by Alan Langstaff

Recently, I was watching one of my favorite teachers on TV, David Jeremiah. He was talking about his father and recalled a time when his father, who was then growing older, said (I can’t remember the exact words, but in essence said), “Most of my friends are now in heaven.”

I couldn’t help thinking about what his father said, because I, too, am getting older, as I will be 91 in February, and most of my friends are now in heaven.

Friends from years ago in Australia, I find, are dying too as my generation fades away.

I thank God for friends, they are very precious, and I thank God so many of them take their time and trouble to come and visit me. I don’t drive anymore, and therefore I am housebound. Their friendship across the years has enriched my life, and as I said, I thank God for friends, especially friends in Christ.

Let me tell you about one such friend. It is from the book “The Best Is Yet To Be.” In the book, I don’t mention his name, but now that he is in heaven, I feel I should. You can buy the book on Amazon.

LAWRENCE SCHRAM

In 2020, I was asked by the Assemblies of God if I would be the interim Pastor of an Assemblies of God Church (later called Church on the Hill) in Chaska. You can read the full story in the book “The Best Is Yet To Be.” We, as a church, were faced with the need for a miracle. This is the story.

“One of the big challenges facing the church was the property we were currently renting. The property was a beautiful, open field of some six to seven acres on a main road. It was on the crest of a hill, and you looked down towards the historic city of Chaska. The church had been built by Discovery United Methodist Church in the early 1990s. They had, however, moved to purchase a larger church in nearby Chanhassen. Numerous churches and ministries had rented the facilities over a number of years, but by now, New Life Church was the sole renter.

I soon learned that there was a contract to purchase the property that the previous pastor had arranged. It was an agreement to buy the church by May 2010, which was just three months away. There had originally been a benefactor who was going to help towards the down payment, but he was no longer on the scene. It was obvious that this small congregation of 60 or so people was not going to be able to raise the finances needed to complete the purchase by May.

We met with the leaders of Discovery United Methodist Church, and they agreed to extend the contract for another six months to October 2010, to give us more time to see what we could do to raise the needed funds. They felt if we could raise $100,000 by then, perhaps a bank would loan us a good portion of the money needed, based on the value of the property, and then they would help with a second mortgage.

So we opened what we called a Third Well Property Fund. Joy graphically depicted it on a chart in the church foyer, and people began to give. At the same time, we began to pray that God would give us a gift of faith to believe for a miracle. We approached our bank, and quite understandably, considering the recession in the country at the time, they were not prepared to loan us anything.

By August, about $30,000 had been raised, which actually was pretty good for a church of our size. I was away one weekend for ministry at the Glory Barn near Staples, Minnesota. It was located at the home of Jon and Amy Claussen, a medical doctor and his homeschooling wife, whom I had married some years before. They lived on a beautiful property and had built a large, barn-like structure that was used for weekend meetings.

While I was there, I felt the Lord speak to me to call the church to 30 days of prayer and fasting during the month of September to seek the Lord for the property. I didn’t expect everyone to fast every day, but to pick days in the month to add fasting to their prayers. Each Friday night, Pastor David led us in a Harp and Bowl prayer and worship time. After a week or two, an interesting thing happened, and the focus gradually changed from seeking God for the property to simply seeking God. In turn, God began to work mightily in people’s lives in miraculous ways.

However, October came when we were to sit down with the Methodist leaders to report on where we were at financially. The meeting was set for Monday, October 22nd, at New Life Church. One of the incredible things about this story is the timing of it all. To see how it happened, let me set out the timetable of all that took place.

On Thursday, October 18th, I met in a coffee shop in Chanhassen with Bob, the representative of Discovery United Methodist Church. I said, “Bob, I am sorry, but we have not been able to raise the funds in time. Maybe there is something else we can do.” I wanted them to have time to consider other alternatives before the scheduled Monday meeting. Both of us were naturally disappointed that it had not worked out as we had hoped.

On Friday morning, October 19th, I met a businessman, a friend of mine for some 20 years, for a previously arranged breakfast at the Hilltop Restaurant in Excelsior near where we lived. As always, we had a good time talking. At the end of the meal, he looked at me and simply said, “What is on your agenda?”

I quickly replied, “I don’t have an agenda. We are just meeting to share some time together.”

The conversation then turned to the church property. He was quite familiar with property matters, having bought and sold property himself. The church property had originally been valued at 1.3 million dollars by Carver County, and that was the original asking price. It was not a big building, but it was positioned on a beautiful piece of land in a desirable suburb. However, with the recession, the price had been reduced to one million dollars.

So my friend looked me straight in the eye, and in a matter-of-fact voice said, “If the United Methodist church will drop their price a quarter of a million dollars to $750,000, then I will give you $100,000.”

I was somewhat taken aback by his offer, and all I could initially splutter was, “Are you serious?” He assured me he was. As soon as breakfast was over, I hurried home to call Bob, the Methodist church representative, and told him what had just happened. He agreed to go back to his church leaders and see what they thought.

On Saturday, October 20th, and Sunday, October 21st, I was up in Walker in northern Minnesota to minister in a church pastored by a longtime friend, Dawn Lundgren. I stayed with Dawn and her husband Ed in their beautiful home overlooking a picturesque lake. On Sunday afternoon after church, I drove to the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park. I had always wanted to visit there. Unfortunately, while driving there, I was flagged by the police for speeding. Thankfully, the offer showed mercy, and I didn’t get the ticket I deserved.

While I was away, I asked Dorothy to call the church congregation to pray for the meeting with the Methodists on Monday evening.

On Monday, October 22nd, I drove back to the Twin Cities with a certain excitement, wondering what was going to happen. When I arrived back home, I discovered that there was an important email awaiting me from a foundation that we had been introduced to by a member of the congregation earlier that summer. David and I had met with them in August and laid out the situation, hoping they could help us, but we had not heard anything back since the original meeting.

The email amazed us as the foundation was writing to let us know they had considered our situation and were prepared to lend us, at an interest-only rate for three years, all the money that we needed to buy the property. At that stage, they still thought it would be one million dollars.

That night, we met with the leadership team of the United Methodist Church. They had agreed to drop the price to $750,000, so together with the gift of $100,000, our cost was now down to just $650,000 – half the original asking price.

The real estate agent and the lawyers got busy, and on a snowy Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, Joy accompanied me to the closing in downtown Chaska. Joy had been in mortgage banking and was a great help in walking me through all I needed to know and do. Then we were in for another surprise. The foundation wanted to further help the church, so they no only committed an additional $2,000 a month, they gave the church $10,000 right there at the closing. I was stunned. This would enable Pastor David to move into the position of becoming the next senior pastor in the not-too-distant future.

That night, Thanksgiving eve, we had a Thanksgiving service at New Life Church. We were all in awe, not only about what God had done, but also the whole timing of it, as it all came together in the final hours leading up to the meeting with the Methodists, when we had to have the means to fulfill the contract.”

The businessman and friend was Lawrence Schram, and we thank God for him. 

LAWRENCE SCHRAM

I first met Lawrence when I was pastoring Antioch Christian Fellowship in Eden Prairie. I still remember he and his wife taking me out to have a meal at a steakhouse. We finished it up with a slice of New York cheesecake.

Later, when I became the interim pastor at the church in Chaska, I didn’t meet him initially, as he and his wife would spend the winter in Arizona. When he returned that spring, I got to know him, and he came not only to church on Sunday but to the Men’s Group and the mid-week Bible Study.

I have already shared the story of his wonderful financial gift to the church. Eventually, I stepped down from the church, but we still maintained contact.

Then, in 2024, his wife died, and it was a great blow as the loss of a spouse is generally like that.

By that time, I was housebound. He still came over regularly for lunch, which he bought on the way, and we shared many a time together. It was very obvious he missed his wife, and I would relate to him in that 2 years ago, my wife went to heaven.

Lawrence was a unique person who helped many people and ministries. He was what might be called “a character,” and that is a positive description. He was an evangelist and was always telling people about Jesus.

He was many things: a businessman, a loving husband and a family man, a benevolent giver, and above all, a Christian believer. Now he is in heaven, seeing Jesus and also his wife and his friends.

I, too, will see him again sometime soon.

A CLOSING THOUGHT

When I was pastoring Antioch Christian Fellowship we had a Christian School called Maranatha. I remember at one of the school’s events, they sang the song popularized by Michael W. Smith. I always remember the words: “Friends are friends forever.”

True friends are just that. “Friends are friends forever.”