This is the intro to a labor of love, an exciting find, and what I hope you’ll enjoy as a rediscovered series of messages from my father. I’ll be updating the podcast every Monday with a new message in the series, “Rediscovering Dad.”
I came across a set of cassette recordings – badly damaged and nearly destroyed. But…
Background
In the summer of 2024 I began a series on the Dwelling Richly podcast called, “How to Study the Bible.” My hope was to offer practical and encouraging ways to love, enjoy, and dwell in the Word.
I opened the series in Colossians 3:16, the foundational verse for the Dwelling Richly ministry right here on my blog. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” After that first episode I went through a few Proverbs and Psalms as well as the book of 1 John. Then I began a series through Psalm 119 – all focused on the same goal: to equip people to love, enjoy, and dwell in the Word.
In late June I came across a box in my garage of my mom’s and dad’s things. Unfortunately, the box had been damaged by rats. So frustrating! I opened it and inside found a tray of about a dozen cassette tapes – each of them even more damaged by rats as apparently they had a frat house set up on top of it! It was awful, and I honestly didn’t have the time or energy to clean that up and even see if it was salvagable.
(I also recorded a podcast about this – listen here! You’ll love it. Keep reading…)
Fast-Forward
Fast-forward a few weeks and I saw that tray of dirty, damaged cassettes staring at me in a lonely little plastic tub. Deep sigh. What would I find under the rat frat party desecration? Anything useful? Anything at all? I decided that day to go ahead and give it a try – to clean them and open them up and see if they were still working. I grabbed a pair of latex medical gloves and gingerly carried the tray of cassettes into the house, setting it in the kitchen sink.
I opened one cassette jacket and the tape inside was completely – at least as far as I could see – fine! I removed the cassette and turned it over to see the label – a sticker label I could tell had been typed out on an actual typwriter – probabaly an IBM Selectrc – then glued on with rubber cement –
The label read: “How to Enjoy the Bible, Part 4: Dave Garrett, 2-8-81; FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH –TAPE MINISTRY”
All at once, a zing of shock followed by a giddy delight and tearful hope came over me. I carefully set the cassette tape on the counter and reached for another cassette in its soiled plastic jacket, opened it and it read:
“ABCs OF GRACE ORIENTATION: Psalm 119:65-72, Intention, Dave Garrett; 9-20-81; FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH –TAPE MINISTRY”
I moved as carefully as possible through the remaining tapes in the same fashion – gingerly opening the rat-soiled plastic jackets, tossing each in the trash, removing the tape and looking for the title. Tape after tape in this manner. I had cassettes of my dad’s teachings through Psalm 119 verses 1-8, 33-40, 57-64, 65-72, 73-80, 97-104 pt 1, 97-104 pt 2, 97-104 pt 3. – Eight tapes from the Psalm 119 series, one tape from “How to Enjoy the Bible”, and three messages from a Proverbs series on finances.
But…how to listen to them?
Would the tape itself be playable after all this time? I had an old cassette player, but would it work? Would it eat up the tape? I put two new C-batteries in the old player and found an old cassette to try it out first…insert, press play…no sound. No movement at all. Check the battereies…fine. But, nope. Not working. I was so excited to possibly hear my dad’s voice after all these years…but even if the cassette itself would play – I’d need to be able to transfer it to a digital format…
Amazon to the rescue! I hopped over to Amazon, searched “cassette tape to mp3” and bingo!
Found it [link here]. Ordered it delivered and shipped to arrive by 7am the next morning! I guess I had waited not even aware of these cassettes for all this time, I could wait a few more hours.
The next morning 7:00am came and so did that new cassette player. I put in “Wham! Make it Big” to test it and voila! It played.
I pressed the “record to mp3” feature – bingo! It recorded!
Now to try my dad’s cassette…”How to Enjoy the Bible” – in you go! Slip in his cassette. Check that the volume was up. Hold breath…press PLAY…
sob in relief.
My dad’s voice transported over the sound waves and over the years – 43 years, to be exact. I heard him – the years had worn out the audio making his voice a little different than his deep natural voice1 – but that was him – I recognized the intonation, the cadence, even the lilt and funny way he joked – that’s my dad. THAT’S MY DAD.
Tears again.
Oh, the longing that came over me look up and see him right there…but to hear his voice – my home office around me began to be redrawn by the soundwaves and that Sunday School class at Newbury Park Baptist Church began to appear.
The cold, beige, metal folding chairs arranged in rows facing the front. The wooden podium. The greenish chalkboard. The scent of chalk and my dad’s Old Spice cologne. The low pile carpet – or was it linoleum tiles? beneath my feet – doesn’t matter…
I was right back there.
Transported by the sound and imagination…
A 14-year-old young girl sitting in the back and to the right of that class. My gaze went up from the floor across the heads of the church members in front of me and to my dad standing behind the podium. His handsome grin, his blue eyes so smart and filled with humor, his dark hair – full and not a sign of gray – he would have been 36 years old at that time. That seems so young to me now – here I am today as the sound of his voice envelopes me – I’m going on 58 and my dad has been with Jesus now since 2016. Sigh.
That moment began a new project. I started cataloging Dad’s messages. Getting organized to re-master each one from analogue to digital format, create a clean as possible recording, a transcript, resources to make available, and to share them with you. I’m slowly making progress and as I do, I’ll update my blog and podcast with my dad’s messages.
Oh, No!
One of the cassettes did end up damaged and the magnetic strip was crinkled and jammed around one of the little wheels. It took me a couple of hours of meticulous work with a pencil to advance the tape and a tiny screw driver to open up the cassette case and rewind every millimeter of the tape safely, but I did it!
It just so happened?
Think about this – because I sure did – the very summer I just so happened to decide to do a mini-series on my podcast about studying the Bible and I just so happened to be in the middle of working through Psalm 119 – this is also when I just so happened to rediscover my dad’s messages and of all the messages he delivered the ones I have are “How to Enjoy the Bible” and a series on Psalm 119…um, wow.
There are no words adequate to say how incredibly thankful I am for the heritage – the most valuable heritage – I have that my mom and dad left me and my sisters with an deep love and longing for the Word of God. My parents both were blessed as teachers. I wish I had my mom’s teachings saved as well. But, I’m thankful for what I do have. Thankful that, like me, both my sisters love the Lord and love, love, love! the Word of God and we three know – oh, we truly know – that we have this love in us because both our parents were faithful.
The only heritage that matters.
I pray you, no matter your influence – grandma? mother? friend? church servant? – I pray that you will cherish God’s Word as well. That you will serve those the Lord gives to you to lead them to His Word too. That, like David (or Ezra, as my Dad believed) who wrote Psalm 119, you will say,
“Oh, how I love your law…I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.” (Ps. 119 92,97)
I invite you to listen to my dad’s messages. You’ll find them on the Dwelling Richly podcast on YouTube or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Be sure to subscribe so you’ll get notified when I update. You can also listen right here on my blog. It’s a lot of work getting these ready, but you are going to enjoy his teaching, I know it. Bookmark this page where you’ll be able to listen to Dad’s messages as I get each published.
I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment and let me know you stopped by. Ask a question and share in this journey with me.
As I update each of the following will be an audio file and transcript complete with ways to engage in the Word along with my dad. When I update a new recording, you’ll be notified if you’ve set your podcast app to alert you – thanks for following the Dwelling Richly podcast!
New Episodes of my Dad’s Messages
- “How to Enjoy the Bible” (August 19, 2024)
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:1-8” (August 26, 2024)
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:25-32” (September 2, 2024)
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:33-40” Coming Soon
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:57-64” Coming Soon
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:65-72” Coming Soon
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:73-80” Coming Soon
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:97-104 pt 1” Coming Soon
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:97-104 pt 2” Coming Soon
- “ABCs of Grace: Psalm 119:97-104 pt 3” Coming Soon
- My son is going to be working on the audio over the next few weeks to see if we can remaster them so they sound closer to the original – my dad’s deep voice. I’ll update here when/if we are able to do that. ↩︎
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