The Blessings of a Tentmaker

By Giles Isaacson

"The Blessings of a Tentmaker" is a story that has influenced the values and outcomes of my life and the lives of my children and grandchildren; it has had a similar great impact for good on hundreds and thousands of people around the globe! This book is not simply about ministry, it is a book of family stories. What is fascinating to realize, as I've read these stories, is how the character, actions and adventures of a parent will often be repeated by the children, as my siblings can also attest. As you read this book, consider not simply the value of the stories but also of your responsibility to God that will be reflected in your children and descendants! God help us to be careful what we allow to take root in our lives so that only what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, excellent, and worth imitating, as the Apostle Paul admonished, can be written of us and be transferred to the next generation. This book evokes another consideration: What is the perfect job or the perfect life? Does it exist? My dad is both a businessman (yes, to this day!) and a minister. Asking this question is begging the background question for what is the purpose of a life? My dad explores this theme in this book. My son recently told me of an anonymous and relevant quote, "Dreamers dream; implementer's change the world." Implementing requires a plan or a purpose. My dad discovered his purpose, and therefore his perfect job, by intentionally taking time each day to worship the God who created him and who "knit" him together in his mother's womb for a specific purpose (Psalms 139:13). Those times of worship became the basis for action as he trusted that he had a talent and a message to share.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646709427

Book preview

Why Have I Written This Story?

The life as Tentmaker has given my wife and I an awesomely blessed and adventurous life. The LORD has blessed us with wonderful successes in business and some failures. The calling has provided many wonderful opportunities to minister and to travel. Throughout my life, especially after our family had grown up and left home, we have had great pleasure in traveling by any means; by car, by train, by air, by cruise ship, in any way that would get us to where we wanted to go; going throughout the USA and Canada and around the globe. Much of the time, we traveled together on ministry trips in the US and Canada but never overseas together.

Our ministry, REACHING Ministries, took me to India four times and in the process, I was able to go to France, Egypt, and the Far East with layovers in England, Germany, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and others. I also visited our daughter Mari while she was in Austria as a missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship. She took me to Italy to a very unique pizza restaurant and to Slovenia. Marian had visited her at least four times, alone. She also traveled to Israel, Rome, England, France, Italy, and Germany.

In addition, the secular part of my ministry has taken me by auto throughout Central Washington and beyond where I have witnessed the awesome wonders of God’s creation—amazing beauty, which caused me to worship Him because of His wondrous works. Hopefully, the details of all this will be plainly revealed in the following pages.

You will immediately discover that this account is not necessarily a chronological narrative, because one event will lead to other related events, sometimes in the distant future or in the past, before we circle back to the Y in the road, but I think that it will make sense as we go along. Nor is it complete but only a shadow of my life.

Most of the contents of this account are taken from my memoirs, A Chronicle of Blessing.

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed

that I would see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living.

—Psalms 27:13

Who Is a Tentmaker?

A tentmaker, in the context of ministry today, is one who is in full-time active ministry and is also self-supporting¹ (some use the term bivocational). For that reason, the tent making part of my life is also ministry—the two parts are one.

In a sense, all active believers are tentmakers.

In addition to his incredible service of evangelism and Church-planting activities, the apostle Paul worked to support himself in ministry. I picture Paul working out of doors, probably in the marketplace stitching tents together, sitting among the locals, talking and ministering to them as he worked. I see people gathering closely, curious as to what this apparently common man is saying about a man called Jesus. I visualize many people coming to know the Savior during those sessions. In addition, believers and friends would come to see him while he was doing his work, and at those times, he would instruct them, encourage, and counsel them. Thus, he was largely self-supporting as he pursued his awe-inspired calling.

In the context of career, the Lord had a great plan for training me in the vocation that I would eventually pursue and in how He guided me in fulfilling His calling in my life through that instruction.

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¹ One who is self-supporting in ministry, as was the apostle Paul, Acts 18:1–3, 2 Thessalonians. 3:7–9

Beginning the Journey

The joyful day of May 26, 1930, a little boy was born on the small Isaacson farm just outside of Wickware, Wisconsin. That little baby boy was me, Giles James Isaacson. The doctor bill was a whopping $25. Huge when you consider that in those days, a penny could buy a bag of jelly beans. Shortly after my birth, Dad and Mom decided to leave the farm and move to the nearby town of Cameron. We lived there until I was eight when my parents decided to move on to greener pastures. So we traveled west to Greeley Colorado where we lived for about four years. My family was becoming a traveling family. We moved often after that and my parents always made our travels very pleasant for my brothers and me. I believe that was the beginning of my love for traveling near and far.

My mother alleged that my conversion happened much earlier, but I remember the night when I was ten years old. My parents were not home that evening—they were probably at a church business meeting. My two brothers and I were home. We lived in a house on a street corner, and the street light was just a few yards from the side window of our house. My friend and I were playing under the light and doing some naughty things. My brother Olie looked out the window and saw what we were doing and immediately called me into the house. When I came in, he told me that I needed to get right with the LORD. He then led me up to our bedroom where we kneeled beside the bed, and he led me in a prayer asking the LORD Jesus to forgive me and to come into my life and be my Savior and LORD. That was the day that changed my life completely!

On a day, not long after my conversion, I was sitting at my desk, writing, thinking or drawing, I don’t remember exactly. But the thought came to me, I’m going to write a sermon! Whereupon with pencil in hand, I wrote what was on my heart. The sermon was about a half page long, which I thought was huge. Then I took this great manuscript to the pastor down the street and showed it to him. He read it, complimented me on my accomplishment, and encouraged me to write some more. As a result, over a period of time, I wrote several additional sermons and took them to him to read, and he urged me keep on writing more. This was incredible encouragement from a special pastor and friend. Perhaps that was one element that the LORD used to give me a sense of joy in writing to this day. Looking back, I sense that this also was the first indication that the LORD was calling me into ministry.

When I was about twelve years old, we moved to Bremerton, Washington. My uncle Bill and aunt Freda Otterholt and family had answered the call from Uncle Sam to help out in the war effort, so they moved to Bremerton where Uncle Bill worked in the shipyard. He then urged my dad to do the same. Dad thought that this would be a good opportunity to serve his country also, so we headed for Bremerton. When we first moved to Bremerton, we attended the Presbyterian Church whose pastor was Reverend Skafe.

The time was World War II, and since Bremerton was a strategic city because of the shipyard, there where huge balloons shaped like dirigibles strung up by cables, which hovered over the city. The purpose was to deter any enemy airplanes that might attack the city and the shipyards.

My parents were involved in establishing the first Mission Covenant Church in Bremerton; in fact, I think that they initiated the process. The first pastor called to the church was my childhood pastor, Fred Jacobson from Wisconsin where he was pastor of our little Mission Covenant Church out in the country near Wickware. He was a middle-aged single man, but when he came to Bremerton, he discovered the love of his life, and they were soon married.

One day, I decided that I would like to build a pulpit. We were living in a housing development that was still under construction so I found some scrap lumber and brought it home. It was a simple structure consisting of a base on which I nailed a two by four vertically, and on the top of the post, I placed a square board at a slight angle. Then my mother gave me a piece of red cloth that reached to the floor, which I wrapped around on three sides. When it was completed, I showed it to our pastor when he came to our house to visit. He thought it was great and asked me to bring it to church the next Sunday and read Scripture from it, which I did—my folks were so proud! That was great encouragement from a very special pastor. Was this another indication of the LORD’s calling in my life?

My father quit the shipyard job about thirteen months after moving to Bremerton, because the work was so slow—the yard was over employed. He would pick up a wrench maybe once or twice a day. Since he was used to hard work, he could not handle the idleness. We then moved to Los Angeles where he worked in a rubber factory, owned by the sister of Chris Johnson, my father’s best friend in Greeley.

In LA, we moved into a townhouse type condo, owned by Dad’s employer. This was located in a large and very nice apartment community, which had spacious green areas ideal for children, a school, playground, and a small community church in which I soon became involved, although my parents attended another church. The pastor of my church Elmer Fricke and I became good friends. He provided many summer youth activities and Bible clubs for the children of the neighborhood and was a great example of God’s love to them and to me. We left LA about three months later. In the last church service that I attended, Elmer asked the congregation to sing to me the song Till We Meet Again. It was a very emotional time for him and for me. We stayed in touch by mail. A few years later, he and his wife visited us in Seattle as they were passing through on their way to the mission field.

During our time in LA, we visited a live broadcast of The Old Fashioned Revival Hour; the ministry of Charles E. Fuller, at the civic auditorium in Long Beach. My folks had listened to this program often for several years prior to this. Since the broadcast originated locally, it could be heard on several stations at different times. So every Sunday evening, I remember lying in bed listening to the program two or three times. I grew to love hearing the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet and the choir singing the favorite old Hymns, as well as hearing Rudy Atwood play the piano in his very unique, upbeat style. And I loved to hear Mrs. Fuller, Honey, read letters from listeners. She had such a loving, tender way of reading those letters.

The program always began with the choir singing, We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Spread the tidings all around, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. To this day, that wonderful song is one of my most favorite hymns. And in every service, Reverend Fuller would lead the congregation in the chorus Heavenly Sunshine.

Heavenly Sunshine, Heavenly Sunshine

Flooding my soul with glory divine

Heavenly Sunshine, Heavenly Sunshine

Halleluiah Jesus is mine

Pastor Fuller, in his simple and compassionate manor, preached in such a way that I could understand the message clearly, even though I was a youth of thirteen or fourteen years of age. After the message, there was always an altar call, and many people would go forward to receive the LORD Jesus as their Savior. The Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet is one of the factors that inspired me to form a quartet a few years later.

When we left Los Angeles, we moved back to Greeley, Colorado, for about one year. It was still World War II, and both of my brothers were in the service of our country. Arnold was in the Army Air Corps, and Olie was serving in the Merchant Marines. We again attended the covenant church in Greeley. By that time, Pastor Rev. Melvin Dahlstrom had been called to Emanuel Tabernacle in Seattle, so there was a new pastor whose name I don’t remember.

A very significant event happened while we were living in Greeley. During one of the church services, the soloist, with great passion and emotion, sang his song and finished by asking the congregation to join him in singing the chorus. It was so very meaningful to hear the people, filled with emotion, worshipping as they sang along with him. I thought that was so special that even at age ten or eleven, I was so greatly blessed that I did not forget the occasion. In the years following, in various other settings, I witnessed others doing the same. This inspiring idea stuck with me so that when I began to sing solos, I often included a similar format, and people would come up to me and tell me how blessed they were by this. As I look back at the experience on that Sunday morning in the Greeley Mission Covenant Church, I believe that that was the foundation on which my style of singing began to develop in later years. The sincerity and emotion that emanated from the soloist greatly influenced me; perhaps not consciously at the time but was later born out as I began to sing to audiences.

Subsequently, much later as I developed the Praise in Song program, that pattern became the basic makeup of the service. I would sing, and then I invited the congregation to join in singing, not only the chorus of that song but in two or three additional worship choruses as well, transitioning from one chorus to the next with brief, succinct thoughts or Scripture, focusing on the LORD Jesus. This continued throughout the program until the time came to give a brief message in which I tied the program all together. After speaking for ten to fifteen minutes, I would invite the people to join me in a prayerful closing song, which would include a time of reflection and a silent invitation, and lead them in a prayer of commitment or salvation.

Seattle Bound

When I was about fourteen years old, we left Greeley again and moved to Seattle. My parents continued to live in the Seattle area until Dad passed away. Mother then went to live with my brother Olie and his wife Carlie in Tacoma.

Since our first home in Seattle was near Green Lake, I was enrolled in John Marshall Junior High School. Later, I learned that Marian also attended that school at the same time, but we did not know each other then. I joined the Boy Scouts, which met in the grade school just across the street from our home, took Viola lessons, and started my first Bible correspondence course. At John Marshall, I became friends with George Anderson, who was a very good basketball player. One special day, I prayed with him, and he received the Lord Jesus as his Savior. After leaving the Green Lake area, I lost contact with him, but I trust that he is still walking with the LORD.

Our family attended Emanuel Tabernacle Church in north Seattle. As I mentioned earlier, the church had called Mel Dahlstrom, our former pastor in Greeley. As a teenager, I attended his Confirmation class at Emanuel, which was taught by Pastor Mel, and I was confirmed following the Covenant Church tradition. Emanuel Tab is an independent church, but at that time, it was very similar to the Mission Covenant denomination.

It was on the steps of this church, after a Sunday morning service, that I asked Marian out for our first date, and she accepted. Can you believe it? That was over seventy-two years ago! (As of 2019)

My father was a good craftsman and enjoyed buying houses and fixing them up, then selling them. We would live in the houses while he did the work. As a result, we moved several times during my high school years.

Our second Seattle home was near the Freemont District on the side of a hill facing the Ballard District. Next, we moved back near the Green Lake area, close to where we lived before, on the side of a hill. The Interstate 5 freeway now passes right in front of that house. Good memories of my youth in that neighborhood—lots of kids my age living there. During early evenings, we would all gather and play fun games in the vacant lot across the street—lots of laughs and good competition. One of the boys eventually started a very successful towing company. That lot no longer exists as such; it was taken over by the freeway.

During that same time, I attended Lincoln High School. While at Lincoln, I turned out for basketball. Well, sort of! I was a manager; that’s a classy term for water boy. During that time, I did a stupid thing; I stole a T-shirt from the supply room. I was deeply convicted and soon after, I went to the coach and confessed. That was so hard to do! I waited a long time outside his office before getting up the courage to face him. But he graciously forgave me as I handed him the T-shirt.

Later, we moved to Capitol Hill. Our home was on Seventeenth Avenue. The lot had two houses, one behind the other. The street front house is where we lived. The rear house was a rental; my brother Arnold and his wife Helen lived in the rear house for a while. During that time, I attended Garfield High School in my junior and senior years. It was during this time that we formed the quartet.

During the Capitol Hill days, I had a morning Seattle Post Intelligencer (PI) paper route, located near Volunteer Park. I had to get up about 4:00 a.m. to deliver the papers. After finishing my delivery, I went to Volunteer Park and ran a mile; a route that I had measured out with the speedometer on my bicycle. I won that bike by getting the most customers in a PI contest. It was quite easy actually; the UW had recently built temporary student dorms, and the students had just moved in, so I just walked down the hallways and signed them up one after the other. I had considered signing up for track, but that was not a priority so I abandoned the idea. After the run, I returned home to have my devotions and eat breakfast before going to school.

From Capitol Hill, we moved to Ballard where my parents lived for several years before selling and moving into an apartment in Kenmore near their church. Following our marriage, Marian and I lived in an upstairs apartment of the Ballard home until Marian joined me during January of 1952, in Fairbanks Alaska where I was stationed while serving in the Air Force.

My first real involvement with Missions was relatively small but significant. This took place during the time we lived near the Fremont district. A young man from Portland Oregon, with whom I had become acquainted, wrote a monthly missionary letter, and he asked me to do the mailing for him. As I remember, there were about fifty people on his mailing list, so each time I would hand-address the envelopes and mail them. There were no PCs at that time.

During my sophomore year at Lincoln High School, I became interested in leading singing. As a result, I bought a book that illustrated the hand motions in directing music. I practiced those instructions diligently until I became quite good at it. During my junior year at Garfield High School, the teacher of my choir class, Parker Cook, discovered my gift, so he often left me in charge of the class as he went off to attend other duties. (Another teacher was always present to observe.) Thus, I directed the class in his absence. Amazingly, the students paid attention and followed my instructions even though I was their peer.

One of my fellow students wrote this in my yearbook: When you are a famous conductor (which I know you will), please come and conduct me at the Met. You really have a talent in voice and most of all, the way you can hold the class together. I know it’s a hard job because I tried to conduct and it didn’t work… Love, Shirley.

Others wrote similar things in the yearbook as well. This was fantastic on the job training for future ministry, and a huge time of encouragement from a teacher and from my classmates. Later on, in every church that we attended on a regular basis, I was asked to lead the singing, and sometimes, to direct the choir.

While attending Garfield, I became acquainted with a fellow student, Marvin Honory (who later changed his name to Mario Honore), a very gifted musician, whom I introduced to the LORD Jesus. He had an amazing operatic tenor voice. Marvin had never taken piano lessons, he was self-taught, yet he could play like Liberace. He became my first voice coach. He also encouraged me to be involved in two musicals presented by the combined choirs of our school. This was a great experience in performing before a crowd.

Years later, Marvin (Mario) organized a choir tour and recruited about forty young, very talented musicians for a traveling choir and orchestra. He asked me to be the treasurer of Christian Concerts, Inc., and keep the home base while they were touring. There were several mishaps along the way. When they arrived in Lewiston, Idaho, the bus broke down, and I had to deliver new engine parts. I took my son Dean with me on the trip.

The LORD used these occasions to grow the young people and the chaperones in their faith and to show His faithfulness. They finished the tour and were a great blessing to many people. The few concerts that I attended were of great blessing to me.

The group was also asked to perform on TV; here is a picture of that concert. After the performance, we were given a movie of the concert, which I still have hidden away in our stack of boxes somewhere in the garage.

Excellent Bible Training

Martin Andvik, Ron Trail, Mike McCutchen,

and Charlie Riggs in front.

During my sophomore year of high school, I became involved with the Navigators—a life-changing experience! Dave Brougham, a fellow attendee at Emanuel Tabernacle, introduced me to the group and encouraged me to become a part of the program.

The Navigators is a unique organization founded by Dawson Trotman during World War II. The mission was to reach Armed Forces personnel with the Gospel and to disciple Service personnel in Bible study, Scripture memorization and evangelism. The organization has since grown to the extent that it now has a very large and effective worldwide outreach, open to everyone who is interested.

When I first became involved with the Navs, Loren Sanny was in charge of the Seattle Home. Charlie Riggs was Loren’s spiritual son and was living at the home. Charlie had by this time retired from the Army. He discipled me and was an excellent teacher and example of Christ-likeness.

Eventually, Sanny became president of the Navigators, and Charlie was assigned to the Billy Graham organization where he was in charge of the follow-up ministry.

Through attending the discipleship meetings, we learned to memorize Scripture, using a beginner course consisting of small packets of cards with verses printed on them. These were pocket-sized packets so that we could easily carry them and bring them out to review whenever we had the opportunity. My earliest memory of Loren Sanny was an occasion when we were riding the same city bus. It was standing room only and there was Sanny standing, holding on to the bar with one hand and reviewing a pack of verses with the other hand, flipping the cards with his thumb and forefinger, as the bus traveled on.

Eventually, after finishing the prepared course, we were on our own and would write our own choice of verses on the same size cards. We were encouraged to memorize three verses per week—over the years, I have memorized hundreds of verses.

Furthermore, we were taught to systematically study the Bible, using several methods of study. First, we used a very simple, basic study, then over time, step by step on to a very in-depth, comprehensive study. Each week, we were expected to complete the assigned lesson and be ready to share during the next meeting. We were also taught to faithfully set aside a time each day to be alone with the LORD, preferably first thing in the morning; a quiet time, in Bible reading, meditation, and prayer. This is still a very vital part of my life. In attending these classes, we were held accountable to do the work that was assigned and thus we learned to be disciplined in the use of our time and resources. My time with the Nav’s was a tremendous time of Bible and discipleship training! I believe that this was without doubt equivalent to a Bible School graduate course and more because of the personal one-on-one discipling.

I was involved with the Nav’s beyond high school graduation. After graduation, I moved into the Nav home and was there for about a year. By that time, Sanny had moved up the ladder in the organization. Charlie and his new bride, LaRue, were in charge of the Seattle home.

While living at the Nav home, I learned to be more responsible, more disciplined, and received greater in-depth Bible training. Each one living in the home was assigned daily chores that all were expected to perform—we were like a family. I also learned more about giving financially. Each one living in the home was expected to contribute the major part of their wages to the home and to the ministry. During this time, I was working at the Pacific Trail garment factory near Lake Union in Seattle. On Friday and Saturday nights, I worked at the Seattle Post Intelligencer (The PI) stuffing inserts into the Sunday addition of that newspaper.

I also shared a room with Charlie’s nephew Ron Trail, and we became good friends. I suggested to Ron that he get a job at the PI also, which he did, and we worked together for a time. Later, Ron and his wife Gail became missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators in a Muslim-dominated country, and are now retired and serving with that mission on a very limited basis at the time of this writing. They are only a few years younger than me, yet they continue in ministry with a passion; Psalm 92:10–13 in action.

The September 2008 issue of Decision Magazine² included an article that spoke of Charlie’s passing, which occurred on July 21, 2008, at age ninety-two. The writer stated:

Charlie was a mentor and friend to many. He modeled the life of a Christian soldier and left his mark on all those with whom he invested his time and wisdom. He was honest, direct and stretched people to be all they could be in Christ and encouraged them to use Scripture in application to everyday life.

I can certainly vouch for that! I thank the LORD for his influence in my life!

The LORD continued to open up opportunities for growth in ministry during my high school years. For three summers during the time that I was involved with the Navigators, I was invited to be a youth counselor at the Firs Bible Camp near Bellingham, Washington. One of those summers, I worked at the camp throughout the camping season.

When I was not counseling, I performed other thrilling tasks such as grounds work and dishwashing. I even trapped some rats under the dining hall! During each camp session that year, I was able to attend the meetings and hear some