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 I served as the Children’s Pastor at King of Kings in Jerusalem for 8 years.  I transitioned back to Canada three years ago, where I have been serving as the Children’s Specialist for International Missions, Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.

During the building of the Pavilion in Jerusalem, Doc Crowder faithfully led 12 work teams to Israel to help us with the building of the King of Kings Pavilion Conference and Worship Center.  He inspired men and a few women, from across America to invest their time, resources and sweat into a God birthed vision in the heart of Jerusalem. Each team came and dedicated 14 days to the building project and were followed immediately by the next team.  He ran those teams like clockwork and did the seemingly impossible. It became my routine every other Monday to get on the bus early in the morning and ride up to their hotel to meet the “men” and in one team’s case – two women, one a building engineer, the other a paramedic.  I would meet the group in the lobby and then teach them how to purchase a bus ticket and ride the bus into downtown Jerusalem.  As the work teams gave long hours of hard work in the construction zone, Doc Crowder worked in “his office”.  Whatever office space with a computer that was empty in the King of Kings office, became Doc’s work space.  He diligently worked prepping the next MAPS team to come and recruiting the team that would follow them.  He pecked away email after email – sharing his passion for Israel, the need and opportunity, the vision God had given him and his knowledge that the Lord would provide.   It was also during his “office hours” that Doc would seek to serve the men on the MAPS teams with their communication needs.  He would have the men write out their correspondence that they wished to have emailed home during the evenings and Doc would faithfully “pigeon peck” those letters home to wives, family and home congregations.   At that time there was no other computer available to the teams, other than at the KKCJ offices.  However, this endeavour came to a screeching halt one afternoon when email addresses and messages accidentally got mixed up, resulting in the wrong wife receiving the wrong message.  That’s when Doc threw up his hands and said, “That’s it boys!  You can send your own love letters from now on!”.

The season in which we built the Pavilion in Jerusalem was a very special time that taught me so much about risking with God, His unwavering faithfulness and the vastness of the family of God.  Doc Crowder became an integral part of our lives during that time, especially mine. He was a truly rare man.  In the span of his lifetime he saw great change, yet he did not despise it.  He held tightly to the truths he knew to be unchanging and refused to let the winds of relativity, conformity and passivity uproot him from the anchor of his Lord.  He saw scripture with clarity, in the kaleidoscope of culture and was always “relevant”, in whatever context he found himself. 

I have no doubt that as he met his Lord and Savior, there was that familiar twinkle in his eye, as he was welcomed to his eternal home and rewarded for a life that truly was good and faithful.  Perhaps the question for those of us so deeply and indelibly impacted by the life of Linfield Crowder is, "What next"?  How will his deposits into our lives and the legacy of his life shape us and how will we honour it?

Just imagine all the stories he will have when we all meet again!

Blessings,

Rev. Hailey Armoogan
Children’s Pastor, King of Kings Community (1999-2007)
KKCJ Volunteer Teams Coordinator