A Sea Captain's Sacrifice

(from the August 2003 issue)

by Gary Burns

"It takes a partnership between home and church and school all working together to prepare our children for a life of service."

A licensed master of oceans and vessels, George's father was the personal captain to the Du Pont family. It was during the toughest times near the end of the depression that he gave up his job security, $75 a week, a car, and a furnished home on the Du Pont estate for $15 a week as a deck hand on an oil barge. In addition, he turned down the offer from the Du Pont family to educate his children as their own, sending them to the most prestigious schools in the country, including their choice of Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Why? Because of personal conviction. For the love of his God, his church, and his family.

Leaving the estate, the family moved to Sparrows Point, near Baltimore, and set up living quarters in a tent. The first priority beyond food and shelter was to provide a Christian education for the children. But how? "The Lord will provide," Momma said.

The man who walked the decks of beautiful yachts now walked the dingy streets of a steel mill town. One day a well-dressed man walking his dogs approached, passed by, then turned around and said, "Do you need a place to live?" The captain did not have to explain his circumstances; somehow the stranger knew. In exchange for caring for the "clubhouse" the man offered it as home to the family for the winter. Momma was right.

With hard work and each one willing to sacrifice, they scraped up enough money to send George's older sister to Shenandoah Valley Academy in Virginia. Later George declared: "I want to go to academy, too." In faith, George joined his sister. "The Lord will provide," Momma said. During a school break, George hitchhiked to Baltimore, arriving at 6:00 a.m. As he made his way through the streets past the building where his mother worked, he discovered her down on her knees scrubbing the white marble steps. "It was then that I realized how deep her commitment was and what I must do back at school as my part," George said.

That commitment still didn't provide enough to cover the cost of college, so George had to work five different jobs on campus. Still $50 short at mid-year registration, he feared he would have to leave school. After presenting his need to the Lord three times on his night watch run, he went to his job of sorting the dorm mail. There in the stack of letters was an envelope addressed to him. Fifty dollars spilled out along with a note. "The Lord impressed me that you needed this money," the anonymous friend wrote. Momma was right again.

Because his parents valued Christian education and were willing to make great personal sacrifices for it, and because there were teachers and mentors who took an interest in him, George Akers committed his life to serving the church as dean of boys, principal, teacher, college dean and president, university professor, and General Conference education director.

George is a precious friend. He was my college president, my teacher, my mentor, and my advisor. So I too, am indebted to the sea captain and his wife for their decision and commitment to Christian education.

Lost at Sea

While Captain Akers stepped off the deck of his ship for his faith and his family, Wayne's father abandoned his family for the adventure of sailing the seas as a merchant marine. With two children and one on the way, Wayne's mom struggled to keep them warm and fed.

But "... a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling" (Psalm 68:5 NIV).

To this struggling little family with only a mustard seed of hope, God sent John. The year Captain Akers moved his family to a tent, John packed up his wife and nine children into the back of the old Ford truck and made his way across the Dakota plains in search of Christian education for his children. They settled in the Walla Walla valley, the tenth child being born on the way.

A strong supporter of Adventist education, he was elected chairman of the Milton Church School. He visited with Wayne's mom and told her that Wayne needed to be in church school. Wayne's Mom told him she had no money and received no support from her husband. John said he would see what he could do and then made arrangements for Wayne's tuition to be paid from the fourth through the eighth grades.

John not only raised and educated his own ten children, but he became a "father" and mentor to Wayne who was able to work off most of his tuition at the academy. The families were legally joined when Wayne married John's daughter, Hazel. After receiving two special departmental scholarships, Wayne Burns completed his degree in physical therapy at Loma Linda University and served at Kettering Medical Center, later becoming its administrative director of rehabilitation medicine.

I remember those days when my father was in college. I remember the sacrifices he and Mom made so that my sister and I could be in church school. We called it church school because it was the church that embraced the responsibility of educating its children for service in God's kingdom.

It is in the context of church school that children can find mentors and heros that champion our faith—modeling sacrifice, commitment, and service. It is the Christian teacher living by God's Spirit that is prepared "in season" for that moment of maximum teachability, when lives are transformed and creative energies are applied to advancing God's kingdom.

Early in our church's history, we discovered the value of a distinctly Adventist Christian education. We knew that unless our children were "taught of the Lord" and given the highest goals of self denial and sacrificial service for the sake of the gospel, they might be swallowed up in the mire of a self-serving, secular culture. We knew that it takes a partnership between home and church and school all working together to prepare our children for a life of service.

Our Captain gave the supreme sacrifice that we might live. It is to model His sacrifice that many deny themselves so that every child can receive a Christian education.