ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Web Site: www.assistnews.net - by permission
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
KNOCKING AT HEAVEN'S GATE
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
PAWNEE CITY, NEB. (ANS) -- Pastor Bob Timberlake doesn’t act like a man with six months to live.
In a recent e-mail interview he said, “For days I have just been thinking of how much Jesus loves me, of all of the people who have touched my life for good (and) of all of the fun we have had as a family. (I have also been thinking) of the hundreds of men, women and children I have had the joy of praying with and seeing them again (with) a brand new lease of life.
"I am calling all of the people who inspired me and thanking them. I have even called a few whom I have spoken badly about and asked their forgiveness.
"I have not had even one second of being upset with God. He has given me at least a few months of saying goodbye to everyone I love, and sharing stories about Jesus with my grandchildren who may not get to know me really well this side of heaven.”
Timberlake has a glioblastoma (www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic147.htm) – a very fast growing brain tumor – located near an important speech center.
He said “When (my wife) Suzanne and I first were told by the doctor in Pawnee City that I had months to live, we both ... cried, but then I told the unbelieving doctor that I cried but not without hope. (I) told him that I knew I would wake up into the loving and compassionate arms of Jesus.”
After talking with his family, Timberlake has opted to forgo surgery, which would give him a few extra months to live but rob him of his ability to talk. Timberlake said his family knows he wants to speak as much as possible in the time he has left.
“They know that I want to speak as much as possible for three reasons.
“One, to serve my awesome God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Two, to minister to my godly wife, Suzanne, to my four born again children, their born again mates and the eight children and extended family. Third, I want to minister Jesus to my precious congregation in Pawnee City, Nebraska, and help gospel rescue missions raise money and awareness nationwide,” Timberlake said.
BEGINNINGS
Timberlake was born in the early morning hours of Oct. 14 1943 to, as he put it, “hard working parents who always tried to give us a better life than theirs had been.”
Timberlake’s mother and father worked in factories in Norway, Maine. However, all was not well in the Timberlake home. He recalled, “At the age of six I remember hiding under the bed and hearing my parents fight, not with hands but with verbal abuse. Night after night (it) scared me.
"Sadly, they did not even know who Jesus was and had never ... been to church. In fact I assumed Jesus was a curse-word until later.”
Tragedy struck the Timberlakes when Bob’s sister Sandra Jean Timberlake died after only living for three days. Timberlake’s father contacted a Baptist pastor to see if he would perform the funeral ceremony.
The Baptist preacher, according to Timberlake, “preached the gospel and told us that the only way we would see the baby again to come to Jesus as Savior.
"While none of us came to Jesus that day we went to a Youth for Christ rally in the old American Legion Hall on a Saturday night in March of 1951.
"When the gospel was given (we) went to the altar and were led to Jesus by different pastors. I still remember each of the verses that the minister shared with me, one by one. I was seven years old.”
Meeting Jesus transformed life in the Timberlake household. “Everything changed in our home. The drinking stopped, the verbal abuse stopped and we went to the little Baptist church every single time the doors were open.
"Dad served many years as deacon and mother cooked every summer in the children's Bible camps,” Timberlake said.
Continuing to serve the Lord, Timberlake graduated from the New Brunswick Bible Institute in Canada and later went to Moody Bible Institute of Chicago with his soon-to-be wife Suzanne. The couple then went to Bangladesh for a year as missionaries, only returning home because of illness.
MISSION LIFE
During Timberlake’s Bible college years he was an intern at the Detroit Rescue Mission in Michigan. There he got a taste for the work that would shape his life.
He said, “(I) really loved living at the mission on skid row and seeing the gospel change men, women and children. So I called the director and he helped me land a ministry at the Market Street Mission in Morristown, New Jersey.
"I directed that mission for nine years and there we had three of our four children, as Amy had been born in Bangladesh.”
Timberlake then directed a mission in Evansville, Ind for three years, then went to the City Mission in Buffalo, N.Y. for nine years, and was in Atlanta, Ga., for a year. After that he moved to Omaha, Neb. where he headed the Open Door Mission from 1986 through 2000.
Under Timberlake’s leadership the mission’s budget expanded dramatically, growing from $100,000 to $2.8 million in cash donations and more than $1 million of gifts in kind.
The Open Door Mission web site recognizes Timberlake’s contributions (http://opendoormission.org/?menu=about/history)
“With the move to east Omaha, the Open Door Mission was not visible to people and this cost Open Door Mission a great deal of support. This changed with the arrival of Rev. Robert O. Timberlake who was hired to be the Executive Director in the spring of 1987.
"At that time, Open Door Mission had three staff members, Pastor Bob and two women. There was no food pantry, no clothing program and no rehabilitation program. Pastor Bob worked untiringly to remedy this situation. The current programs were initiated and developed under (his) leadership.
“Although Open Door Mission had a small women and children's wing, it had never been used. Pastor Bob opened it when he arrived and it was soon filled to capacity. He added two mobile homes behind the main building. Soon those were occupied and Pastor Bob realized they needed a separate building.
“A feasibility study revealed that it would not be possible to raise half a million dollars for another building. However, the board and Pastor Bob looked for a building in the same general area and they found a two-story office structure two blocks away. This became Lydia House ...” (for women and children).
Timberlake also helped the mission expand its outreach to families, developing a New Life Recovery Program of Christian rehabilitation for families which graduated 12 families at the beginning of 2000.
Timberlake left the Open Door Mission in 2000 to return to the City Mission in Buffalo N.Y., but this time as Senior Development Officer. Wanting to be closer to his children, he resigned that position in June 2003 to move back to Pawnee City, Neb., to be the pastor of Faith Baptist Church.
Timberlake had only been pastor for a few months when he received his terminal diagnosis – a crushing blow to most people.
CLOSER TO JESUS
However, Timberlake was excited about what has been accomplished since his story has appeared in the Omaha World Herald (www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=57&u_sid=1025154).
“In the last six days since my story has only been told in Nebraska I have helped Jesus lead six seventeen year old teenagers to Jesus (and some) older ladies and an 80 year old Methodist man who came to my office a few night ago at 10pm. (He) asked me how to be really saved and have to thing his good works could get him into heaven,” Timberlake wrote by e-mail.
In addition, Timberlake said, “I have shared the gospel with each of the over 12 doctors working on me (and) all of the hands-on nurses and (others) I meet in public. I give them the gospel and hand them the copy of the Omaha World Herald front page story ...
"Everywhere I go around Omaha folk are stopping me and telling me how much they appreciate me and the ministry I have done here for 14 years.”
And it’s not only people in Omaha who appreciate Timberlake.
Tom Beatty of the Norfolk and Columbus Rescue Missions first met Timberlake in 1987. They soon became good friends and Timberlake also mentored Beatty. Beatty went to work for Timberlake between 1992 and 1996 until the Lord called him and his wife to begin a rescue mission in Norfolk, Neb.
By e-mail, Beatty reminisced about Timberlake. “During our times together before I worked with him, we would often get together at a local pizza joint / video game parlor, where Bob would give my three little boys a cup full of quarters to play the video games.
"I could not afford to give them that kind of money so the kids were blessed beyond what just dad could do. One day, we met Pastor Bob at the pizza / video place and he opened the trunk of his car to reveal yet another gift for the boys - three BB rifles and targets.
“I began to object that this was just ‘too much’ for him to be doing and Bob told me something I'll not forget: ‘Brother Tom,’ Bob said, ‘Please don't rob me of the joy of giving.’
"Both before that incident and after, I witnessed Bob's generosity many times to many people. Bob's heart was huge! And he was always diligent to give the honor and glory to our Lord Jesus. I am grateful to God for providing a good friend, a good mentor and a good example for me in Pastor Bob Timberlake.”
Some of Timberlake’s friends from his first mission in Morristown N.J. praised his generous spirit.
Bob and Sandy Turton of the Gospel Mission Corps commented by e-mail, “Over thirty-some years ago ... the Gospel Mission Corps was opening Bethany Gospel Mission Home and Chapel in Hightstown, NJ. Bob Timberlake helped make it possible for us to open sooner than it would have been otherwise.
"My wife Sandy, our son Billy, one of our Jewish-Christian sister workers Sue Kornfeld, and I were told by Bob Timberlake to go through the mission warehouse in Morristown and select anything we might be in need of to help get Bethany ready for operations.
"This was a much-needed and tremendous blessing. We have often remembered his kindness and concern, especially in this particular expression of generosity and helpfulness.
"Let him know of our longtime appreciation and respect that we have always held for him. Oh, may God use him in a most significant way even now in his time of physical limitations.”
In addition to pastoring, Timberlake has another flourishing ministry – to children. By going on line to www.unclebobstories.com, youngsters can hear a variety of Timberlake’s stories with titles like “Sophie the Scrubwoman,” “Timmy Timberlake” and “Butterball the Kitten.” (Pictured: Bob Timberlake, from his web site).
Timberlake is upbeat about what lies ahead – whatever happens. The Omaha World-Herald reported that Timberlake’s oncologist has placed him in a clinical trial where he will receive a new anti-cancer drug, albeit one with unpleasant side effects.
But for as long as he can, Timberlake plans to keep on talking – proclaiming the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom he has dedicated his life.
Toward that end, Timberlake is open for as many speaking engagements as time and his health will allow. He is open to appearances on Oprah, the 700 Club, Focus on the Family – anywhere in fact where he can share from the standpoint of someone quite literally standing at death’s door – his love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Web Site: www.assistnews.net - by permission
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
KNOCKING AT HEAVEN'S GATE
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
PAWNEE CITY, NEB. (ANS) -- Pastor Bob Timberlake doesn’t act like a man with six months to live.
In a recent e-mail interview he said, “For days I have just been thinking of how much Jesus loves me, of all of the people who have touched my life for good (and) of all of the fun we have had as a family. (I have also been thinking) of the hundreds of men, women and children I have had the joy of praying with and seeing them again (with) a brand new lease of life.
"I am calling all of the people who inspired me and thanking them. I have even called a few whom I have spoken badly about and asked their forgiveness.
"I have not had even one second of being upset with God. He has given me at least a few months of saying goodbye to everyone I love, and sharing stories about Jesus with my grandchildren who may not get to know me really well this side of heaven.”
Timberlake has a glioblastoma (www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic147.htm) – a very fast growing brain tumor – located near an important speech center.
He said “When (my wife) Suzanne and I first were told by the doctor in Pawnee City that I had months to live, we both ... cried, but then I told the unbelieving doctor that I cried but not without hope. (I) told him that I knew I would wake up into the loving and compassionate arms of Jesus.”
After talking with his family, Timberlake has opted to forgo surgery, which would give him a few extra months to live but rob him of his ability to talk. Timberlake said his family knows he wants to speak as much as possible in the time he has left.
“They know that I want to speak as much as possible for three reasons.
“One, to serve my awesome God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Two, to minister to my godly wife, Suzanne, to my four born again children, their born again mates and the eight children and extended family. Third, I want to minister Jesus to my precious congregation in Pawnee City, Nebraska, and help gospel rescue missions raise money and awareness nationwide,” Timberlake said.
BEGINNINGS
Timberlake was born in the early morning hours of Oct. 14 1943 to, as he put it, “hard working parents who always tried to give us a better life than theirs had been.”
Timberlake’s mother and father worked in factories in Norway, Maine. However, all was not well in the Timberlake home. He recalled, “At the age of six I remember hiding under the bed and hearing my parents fight, not with hands but with verbal abuse. Night after night (it) scared me.
"Sadly, they did not even know who Jesus was and had never ... been to church. In fact I assumed Jesus was a curse-word until later.”
Tragedy struck the Timberlakes when Bob’s sister Sandra Jean Timberlake died after only living for three days. Timberlake’s father contacted a Baptist pastor to see if he would perform the funeral ceremony.
The Baptist preacher, according to Timberlake, “preached the gospel and told us that the only way we would see the baby again to come to Jesus as Savior.
"While none of us came to Jesus that day we went to a Youth for Christ rally in the old American Legion Hall on a Saturday night in March of 1951.
"When the gospel was given (we) went to the altar and were led to Jesus by different pastors. I still remember each of the verses that the minister shared with me, one by one. I was seven years old.”
Meeting Jesus transformed life in the Timberlake household. “Everything changed in our home. The drinking stopped, the verbal abuse stopped and we went to the little Baptist church every single time the doors were open.
"Dad served many years as deacon and mother cooked every summer in the children's Bible camps,” Timberlake said.
Continuing to serve the Lord, Timberlake graduated from the New Brunswick Bible Institute in Canada and later went to Moody Bible Institute of Chicago with his soon-to-be wife Suzanne. The couple then went to Bangladesh for a year as missionaries, only returning home because of illness.
MISSION LIFE
During Timberlake’s Bible college years he was an intern at the Detroit Rescue Mission in Michigan. There he got a taste for the work that would shape his life.
He said, “(I) really loved living at the mission on skid row and seeing the gospel change men, women and children. So I called the director and he helped me land a ministry at the Market Street Mission in Morristown, New Jersey.
"I directed that mission for nine years and there we had three of our four children, as Amy had been born in Bangladesh.”
Timberlake then directed a mission in Evansville, Ind for three years, then went to the City Mission in Buffalo, N.Y. for nine years, and was in Atlanta, Ga., for a year. After that he moved to Omaha, Neb. where he headed the Open Door Mission from 1986 through 2000.
Under Timberlake’s leadership the mission’s budget expanded dramatically, growing from $100,000 to $2.8 million in cash donations and more than $1 million of gifts in kind.
The Open Door Mission web site recognizes Timberlake’s contributions (http://opendoormission.org/?menu=about/history)
“With the move to east Omaha, the Open Door Mission was not visible to people and this cost Open Door Mission a great deal of support. This changed with the arrival of Rev. Robert O. Timberlake who was hired to be the Executive Director in the spring of 1987.
"At that time, Open Door Mission had three staff members, Pastor Bob and two women. There was no food pantry, no clothing program and no rehabilitation program. Pastor Bob worked untiringly to remedy this situation. The current programs were initiated and developed under (his) leadership.
“Although Open Door Mission had a small women and children's wing, it had never been used. Pastor Bob opened it when he arrived and it was soon filled to capacity. He added two mobile homes behind the main building. Soon those were occupied and Pastor Bob realized they needed a separate building.
“A feasibility study revealed that it would not be possible to raise half a million dollars for another building. However, the board and Pastor Bob looked for a building in the same general area and they found a two-story office structure two blocks away. This became Lydia House ...” (for women and children).
Timberlake also helped the mission expand its outreach to families, developing a New Life Recovery Program of Christian rehabilitation for families which graduated 12 families at the beginning of 2000.
Timberlake left the Open Door Mission in 2000 to return to the City Mission in Buffalo N.Y., but this time as Senior Development Officer. Wanting to be closer to his children, he resigned that position in June 2003 to move back to Pawnee City, Neb., to be the pastor of Faith Baptist Church.
Timberlake had only been pastor for a few months when he received his terminal diagnosis – a crushing blow to most people.
CLOSER TO JESUS
However, Timberlake was excited about what has been accomplished since his story has appeared in the Omaha World Herald (www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=57&u_sid=1025154).
“In the last six days since my story has only been told in Nebraska I have helped Jesus lead six seventeen year old teenagers to Jesus (and some) older ladies and an 80 year old Methodist man who came to my office a few night ago at 10pm. (He) asked me how to be really saved and have to thing his good works could get him into heaven,” Timberlake wrote by e-mail.
In addition, Timberlake said, “I have shared the gospel with each of the over 12 doctors working on me (and) all of the hands-on nurses and (others) I meet in public. I give them the gospel and hand them the copy of the Omaha World Herald front page story ...
"Everywhere I go around Omaha folk are stopping me and telling me how much they appreciate me and the ministry I have done here for 14 years.”
And it’s not only people in Omaha who appreciate Timberlake.
Tom Beatty of the Norfolk and Columbus Rescue Missions first met Timberlake in 1987. They soon became good friends and Timberlake also mentored Beatty. Beatty went to work for Timberlake between 1992 and 1996 until the Lord called him and his wife to begin a rescue mission in Norfolk, Neb.
By e-mail, Beatty reminisced about Timberlake. “During our times together before I worked with him, we would often get together at a local pizza joint / video game parlor, where Bob would give my three little boys a cup full of quarters to play the video games.
"I could not afford to give them that kind of money so the kids were blessed beyond what just dad could do. One day, we met Pastor Bob at the pizza / video place and he opened the trunk of his car to reveal yet another gift for the boys - three BB rifles and targets.
“I began to object that this was just ‘too much’ for him to be doing and Bob told me something I'll not forget: ‘Brother Tom,’ Bob said, ‘Please don't rob me of the joy of giving.’
"Both before that incident and after, I witnessed Bob's generosity many times to many people. Bob's heart was huge! And he was always diligent to give the honor and glory to our Lord Jesus. I am grateful to God for providing a good friend, a good mentor and a good example for me in Pastor Bob Timberlake.”
Some of Timberlake’s friends from his first mission in Morristown N.J. praised his generous spirit.
Bob and Sandy Turton of the Gospel Mission Corps commented by e-mail, “Over thirty-some years ago ... the Gospel Mission Corps was opening Bethany Gospel Mission Home and Chapel in Hightstown, NJ. Bob Timberlake helped make it possible for us to open sooner than it would have been otherwise.
"My wife Sandy, our son Billy, one of our Jewish-Christian sister workers Sue Kornfeld, and I were told by Bob Timberlake to go through the mission warehouse in Morristown and select anything we might be in need of to help get Bethany ready for operations.
"This was a much-needed and tremendous blessing. We have often remembered his kindness and concern, especially in this particular expression of generosity and helpfulness.
"Let him know of our longtime appreciation and respect that we have always held for him. Oh, may God use him in a most significant way even now in his time of physical limitations.”
In addition to pastoring, Timberlake has another flourishing ministry – to children. By going on line to www.unclebobstories.com, youngsters can hear a variety of Timberlake’s stories with titles like “Sophie the Scrubwoman,” “Timmy Timberlake” and “Butterball the Kitten.” (Pictured: Bob Timberlake, from his web site).
Timberlake is upbeat about what lies ahead – whatever happens. The Omaha World-Herald reported that Timberlake’s oncologist has placed him in a clinical trial where he will receive a new anti-cancer drug, albeit one with unpleasant side effects.
But for as long as he can, Timberlake plans to keep on talking – proclaiming the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom he has dedicated his life.
Toward that end, Timberlake is open for as many speaking engagements as time and his health will allow. He is open to appearances on Oprah, the 700 Club, Focus on the Family – anywhere in fact where he can share from the standpoint of someone quite literally standing at death’s door – his love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
