Kids, Coaches and Frosty Mornings

By Dr. Martin G Tharp PhD

Does God do miracles? Yes! When we step out in faith to answer the call of God; He always shows up and shows off. Join the author as he recounts the miraculous events that became the catalyst for over thirty years of schools ministry in Northern Ireland as he and his family answered, "Yes!" to the call of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Martin G Tharp PhD
• Release date: Aug 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370206803

Dr. Martin G Tharp PhD

Dr. Martin Tharp has been an avid student of the Bible for many years and holds a Bachelor, Master and eight Doctorates, one honorary and seven earned, including a Doctor. of Literature and two PhDs. He has been in full time ministry for over fifty-seven years and has authored forty-nine books to date, many of which are being used as curriculum in Bible colleges around the United States and abroad. He has also penned a number of gospel songs and recorded thirty-three albums as well as being actively involved in a school ministry to Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom for the past thirty-eight years, and Dr. Tharp has been honored twice by members of parliament in Ireland for their work in the Protestant and Catholic schools. He and his wife, Sharon, along with Maranda Howells, travel extensively across the USA and the whole of the British Isles holding evangelistic crusades in the churches of both countries.

Book preview

Kids,

Coaches

And

FROSTY MORNINGS!

Martin G. Tharp, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2017

Smashwords Edition, License Notes; This ebook is licensed for your own personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.. Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, King James Version. Copyright 1984, 1991 by AMG International, INC and the Living Bible Copyright 1971, 1986 by Tyndale House Publishers INC

Available from: The Tharp Family Ministries

3982 Green Forest Parkway

Smyrna, Georgia 30082

INTERNET;

www.tharpministries.com

EMAIL;

[e-mail]

Acknowledgment

On three different trips to the British Isles, I joined my good friends, the Tharp Family, as they traversed that beautiful land, sharing the Gospel of Christ with thousands of young people in school assemblies, Churches and town halls.

The message that was enthusiastically received was delivered through a mixture of music, testimony, and gospel preaching that is Vintage Tharp. I learned more about team work, commitment, sacrifice, and true Christian service during those times than during my years in Bible school.

We lived in a converted motor coach, rising at 5:30 a.m., ministering in schools all day, and then Churches in the evening, often not retiring until midnight only to start all over the next day. This was not the result of a misguided altruism, but a genuine response to the call of God.

The book you hold in your hands is the fruit of 12 years of obedience to that call and reads like a modern day Book of Acts. It’s the story of a family totally committed to sharing The Love of Jesus, with this generation in which many people have given up on. Now open up the book and join my dear friends Marty, Sharon, Tony and Kat for a reading adventure you will not forget.

Dr. Charles Travis

What A Wonderful Life We Live

The Reverend M. Tharp became a part of my life--not by invitation, but under the direction of the Holy Spirit. It was not with my agreement that the Tharp family move in across the road. It just happened. Anyway, I can remember thinking they would soon be moving on. I certainly was not advised they were to stay for a matter of weeks.

I found it easy to keep them at arm’s length initially, even though they did have an uncomfortable habit of expressing their love for me. However, being around the family soon highlighted the unreality of my own spiritual commitment. One evening I decided to ask Marty as to the difference between his Christian walk and mine? His response was used to change my life— It’s down to this, he said, You can remain a keeper in the house of the Lord, but if you want to be a ZADOK then you’ll have to pay the price, Marty Tharp is a ZADOK!

The most striking expression of the Tharp family is their total commitment to the children they seek to win for the Lord. The most humbling is the price they so willingly pay to fulfill their unique ministry. I am one of many who have openly wept as Marty Tharp, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, has won the hearts and minds of thousands of young people in the UK with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The events depicted in this book are but a token of the many trials and joys experienced over the years. Even taken at face value, they present a challenge. If however, you choose to read between the lines, a greater challenge will be experienced— the cost of serving the Lord at the highest level.

Dr. Graham Dacre

Norwich, England

Table Of Contents

Introduction

1. The beginning

2. After twenty-two years—healed

3. A blown bus engine

4. Two hard headed preachers

5. Meeting new friends

6. The tickets

7. Don and Jeanne Arnold/our Pastors

8. Getting ready to go

9. Reminiscing/it all started with Gary McSpadden

10. Ministering in Britain/the first time

11. Nothing to declare / under arrest

12. I join King David in the dance

13. M.O.T.

14. Getting down to business / our first school

15. Fire! And I ain’t joking!

16. Dead broke / stinging nettles!

17. Time to settle up

18. God spoke / buy Jackie Ritchie a car!

19. A caravan for Jackie

20. The miracle of television

21. Belfast, Northern Ireland

22. Window shot out, stoned and thugs

23. Live album at Fisherwick Place / Belfast

24. Another live concert

25. The Shortstrand

26. Serge!

27. Graham and Julie

28. Anglia Television

29. A new coach for Britain / thugs

30. Jim and Nan Flemming

31. Final inspiration / a tape for my son!

Introduction

I began writing this story in 1983, but because of our busy schedule, I stopped after the first seventeen chapters.

So many people kept requesting that I finish the book, that I began again in 1992 with chapter eighteen. There is really no end to this story, it just keeps going on! Every day we get up expecting God to do something exciting in our lives–because He always does!

Chapter One

The Beginning

For nearly seven months we had been in continuous revival, traveling from the east coast to the west coast and back again, sharing our burden for the British Isles and particularly Scotland. As the weeks went by, we purchased piece by piece, the multitude of equipment that we needed to make a credible attempt to do the impossible in England and Scotland.

With God’s help, we had already done the impossible! We had it! All the equipment we needed to present Jesus to the schools and cities of the British Isles to the best of our ability. We had a DP-50 piano for Sharon, a Roland string machine for Tony, a complete set of drums for Kat and a sixteen channel Peavey board with a CS800 power supply, a pair of SP2 BW equipped main speakers and Peavey 115 monitors. We had even managed, by cutting corners as close as possible, to get a used microwave oven, a 3 ½ kw generator and a multitude of odds and ends to try and turn an old Plaxton coach into a motor home!

Now, with everything stored and waiting to be shipped on August the first, in Victory Chapel’s barn in Atglen, Pennsylvania, we began to wrap and weigh each piece and mark them for easy identification. We had also purchased twelve thousand cassette tapes, boxes and labels in order to put together the cassette albums we would give away to the teenagers in the schools.

Late that evening I called Don and Jean Arnold in Gadsden, Alabama, to find out how much money had come in for our trip? Don and Jean had volunteered to write letters to all our friends and take care of the pledges that had been made to us over the past seven months. They would then send the checks on to us. As brother Arnold gave me a total that had come in so far, I could not believe my ears! Out of the thousands which had been pledged, only a few hundred had come in!

With my best cheerful; Everything will work out okay, I hung up the phone.

Three thousand dollars was needed for the plane fare, twenty five hundred dollars was needed for shipping charges to get our equipment to the British Isles, eleven hundred dollars for another shipment of tapes which had just arrived. Seven days to go and it looked like all our scrimping and saving to buy each piece of equipment was just an exercise in futility, for it certainly wouldn’t do any good if we couldn’t get it and us, there!

I called Don and Jean every day for the next four days and got the same answer every day; Sorry Marty, nothing has come in yet.

I must admit, anger began to creep up in me as I thought about each place we had been and how sincere each one was when they pledged to help us reach the lost in Great Britain. What had happened? Why hadn’t the money come in?

I lay awake each night staring at the ceiling, searching my own heart. Lord, have I missed You somewhere down the line? Each night as I dozed off to sleep, I dreamed of auditoriums full of British kids, with their moms and dads in awe as the altars filled.

I woke up early each day, counting the minutes until mail time Gadsden so I could call again, assuring myself it would be good news today. Again the same response; Sorry Marty, nothing has come in yet. I was beginning to feel sorrier for Don and Jean than for myself. We knew they loved us so much, and were concerned on our behalf. Each time they had to tell us nothing had come in, they found the words harder and harder to say.

It was early afternoon on August 10th, 1982, when I picked up the phone and dialed the number for Charles Taylor in Nashville. For five days I had gone over my list again and again of Churches and preachers that I had held revivals for over the past fifteen years, wondering what the reaction of each would be if they were to get an SOS from the Tharp family?

Most preachers and Churches have been used and abused so often that they are understandably wary of about anyone popping up with an emergency need.

I told myself that they all know we are different! No one has ever received a letter from us asking for tithes and offerings and no Pastor ever had to worry about us collecting money on the side while he is doing his best to bless us, only to find that we had been getting blessed from lucrative handshakes!

When anyone hands me money on the side at Churches where we are in revival, I take it immediately to the Pastor to be added to our offerings which are taken in the services. We have taken a stand on Principal that costs us a lot of money, but when we leave a Church we leave with a clear conscience and our integrity intact.

After going over and over my list of Pastors thinking there would be at least one hundred or more that I would not feel hesitant to call, with a heavy heart I finally decided on FIVE that I felt would know me well enough to do more than listen sympathetically to our problem.

I think the reason it was so hard to call anyone was because we had always been so self sufficient. We knew God had opened the doors for us, but we found great comfort in knowing that we were booked over one year in advance and if the needed finances did not come in this week, God would provide it on down the road.

This was different, for the greatest step of faith we had ever taken was to cancel from August to January to go to Great Britain. We had already been there once for vacation and then again for six weeks of ministry and we knew that it was a totally different world.

Here in the states an offering is taken every single time we minister and even though at times the offering is small, it is still more than any offering we have ever received in the British Isles. We knew that we could not expect to even cover our expenses there while ministering, much less take care of the financial obligations left at home, for our expenses do not stop when we leave the country.

On the fourth ring of the phone a gruff voice with a Texas drawl said; Hello, Charles Taylor speaking. After a couple of minutes of small talk I finally got the courage to get to the point.

As I shared the hopelessness of our situation and how desperately we needed help, Taylor said just what I hoped and prayed that he would. Marty, there will be a check in the mail to you this afternoon for as much as Donna and I can lay our hands on!

As the tears welled up in my eyes and I searched for words to express my appreciation, Taylor said; Marty, the worst fault that you have is that you don’t know when to give up. If it is the will of God for you to go to the British Isles, I am behind you. But, if it is not? We are still behind you!

For years I have quoted the Scripture; From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and without a second thought the truth of that Scripture came to pass! I said; Taylor, if the money doesn’t come in for our tickets, I’ll take my family and our luggage and be standing at the gate of departure believing that God will have the tickets waiting for us!

When we said our good-byes, I sat for a moment thinking about the past few weeks and all the miracles God had done to bring us this far! Only weeks before we didn’t have any of the equipment we needed and it did not look like we were going to get it. One Church that had taken pledges a year before for our plane fares was in such a push for money to pay their own obligations that while we were there nothing was mentioned about the money for the tickets. The normal amount that they usually gave us was cut to about one half. It seemed that every which way we turned, hope turned to hopelessness.

Just about the time it looked as if we would have to go ill equipped, the miracles began! In Delaware, the money came in for the electric piano and the string machine. In Ohio, a young Pastor told us of a used set of drums at a bargain. In Mississippi, Pastor Melvin Boles got us an entire sound system at forty percent of the retail cost and shipped it to us and he paid the air-freight!

From Beaver, Pennsylvania, part of the money came in for the generator which was to be installed in the coach in Britain. In Colorado, we got a seven hundred dollar microwave for the repair cost! It was not working, so a good friend; Jerry Marshall, fixed it for us!

In Alexandria, Virginia, the youth group gave us the rest of the money for the generator. The company we buy tapes from supplied us and let us pay after we were in England. The Pastor from Meridian, Mississippi, Dr. Melvin Boles, sent us a check for one thousand dollars after we were in England so we paid the tapes off!

Chapter Two

After Twenty Two Years

---Healed!

For years I had been having trouble with my heart, beginning with a major coronary on my twenty-fifth birthday, followed over the next twenty years with seventeen more, two of them accompanied by partial strokes.

Each time I had a heart attack I stood behind the pulpit hanging on with my good arm while I preached the Word of God in spite of the pain!

On many occasions when I was sicker than anyone in my audience, I prayed for people and saw them slain across the altar area until there was no place left to lay anyone else down! I listened to countless testimonies of miracles when they got up.

Righteous anger would rise up in me because I had listened to all the faith preachers proclaiming that if you were sick, you had sinned! And, if you just have faith, you do not have to be sick!

If that doctrine is true, then the Apostle Paul should have never written second Corinthians! Kathrine Kulman, William Brannon, A.A. Allen, Jack Coe and countless other soldiers of the cross should still be alive today!

I heard one preacher say; Poor old Paul, he wrote about faith, but he just didn’t have the light himself!

I have discovered that there are an awful lot of men who are educated far beyond their intelligence! For that kind of statement simply proved to me that he had mush for brains!

To my great joy I have found hundreds of Pastors that have been in the same town for ten, twenty, thirty years and deal with people on an everyday basis who are not swept about with every wind of doctrine, but have built on a solid foundation! These are the men who gave me strength when on several occasions, it appeared that I would die of heart trouble!

As the annual convention of the Fellowship I serve with, my heart began to give me problems again. At the hectic pace we keep,