Pastor George Dikeman - July 20th, 1944 - September 9th, 2024
I won't go into the long history of George's life - he was a true "jack of all trades", from the time he was born and hit the ground running. If you were traveling someplace, George could tell you the best restaurant to visit. If you were a musician, George probably knew the engineer at the studio you recorded at. If you liked muscle cars, George had probably once had your favorite - and had 3 or 4 stories about how fast he drove it and where. If shooting muskets and falling off buildings after being shot by the sheriff as an "actor" in Wild West shows is your thing, Pastor George had you covered there too.
But all that is for others to tell. What I want to tell you about is how much George meant to Pastor Ron, and Compassion Ministries / Heart of the Word Radio. In 1966 George graduated from L.I.F.E Bible College (formerly the "Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evengelism", now known as LIFE Pacific University), and in 1969 his direction was cemented when he was ordained as a minister. In fact, he was at LIFE at the same time as Pastor Ron and Joyce! From there their paths diverged for a while, and George went on to work around the country with numerous christian music groups as a sound engineer, he worked with Billy Graham on his crusades, and worked for the Lord in too many other ways to list here. Then, finally, in 1979 he came on staff at the Beaverton Foursquare Church under where Pastor Ron was ministering, and where he ended up serving for almost 30 years as an assistant pastor, sound engineer, and as the "voice" of the Heart of the Word radio program. Back then, this ministry did not yet exist, and the program was sponsored by the church (instead of by the listeners as it is now, thank you!), so George was responsible for editing the program, doing the announcing, and then delivering it to KPDQ - by car on tapes! This was the old days...
But over the years, one thing became clear: Pastor George had a heart, and a passion, for the Land of Israel and its people. He quickly became the resident expert on all things Israel at the church, which led to him helping Pastor Ron with the church's Israel trips over the years, where he went along as assistant tour leader to Pastor Ron, as well as resident trip photographer. Did I mention he was also a photography buff, and an excellent photographer?
While I spent time with George during his time on staff at the church - I was part of worship and also did videography when I was on staff, so I spent hours upon hours in the sound booth with George - it was the Israel trips that brought us close. My dad always believed that is was very important for him to take groups of congregation members to Israel with him for tours of the Holy Land. While he believed this was a great thing because we are called to support Israel, and this is one of the ways we can do it, he believed more importantly that it was a truly vital way to take our reading of scripture to a deeper level. I can't tell you how many people I have spoken to after they have been to the Holy Land, and almost to a person, they say "I can't believe how incredible it is to actually SEE the places and things I read about in the Bible, and how it has changed the way I read it!" My dad believed this, and so did George, with all his heart.
So when my dad passed, we (meaning the Mehls and Compassion Ministries) came to believe that one thing the Lord wanted the ministry to do was carry on my dad's vision for facilitating people's pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and once we decided this, and decided to start leading tours, the first person I called was George!
Of course he was all in to help, and from that date on Compassion Ministries / Heart of the Word Radio has hosted 6 trips - 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018. Pastor George was with me on all those trips except the last one, which he was unable to make for health reasons. I don't want this to get too long and the important part is at the end, but if you are reading this and you came on any of the trips, you know how knowledgeable and learned George was with regard to the Holy Land. We wanted these trips to be special for everyone, and we knew many people only have one chance in their lives to go, so for about 6 months prior to each trip, including the one he didn't make, we would "get coffee" at least 2 or 3 times a week, and go over every piece. He loved all of you so much, he wanted to make sure every location we went was the most important and authentic, every restaurant was the best, every hotel was safe.
But beyond that, I treasured that time with him. After my dad passed, he is probably the man I have spent the most time with, and I can't begin to catalog the things I have learned from him. But most importantly, if you read nothing else, he had a love for people.
Some people thought George could be a bit, lets say... "cantankerous." He was a stickler about everything - if you used a sound cable at the church, you better have made sure it was rolled up "the right way" when it was returned; if you had a meeting in one of the rooms, heaven forbid you didn't leave it as clean as you found it; if we were on an Israel trip and didn't represent the group well to a local, you might (well, would) hear about it.
But why was he like this? Because he loved people, and he loved the Lord. If you borrowed a cable, or used a room at the church, he wanted it clean and neat and organized so that the next person who used it received it in that condition. But why? So that when the next meeting or worship session happened, everything would go smoothly, perfectly, and nothing would happen that could take away from or interrupt the sharing of the Gospel or the direction of lives. In other words, he wanted everything perfect so the Lord had the most perfect situation possible in which to work, without distractions. So the Lord could be represented in the most perfect and honorable way, so that people would be saved!
I'll end with this. Pastor George loved the Lord, and he loved people. Despite all he knew and experienced in his life, at his heart he was humble. From preaching at missions in Los Angeles during college, to baptizing countless people in the Jordan river, he had, as my mom said, "a compassionate heart, filled with the Spirit and fully surrendered to the Lord." And he always gave all the glory to the Lord. I think I am safe in saying, if he could close this in his own words, he would say something like, "I am what I am because of what Jesus did for me." That's who he was, he gave all the glory to the Lord.
If we can all learn something from George Dikeman, I pray it is this,
Ron Jr