Wallkill Valley Times Oct. 24 2018 | Page 2

2 Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, October 24, 2018 IN THIS ISSUE Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Crossword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Letters to the Editor. . . . . . . . . Maybrook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Montgomery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pine Bush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . School News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Service Directory. . . . . . . . . . . Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walden.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wallkill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walker Valley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 32 34 10 27 29 22 10 28 24 39 48 26 31 30 PUBLIC AGENDA WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24 Village of Montgomery Planning Board, 7:30 p.m. Village Hall, 133 Clinton Street. MONDAY, OCT. 29 Town of Montgomery Planning Board. 7:30. Town Government Center, 110 Bracken Road, Montgomery. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 Montgomery Town Board, 7 p.m. Town Government Center, 110 Bracken Road. Shawangunk Town Board, 7 p.m. Town Hall, 14 Central Ave., Wallkill. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 Walden Village Board of Trustees, 6:30 p.m. Village Hall, 1 Municipal Square. HOW TO REACH US OFFICE: 300 Stony Brook Court Newburgh, NY 12550 PHONE: [phone], FAX: [phone] Emails may be directed to the following : ADVERTISING [email protected] CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS [email protected] TO REACH THE EDITOR [email protected] FOR THE SPORTS DEPARTMENT [email protected] PUBLIC NOTICES [email protected] WEBSITE www.timescommunitypapers.com The Wallkill Valley Times, (USPS 699-490) is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday at Newburgh, N.Y. 12550, with offices at 300 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, N.Y. Single copy: $1 at newsstand. By mail in Orange, Ulster or Sullivan Counties: $40 annually, $44 out of county. Periodicals permit at Newburgh, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallkill Valley Times, 300 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, N.Y. 12550 Walden pastor celebrates 45 years By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] I f you ask Walden Baptist Church Pastor Jim VanHouten why he went into ministry, his answer might be a little unexpected. VanHouten and his roommates from Nyack College decided to go camping one weekend and saw “The Trouble with Angels,” a 1966 movie in which two rambunctious girls chafe at the environment of a religious boarding school. Eventually, the girls see the nuns in a different light and one becomes a nun. While it’s intended to be a comedy, VanHouten said he heard God speaking to him during the movie, urging him to become a minister. “So, I went back to the campsite, and I walked for hours on the beach and I finally said to the Lord, ‘Ok, it’s not really what I wanna do, but I’ll give it a try’,” VanHouten said. He then went to Northeastern Seminary for graduate school and started his first assignment in British Columbia, Canada, where he built a school for the Carrier Native Americans. His second assignment was as an assistant pastor of Home Acre Chapel in Butler, PA. He was also the founder and director of Home Acre Christian Academy. Then, Walden Baptist Church past chairman Ken Valk met Van Houten when VanHouten was a guest speaker at a church in western Pennsylvania while Valk was in the area building a children’s camp. Valk invited him to apply as minister at the Walden Baptist Church, and he was hired. “At that time he was young and energetic. He’s still energetic but he’s not young anymore,” Valk said, chuckling. VanHouten’s first day as Walden Baptist’s minister was on Oct. 16, 1973. He thought he would go back to British Columbia after his assignment in Walden. “I thought, ‘I will go there and I’ll spend a year, maybe two and then I’ll go back to British Columbia.’ Well, as you can already guess, that didn’t happen,” VanHouten said, laughing. “I came here and really loved the area, loved the people, found this to be a wonderful place to live.” VanHouten met Dawn Brach in the early 1980s and began courting her. Eventually, he took her home to meet his parents, and him and his father decided to take a stroll along the lake. At one point, his father asked him about Dawn. VanHouten said they were just good Rev Jim VanHouten at the Walden Baptist Church. friends. “My dad put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me and he turned around,” Van Houten said, “and he’s looking me right in the eye, and he said to me, ‘If you don’t marry her you’re crazy. She’s terrific.’” The couple got married on Aug. 31, 1985. They have two daughters, Katherine Bergmann and Becca VanHouten. VanHouten has been active in the community through the church. He joined with three other churches to form The Meals for Golden Agers, a program that bussed senior citizens to the church for free meals. VanHouten was the dishwasher. Eventually, the church brought meals to shut-ins with Meals on Wheels. VanHouten also became a representative of the Salvation Army office in Walden and created Operation Dalmatian, a program that donates Christmas gifts to local children in need. His reach into the community also includes his service as both a volunteer firefighter and chaplain. His first appointment was to the Walden Police Department, in June 1978 after a week in which the village lost five young people to automobile accidents. In Oct. 1985, VanHouten joined the Col Bradley Hose Company as a volunteer firefighter and became chaplain of the Walden Fire Department. Over the years, VanHouten served as chaplain for 10 fire departments. He is currently completing his term as Chief Chaplain of the New York State Association of Fire Chaplains. “I started getting a lot of badges,” Van Houten said. He responded to ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001, as chaplain of the Walden Police Deparmtent and the Walden Fire Department. Serving as both firefighter and chaplain, he dug through rubble for 100 days recovering bodies and consoling the first responders. In the midst of terrible pain, he remembers ordinary people lining up at ground zero to give the first responders food, eyedrops, dust masks, dog food, and their shoulders to cry on. “So many stories of just incredible people who came there to help out, just amazing,” VanHouten said. “Just average people who just came, those are the things I remember and will always remember because that was the best part of America.” His role as chaplain in so many fire departments is fitting, considering his role in the church. Presiding at more than 500 weddings and hundreds of funerals, VanHouten must console and celebrate, taking part in family’s most intimate joys and sorrows. “He’s a major part of many families,” member of the Orange Hose company and long-time friend Joe Horan said. “He is not only their pastor but he is also a personal friend to many, many people that are here in this village.” Horan said VanHouten is always there to help and serve anyone in the community, whether it be fixing someone’s roof or catching frogs for the Walden Harvest Festival. VanHouten celebrated 45 years with the church on Oct. 16, many more than he ever imagined he would serve when he arrived so many years ago. Those years have been filled with joy and heartbreak, a love for the people and the God he serves. “Of course, it was God’s plan,” VanHouten said. “He does that, works in different ways, for different people and it’s kinda the way he did it for me.”