Men of Legacy
I pick my son up from daycare everyday and we usually find a good park to play at while his mom is at the gym. The last two days I took him to my old childhood church playground.
There’s some new equipment since the last time I was there. Lots of great stuff - but the old stuff is still there too.
The same tall metal slide I went down as a kid is still there. They don’t make them like that anymore. We used to get the bottoms of our shoes coated in dirt and slide down on our feet super fast. You would absolute fly off the end of it. And I’m not misremembering because things seem more magical as a kid - I did it again yesterday with Jordan and we still sailed just as fast as I remember. He likes slides, but he LOVED this slide. As soon as we landed he was running back to do it again and even climbed the whole thing on his own. He led the way four times and the last time he just had to stop and clap for a little bit.
The same swing set is there that I swung on as a child. They replaced all the seats at some point with nice flexible rubber seats. When I was a kid only two of the six stalls had those nice seats and the other four were the hard uncomfortable kind. We would race as fast as we could to get the good ones as kids. We use to swing as high as we could till you feel weightless at the top like zero gravity. FYI you can still jump off mid-swing and land on your feet at 30 if you’ll just go to the gym and take care of yourself . Despite the Facebook reels trying to convince my generation they’re decrepit.
Shockingly, the same wooden picnic tables are still hanging around from when I was a kid, and in good shape. The same horseshoe pits are still there. Jordan watched me ringing em up and carried a horseshoe all the way from one pit to another and put it on the stake. Then headbutted it and hurt his cheek .
The old railroad ties that made up the steps into the park are gone, as is the stage and the volleyball court. The sand and uprights are still there but the net and the border are gone.
The fire pit is still there that we used to sit around on campouts and during a few youth events in the park.
Yes, we went camping there. If you’ve never been to Word of Life, although it’s not exactly rural, it is on the edge of town and it’s pretty quiet. The park sits far from the road, behind the church, down in a valley carved by a creek. Once you walk down the hill you’re fairly well cut off from the rest of the world - free to imagine that those woods are actually in the middle of nowhere.
The creek still flows and pools in the most beautiful places. I have countless memories there skipping rocks with my friends. I remember on one campout my friends Kelby and Noah headed downstream to fish and the rest of us went wading and swimming through the creek to find them.
There’s a cool waterfall at one end, a hundred yards or so from the playground. I’ve always thought the grounds at that church are beyond beautiful. If you were to throw a few pumps along the more scenic places so the water stays flowing year-round you could have a beautiful outdoor wedding venue.
Then there’s the baseball field where I spent countless hours practicing tee-ball and coach pitch with my dad. And we played a few games of kickball there with the church as well.
The shelter is still in great shape, though smaller than I remember. We had the best potluck-style church picnics there. And of course ice cream on the Fourth of July when everyone spread out in the parking lot to watch fireworks in the ball field. We had trunk-or-treats and car shows and Easter egg hunts. I even played in the snow on that baseball field with my cousins after my papa Marvin’s funeral.
The three most magical places on earth to me as a child weren’t Sea World, or Silver Dollar City, or even Disney World. And we did visit all of those when I was young. No, the three most magical places on earth were Roaring River State Park, Camp Victory, and Word of Life Fellowship.
Not just because of the beautiful grounds or the great park, or the time I spent prowling the halls and playing cat squad with my friends Jon and Joe during the summers when our moms were on staff.
Word of Life was special because of the people who made it special.
I had some great pastors. My uncle David Emigh was one in a million. When my parents split up he made a real effort to sow into my life. He took me out for bowling and laser tag, he took me for rides in his sports car, and he had me over to watch Star Wars (though he fell asleep every time). He was an unbelievable teacher and a truly great man.
My youth pastor Tim Earnhardt is the most relational man I’ve ever met. He didn’t have to do everything he did to build relationships with his kids, but he consistently went above and beyond. There wasn’t a single kid at The Depot (our youth group) who he wouldn’t spend time with if they were open to it. He held bible studies on Sunday mornings before service. He had iConnect on Monday nights at his house - two hours of food, fellowship, and bible study with dozens of kids traipsing all around his home. That could have easily been held at Depot but he always opened his home to everyone. He would take me out one-on-one for coffee during my parents’ divorce and make sure I was doing okay. He would pick up a group of us from the high school and take us out for lunch. He moved to Moore during my junior year and I followed him to his new church when I was in college at Norman. This time he took me under his wing as a youth leader and always made sure I had a place to go on the holidays that I stayed on campus for, and the countless days we grilled out after church on Sunday. I’ve never met someone better at discipleship. No matter your age, he held you to a high standard of integrity and work ethic.
My children’s pastor James Hudspeth was an unbelievable joy to be around. From Kerusso Kids on Sunday mornings when I was younger, to the Route 56 (5th and 6th grade) class during second service, he knew how to make church fun and engage with kids while also teaching us the Bible and all about Jesus. The best memories I have of him are actually at Camp Victory in Mannford where he went above and beyond every summer.
But more than just the church staff, there were countless other men who stepped up to make Word of Life special. Those are the men who made the church park so magical. The men who instructed us every Wednesday night in Royal Rangers.
The men who took us through stationary drills, taught us how to build a campfire, dig a cat hole, and how to use various knives, hatchets, and axes.
The men who tested us for our cut-and-chop cards. The men who planned campouts at several different places, but most memorably right there in the creek bottoms of Word of Life.
The men who helped us pitch our tents, chop wood, and spent time sitting around the campfire with us. Men who could have been at home in a comfy bed, asleep by 9 pm, but who instead gave up their weekends to make an impact in the lives of kids who were not their own.
Men like Super Dave Felts, Mike Ward, Dewayne Fain, Jeremy Myers, and so many others.
Men of legacy.
In my hometown there’s a larger-than-life bronze statue of the city’s founder, Charles Page, overlooking downtown. It stands on a marble pedestal at the front of a large concrete stage. It has been there since 1930 serving as a focal point for community gatherings like our annual Herbal Affair. Our high school is also named after him, as is the primary road connecting Sand Springs to Tulsa.
But that statue is not a legacy. Nor is a road, nor is a high school. There will be countless people who sit under that statue and never bother to read the plaque and find out who it is. Countless people will walk the halls of CPHS and never learn of their alma mater’s namesake. Countless people drive Charles Page Boulevard every day and never spare a passing thought for who it’s named after. They’re too busy dodging potholes, complaining about the marijuana smell, and wondering why the city can’t do anything to revitalize the ghost town of a shopping center that used to hold a k-mart, a movie theater, a mini golf course, restaurants, and more.
As the Lord told us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The things of this world will pass away. Statues fade. Roads deteriorate. My high school isn’t even recognizable from when I was there. Even the history books will forget our names and our deeds with time.
Legacy has to be greater than monuments and written words.
What is the legacy of Charles Page? It’s the hearts he impacted and the compounding interest of charity. It’s the Sand Springs Home that continues his mission of caring for orphans and widows, foster kids and single mothers. It’s the men and women in this community who serve others, inspired by its founder.
If Charles Page inspired a single man who inspired another man who has never even heard the name Charles Page, then his legacy will live on in generations to come - a pyramid scheme of hope and generosity.
Charles Page’s legacy lives on in men like Matt Barnett, Brian Jackson, Mike Burdge, and countless others dedicated to the cause of Sand Springs, Oklahoma.
My uncle David’s legacy lives on in the hearts of the thousands of people who called Word of Life home over the past 40 years, and the tens of thousands of people he reached through his radio programming, magazine, and books, and the millions of people who have been impacted by the hundreds of pastors he equipped here in Oklahoma, in Burma and the Philippines, and around the world.
And those men who made a decision to give up their Wednesday nights and spent time with boys like me at Royal Rangers?
Their legacy will live on not just in the nostalgia I feel every time I look at this playground, but in the way I raise my son. And if I do my job right, their legacy will live on in the way my kids raise their kids.
Never underestimate the impact that a few evenings a month can have on the world. You’re building your legacy every day - what will people remember you for in 20 years?
