The Honour Guard

The long aisle was lined with men and women standing together on both sides. There was a joy mixed with sorrow as we stood side by side for our friend. Then slowly our friend’s family walked between us all following his casket.

I was not able to count the number standing in the ‘honour guard’ – but there could have been well over 60 people. We covered all ages as well – from people in their early fifties to people in their late seventies – though I am not sure of the ages of all that stood in the honour guard. All of us had been touched deeply by this giant of a man. All of us were able to count him as one of the most effective teachers we had encountered in our years of study.

The setting was the Memorial Service yesterday for Rev. Dr. Charles Arthur Ratz. “Doc Ratz”, as many knew him, had been one of the most influential profs at the theological college that we had all studied at – Eastern Pentecostal Bible College – in Peterborough, Ontario. By his unusual example, directness, compassion and dynamic ability he had imparted an importance to what we had studied under his care.

Last November 10th, 2007 Dr. Ratz celebrated his 100th birthday with many friends at his home in Shepherd Village. What a great day that was.

It was a very long memorial service but if seemed to fly by. For one hour and 45 minutes we listened intently as the great leaders of our time stood to honour this man who has touched so many lives over so many years. As his son Cal stated in the service, “This is a long memorial service I know, but what can you do when a man has lived so long and done so much?” Cal was so right on with that comment! None of us realized the amount of time that had passed as we listened to the great words spoken.

Dr. Ratz began his life journey in Chesley Ontario on November 10th, 1907. Since he weighed over 13 pounds, he was injured during his birth and not expected to live through the night. Charles was the first born. That night his mother cried out to God to spare her son. God did just that for the next 100 years, four months and four days.

All the years I had known Dr. Ratz I accepted his disability of his limp affecting his walk and his one shrivelled arm. I had not known until yesterday why he was like he was. But all those years he never was bothered by his ‘disability’ – he was simply the same as everyone else.
I think that his own attitude towards his own ‘disability’ covered by his brilliance and ability was the reason that he could see in everyone of his students – the “POSSIBILITY”.

In 1932 he had graduated from his first Theological School that he attended in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was following that time that he went to Battersea, Ontario to begin his first Pastorate. He was married that first year to Iva Goff.

In that first Pastorate he met a boy of ten years old and encouraged him. That boy’s name was Carman Lynn, who is now Rev. Carman Lynn, an 85 year old man, that spoke as the final person at the memorial service. Rev. Carman Lynn himself has over the years reached out to a waiting world in almost every country around our globe. As a loved and highly respected leader around the world Carman Lynn’s life has touched countless people in far away lands with health, life and new opportunity.

That one small snap shot for me was all important. He we were standing in an honour guard of people that one man had touched by his own life in so many ways over so many years. It was over powering as I looked at the people that I stood with. Each person beside me had been blessed and gone on to do “thousands of things” in their life time and had been affective in assisting the transformation of many times that many more lives over these many years.

We are an army that has touched and transformed a world that was broken. The thought was over powering for me – I wept with others through tears of joy.

Standing across from me was a beautiful lady that had been the pastor’s wife in our church when I was a boy of 10 years old. She was radiant then – and even more radiant now. That was about 54 years ago. Over the years she and her husband have been amazing to watch and follow. For those that know them, they are Rev. Gordon and Aileen Upton. (And by the way they are still serving churches across Ontario as pastors. At the present time, Rev. Upton drives to Burlington, Ontario from Kennedy and Shepperd Ave, in Toronto to give leadership to a church in ‘transition’ and looking for a new pastor.)

That is the kind of ‘students’ that Dr. Ratz produced over all those years. But the Uptons and the Lincolns are only two couples of literally thousands of people like us that have helped to change their world.

It all happened because of a deep and abiding love of one man for his students. Rev. Dr. Charles Ratz touched us all.

My heart is full this morning as I think, “Oh God may my life count even a small amount in comparison to my teacher… then I will be satisfied.”

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~

Rev. Arthur Wilkin with Dr. Charles Ratz

Eleanor and Keith Morrison with her dad - Dr. Charles Ratz - Oct, 23, 2007

After many years - still my teacher!