William E. Arends, Sr.
WILLIAM ARENDS Obituary (2018) - South Plainfield, NJ - The Star-Ledger
Funeral Service
[Hymn: All is Well]
EVANGELIST ORLOFSKI:
In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Loving, kind, and merciful Heavenly Father, it is with thankfulness, humbleness and joy we come before you in this morning. For once again an opportunity for we as your children as a family of God, as brothers and sisters, where we can come together. And out of your loving kindness you have drawn us together, because in your heart you have made the decision to bring one of our loved ones home.
A faithful, loving husband. A loyal father. A loving grandfather and great-grandfather. An unbelievable faithful evangelist. Heavenly Father we rejoice, and everyone that is here this morning says thank you to you, Father, for the privilege and the opportunity to have such a small place--and some a big place--in his life. And Father we pray, that only because of his example, we also can do our part to serve like him, to worship like him, to be thankful like him.
And Father there is no need for us to praise him into eternity. He has worked and labored and now there lays up for him a crown of righteousness that only you can give him, but we come to say thank you for his life, we say thank you for his serving, and we also say thank you that now we have the privilege to surround the family with love today and into the coming days. We are thankful, too, Father, that we have a loving apostle who prays for us, who knows that we are together this morning, and out of his love, out of his heart, will flow a special word of comfort and guidance and a future blessing for each and every one of us.
So cover us with Thy grace this morning. Bind any foreign influence, and let us have this moment in heaven that will lead us and guide us into our future, that we can remain faithful, strong, and loyal to You until that day when you will send Your son. Make it soon, Father, accept us in grace, we pray this in Thy dear Son's name.
Amen.
EVANGELIST ORLOFSKI:
My very dear brothers and sisters my dear Sister Arends, Nancy, and Billy, and family. I can give to you from his heart to your heart the love of our Apostle Schmidt. You know he would have been here this morning if he could have. No one would have been happier than me, believe me. But he sends his special love and greetings of comfort to you in the family. And he provided this word out of your husband's favorite book in the Bible: Hebrews. And it's in the sixth chapter the tenth to the twelth verse:
"For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name in that you have ministered to the Saints and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. That you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
You may be seated.
[Hymn: Only Remembered]
EVANGELIST ORLOFSKI:
My very dear brothers and sisters, dear family, and especially to you my dear Sister Arends. The choir sang very nicely, actually one of my favorite songs: Only Remembered by What You Have Done. And I'm sure if I would give each and every one here this morning that is present an opportunity to say a few words, it would be words of what your dear husband, our friend, and fellow evangelist has done for us in the course of his 94 years.
I can only testify of what he has done for me. And maybe you might say, "Well you might not have known him all that well, or you didn't have a lot of communication with him." And I didn't. I can't say that I did, but you know as well as I do that you and your husband's relationship with my mother and father was very deep and very very strong. And in that Orlofski-Arends relationship was very good.
But you know in thinking over the past week of how the Evangelist touched my heart, it went way back, way back when I was young boy in Clifton growing up, getting in trouble, not behaving the way I should. And you know it's not a coincidence or its by luck that we tomorrow it's Service for the Departed, but you know every Service for the Departed when I was young for some reason it was always a sub-district service there was a couple of congregations that got together and an evangelist would hold that service. And it wasn't always my evangelist it would be--they would rotate them--and I remember that Evangelist Arends would come to Clifton every once in a while. And one time in particular I guess he was really full of the Holy Spirit, which to me was all the time, because just the way he spoke the way he stood so straight and loud. And what amazed me was he was happy. Back then it was a unique thing to be happy.
[Laughter]
And I remember after one service I said to my Dad, "Dad, why is the Evangelist always smiling, why is he happy?"
My father said, "Because he's different."
[Laughter]
And I went off, and I played, and I probably didn't give it another thought but each time he came it made me feel good because he was happy.
Fast-forward maybe twenty years later. I was a deacon in the Clifton congregation and someone had a great idea that some of us should learn Spanish. And so they made a class every Tuesday evening. It was in Styertowne in one of the offices, and I went there because my rector at the time thought that I should maybe learn Spanish. And to my surprise when we got there there were eight or ten in a room and your husband was one of them.
And I'm . . . have to be very honest and I thought: I don't think I'm going to learn Spanish, but I don't think the Evangelist Arends is going to learn Spanish either. But I can remember one word from that class. Probably the only word I learned. You know what that word was? His Spanish name: Guillermo. You know to this day, me and two others that were in that class, we still refer to him as Guillermo.
Now fast-forward to last year when I had the opportunity and privilege to come back to Plainfield and serve here. I can remember the first service that I came and I conducted. And he sat right where you, I guess, where your grandson and grand daughter-in-law are sitting. And he sat there straight and with a smile on his face.
And he said to me afterwards, he said, "Evangelist, it's so nice to have you."
You go somewhere new you wonder: are they going to like you? Are they going to remember what you did when you were a little kid? Not him. For some reason he was able to remember the good of the past, and to forget the garbage of the past. Not many people can do that, but I know he was able to do that.
Yes, that's nice. That's three very special ways he touched my heart and soul, and like I said earlier for all of us here I'm sure we could mention many more ways the words that he used to touch our heart and soul. But, again, as we prayed, we're not here to tell the Lord what his reward should be. He has worked. He has labored, and there is laid up for him a just reward I am sure that our Heavenly Father will give him. But you know we were given such a beautiful word here from our Apostle, and I know this particular chapter in Hebrews was the Evangelist's favorite. You received your 70th blessing from this chapter. But here it speaks about your husband's life. It speaks about his former life, and the life now that he will begin in the eternal realms. You might say: with all his buddies.
And I think just touching that a little bit again, when I was younger there were three evangelists. I call them the real evangelists: your husband, the Evangelist Stier and the Evangelist Wybrecht. They were the ones that--they walked on water--because they, and your husband, they sacrificed their life, they sacrificed sometimes your life in furtherance of this work.
He knew years now that we are here on this Earth to serve Christ. He knew that years ago already! It was nothing new to him! That's why it was so easy for him to conform to some of the new culture that we have in our church today. He didn't bark against Small Group. He enjoyed it. He welcomed it. He participated in it.
He spoke to one of the brothers not too long ago and one of the priests who maybe had a little problem conducting the service, and he said to him after a service--he said, "You know what? I used to hold Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, Wednesday service, and then Thursday service somewhere." He goes, "After a while you get good at it." Well, maybe I should hold a very more services before I sit yet.
But he always had those words to lift someone up. I can only imagine how that must have been growing up in that house. As children, and as grandchildren, there was a joy. There was a joy in his family. And even in retirement from his ministry, from work he got himself involved in a few hobbies. I know one of them was golf. I don't know, was he good? No? That's okay. Maybe he should have went back to Spanish class. But what he did. He did it with his whole heart.
And he didn't stop. He didn't stop. He sang in the choir, I know he played the trumpet. That I remember a little bit when we had the orchestra. And he continued to serve. He continued to bring honor and glory to the name of your, and my, and his Heavenly Father. And how beautiful that is. And that's the testament, that's how the Lord testifies on his behalf through this word for God is not unjust to forget your work of labor of love which you have shown toward his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
He was never bored talking about his faith, never bored in testifying to someone. Someone sent me an email just this couple days ago and he said, "The Evangelist could bring testimony to a utility pole."
[Laughter]
I believe that. I believe that. And it says: you don't drag your feet. And I know that was one of the things that hindered him a little bit here on this Earth: his walking, his ability to get around was a lot slower. He doesn't have that anymore. But he says to you and I today, if, and the Apostle Schmidt even said very nicely, maybe we allow him a moment or two to speak to the congregation this morning.
We know physically that's not possible. But if he would, he would say, "Come on guys, come on girls, don't be sluggish. Don't drag your feet. Work, strive, and keep it going. Don't mourn for me. Yes, I will miss you as you miss me. But we will see each other one day soon."
But keep going that that same goal that same victory now that our evangelist has accomplished out of his good works: that one day we, too, can accomplish our desire and our hope to do those same works; that we too can gain that victory.
Amen.
So as you can see we have a few brothers here to serve who have known your father for many, many years. One even has the same last name. But first we'll ask Shepherd Hollinger to serve, and after Shepherd Holliger the District Elder Arends, then your rector Priest Freeman.
Let the choir have a verse, please.
[Hymn: Far from My Heavenly Home]
SHEPHERD HOLLINGER:
Sister Arends, family, brothers and sisters, in Ephesians--I think it's in the fourth chapter--it says: he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, and some teachers.
I thought about that the other day and I said, well he did a pretty good job we've got a great evangelist here, we've got a great Apostle too. But it's a beautiful thing because it didn't have to be that way. Not only that it mentions that he gave some--these various individuals and teachers and pastors and Apostles--but I don't know if that some that's written in scripture in totality it means everybody receives one of those. I'm not sure but it doesn't really matter because particular some, us, we did receive a very nice gift out of heaven in our Evangelist. And I like to thank you for sharing him with us because I know you did a lot of sharing. Your whole family did a lot of sharing and its well regarded and well appreciated.
And the Evangelist Orlofski mentioned something that hit home with me as well about how the Evangelist sat in that seat. Years ago, our South Jersey district was still young. I was on the schedule one time and I saw Plainfield. I knew there was a Plainfield but I had never heard anything about Plainfield. I did, however, know of the name Arends and I had heard from years gone by special things of our Evangelist Arends, but I didn't really know him. And so I think it was a Sunday I came here to serve for the first time and I had never saw the building before.
And as he mentioned, you get a little nervous, you're going to a new place the first time what are they gonna throw at me or what's it going to be like. And as Evangelist Orlofski mentioned our evangelist sat in that seat and I'll never forget--I'll tell you why afterwards--what after the end of the service I could not help but utter the first thing that came to my heart. When I shook his hand and I said Evangelist thank you for your support.
And that comes--let me preface something--my wife and I are probably one of the few here that have never heard our evangelist serving in a service. I only know him in retirement sitting in that seat. But because he didn't serve in his capacity anymore does not mean that he didn't. Because that first Sunday--and I can only speak for myself again--he served in such a beautiful way to me because he was such an inspiration just sitting there because I knew who he was and the way he looked at this altar and--I hope you know what I mean but--he sat and his mouth was actually open.
He sat the whole service with that beautiful look, and if I ever need encouragement or assurance that I'm doing okay I just glanced at him. And I said "Well, I like this guy." But such a serving without speaking. He didn't say a word he just his presence and what I did know of him, and subsequently that always confirmed his greatness in my heart as well.
But yes, we have so much to be thankful for that you are some who received this evangelist, and as Evangelist Orlofski mentioned how nice it would be that he could look upon us into the future and see his influence in all of us. Because he's left a tremendous example for all of us to look upon: a true servant who simply says, "Not me, but you. You go first. It's all about you."
That's what a disciple is. That's what he exuded. That's the example he set for all of us, and which we shall be, I'm sure, very thankful into the future. And I'm sure in this body we will not understand the fullness of what all he laid into us, but one day we will and we will be ever thankful. Not only for him but for many, but today it's about him, it's about you. And you can rest assured if I think of the blessings of the father, the husband, I think it's evident and I think there's more to come.
Amen.
DISTRICT ELDER ARENDS:
Well, I'm going to address everyone a little differently. Because I'm old, I'm the representative of the retired group, and this is family. You: our brothers and sisters, and our blood family. So I'm gonna address you as Aunt Gert. You as Billy, Nancy. Friends, neighbors, co-workers, whatever has drawn you today has drawn you because of your love for my uncle Bill.
Yeah, he was your evangelist, your husband, your father, grandfather, great-grandfather and everybody has different view and different perspective. But I have the privilege and I haven't stood at this altar in a long time so if the Evangelist was nervous about this service I wasn't expecting this but I consider it a privilege in just a few minutes to pour out my heart. And I'll give you my perspective of the great man, the great man of influence, and the evidence of his influence is here and those who are with us for eternity.
I knew him as my uncle my whole life. Seventy-two years plus, so you know how old I am. I knew him as a servant of God who served in the only congregation that I knew in Irvington before he was even sent here in Clifton. And I had the a privilege to know him has my evangelist for three years as things always shifted and changed.
And I'd like to take a journey with you. The opening hymn was remembering. And we remember him, but we remember him for good reason. Because it says, "God is not unfair." How can he forget your hard work for him? God hasn't forgotten him. We won't forget him. But why is that important? Because what he showed unto us, and all through a different view, was laboring in love.
He worked at things, and it didn't seem to be hard for him. He loved it! And he would tackle new things, and he would work. He would hold these services these brothers mentioned. Not easy--that one young brother, you know, had a hard time--and he loved it. He loved serving. He loved you. As you, Aunt Gert, told me very simply, "I love that man." And he loved you. He loved everyone.
So as, please, just two or three minutes as I reflect on his life. As my uncle, as a servant of God, and as my evangelist, think about how he has touched you. Because every one of us has our perspective on people, on our evangelist, my uncle, things in general. But the only one that counts is the view that our Heavenly Father has for us.
So first as my uncle. The three Arends brothers were thicker than thieves and I got some of my earliest perspective as a young man when I would talk to their mother, my grandmother. Two spring breaks I took in college--a little uncharacteristic for a college kid--I went up to Syracuse and spent it with my grandmother because I'd love to hear the stories about my dad, Uncle John, and Bill. And one of the questions I asked is all the pictures when they were young and kids and so forth my grandmother had a bandana around her head. She always had her head down.
I said, "Grandma how come you always had this?"
She says, "My head always hurt."
"Well why?"
"Because of my three boys."
And she would go on and story after story about how they worked together, how they fought together, how they tried to drive her nuts. And I got to see a side of my Uncle Bill that I had never known. And then as we grew to know him not only as a child, but when I was a child there he was. And I wasn't too long after the Second World War and he was part of the greatest generation. He served, my uncle served, and as a young boy they were my heroes. They were my heros.
And then I recognized it in the family: he was the first one who graduated high school. First one who graduated high school. And he actually ran! He was on the track team. He actually played an instrument. Guess what? I played an instrument. My son played an instrument. My grandson plays an instrument. We learned. He influenced us in ways of thinking. You know how he learned Spanish? He influenced my father. My father didn't go to that class, but he bought tapes and in his shop at work in between customers he'd start learning Spanish.
I said, "Pop, why you doing this?"
"Well we have a few Spanish members..."
I said, you know, "But what gave you the impetus?"
"My brother's doing a Spanish class," he said "I'm not so good in class, but I'll learn something."
Every way he influenced us in a different way. And then I saw him as a servant of God, and how he loved his souls. His mantra--and I did not know this sixth chapter is one of his favorites, but I've read it many times since the evangelist told me about it--and I said, "Laboring in love: that he applied to everything he did." Everything his family, everything in his workplace, everything to those of us were privileged to serve with him at that at the time. And nothing was too much, nothing was too too difficult, and it was all fun.
When he was my evangelist for those three years, we came at a time just in that period of time when my wife had appendicitis and needless to say I wasn't around. She drove herself to the hospital. Know who got there first? My evangelist. And it wasn't because it was his nephew's wife. He would do that for everyone and anyone. He loved to serve.
And so when we look at the different ways I knew my Uncle, think of how you knew him. But what was it? He was a man who influenced us, who drew us closer to our God and Heavenly Father. He drew us closer to seeing things not only through our own eyes and our own thinking, but seeing it through the bigger picture of how God sees things and how he looks on us. And he simply asks, let us labor in love however it may be, whatever it may be. And one the brothers mentioned it was reported he would testify to a telephone pole. I used to say he would testify to a tree. He'd talk. You know why? Because it lived in his heart. He loved the Lord. He loved his family. He loved life. He loved the future. He always had a hope for the future.
You know I was nearly fifty years old before I realized one of his favorite expressions "the best is yet to come" was not his but was a Sinatra song. I thought it was Uncle Bill! That was what he lived by. But my dear brothers and sisters, the best is yet to come. Remembering. Remembering him for what purpose.
And I just want to close because the author of this is anonymous, but I took you on a journey that I could spend hours on: The poem is titled "A Journey Remembered." So in your own way remember him as your husband, as your dad, and however he influenced you in the course of your life.
"As some people journey through life they leave footprints wherever they go. Footprints of kindness and love, courage and compassion, humor and inspiration, joy and faith. Even when they were gone we can still look back and clearly see the trail that they left behind. A trail bright with hope that invites us to follow.""
Amen.
PRIEST FREEMAN:
Dear Gert and Nancy and Billy and brothers and sisters, that expression that the District Elder Arends just used is the one that I remember the most: "the best is yet to come." We sang--you sang--two hymns, both ending in the words "it is well with my soul" or "all is well, all is well." And being able to say those words, being able to say, "the best is yet to come" has very much to do with what you sang.
I think I've heard the story several times and if I mess up the details forgive me. But there was a time when Gert and Bill went to work. They both drove to work. And I think Gert came out and said, "My car is missing." Right? And she called her husband for help. He comes, and on the way to get Gert whose car was stolen, his car breaks down irreparably. And at the end of the day he says, "This is very--I have a unique position here I not many people in the world can say they started out the day with two cars and ended with none."
"The best is yet to come" is easy to say on a day like that. It's got to get better than this.
But he also said it on days when he was as happy as he could be. On the day of your 70th wedding anniversary celebration he said to me, “The best is yet to come.” That meant on the happiest day of his life, or one of the happiest days of his life, he could still say comparing to that day the best is yet to come. And if we could take that faith that he had, take that assurance that he had and say, well when I'm having a bad day I can easily say the best is yet to come. But when I'm having the best day of my life still realizing that what God has in store for me is still better than that day. The best is yet to come. That is something we can think about. That is something we can use in our own lives as we celebrate his.
Amen.
EVANGELIST ORLOFSKI:
As the brothers served, I thought to myself: wow, the evangelist set the bar pretty high for all of us. And I feel a little inferior that I'll never in my ministry be the evangelist that he was. But then I thought of a conversation that I had just last evening with you, Billy, when we spoke and you mentioned to me there was so much that possibly yet you would have liked to said to your dad, or maybe proved you could have been maybe a little bit better of a son. You know, it's tough to top perfection. You know, it's in that gene of his. It's called the Arends gene. I said it to Nancy last night: “I've never met an Arends I didn't like.”
You can't say that about too many families, but that was in their heart and soul to be happy to be joyful. But you know, what makes him unique is that he also had a gift of forgiveness. To be able to forgive. I can't imagine Billy, you or Nancy ever did anything wrong at home. Probably not. Just good kids. The District Elder spoke about three boys in the family. Imagine my family: at least they had one sister. But you know, I admonish all of you: please don't look at it that way.
You did the best you can. And what--maybe you feel that it wasn't enough. I am sure your husband, your dad, your grandfather, our friend, our evangelist would say, "Don't give it another thought. The best is yet to come."
And the best is yet to come. And you will see that. Yes, there will be times when you wish he was there. But at those times you will see, through the Holy Spirit, he will come and touch your heart in a very special way. That's a promise not from me but from our Heavenly Father. And we can truly go into the Lord's Prayer now and know that through that prayer our Heavenly Father will cover everything. Will cover maybe what we have missed. And maybe even he might have that feeling: you know, I was a happy man, and maybe people didn't like me because of that.
But he wants to be able to go in that peace as well and be able to have the assurance that we will work. We will not be sluggish. We will not drag our feet. We will work as he will work to bring that day of perfection that day of the Lord's coming sooner than later and that once again we can all be together again. And so, let us all join together in the Lord's Prayer and go into that future with that peace.
Amen.
And we pray with one another:
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed by your name
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On Earth
As it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from the evil one
For yours is the kingdom
And the power
And the glory
Forever
Amen.
We now return the body to the Earth. Earth to Earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Soul in spirit, however, we commend to the love of Jesus Christ, who shall guard over it until the resurrection to eternal life.
Amen.
The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forever more.
Amen.
My dear friend and fellow evangelist, thank you for being such a loving example of a faithful minister and Christian. May you radiant smile and personality live with all of us so we can live your life of faith and follow your example until the Lord comes.
Dear Heavenly Father, with joy and Thanksgiving we come before you once again at the close of our farewell service here to our dear evangelist, our brother, our friend, our husband, our Father, our grandfather, and pray that you will continue to be the great comforter. There will be times, father, when we will miss him so deeply and the tears will come, but they will also be followed with tears of joy because we will remember him in a loving way. We will remember this service, we will remember the comfort of heaven, we will remember the word from our apostle. And these beautiful thoughts will radiate in our heart and soul and bring us peace and comfort and bring us once again to the goal of our faith where we can be reunited again.
Lay your blessing upon the offerings, especially of the family that has been brought in this day. Offerings of thankfulness and of completion, also for what has been given to them in such a loving husband and father. So go with us on our way. Thou knowest, Father, many will go as well to the cemetery that we can all travel safely. Cover the day to its fullest, and grant us Thy peace, Thy blessing, and benediction before we leave. And once more to pray, Father, please send the Lord Jesus. Come take us home. All this we pray in Thy dear sons name.
Amen.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
[Music]
You may be seated.
PRIEST FREEMAN:
William E. Arends, Sr., age 94, died on Friday, February 23rd surrounded by his loving family. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Bill lived in Maplewood and Scotch Plains before the family settled in South Plainfield in 1960. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the United States Army and served as a technical sergeant in the Philippines during World War Two. He married Gertrude Rettberg in January 1948 and they recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Bill was a minister of the New Apostolic Church for over 40 years, serving with love and kindness. He retired as an evangelist in 1988. He was the rector of Plainfield Congregation for many years, while also serving many congregations around New Jersey. Until the end, he professed his faith and love for the Lord to whoever would listen.
He is survived his loving wife Gertrude, his son William Jr. and his wife Marisol of Kitchener Ontario Canada, his daughter Nancy Lee Carlson and her husband Bill of South Plainfield, four grandchildren: Robert Carlson and his wife Caitlin of Parkville, Maryland, Dr. Cindy Carlson of Chicago, Emily Lopez and her husband Edgar of Canada and Gabriel Lopez of Canada. Three great-grandchildren: Penelope and Nathaniel Carlson, and Ignacio Penalpa. He is also survived by his sister Eleanor Roth and her husband Don of Ocala, Florida. He was predeceased by his two brothers John and Harold Arends. The family is grateful for the many prayers and presents of love they have received in this difficult time. Please continue to support them with prayers and kindnesses in the future.