A Life: Chaplin, Lindbergh and Christ

Yesterday with the Young Adults at nine20, we had a guest speaker named Maurice (or "Fernie" as his nickname). The guy is 86 years old and he was born in Trinidad. He related stories of seeing Charles Lindbergh's plane flying overhead when he was a young boy (as mentioned here), which is just amazing.

He talked about seeing some of the original Charlie Chaplin silent movies. After one show, Maurice's brother asked him if he wanted to play Charlie Chaplin. Maurice joined in, at which point his brother took out a hammer and BAM! He hit him square in the head with it. Of course, it wasn't like the movies where you stumble around. Maurice just ended up in bloody pain and he still has that dent to this day. As he said, take this as a lesson: the media does effect kids.

Maurice related other stories from his life. He eventually become the CEO of Johnson & Johnson in the Caribbean. At the age of 56, he had a heart attack and that's when the company moved him to North America, to look over his health and to give him a different job here. At the age of 62, he faced mandatory retirement but he still wanted to be useful and do something. So with his golden parachute he decided to open a chain of five women's clothing boutiques with his wife.

Unfortunately, they lost everything when the stores eventually failed. His wife was forced to go back to college to try to begin a new career but that didn't work out, either. Eventually, his wife ended up finding a job with Harvey & Howard and through this, Maurice and his wife started to go to the weekly Alpha dinner/seminar. As he said, if the boss invites you to dinner than it's a command performance and you darn well better go.

The Alpha course involves a friendly meal followed by a short video and discussion about what the Bible says about Jesus and God. It does a wonderful job of allowing people to openly ask the tough questions about Christianity and other religions and deal with their own lives. And so, at the ripe old age of 75, Maurice and his wife eventually gave their hearts to God and put their faith in Jesus Christ. Maurice was still plagued with doubts about his usefulness at such an old age but over the past seven years, God has been using him to reach out to young and old people alike and really show them what life is all about. It took him a while to get here but this is a man with a purpose now! He's a fascinating guy.