Recipes for Living Rev. Clilff Haider Family

THE REV. CLIFF HAIDER FAMILY
Rev. Cliff Haider was pastor of the Osceola United Methodist Church from 1983-1992.
He tells:

Ever since I was a child, the church has been a vital part of my life. My parents took me to church beginning a month after I was born. My mother moved her membership from the Watertown, South Dakota Methodist Church to the Presbyterian Church in Beaver Creek, Minnesota. I was born in Beaver Creek, September 5, 1937, and we lived there until I was 10 ½ years old. My parents were active in the Presbyterian Church and I regularly attended Sunday school. We moved back to Watertown, and in seventh grade I participated in a confirmation class. On Easter Sunday 1949, I joined church. At that time my father left the Catholic Church and became a Methodist.

There had been 33 in that confirmation class and when the minister, Rev. Leach, received us into membership, he told something about each one. When he came to me, he said, “This is my preacher.” I asked him later about that remark and he said that I had been extremely interested in every aspect of the study – the Bible, church history, and rituals – and he had noted that I was compassionate toward every member in the class. My only reaction was wondering how I could come up with a sermon topic every Sunday. I became extremely active in youth group in that church.

My father was a farmer and I have three brothers and a sister. My half-brother Eugene is now in California; Henry, which was also my dad’s name, is now deceased; Leslie lives in San Antonio, Texas; and my sister Rita lives in Watertown, South Dakota.

During my early elementary school years, until fifth grade, I attended Beaver Creek School. From then through my high school graduation, I was in the Watertown school system. Of all my teachers, I remember best Mrs. Fossnes, who was my high school English teacher. English was my toughest subject. Normally teachers only had students one year, but Mrs. Fossnes had me through the ninth grade and tenth grades. I saw her one time while I was in seminary and said “Mrs. Fossnes, did you ever think I would graduate from college let alone graduate from seminary?” She said, “I knew that whatever you really wanted to do you would accomplish with great results.” Her words have stayed with me ever since.

I started college at South Dakota State at Brookings, South Dakota. Having lived on a farm for 11 ½ years, I chose Animal Science and Chemistry for my majors. The director of the Wesley Foundation, which is a Methodist organization, taught Bible Study and theology courses. I enrolled in one of his courses every semester. During my first year, I attended the Foundation very little. Their practice was to serve Sunday night suppers, which should have been an enticement for students to attend, but the food was terrible and there were only about 20 kids coming. I told them that if they had good food they’d have good attendance, and they talked me into becoming the coordinator for the Sunday night menus.

We started having baked ham, roast turkey, Swiss steaks, and the like. We grew from 20 to 125 every Sunday. The directors wondered if we could do that for $0.50 a meal, and were satisfied when we ended the first month showing a $30 profit. For the next three years, I planned all the menus and bought all the food for Sunday nights. I would go at 3:30 to start preparations and the meal would be ready at the announced time. It turned the attendance at Wesley Foundation around, and it became a strong force at college.

I also served meals for the Board of Directors’ meetings and tried a lot of samples on them. I remember one time when the United Methodist Men wanted to put on a banquet for their Sweetheart Dinner for Valentines Day. Officers stipulated that the only way they would have it at the Wesley Foundation would be if Cliff headed up the whole thing. We served 300 dinners that night. I planned a meal for which we would charge $3 a plate and Wesley Foundation would make $2. They decided that was too little and paid $5 a plate. Wesley Foundation cleared $1,200. It was an exciting time. I remember not even wanting to go home weekends but to stay and be part of the Wesley Foundation.

During that time I began to think more and more about ministry. The book that had the most powerful effect on me was Soren Kierkegard's Power to Will One Thing. I have quoted from that book a lot. While I was in Osceola, we had a study focused on that book.

In 1960, I was a senior in college and graduated that year. That same year my dad had his water bladder removed and replaced by an artificial one. Dad smoked two packs of Lucky Strikes a day, which surely contributed to his 12-year battle with cancer. The first evidence was about the time I was a freshman in high school, and the cancer came back for awhile every two years, then every year. One time, thirty days after surgery, the tumors were back. I gave up on the idea of going on to seminary because of my parents' financial obligations. After graduation, I spent six months in the National Guard, and then began working for Anchor Serum Company as their sales representative covering 30 counties in northern Iowa. I established a residence in Boone

Through the years, as Dad had surgery after surgery, I made agreements with God. If God would spare Dad and bring him through the surgery, I would do more in the church I was attending, which in Boone was the Marion Street United Methodist Church. With each surgery I committed myself to one more thing, until the last time he was sick, I asked God to take my dad
to be with him in Paradise. The only thing left for me was to become a minister. There was nothing more I could commit to. Dad died at age 70.

The Marion Street Church gave me many opportunities. They first asked me to teach the fifth grade Sunday School class. At the time the class had five girls, and it grew to have 23 boys and girls. The following year I became the Youth Program Director and, again, we went from five youth to 30 on Sunday nights. We did a Bible study- a study selected from the Methodist publications. The response was exciting. I continued to go home to Watertown one weekend a month when I was in the northern part of the state. I always went to 8:30 church, home to eat lunch at 11:00, take off by 12:00, have a visit and be back in Boone for the 6:30 youth meeting. Mother had a fit.

My work was going very well. I moved from 57th position on the sales force and ended by being either first, second, or third. But what I looked forward to more than anything was getting back to Boone to work with youth. The signals were clear-I resigned from Anchor at the end of August 1965, and entered Drake Divinity School. My salary for my first appointment at Millersburg-South English was less than my income tax for the last eight months at Anchor Serum Company.

I was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Thomas at Annual Conference in Indianola in 1966. I had known Bishop Thomas before he became a Bishop. He had been the director of a Methodist Education program and one year had come to South Dakota State as speaker during Religious Education week.

My very first appointment was while I was still a student. I was to serve the Hope Parish, which consisted of Linden, Morrisburg, Panora, Yale, and Prairie Center. I was the Associate Minister under Herb Thomas, the Senior Pastor. I did youth programs plus preaching one Sunday at two churches, the next at three. The vote for merger of the Methodist and E.U.B. (Evangelical United Brethren) churches in 1968 was during my senior year at seminary. Rev. Herb Thomas cast the only negative ministerial vote at the South Iowa Conference. He resigned the following day. That meant that during my senior year, I had the responsibility for all five churches. I attended all the Administrative Board meetings, did all the weddings, funerals, confirmation classes, and youth work. I had a lay person that alternated with me for the Sunday services.

I began camping with high school youth in 1966 and continued for the next three years. Then I started working with fifth and sixth grade campers at Golden Valley at Lockridge, between Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant. After doing this for two years I told Jane that unless I was invited to be a director, I was through with camping because of the way programs were being run.

At Pastor's School in 1970, Larry Willey asked me if I would become director of the fifth and sixth grade camp at Golden Valley. For the next three years, I directed the fifth and sixth grade camp and even after moving to Humeston we returned to Golden Valley. Frank Nichols was our District Superintendent and thought he was doing us a great favor by advertising that it was for kids going into fifth and sixth grades. This was the first year in the camping program that kids going into the fifth grade were allowed to go to camp. In 1973 all camps began to advertise for campers going out of fourth grade.

In 1974, I began directing programs at Camp Aldersgate, at Villisca. Frank Nichols did another favor by advertising that the camp was for those going into fourth, fifth and sixth grades. We then received registrations from campers coming out of third grade. We had a camp with 65 young people and it was a great success. By now you have probably predicted that by the next year the Board of Camps opened up camping at all camp sites for third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade campers.

I was chairperson of the program committee for the Conference Board of Camps for eight years. During that time I helped design the kitchen of Otterbein Lodge at Camp Aldersgate. Bill Holst became their finance chairperson and has gone on to become the Conference Board of Camps Finance Chair. Fern Underwood and I raised the money for equipping the lodge, and I purchased all the items. They got the bids for beds and mattresses from a place in Sioux City, and appliances and cooking utensils from an outlet in Des Moines. I went to Sorenson's in Des Moines to buy the dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, and stove.

It was at that time that Esther Lenz died and Waid asked that the church accept his memorial gift of a dishwasher in her honor. I asked Dave Sorenson what he would charge us for two dishwashers, one for the Osceola United Methodist Church and one for Aldersgate. He took off 20%. We bought the silverware from General Mills with funds given in memory of Beverly Seeberger's mother. In 1986 a water fountain at Aldersgate was given in memory of Jane's father. The memorial money was given by members of the Osceola United Methodist Church.

One reason the Osceola church is important to Jane and me is that this is where our life together started. It was in 1968 that I met Jane two weeks before Easter. Rev. Jim King had preached a week of evangelism services at Osceola and Jane, who was teaching music in the Clarke Community School system, directed the music. Jim set up a blind date. He was serving a parish that included Bagley, Jamaica, and Greenbriar. I was in Des Moines, attending Drake. The arrangement was that Jane drove to the parking lot of a motel on Grays' Lake and Jim and his wife, Kathy, and I met Jane there. We had dinner at Mr. Steak, a popular chain at that time. Following dinner we went to the movie, The Graduate. Jim said it was all up to us at that point, and we didn't have another date for four weeks.

On our second date we went to Gone with the Wind. After the third date, Jane talked about her plan to by a trailer house in Osceola. I already knew that I was going to ask her to marry me and wondered what would we do with a trailer house? Instead she rented a house, and we became engaged in June. Jane had signed a contract with Clarke Community Schools so we dated another 14 months and were married August 2, 1969 at the United Methodist Church in Elmo, Missouri.

Jane, whose name actually is Iola Jane, was born at St. Joseph, Missouri to Stephen and Iola LaMarr. She has four sisters. She graduated from West Nodaway RI High School at Burlington Junction, Missouri, which is about half way between Maryville, Missouri and Clarinda, Iowa. Jane went on to Northwest Missouri State College (now University) and majored in music. She is approved for vocal, band, and orchestra. She was hired by the Hubbard school system for the spring semester after the music teacher was killed in a car accident. She was hired in Osceola in 1966, and taught here for three years.

My next appointment was to Millersburg and South English in 1968, and I was there for four years. Our marriage took place doing that time so Jane was with me for three of those years and substitute taught.

Bishop Thomas ordained me as an elder in October 1969, in the Millersburg church. It was his first ordination after he had gall bladder surgery, and it was the last ordination to be performed away from Annual Conference. It has become a regularly scheduled Sunday morning event during those sessions.

We moved to Humeston in 1972. Jane helped in the church during the four years I served there. During that time I served as chairperson of the Children's Agency on the Conference level for eight years. Our committee started the United Methodist Media Service, which has become the Iowa Media Service Center, supported by seven denominations. In Humeston we put together the Trinity Parish, which consisted of the Humeston United Methodist Church, the Humeston Christian Church, and the LeRoy Presbyterian Church. That was a good time.

We began trying to sell the Christian Church building. Our District Superintendent was Frank Nichols and he began talking about my moving. I confided in him that I wasn't sure what I should do. The congregation was doing anything I asked, but I didn't know if they wanted to or if it was because I asked. It seemed to me that if I moved without the sale being completed, the next minister would have to start the process all over again.

At that point I asked for another sign from God, much as in the book of Judges when Gideon put out a fleece when he needed direction. I told God that if the contract for the sale of the church wasn't signed the next day, I wouldn't move. The next morning a trustee from the Christian Church gave me the check for the sale. Years later, after we moved to Osceola, we went back for the Hutchinson's 50th wedding anniversary. Mildred told me, "It’s a good thing you were the minister when we were putting the parish together. You taught us how to work together as three churches and how to accept the differences between us."

In 1976. I went to Rolfe and Bradgate and was there four years. It was another wonderful experience. The Rolfe church completely renovated their building-put in new pews, repainted, tuck pointed, put protective glass on the stained glass windows-they left nothing undone. It was during that appointment that Stephen was born in 1978.

In 1980, I was appointed to Estherville, where Clifton-was born on Stephen's birthday, November 25th. That was six months after we moved. We tell people that they were twins born two years apart-one of the world's longest pregnancies!

In 1983, I came to Osceola for nine years. It was a great appointment and I'd have stayed until I retired, but staying for long periods of time is not customary and doesn't seem to work well in our denomination. Most of the time, when a minister goes to a community, the congregation gets to know him or her, but when we came to Osceola everybody knew the minister's wife. The first few years, the weddings I did were mostly young people Jane had taught in school. So she got all the attention while I stood aside and waited to be known. Over the course of 12 years that Jane was in Osceola the students matured, going from a student/ teacher relationship to friends.

Hugging became a natural when we were in Osceola. Stephen's kindergarten teacher was Ruth Gould, and Jane and Ruth had taught together. When Stephen discovered that Ruth was a Methodist, he began to urge her to come to church so he could give her a hug. One day she said, "I know I have to be here for Stephen to give me a hug." Ross and Ruth were active in Eastern Star work and from that time on, I was often invited to their meetings to give the prayer. When Ruth became Worthy Grand Matron of the Iowa Grand Chapter, she chose "hugs" for her theme.

At this time several bequests were given to the church and a foundation was established. We were able to do some exciting things with the interest money. The church had been built in 1967, so there were maintenance needs- tuck pointing, attention to the roof and parking lot. We bought a new organ, office machines, and updated the phone and speaker systems. I was impressed by Dr. Bill Easum who studied space and showed that potential visitors and/or members are discouraged if there are not adequate parking facilities. "You will grow your congregation down to whatever space is provided by parking lot and classrooms." This encouraged me to recommend the purchase of a lot adjoining that of the parsonage. We tore down the house and cleared the lot.

For the school we supported the DARE program, and began providing free milk for children who needed it in kindergarten, first, and second grades. To Conference projects we contributed to the college scholarship fund and the Spirit Alive/Churches Alive projects. For the community we built a shelter house at Q-Pond and contributed to the Public Library's expansion to provide for a children's section.

I consider it one of the highlights that we used interest money generated by Foundation investments to bring in a church consultant, Dr. K. Callahan to do a church study for us. He helped us take another look at ourselves and pointed out that changes have occurred which affect the response of people in the congregation. Older members respond to challenge and commitment, but younger people have about all of those they can handle. They are looking for community, compassion, and reasonability. He advised us to redefine the role of the secretary, who is in many ways an assistant pastor and he recommended changing the north entrance to the building to put in a choir entrance. Even though we did not implement all his suggestions, we gained much wisdom from his time with us.

I like to relate to the community wherever we live. When we were in Rolfe and in Osceola, I was President of the Chamber of Commerce. In Millersburg I served on the fire department and was a member of the City Council. In Osceola, when the Jimmy Dean plant had a multi-million dollar addition, I served as chairperson of the free pancake and sausage dinner at which we served 3,000 people. Also while I was in Osceola I became a Chaplain with the Iowa State Patrol. I rode with troopers, attended Post meetings, and accompanied them when death notices are taken to families.

All in all, our nine years in Osceola was a wonderful time. Jane's dad had been a school superintendent and the family moved around a lot, but Jane lived longer in Osceola than at any other place. All my appointments have been good, but this one was special. I still run onto people at various places. We considered retiring here but we have discovered that you can never go back.

Richard Piper was an important part of our lives in Osceola. He was the Chief of Police. On the way to Cutty's to go swimming with their family in January 1986, I asked Richard when he was going to come in to visit with me about going into the ministry. His comment was, "Who in the hell have you been talking to?" I said, "I’ve been talking to God." I just let it go at that. Two weeks later he called and asked if I had some free time. I said, "Sure, come on down." After he arrived, we visited for a little bit and he asked if I was really serious about him going into the ministry. I said, "Yes."

We visited about an hour. He wanted to know what steps needed to be taken, and we talked about those. The main thing was that he had to talk to Ruth and the kids. A couple days later, he was back and we started the procedure of moving Richard into the ordained ministry. A charge conference was called for the second Sunday in February of 1986 for the Osceola United Methodist Church to approve Richard to start seminary in the fall at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. While he was a student pastor he was appointed to Pattonsburg, Missouri.

When he was ordained at the Missouri West Annual Conference on May 24, 1990, I was one of the two ministers invited to place hands on him during the ritual. As of July 1, 2001, Rich and his family have moved to Savannah, Missouri, to start his fifth appointment.

In 1990, I again became chairperson of Children's Ministry Agency. In 1992, I wrote a new program to combine Children's Ministries, Adult Ministries, and Family Ministries into what is now called the Age-Level Council. Being chair of that Council put me on the Conference Council of Ministries for eight years.

In 1991, pressure was being put upon me to move, and I accepted an appointment to Broadway United Methodist in Council Bluffs in 1992. I was a transitional minister. The previous minister had been there about 11 years, and the congregation had become lax in meeting their apportionment obligation. During my term they began paying their apportionments in full, and we started to take a look at how to make the church handicapped accessible. That has been accomplished.

The boys, of course, were in school but discovered they were more comfortable in a smaller school and community. They participated in music-Stephen in swing choir, show choir, concert and jazz bands from fifth grade all through high school. Clifton's musical interest was in trombone and he loved to improvise. He won the Louis Armstrong Award for best in improvisational jazz. But over time he tended to lean more toward athletics. He started running and training in cross country track and took up wrestling in his sophomore year. He was in his junior year when we moved to Minburn, and he added football and soccer as conditioners for his wrestling. In his senior year he went to State, which had been his goal. His mother was less than enthusiastic but both boys had done well in music, which was her preference for them, and at that point she allowed them to make their own choice.

Not only for Jane and me but also for the boys, Osceola will always have a significant place in our lives. That is where the boys began Scouting, and we owe Eugene Powell a great deal for keeping them inspired and involved through our various moves. Stephen’s papers were lost once and Clifton's twice. Both boys might have given up, but Eugene insisted that they go to the National Jamboree and helped them find a Council Bluffs troop to go with. He also allowed them to come back and go with the Osceola troop to a summer camp, and Stephen was able to use the Osceola troop when he received his Eagle Scout Award in the Osceola United Methodist Church in September 1995. Clifton was given his Eagle Scout Award in the Minburn United Methodist Church in March 1999.

We were appointed to Keokuk in 1995. It seemed a long ways away. One of our favorite get-away places had become Cutty's just out of Des Moines. That move placed us five hours from our camper there and we were glad to be moved from there to serve the Minburn congregation in 1997. It was at Minburn that I retired.

The family has done quite a lot of traveling during my years in the ministry. While serving in Osceola, I went with Volunteers in Mission team to Costa Rica on a work tour to construct a Methodist parsonage. I had been diagnosed with diabetes in May 1972, and on that trip I became dehydrated and nearly died. Everybody thought it had to do with my diabetes, but actually it was a bug that I'd picked up along the way. When I returned, I spent 15 days in the Osceola hospital. During that time the Osceola congregation rallied in support of me and our family. An especially touching moment was when Rev. Cecil Latta announced that he would serve communion. He was just starting to have some memory loss, and Marjorie helped him. He told Jane that he would not have done it for anyone but me. He would do anything for me.

Our family attended an event arranged by the World Methodist Council to commemorate the 250th anniversary of John Wesley's Aldersgate experience. The boys were seated 25 feet from Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. When I told Stephen there was to be a high dignitary at the meeting, he wrote to Queen Elizabeth prior to our going. Seven days later he had a reply from the Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen, telling him that she hoped he would have a wonderful time in England and at the celebration.

When we got to the meeting place, we were seated on the aisle about 100 rows from the front. An usher came up and told us that he had special seats for the boys because they had come all the way from Iowa to see the Queen. We were ushered to the front. To the right hand side of the Queen, two folding chairs had been placed in front of a pillar. The usher told the boys the chairs were for them. Jane and I sat in a pew at the side. What impressed both boys was that the Queen never smiled. I said, "You are sure? She never even looked at you guys?" and they said, "Well, she did look over and smile at us once." That trip concluded with a train tour of all the important places of John Wesley’s life.

In 1991, our family attended a World Methodist Council meeting in Singapore. We always sat on the front row for the lectures. We arrived at the hall early and the boys saved seats for a couple from Dallas, Texas who stayed at the YMCA, as we did. One morning we were late and they saved seats for us. Being so prominently seated, the boys drew the attention of Maxie Dunham, one of the members of the Council. Maxie is a well-known author of Methodist publications. He had stayed in our home when we were in Humeston, and we were with him on the John Wesley tour. I wish he hadn't withdrawn his name from election for Bishop. He would have made a good one. Dr. Eddie Fox, the World Director for Evangelism in the Council, was also attentive to the boys. We went on to China on our return trip. The tour guides who normally weren't allowed to do such things, asked the boys if they would like to go to the world’s largest McDonald's. They thought it was quite a treat.

Also while serving the Osceola church; I began traveling with Educational Opportunities, which was organized to provide high class but inexpensive educational tours for clergy persons, principally to the Holy Land. I have been to the Holy Land three times, Egypt twice, Jordan once, and to Italy, where I had an audience with the Pope- along with 10,000 others! I was about 10 rows back when he came in and made his speech. I was in Greece, where Paul's first journey had taken him, and to Turkey and Ephesus. I have been to Scandinavian countries and the "Grand Europe" which was a tour that included Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, and France. I have also been to Scotland.

As of June 30, 2001, I have officially retired, and Jane retired at the end of the 2000-2001 school years from her teaching position in Douglas Elementary School. We are looking forward and looking back. We can begin a new life of travel and a variety of opportunities. We have built a town house in the Pleasant Hills' Copper Creek area of Des Moines, on the grounds of what had been the Hallett Construction Company gravel pit, one mile east of the State Fairgrounds. We are right on a 32-acre lake. Our deck is about 125 feet from the water.

Clifton is a junior in Iowa City, enrolled in Bio-medical Engineering. He is part of SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) which designs and competes collegially in automotive events against colleges world wide. These events are sponsored by student raised funds and the events are hosted by the big three auto makers. In 2000 they built a formula SAE car with a project motor from a motorcycle and raced in Detroit. This year, 2001, they were given a Briggs and Stratton motor to power an off-road vehicle with no motor modifications for Troy Ohio. He also plays rugby and wrestles intramural. This past year he won the intramural in his weight class for the University of Iowa and his picture was on the web for Winners of Intramural Events.

Stephen is working as an interior designer. He is employed by Norwalk/the Furniture Idea in the Upper Downtown area in Houston, Texas. This is something he really enjoys and he has done well. In August we are planning a trip to Texas, and hope to see his picture on a billboard featuring one of the $650,000 homes for which he did the interior design. He has been featured in a magazine showing exclusive designs in new homes.

I have been thinking over my 35 years and 10 months in the ministry. I trusted the church and the church has been good to me. There are so many reasons for my being happy to be a minister. I remember wondering how I would prepare a sermon every Sunday, and I have never repeated a sermon, even though I have kept copies of them all.

Leading worship services every Sunday is a joy, especially when I serve communion because it is a divine way of presenting Christ to everyone. Each time I perform a baptism ceremony, I know Christ is welcoming another person into the Christian faith and giving them a faith that will follow them into eternity. I consider everybody equal. Every one is a child of God and I am helping them discover that. It has been a privilege to have touched many lives and to see their Christian growth.

When I conduct a wedding ceremony, it is not something done for the state. The prayer unites the two and they become one. A funeral always reminds me that I am given the privilege of honoring a parent, a friend, or a child, and I am saying as Jesus did, "I go to prepare a place for you." That person is receiving life eternal and resurrection.

Whenever I bend down to listen to a child, I remember how Jesus said, "Let the children come to me," and that child, then, begins to know Jesus. When I make hospital visitations and touch a feverish hand, I know I am touching a person where the surgeon's scalpel can never go.

When I make visitation in homes, I don't see the carpet, the color, or the clutter. I only see what Jesus saw when he went to Bethany and visited in Lazarus', Martha's and Mary's home on his way to Jerusalem. I don't see people as perspective members or givers, but I see them as wanting to know Jesus Christ and wanting to have him in their lives.

When I enter the pulpit and open the Bible or scrolls, I picture how Jesus said, "Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." The issue is not whether I have preached a good sermon, but have I fulfilled Christ's commandment? That is my prayer.

As a retired pastor, I will still be serving as Chaplain for the Patrol, preaching on call in churches, filling in at funerals. I have already been asked if I would mind being called in such cases. Like John Wesley said, "The world is my parish." Retired or not, I still see the world as my parish and wherever I am, I can minister formally and informally. Formally, this Sunday I will be filling in for Karen Merrill at Christ and Marquisville United Methodist Churches; informally, whenever I am in a group of two or more people my life is a witness for Christ.