Drivers-Stories-3

       A Tribute to a Faithful Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
   Henry R. Suderman
    November 13, 1911 - October 17, 2007.

2 Timothy 4:7. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”
At age 16, Henry accepted the Lord as his personal Saviour, and faithfully continued to follow the Lord’s leading through out his life.
He was an excellent example to his children and grandchildren and anyone who ever met him.
Henry was born in Southern Russia in 1911 and immigrated with his family to Canada in 1924, settling in Oakville, Manitoba, where he farmed with his family. Henry and his sisters moved from Manitoba to British Columbia in 1936 settling in the Sardis area of the Fraser Valley.
In 1941 Henry started in the logging industry, where he worked as a “grease monkey” and was promoted to driving logging trucks a short time afterward. He continued driving, either logging or freight trucks until 1954. From 1954 until 1970 Henry farmed in the Camp River and Rosedale areas. In 1970 the family sold the farm and moved into Chilliwack where Henry drove school bus until he retired in 1981.
The Suderman family have blessed us, and the Chilliwack Transport For Christ Crossroads Chapel in so many different ways.
We are so thankful to Henry’s wife Margaret and her friend Tiena for their faithfulness in making cookies for the chapel. Many truckers have often expressed their appreciation for this act of kindness to them.
These dear ladies have found a unique way to minister the love of Christ to the trucking industry.
Henry Senior’s son, Henry (Hank) Suderman has a wonderful web site of truck pictures.     http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/
Also a sincere thank you to Hank Suderman for the many ways he contributes to the ministry of Transport For Christ here in Chilliwack.

Submitted by:
Lead Chaplain Mike Foisy & Florence.
Chaplain Angus Meservia & Barb.
Transport for Christ, Crossroads Chapel
Chilliwack, B.C. V2P 4J1
Phone 1-604-792-2932.
http://www.transportforchristbc.org/

A Faithful Cowboy
Story of Carl Wilcox

By Chaplain Sam McIntosh

I met Pastor Carl Wilcox in August 2006. Carl was the type of man that looked you right in the eye; you knew immediately that he was a brother in Christ, because the love of Christ radiated from his face. I met him when I went to the Cowboy Church (www.cowboychurch.ca) for the first time, and we were friends right from the start. He joined us in our love of Transport For Christ and we joined him in his love of the Cowboy Church.

I learned soon after meeting Carl that he had just been diagnosed with cancer. He didn’t want any kind of treatment that would cloud his mind and make him unable to preach. Carl loved to preach and he did it very well. He was an evangelist through and through. I could go on for a long time about Carl’s attributes but I’ll just say Carl was a very faithful prayer partner for Transport For Christ.

I will miss Carl, until that day when our Lord comes, or as Carl put it, until I get promoted. The following is a part of Carl’s life story given to me by Sylvia, Carl’s lovely wife, and with the exception of Carl being in the military and being a cowboy; his story is a lot like my own. Carl took to being a cowboy and I took to trucking.

Carl lived a very interesting life and wore many hats on his journey. Carl was raised on a dairy farm and enjoyed sports, playing baseball and football on his school teams. His aunt from the city took him to the Smithsonian Institute and other places to try to add a little culture to his life. However he preferred to go to the ballpark to watch the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants play.

Just before he turned seventeen, he joined the Marines. Carl had been around the world by the time he turned eighteen. He served in the communications field and did a lot of sea duty. While stationed in San Diego, he moonlighted at a ranch as a cowpuncher (cowboy). When he left the Marines he continued to work on a ranch: and in 1965, he bought twenty-five acres at Barnhartvale, British Columbia, and called it the “Big Horn Training Ranch.”

He met Sylvia that summer and they were married in November of that year. He trained and rode cutting horses and also rode bareback bronc's in rodeos. Along the way he became a certified Ferrier (someone who makes and fits horseshoes). All of this left him unfulfilled, and his growing attraction to alcohol grew. Because of his affection for alcohol some problems arose in his marriage.
Carl could see that if he wanted to keep his family together he’d have to make some changes. On September 29, 1968, Sylvia and Carl knelt at the couch of a pastor and received Christ as their Savior.

The adventure continued but not without struggles, but this time Carl and Sylvia had faith in God to help them. Over the next several years, Carl attended school and seminary and began to pastor. With four children now, Sylvia and Carl needed enough money to support themselves so Carl went to auctioneering school in Billings, Montana.
He opened Wilcox Auctions in Lloydminster, Alberta, where he and Sylvia stayed until 2000.

He pastured at different churches in Alberta until early 2004, when he retired to Edmonton and took a non - pastoring job. He longed to be preaching, however, and this is why I wanted to put Carl’s story in Highway News and Good News. I see Carl as positive proof that if, once you commit your life to the Lord, you stay true to that commitment, God will bless you. Although they didn’t know each other before, Kevin Corbin asked Carl to co-pastor The Cowboy Church in Sherwood Park, Alberta, in November 2005. To end his days as a cowboy and pastor was God’s special gift to Carl for his faithfulness to his commitment.

Sylvia and Carl celebrated forty years of marriage last summer knowing full well what was coming down the pike. The cancer diagnosis was confirmed and Carl fought the last battle of his life. Carl died on December 16, 2006, at home with his beloved family around him. Before he died, Carl had prayed and asked the Lord when he would go home, and he said he thought the Lord said the seventeenth. So as he got weaker, he would ask each day, “What day is it?” On the fifteenth, he just rubbed his hands together and grinned.

Carl was a faithful prayer partner. He only phoned me once and that was to apologize for not praying for me and the Transport For Christ Chapel in Sherwood Park the day before. He was an amazing man who loved the Lord with all his heart.

If you have made a commitment or are considering a commitment to the Lord, or if you are thinking about working with us in getting the good news of the gospel out there, I can only suggest to you not to wait, as the blessings are wonderful. I am blessed almost every day that I’m on duty at the chapel. And maybe just maybe God will have a special gift for you as He did for Carl.

Sam McIntosh is lead chaplain at Northern Light Chapel in Sherwood Park, Alberta.

Reprinted with permission from “Highway News and Good News” a monthly magazine published by Transport For Christ. http://www.transportforchrist.org/