Forever Grateful

January 21, 2024

“Do you like peanut butter on your pancakes?”

I was a guest at a graduation party and had just been introduced by a mutual friend to a man some years my junior. When he heard my name, he eyed me quizzically and asked that question. Then he asked another. “Did some people used to call you Beetle Bailey?” When I answered affirmatively to both questions, he suddenly jumped forward, wrapped his arms around me in a big bear hug and said, “You’re my spiritual father! I’ve been looking for you for thirty years!” I was speechless. 

It was 1968 when Larry Rieck, my college roommate, suggested that I might want to be a counselor at the Christian camp just down the road from his home in Spring Creek, PA, which is why that summer, I found myself driving up the long dirt road to Miracle Mountain Ranch. I was introduced to Dale and Opal Linebaugh, the founders, and to Duffy, the trick rider, Earl, the general handyman and ranch hand, and to various other members of the team. My job was to be counselor to a cabin of 8-12 year old boys.

One of the expectations of the counselors was to go from bunk to bunk in our cabins at lights-out and pray with the boys. I did so, talking about Jesus, what it meant to ask him to be our Savior and Lord before praying with and for each boy. It wasn’t uncommon to have three or four boys each week pray to receive Jesus Christ into their hearts. We would follow up these decisions with notes and cards, but over time, I lost track of them. Until that introduction at a graduation party.

Today I had the privilege of preaching at Bethel Baptist Church in Lakewood, NY. Last week, the secretary sent me the order of service and told me Larry Crook would be introducing me to the congregation. Larry is my spiritual son. He told about me liking peanut butter on my pancakes, and kindly left out the part about Beetle Bailey. He told me of his children walking with God, and that his daughter would be moving back into the area as her husband has accepted the call to pastor Bethel church.

Before I stepped into the pulpit, Larry presented me with a book written by Dale Linebaugh, an autobiography of how God called him to found Miracle Mountain, led him to earn his PhD, become president of Practical Bible Institute, and has been faithful for over fifty years. Dale passed away last year. I only knew Dale for the two years I worked at Miracle Mountain Ranch, but his influence lives on in the lives of those he touched.

But even if the book were filled with blank pages, I would still treasure it for the inscription on the flyleaf:

“To Jim “Beetle” Bailey,

I will literally be FOREVER grateful 

for your service to the Lord!

Thanks you for introducing me to Jesus.

Your spiritual son,

Larry Crook

Sometimes people wonder if working with children makes any difference. After all, they’re only children and can’t make responsible decisions at their age. I know better. Larry did it, and he is forever a changed man. And I am humbled to know God used a teenage counselor those years ago to be a part of a miracle. Larry isn’t the only one forever grateful.