Harvey Cagel And The Bus Ministry
From James Donahue’s Journal
After the beard disaster Doris and I returned to the Baptist Church in Marlette. It was a large church almost in the center of the town, and big enough that there was a youth pastor as well as the regular minister. The music program in that church was outstanding . . . there was a great choir and the woman who played the piano and/or organ was such a good musician she had everybody tapping their toes to the beat.
We quickly made that church our home. It became a routine for us to attend morning services, have our dinner at a local A&W, then spend the afternoon with the kids in the local park so we could return for the Sunday evening service. I soon got involved in the choir, and then I somehow got tangled up in a bus ministry.
I guess I thought it was odd that the church had a youth pastor and two extended-length vans parked in the parking lot that were rarely used. They were organizing a calling program for church members every Thursday evening. I talked to the pastor and got permission to use my calling time to solicit children for a Sunday morning bus ministry. Before I could even start, however, I had to take a special exam and get a chauffer’s license for driving a bus full of children. I studied for that exam, passed it easily, and within weeks had my license.
Another new arrival at that church was Harvey Cagel, a Brown City man that had just married a woman with about eleven children. He and his wife came to church every Sunday and filled one complete pew, sitting like stair-steps. Harvey was an alcoholic who had been on the wagon for a while. He was a giant of a man, not only tall but fat. He was good hearted, but somewhat simple minded. There was one special thing about Harvey . . . he really liked children and they liked him. When he found out I was working on a bus ministry, he asked to get involved. I reluctantly partnered with him. The partnership worked. When Harvey came with me to the door, we magically started getting children signed up to ride our buses to church. He really could connect with the children. I think it was because he was a child trapped in a man’s body.
In the meantime, Harvey got a job in a factory west of Marlette, and some of the church members found the family a large vacant house near his job that they could rent. That Christmas, there were food baskets brought to the home. For a while, it looked like the Cagel family was going to be looked after by the church.
A lot of the children we were picking up on Sunday came from poor rural families and had never seen the inside of a church. The parents were generally glad to send them off to church for a couple of hours each Sunday so they could get some free time. The youth pastor worked out a deal where we could reward children who attended regularly for one month by giving them a Bible. They were basic, hard-bound and low-cost Bibles that we were buying via the church at very little cost. Also Doris and I noticed some of the riders on my van seemed to be hungry, so on occasion we took them to the A&W for some pop or just handed out candy bars after Sunday services.
It was not long before Harvey and I had two vans loaded with children every Sunday morning. We literally filled the church with children, many of them undisciplined and completely out of control. One morning church service was interrupted by a little tyke that got away from the nursery and came running down the center aisle. This child had messed his or her pants and feces was sliding down the child’s pant leg on the fine red carpet. Church members sat in shocked awe. I saw the humor in it but the stern older members of the church rose up in anger. Our bus ministry suddenly was in trouble.
A special meeting of the deacon board was held, and Harvey and I began getting resistance about our work. It seems there were complaints about our giving away Bibles and treating some of the children with candy or pop after the service, even though the money came out of our own pocket. Nobody wanted to say what was really troubling them. They didn’t like all those raggedy children running around in their church. Finally the axe fell and Harvey and I were informed that the church board would no longer allow for a bus ministry. The vans were parked and that phase of my service to the Christian church was ended. It wasn’t long after that that both pastors resigned and left that church. By then, the Donahue family also was gone. Somehow I was left with the feeling that it was my bus ministry that broke up that church. In reality, it was the pride of the old families that disliked having so many strangers in their midst.
The Cagel family also moved on. I received a visit from Harvey at my office one day after that. He was in trouble and wanted my help. Some of the older children in the family were getting out of hand, as teenagers will do, and Harvey was trying in the best way he knew to keep some discipline in the home. He said he used his belt to spank one of the girls. One of the coaches noticed bruises on the girl’s buttocks the next day in the school locker room. She was questioned and told school officials that her father struck her with a belt. Child Welfare got involved and the issue went before Juvenile Court. I went to court with Harvey as a credibility witness but they would not hear my statement, and would not let me into the court. In the end, they took all of the children out of that home and farmed them off to foster homes. The last I heard, some of the older boys were arrested and in jail.
The last time I saw Harvey he was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Sandusky Post Office. He told me he and his wife were separated and he had gone back to drinking. He said he didn’t know what was going to happen to him.
From James Donahue’s Journal
After the beard disaster Doris and I returned to the Baptist Church in Marlette. It was a large church almost in the center of the town, and big enough that there was a youth pastor as well as the regular minister. The music program in that church was outstanding . . . there was a great choir and the woman who played the piano and/or organ was such a good musician she had everybody tapping their toes to the beat.
We quickly made that church our home. It became a routine for us to attend morning services, have our dinner at a local A&W, then spend the afternoon with the kids in the local park so we could return for the Sunday evening service. I soon got involved in the choir, and then I somehow got tangled up in a bus ministry.
I guess I thought it was odd that the church had a youth pastor and two extended-length vans parked in the parking lot that were rarely used. They were organizing a calling program for church members every Thursday evening. I talked to the pastor and got permission to use my calling time to solicit children for a Sunday morning bus ministry. Before I could even start, however, I had to take a special exam and get a chauffer’s license for driving a bus full of children. I studied for that exam, passed it easily, and within weeks had my license.
Another new arrival at that church was Harvey Cagel, a Brown City man that had just married a woman with about eleven children. He and his wife came to church every Sunday and filled one complete pew, sitting like stair-steps. Harvey was an alcoholic who had been on the wagon for a while. He was a giant of a man, not only tall but fat. He was good hearted, but somewhat simple minded. There was one special thing about Harvey . . . he really liked children and they liked him. When he found out I was working on a bus ministry, he asked to get involved. I reluctantly partnered with him. The partnership worked. When Harvey came with me to the door, we magically started getting children signed up to ride our buses to church. He really could connect with the children. I think it was because he was a child trapped in a man’s body.
In the meantime, Harvey got a job in a factory west of Marlette, and some of the church members found the family a large vacant house near his job that they could rent. That Christmas, there were food baskets brought to the home. For a while, it looked like the Cagel family was going to be looked after by the church.
A lot of the children we were picking up on Sunday came from poor rural families and had never seen the inside of a church. The parents were generally glad to send them off to church for a couple of hours each Sunday so they could get some free time. The youth pastor worked out a deal where we could reward children who attended regularly for one month by giving them a Bible. They were basic, hard-bound and low-cost Bibles that we were buying via the church at very little cost. Also Doris and I noticed some of the riders on my van seemed to be hungry, so on occasion we took them to the A&W for some pop or just handed out candy bars after Sunday services.
It was not long before Harvey and I had two vans loaded with children every Sunday morning. We literally filled the church with children, many of them undisciplined and completely out of control. One morning church service was interrupted by a little tyke that got away from the nursery and came running down the center aisle. This child had messed his or her pants and feces was sliding down the child’s pant leg on the fine red carpet. Church members sat in shocked awe. I saw the humor in it but the stern older members of the church rose up in anger. Our bus ministry suddenly was in trouble.
A special meeting of the deacon board was held, and Harvey and I began getting resistance about our work. It seems there were complaints about our giving away Bibles and treating some of the children with candy or pop after the service, even though the money came out of our own pocket. Nobody wanted to say what was really troubling them. They didn’t like all those raggedy children running around in their church. Finally the axe fell and Harvey and I were informed that the church board would no longer allow for a bus ministry. The vans were parked and that phase of my service to the Christian church was ended. It wasn’t long after that that both pastors resigned and left that church. By then, the Donahue family also was gone. Somehow I was left with the feeling that it was my bus ministry that broke up that church. In reality, it was the pride of the old families that disliked having so many strangers in their midst.
The Cagel family also moved on. I received a visit from Harvey at my office one day after that. He was in trouble and wanted my help. Some of the older children in the family were getting out of hand, as teenagers will do, and Harvey was trying in the best way he knew to keep some discipline in the home. He said he used his belt to spank one of the girls. One of the coaches noticed bruises on the girl’s buttocks the next day in the school locker room. She was questioned and told school officials that her father struck her with a belt. Child Welfare got involved and the issue went before Juvenile Court. I went to court with Harvey as a credibility witness but they would not hear my statement, and would not let me into the court. In the end, they took all of the children out of that home and farmed them off to foster homes. The last I heard, some of the older boys were arrested and in jail.
The last time I saw Harvey he was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Sandusky Post Office. He told me he and his wife were separated and he had gone back to drinking. He said he didn’t know what was going to happen to him.