you here.

Sometime Between 1:45 and 3:45 Dad Passed

It is my sadly joyous honour to post that John Nevile Grant passed on to sing in the eternal choir sometime while I slept next to him between 1:45 AM and 3:45 AM this morning April 8, 2009.

His eulogy and memorial information are to follow soon here...

Thanks for following along this journey...

He was God's gift to us...
At Chadwell Heath, where Jesus came to introduce himself for the first time...