David
Anderson,
City Editor for the Oroville Mercury-Register put it most
poignantly in his article: Pastor's Motorcycle Death Stuns Community :
saying, The Thursday afternoon (August 26, 2004) traffic death of a
well known, widely loved and highly respected local pastor has plunged
the Oroville community into shock and grief.
This page is dedicated to our Paje de
Armas, Pastor Don North. He
was our Pastor in Oroville, where we live. We are blessed to have two
church homes, Trinity Bible Church when we are able to be home and
Adobe Christian Center when we are in Petaluma. Ron knew Pastor Don
four and a half years, but we only came to develop a relationship with
him over a year a half period of time beginning February 2003. It is
amazing how God can blend hearts in such an astoundingly short period
of time. We were truly blessed and very honored to know Pastor Don. We
could never find words to express all he meant to us, let alone attempt
to describe how he impacted the lives of those he knew for many, many
years. We are grieved beyond description at the deep loss but
immeasurably better for having known him. By his life and occasionally
with words, Pastor Don intensified our desire to know the Lord in a
deeper and more intimate way, and to seek to understand what the
Kingdom of God here on earth "looks like." One of his
favorite quotes was "God is building His Kingdom on gifts of friendship"
(from John Dawson) and
it
certainly is a legacy that he leaves us.
Scripture Verse: But whatever things
were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the
surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I
may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of
my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.
Philippians 3:7-9
Our sincere desire is to bring honor
and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by honoring one of His
precious servants. The intent of the following synopsis is to give a
small reflection of the great ways that God used a man who was
"recklessly abandoned" to Him through his humility, single-mindedness,
and ability to live his values. Donna, Ben & Bernadette, Keli, Tim
& Annie, Nathan, Eric and Andrew we love you and thank you for the
many hours you sacrificed with your husband and dad so he could impact
us and his world the way he did.
Following
are
highlights of the service held in Pastor Don's memory on Saturday,
September 4, 2004.
So
fittingly, the memorial service opened with Worship to our Lord and
King. Ted and Laurie Leinhart led us to the throne room of God: the
only place we could come with our heavy hearts to receive the shalom
and encouragement only our Father can provide.
After worship, Reverend Ed Redfern,
the Senior Pastor of Oroville Church of the Nazarene, expressed briefly
his deep sense of grief over the loss of his long time friend and
fellow Pastor. Rev. Ed has been a personal friend and co-laborer with
Pastor Don for more than 25 years. He also read certificates from the
Oroville Council and Assembly expressing appreciation and gratitude for
Pastor Don's contribution to the community.
Reverend Leonard Lee, Pastor Don's
brother-in-law, began by sharing that Pastor Don was the jar of clay,
and the only thing of importance with the jar of clay was how well it
holds the Treasure of Jesus Christ. Pastor Don held the Treasure well.
He explained that the service to follow would weave a story, with each
speaker sharing a piece of the picture that would paint a portrait of
this "simple but enormously complex man" whose life glorified God and
incalculably impacted his world for the Kingdom.
Pastor Don was born Peter Donald North
on February 6, 1949. Rich North, Pastor Don's brother, reflected
on the early years revealing that he was intense, driven and full of
mischief even back then when his raw warrior spirit was being
developed. It was during his high school years that he met the love of
his life - - Donna Lambert. They were married on
 |
May 10, 1971 and later came to Oroville California, where
Pastor Don's father and mother (Pete and Leona) were serving as
Associate Pastors to Pastor Carl Minnick of Trinity Bible Church.
Pastor Don began serving as Youth Pastor at Trinity, but was busy
making plans to leave Oroville and serve the Lord in much more
grandiose ways than he could in this small community.
|
However, God
had different plans. During a service Pastor Don made a commitment to
serve with a ministry that would lead him to the greater world reach
that he so desired, but God quietly told him no. Long after the service
ended and everyone went home, Pastor Don sat alone wrestling with God.
After several hours of struggling, he submitted to the Lord's plan and
stayed in Oroville. Much to his chagrin he later learned that he was
not only to stay in Oroville, but he was to become the Senior Pastor
when Pastor Carl Minnick retired. This decision also came at the end of
much arguing and grappling with God. One of his arguments was: I don't
love these people and I don't even want to. But, again he submitted to
Almighty God. God did such a precious and heart-changing work in this
young man, that anyone you would speak with today would say; "I didn't
just know him, he was my friend." His favorite quote, God is building
His Kingdom on gifts of friendship, was not something he just thought
sounded good - - he lived it. You also didn't have to know Pastor Don
very long to know that he loved Oroville. This did not happen
overnight, but somewhere between the late 70's (when he schemed at
least once every 3-4 years with his good friend, peer and then Youth
Pastor, Ed Redfern, to leave Oroville) and now, he developed a deep
love and commitment to the city of Oroville.
Reverend Carl
Minnick also shed light on Pastor Don's years as Youth Pastor and the
struggle to accept the call to Senior Pastor. But, more notably he
challenged the more than 700 in attendance with the story of Elisha
from II Kings 2; pronouncing, "someone needs to pick up the mantle."
Reverend Phil Hillier (cousin in-law) shared a tough challenge as well.
God says: "I looked for a man to stand in the gap and found none.
(Ezekiel 28:30) Would you be that man? Both these challenges give a
good indication of the man that Pastor Don was, a man who lived his
life in such a way that it demanded a commitment from others.
Pastor Don was
committed to seeing the Kingdom of God advanced in his church, his
city, the region and beyond. Reverend Larry Lane and Reverend Gaylord
Enns, close friends and fellow servants with Pastor Don on various
regional teams, added their experiences over many years along with
insightful observations to the portrait of Pastor Don. Reverend Larry
Lane reflected that Pastor Don built the kingdom by his presence. He
was revered by many as the "Bishop of Oroville" due to his commitment
and endless service to the church and community at large. He served on
the Regional Leadership Team, on the Board of Directors for the School
of Transformation and was part of the Pray California Facilitation
Team. Rev. Larry encouraged us with the words of Christ: " Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and
die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."
(John 12:24 KJV) Reverend Gaylord Enns
Pastor Don had a
burning desire to break down barriers in the Kindgom of God wherever he
found them. This was especially evident in his close friendships with
and love for the Native American peoples. Ray Shelton, former Pastor
and Native American, shared that Pastor Don was a father to the Body of
Christ. He followed protocol, which is giving love, honor and respect
to others. Pastor Don valued the gifts that God placed in others; he
lived out his protocol and beliefs. His last message was in the park
and was indicative of his life. He challenged those listening to let
love reach it's mark, to learn the art of the loving interview, to look
beyond the obvious and let God choose our relationships. Ken Gilbert, a
Tribal Leader, shared that Pastor Don recognized that God had placed
Mr. Gilbert as a spiritual leader to his people. He related that many
times he has felt like an alien in his native land, but Pastor Don
never made him feel that way. Mr. Gilbert commented that he appreciated
a man living out what God was speaking to him. He closed by claiming a
promise from God's Word: Because Pastor Don has kept "His statues and
His commandments..it will go well with him and his children."
(Deuteronomy 4:40)
Reverend Adrian
Hills, Pastor of Wynn Memorial Church, with tears running down his face
told how Pastor Don saw a "skinny, young black Pastor" and became a
spiritual father and mentor to him. Rev. Adrian went on to say, "in his
presence there was no race, no denominational lines. I always felt like
he was my biggest cheerleader." He related a story that is just one of
a million examples of the way Pastor Don lived His faith. This past
March, Pastor Don called Adrian with one of his ideas. On Palm Sunday
Reverend Adrian's church marched down a main street in the City of
Oroville from one direction and Pastor Don's church marched toward them
coming in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the street.
Members from both churches waved palm branches and shouted hosanna
& praises to the King. When they met across from each other at an
intersection they began shouting blessings to each other. Then as
Reverend Adrian put it "Pastor Don and I made a big mistake by walking
into the intersection and embracing each other. Our church members
followed suit and we held up traffic for at least five minutes."
Reverend Adrian closed with a favorite statement from Pastor Don, which
all of us heard many times: "God is up to something and it's bigger
than you or I could ever imagine."
Reverend Ed
Redfern, the final speaker, reflected on Pastor Don's life in light of
I John 2. As a young man, Pastor Don was strong and determined (14b),
but somewhere along the line he moved to the stage of a father
demonstrated by the fact that he knew Him that is from the beginning
(13a). Pastor Don saw the Kingdom of God and was focused on unity. He
reminded all in attendance that Pastor Don wanted the Church of
Oroville to meet with the Church of Chico for a regional prayer walk on
September 11 th . He closed with: Jesus is up to something and we are
not going to let the dream die.
Reverend Lee painted the final strokes
on the canvas by sharing the reflections of Pastor Don's children.
Following are some of their thoughts regarding their dad:
Our
dad
taught us that:
. Life is an adventure.
. The world
is a giant playground God created for him to play in.
. What lasts in life is people.
