Writings By Phil

Old Mayfair Inn, Sanford, Florida December 17, 2017

I walked the darkened hall remembering many similar walks over 40 years ago. Like then, the building was deserted, but unlike long ago, a few emergency lights illuminated my path over the uneven floors. I remembered how, as a young man, my nerves were on edge, my hair standing up on the back of my neck as the creaks and groans of the old building reached though the darkness and grabbed my ears. I didn’t believe in ghosts, but back then vagrants were a real possibility and darkness made the familiar, seem sinister. I had volunteered to help remodel the old hotel into the mission’s home office while I waited for my visa to go to Colombia as a missionary.

Before the mission acquired it, the place was home to The Sanford Naval Academy, a boarding school for boys from sixth to twelfth grade. Some locals called it a reformatory for rich kids! The school closed in 1976. After that, the building was abandoned and sat empty for months before New Tribes Mission bought it in 1977.

Forty years later, it was abandoned again, the last missionary families having moved to new dwellings on or off mission property. In just days it would be sold, the new owners determined to restore its former glory as an upscale hotel and wedding and conference venue.

I entered the cavernous lobby. Ahead of me, framed between giant pillars and overhead beams, loomed my favorite feature of the old hotel, the grand staircase. Long ago, locals told us that Scarlet O’Hare once graced those steps. That turned out to be fake news. I watched the movie twice, and the staircase was not there! It didn’t matter: she was gone with the wind!

I remembered that every afternoon, the women from the former missionary training center in Oviedo came over and carefully scrapped and sanded layers of old paint off every spindle, banister, and step. Hours of work, yes, but oh so beautiful when the old cypress was restored to the way God intended wood to look. More recently, I remembered that some of the wedding photos of our son, Cody and his bride, Beka, were taken on those stairs!

I glanced into the corner, and though long gone, in my mind’s eye, I could still see two old pianos. Both had been severely abused by former cadets. They were missing keys, and one was stripped of its front covers leaving the hammers and strings exposed. We were working 10 and 12 hours a days in the rush to get the building finished so that mission could move down from Wisconsin, but on my lunch break, I recut keys from one piano to replace those missing on the other. There was no air conditioning in the building back then, and it was a hot humid summer. The only way my remade piano would work was to keep a light bulb burning inside of it. That was hard to do when tools and equipment for remodeling the building were in short supply. Workers kept “stealing” my extension cord to do their work during the day and at night when I tried to play, the keys were sticking together, killing what little action it had left. When it worked, I played with illumination from a work light that brightened my corner, but little else in the capacious room. Sometimes I got scared, killed my light and fled from unknown noises, the rumpus chasing me down the long dark hallway. It was always a relief to crash through the exit door and take a breath of night air!

Tonight, things were better! I entered the chapel and turned the dimmer switch up just enough to to see. I opened the top of the grand piano. I began to play, Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! Yes my sins are gone! Now my soul is free and in my heart’s a song. Buried in the deepest sea, yes that’s good enough for me. I shall live eternally. Praise God, my sins are G-O-N-E gone! I needed to be reminded, again, of God’s goodness to me and his grace that forgives my sins.

I played more songs. I knew I was alone in the old building and playing loud would not bother anyone. I liked the top up and the music loud! From somewhere in the darkness- maybe from the far side of the room, or perhaps from the balcony where the hotel orchestra used to sit, or was it on the other side of the door where the stairs led to second floor- I didn’t know, I kept hearing noises; creaks and cracks, disturbance that I could not explain.

“Maybe I do have an audience!” I thought.

“Stop being silly!” I chided myself.

Finally, I reached my limit. I was spooked! I shut everything up and hurried down the long hall, tripping time and again over the warped floor, rushed though the empty offices and out the back door to my truck. It was eerie, in more ways than one, but history just repeated itself and I was so glad to be outside in the fresh night air.

---

Remembering our past can be fun, but history and its merits become profitable only if they change the way we are headed for the better. We learn from mistakes, but its instructive value comes only as we change our wrong behavior. We need a work of God’s Spirit in our hearts and lives to see real and lasting change.

Forty years is a long time! New Tribes Mission resided in this building all those years, dedicated to taking the Gospel message of change to people groups all around the globe. The Bible was translated into many languages during that time and its message changed many lives; God in Heaven calling out a people for His name! You know, all who come through Jesus Christ have real hope and a future, one without fear, and all can know that their sins are Gone, Gone, Gone!