16 Phoenix at McKinley St

Dwain Swanson

That summer was unbelievably hot! Or at least it seemed so me. I remember getting up to get breakfast before going to work in the morning just before sunrise and it was still 92°F. I thought to myself, “Doesn’t this place ever cool off?”

As we continued through that long hot summer some of those we had met and shared the Gospel with joined with us in out ministry to the lost youth in Phoenix. A can’t remember all the names now. I suppose too much time has passed. But I can see all their faces indelibly etched in my memory. I’ve always been better with faces than names. Also with the new brethren moving into our communal house some of us began heading back to Oregon to repeat the cycle of joining a team, training for seven months then going our to a new American city to start a new Shiloh house.

Our head deacon Greg Kopan was the first to go. Our Exhorter, Jake Wegelin was also transferred to Oregon to go on another team as well. One of the other brothers, Duffy Sullivan became the head deacon. In Shiloh the office of Exhorter was kind of like being a junior deacon. One was to serve the others more and bear more responsibility to minister both to the brethren and those to whom we offered temporary housing. Soon, Ted called me into his room/office to lay hands on me in prayer to be an Exhorter. The thing that really stands out in my mind is the hesitancy that was very apparent in his manner. To me it seemed that he felt it was the necessary and right thing to do but that he had personal reservations about it. But he did lay hands on my in prayer asking God anoint me for that office.

It was also the summer of ’73 that the Holy Spirit gave me a song. I used to borrow a guitar to practice. One afternoon as I was playing I began repeating a certain chord progression. I said to God, “That sounds really nice.” The Holy spirit responded, “Turn to Psalm 39.” When I did I found that the chords fit perfectly in verses four through eight. One of the new brothers named Lowell Fernandez really liked it and shared it with the brethren in Oregon when he went north. It ended up in the “Songs of Shiloh”, a collection of songs written by various brothers and sisters in Shiloh. But by then my authorship was lost and it is anonymous. Somehow I think that is appropriate. That way God gets the glory.

Remember that I had lost my glasses on the beach at San Francisco on the trip south from Oregon. Well since I was a deacon I needed to get an Arizona driver’s license and that meant I needed to get glasses. There was a free clinic not too far from the house on McKinley so several of us went down there one evening. I went to try to get a prescription for eyeglasses and I think there were a few ailments that needed treatment as well. Of course there were a lot of street people there and we had to wait a while to be seen. In the meantime, each of us sought to strike up conversations in hopes of sharing Jesus with some of the kids there. There was one guy playing a guitar and singing while we waited. That was pretty common in those days. At one point I asked if I could share a song. He said, “O.K.” and handed over the guitar. I played and sang song called, “Warm Morning Sunshine” written by a Shiloh brother named Kenny Ortize who is now the Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Spokane, Washington. I hoped it would serve to plant a few seeds of the Gospel in some of the hearts there. These days it’s hard to imagine being so bold.

Once I had the prescription for the glasses I found some pretty cool old fashion wire frames in a thrift shop and soon had my glasses and a driver’s license. It was about this time the Shiloh has a whole began to buy 15 passenger vans and distribute them to the various houses. The idea was to have a network of vans to shuttle Shiloh members from house to house so that they would not have to hitchhike everywhere they went. There were several times the van from the Albuquerque house would bring a group of brethren to Phoenix then return to Albuquerque. The brethren would spend the night with us and the next day I would drive them to the San Diego house and return. We’d leave no later than 4:00 a.m. to get across the desert before it go too hot arriving in S.D. a little before noon. We’d then rest at S.D. for the afternoon and leave about 4:00 p.m. so the sun would be down by then time we were deep in the Mojave desert arriving back in Phoenix a little before midnight.

We had some pretty heavy thunderstorms that summer too! I remember one time the house was hit with lightening during a Bible Study. I was sitting near the swamp cooler and saw a fountain of sparks erupt out of it just as all out lights went out. The next morning we went out to survey the damage. There were palm trees out front along the street. One of them had two strips of bark peeled off from top to bottom. One on the side closest to the street and one on the side facing the house. We figured that the lightening must have gone through that tree on the way to our house. Then we turned around.

The roof of the house was made up of sections of aluminum sheeting. One of them was curled up from the edge of the house about half way to the peak of the roof. The bolt of lightening must have hit that very panel. We were all glad the house was mostly made of inflammable brick and mortar.

Also that summer a couple of Christian girls who were juniors at a local high school wanted to join with us. We explained that since they were under age they could only join on two conditions. First, they had to have written permission from their parents, and two, they had to go to school and finish high school with a diploma even while living and serving with us. The two got their written permission. They were Gayle Maddock and Teri Hall.

Jan Canova made sure that they did their share of the house work along with getting their studies done. It was certainly not a free, fun time ride in the local Christian commune.

On thing became very apparent as more people joined the Phoenix Shiloh House. We were all very different. Actually we were all completely incompatible. The only thing that brought us together was the calling to serve Jesus Christ and spread His gospel. In a way it made our individual growth in the faith more rapid. You see in order to get along, we each had to die to ourselves and put the others ahead of us. I remember a conversation with a sister named Bonnie Bogert. She said that she hated communal living but that she also knew that the Shiloh house was where God wanted her to be. She was willing to put up with the communal living if that was what it took for her to obey His calling on her life.

Loving God more than ourselves made the difference. Because we loved Him we also loved our brothers and sisters more than we loved ourselves too. After all Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35 NKJV)

Sometime that year (I’m can’t recall exactly when) our landlord told Ted that he had a bigger house available on 912 E. Garfield St. So we moved again.

To be continued…..

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