November 18, 2025 • 42 mins
This week, The Deeply Devoted Podcast visits Senior Connection! In this week’s episode, Pastor Eric chats with Dave Vogel about his life, his faith, and the Lord’s faithfulness over the years.
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(00:19):
Hey folks, you're listening to episode 52 of the deeply devoted
podcast, A Ministry of the E Free Church of Bemidji, MN.
My name is Eric Nygren. I'm one of the pastors on staff
here at E Free Bemidji. And once a month on a second
Friday of the month, our Senior Connection ministry hosts A
(00:40):
potluck lunch as an opportunity for our senior adults to gather
together. And as Scott Englestead likes to
say, gather for food, fellowship, faith, and fun.
And we are certainly going to have some fun today because this
episode is being recorded live at Senior Connection.
And yes, maybe you can hear our studio audience in the
(01:02):
background. There we go, there we go.
And with me today is a very special guest, a beloved member
of our church family, Dave Vogel.
And we are going to get to know Dave on our episode today.
And so without further ado, let me say hello to our Senior
Connection audience and welcome to the podcast, Dave.
(01:23):
Yeah. Hi, Pastor Eric.
We are going to get started here.
And so Dave, it's it's a joy to speak with you today.
And I know our senior connectionaudience as well as our church
family who are going to listen to this recording later these
posts on Tuesdays. And so this coming Tuesday, this
episode should be ready to go. And so we will be blessed to to
(01:48):
hear our conversation here. As I was telling Dave earlier,
it's sort of like we're having aconversation and everybody else
gets to eavesdrop in on this conversation.
So Dave, let's just start off a bit with some of your
background. Dave, would you mind just kind
of telling us where you're from originally?
Well, this might take just a little while because I came from
(02:09):
a lot of different places. We'll start, we'll start with,
I'm going to start with my genealogy, which both my mother
and my father's families came from Holland and my dad was born
in Holland and and so I'm prettymuch a full blooded Dutchman.
(02:31):
OK, wooden shoes and everything.Yeah, we have a pair of wooden
shoes at home, that fifth Joyce.OK, Yeah, we, and I'm going to
start with the first, the first six years of my life I lived in
Bigelow, MN. That's where my dad was a
(02:54):
professional and career painter and he is also the town.
He was also like, I need to faceyou.
He was also the town constable and he he never carried a gun,
but he did have a a Billy club, which kind of intrigued me as a
(03:17):
little child. And it was made mostly of lead,
but. So he didn't want to get in his
way. He didn't want to upset.
Him. No, right.
One of the things that happened to me when when I was five years
old in Bigelow. As long as we were on the
subject of Bigelow, it wasn't necessarily the green apples
(03:39):
that I ate that made me very sick lunch time.
And up to this day, I do not care for any bit, any fruit that
has has a little bit bitter taste to it.
Yeah. But I'd like to tell you, tell
you something about one thing that that did happen.
(04:01):
My I have an older brother, Richard, who is smarter and
older than me of course. And one day when we were outside
he told me that if you go to a store to buy something and you
say charge it, you get it for nothing.
And well, the the next day when he was in school and I, I was
(04:30):
busy with my toy of the day, which was a, an old, an old auto
tire. I rolled it down to the I
thought I would try this out. And I rolled it down to the
local grocery store, the only one.
And I walked in the door and walked and the clerk asked me
(04:53):
what I wanted. And I didn't know what I wanted,
of course. And he was standing behind a
glass encounter that had all kinds of, I think fresh foods in
it. And I was standing on the
outside of it and and he asked me again what I wanted.
And I was busy looking at everything.
There was anything there that I did want.
(05:15):
And, and all things were things were bigger or I didn't
register. Then I saw a bunch of green
grapes. Now there are the size that I
could handle. And so I pointed to them and he
grabbed a clump of green grapes out of the the the counter and
(05:38):
asked me if that's what I wanted.
And I said yeah. And he put them in a brown paper
bag and I went out the door withit.
And then it worked. I didn't have to pay and, but,
but I got outside, I had a problem because I had a paper
sack with these grapes in it. And then I had my toy of the
(06:00):
day, my car tire and it when you're 5 years old, it takes 2
hands to roll a tire. And So what am I going to do
now? So I, I tried to put it in the
opening in the in the tire, but it was a bag in the grapes that
was, it was too big. So then I emptied the sack of
(06:21):
grapes into the tire and and rolled it home.
And that's was the last I've heard of that when we moved when
I was six years old. Then we moved to Hall, Iowa.
And there, oh, but I forgot to tell you that while we were in
(06:42):
Bigelow, we, we went to a country Baptist Church.
And now when we got to Hall, they didn't have a fundamental
Christian Church there. What would they call born again
Christian? And and so they started having
church in the homes. And our, our home was in the
(07:06):
back of a paint, a mall, prairies wallpaper store that my
parents had all bought. And it was right Uptown and
right next to the town square upthere.
And so that's where we had church.
And I remember something interesting that happened on
that church too, once in a while.
There were three, three men, My dad was one of them.
(07:29):
And my dad would go out on when the town was busy, maybe on a
Saturday night or something. But they would go and they were
all good singers because they, they had good voice and my dad
was a base and the other two areother good singers.
And they would go stand on the, we remember now we're right on
(07:49):
the city square. They'd go right out there and
they would start singing hymns and, and when they got a, a
group of people around listeningto them, then one of them would
give a gospel message. So so our church was kind of
active in spreading the gospel. The gospel in town, Yeah.
(08:09):
Yeah. OK, then something interesting
else that happened that evidently Oak Hills knew about
our little church and they sent deputation on deputation to our
home several times. I remember sure two times Jim
(08:30):
Schreiber was there. The first time that he came, he
didn't bring his tops and, and so he asked if we had tops and
no, we didn't have any tops. He's well, next time I'll bring
mine, which he did. So Jim Schreiber came and spun
his top tops for us kids there. And of course, I don't know for
(08:52):
sure if it was Jim Schreiber or another because there were
others that came to our our little church on deputation from
Oak Hills to tell about Oak Hills.
He when he left, he forgot his Bible and my dad noticed it
right away. And so he jumped in the car.
(09:12):
I know Richard, Richard and I jumped in the car with him and,
and we took off down the road. Now here's one thing that I know
about the car that we had. It was a fairly new Ford
V8193635. It was a 35 Ford V8.
And no, this engine that's in that car now is the same engine
(09:38):
that Bonnie and Clyde had in their in their thirty in their
34 Ford, which ran away from thepiece OK all the time.
And we took off down the the highway, I'm sure at close
speeds, close to 100 miles an hour, I'm trying to keep to
catch this old kills guy. And we caught up with him and
(09:59):
Dad gave the gentleman his Bible.
But that was kind of an interesting thing.
Is anybody else picturing this, this card, this Bible returning
car chase? What a what a great picture
there. Yeah, yeah.
Well, OK then. Now, this time, about this time
too, the warhead kicked in. That's World War 2 and dad, we,
(10:24):
we, we moved in and I was, I think, I think I was about 12
years old then we moved to SiouxCity, IA and there we only lived
less than a year, I think, and, and, and a couple of his friends
from our church in, in in Hall had moved to northern Minnesota.
(10:50):
And so that's where dad went. And so we, that's what we took
off to Minnesota. Then we arrived in 10 strike,
Minnesota and it wasn't too long.
It wasn't too long before that that my folks heard of a, a
small church SA West of of Bemidji that had a great youth
(11:14):
youth group. And so that's where we headed
and that's where we went to wentto that church then and we were
there for well, this would be about in 1942 or three right in
(11:35):
there. And, and there we spent the rest
of our time before we came to this church in 1999.
And while we were at that church, that's why I taught
Sunday school and LED boys clubsand was an elder.
(11:56):
And Joyce spent the majority of the time that we were there as
as church treasurer. And so she was kept busy doing
that. That's about what that that
ended when we came to this church here.
Yeah. So that brings us to Bemidji
that. Brings us to Bemidji.
Yeah, who knew that asking whereare you from would be, would be
(12:20):
such a complex question. But yeah, it's a great picture
though, Dave, of just, I mean, that's what our stories look
like. Is, is not just the locations
that the Lord has us, but the stories that are sort of made
along the way over a lifetime. And well, we're glad that you
ended up here in Bemidji. I didn't realize that I grew up
(12:40):
in Ohio, but we apparently we both came to Minnesota via Iowa.
So, so it's a good place to be here, up here in northern
Minnesota. We've had on this podcast, Dave,
we've had young adults, we've had senior adults, and we've had
everybody in between on this podcast.
And now, Dave, I hope it's not impolite to ask you this
(13:00):
question, but how many years hasthe Lord blessed you with?
I'm 94. 94 Amen. Amen.
Yeah. Yeah.
You can clap for that. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And so as long as I've known
you, Dave, I've only known you aportion of those 94 years.
But as long as I've known you, Idon't, I don't think I've ever
(13:22):
seen you here, Dave, at at our church without your lovely wife
Joyce at your side. Dave, would you mind just
introducing your bride to us? And how long have the two of you
been married? We've been more married 74
years. And Joyce, you want to stand up?
She can just. She could just wave.
(13:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
Good to have you with us, Joyce.Yeah. 74 years. 74 years, yeah.
Amen, Amen. What a, what a just a great
picture, Dave. And it's, it's fun.
I, I, I remember just, even whenI started out here, what, a
little over 7 years ago, that I remember meeting you, you too.
(14:06):
And, and Dave's really good about providing sermon feedback
after a Sunday. He's an encourager too
sometimes. Yeah, He'll, he'll give it to me
and I, I love it. And it's always good to have a
little bit means that you're listening, right, Dave?
Yeah, right. Well, Dave, we want to hear more
of your story. We'd love to hear a bit of the
(14:26):
story of maybe how you and Joycefirst met.
How did how did the Lord maybe start to write your love story?
OK, right. So we when we first started to
attend at the Chapel in the Pines, I don't know, you know
how we do in our church here, itseems like we always find our
placed. We sit every Sunday.
(14:47):
You're assigned to see. Assigned seats.
I just thought, we don't even think about it.
That's what we do. And that wasn't any different by
way back then. And a little small church Chapel
in the Pines. Doesn't matter how many seats.
Our family sat sat on the left side towards the back and her
family sat towards the front on the right.
And for some reason or other, I sat on the aisle on on the left
(15:12):
and Joyce sat on the aisle on I mean, I was on the right on the
left and she was on the other side.
And, and she would turn around and look back at me and smile
and, and well, that's how we first met, right?
(15:33):
But I found out later that she'sjust smiled at all the boys so.
Well, you were just in the line of sight though Dave, so that
that's it seemed to work out OK.It seemed to work out even even
though she's mostly Norwegian and Swede so she's a
(15:55):
Scandinavian and I was a full blooded Dutch.
OK, but somehow it worked out. Somehow it worked out all right.
Yeah, with the Lord's health. Amen.
Well, Dave, what do you like to do for fun?
When you have some leisure time,you get some some time to
yourself. What do you do for fun?
What are some of your hobbies? OK, the good Lord gave Joyce and
(16:17):
me the opportunity to participate in many activities I
would like to. I'd like to start with the
activities my golf widow, Joyce and I enjoyed.
Together we haunted deer, rode snowmobiles, rode motorcycles,
bold and mixed double S and water skied.
(16:39):
Say while we're talking about water ski, I have a water ski
story I have to tell. You love to hear it.
You know, when was pretty much the starting of of water skiing
and we just had a four small 14 foot fishing boat that we had
and we had a an old motor. I think it was either it's
(17:01):
around 16 horsepower is all it was, but it, it had a, to get it
started, you had to pull it. You didn't know it's electric
start on it and it had a spark lever on it and a throttle lever
show you how old it was. And sometimes it started kind of
hard. Well, my dad was going to give
(17:22):
me a ride on this on the skis and I sitting on the end of the
dock hanging on to the rope going like that.
And my dad was having trouble starting that motor and for some
reason or other he threw the throttle wide open and gave it a
pull. And when that boat took off, he
went over the back of the boat. And here I now if you think you
(17:44):
can think what you can think of in 1/2 a second I did think of
because I said, now what do I do?
I'm a pretty good water skier and I could control that boat
and probably direct it to where we want it to go.
But then I said, but but if I fall down, if I for accident for
some reason fall down, that ballcould circle and go over and and
(18:08):
kill me even. And so I I let go.
Now the boat went out in the middle of Lake Bemidji and was
circling out in the male middle of Lake Bemidji.
And by good stroke of luck, a gentleman that used to work for
us, that was retired, that was aboat builder he had, he had a
(18:30):
huge, huge craft boat that he was giving rides with down at
the city dock. And so I jumped in the car and
Bill, his name was Bill Chemic. And I said, Bill, but what
happened that boat circling out in the middle of the lake?
And so he'll happen in his big speedboat.
(18:51):
And we went out and he he pulledalongside the boat, the one that
was speeding. I jumped from his speedboat into
the other boat. And so that's how we got us got
that problem solved. For a moment there, Dave, I
thought you were going to tell me.
And that boat is still circling late Beverty today.
No. Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. So.
(19:13):
So water skiing, golfing, I heard in there all kinds of good
stuff. Yeah, OK.
Yeah. Joyce also loves swimming.
And on hot, hot days after day on the farm, the whole family
went and swam out into the middle of Grant Lake to cool
(19:33):
off. Yeah, yeah.
But I but I still to this day, I'm still golfing and bowling.
Amen. Amen.
So what? What?
Tell us a little bit about your glory days Bowling Dave.
Oh well. Do you have a high score
somewhere here in town? Yeah, well, somehow I I did
(19:54):
manage to bowl some pretty good games.
I was, I was the very first person in Bemidji to bowl an
800. I bowled an 8 to 15 and.
Later on, when I was 79 years old, in a city tournament in the
(20:14):
double, SI bowled a 775 scratch which which is just close to an
800 and so and in, in. And then also I was inducted
into the Bemidji Bowling Hall ofFame.
(20:36):
There we go. So we have a celebrity in our
midst there. And that was was something I
accomplished in bowling. Yeah, yeah.
Ever a hole in one in golf? I've had three holes in one.
Yeah, OK. Pretty impressive.
All right, well, we're going to switch topics just a little bit
here, Dave on this podcast, overthe many episodes we've had,
(20:58):
we've utilized this to really help our church family learn
more about the different membersof our congregation.
And one of the things we like totalk about is just how people
came to faith in Christ. And so I wonder, Dave, if you
wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit about your own
testimony for us this afternoon.How and when did you come to
know the Lord and and what are some of the ways that the Lords
(21:19):
grown your faith over the years?Yes, okay, you know, ever since
I was born, of course, I was born into a fundamental
Christian family and Baptist Church to even a small Baptist
Church. I lived there and I looked at I
was six years old. The the they gave the invitation
every Sunday just about and, and, and so I knew all about you
(21:46):
had to give your, your heart to Jesus, you know, and, and of
course, then we moved to Hall, Iowa was pretty much the same
thing. And I had Sunday school teachers
and, and, and I realized I always realized that I had to
end give my heart to Jesus. And I knew that as far as I
(22:09):
knew, that's what I had already done.
You know, I don't know when I did it, but I but when I got a
just a little bit older there, Iknew you and and one of the
first Bible verses we learned was for God so loved the world
that he gave his only son that whosoever believeth in him shall
not perish but have everlasting life.
(22:31):
And I believed in Jesus. But then I learned a little
later on, you had to know more than just that Jesus wasn't just
a person that existed, but you had to believe in him.
And so and I said, well, I do believe in Jesus.
And if that's a pretty simple faith, but it was real.
(22:52):
I had AI had a chance a little later than to kind of test that
faith. I sometimes we get early in the
morning in the summertime at life's sun comes up pretty early
and that's the whole town is dead.
There's no buddy, no cars going,no people on the streets.
(23:13):
And I would, I went out into thestreet, which I've done many
times. It's kind of interesting when
you're in this town just to see what's going on around the town.
And, and Kitty corner across from our paint and wallpaper
store was a grocery store. And there was a Bank of Kitty
the other way and Kitty corner across the gas station.
(23:34):
But anyway, as I walked past in front of this grocery store,
which was still locked up, but there was a screen door there
was open. And behind that screen door was
a was a bun was a bundle of cinnamon rolls.
And that's, I stopped and lookedat them.
And then I looked this way on the street and look that way on
(23:55):
the street there, there's nobodythat could see me, you know, And
I could take those and nobody would ever know.
Then I realized, no, Jesus sees me and I, I left, left and I
didn't take them. So that was kind of a test of my
(24:16):
I thought of my faith that Jesusreally was part of my life.
They say the character is who you are when nobody's looking.
Yeah. Well, Dave, as we kind of look
back along your timeline a little bit more, I want to ask
you, when you were younger, whatdid you and Joyce do for work?
(24:38):
What did the the Lord lead you to?
Because I've heard there may be a connection to this core craft
canoe. I've heard, I've heard rumors
about this and and we'd love to hear maybe a couple of stories
from those days. Yeah, OK, we'll start when I,
when I was a teenager and my dadhad bought a millwork house in
(25:03):
Bemidji. In fact, it's right across from
where the Dairy Queen is now in Bemidji.
And, and I would work summers for him in in that, in that
millwork place. And, and while I was doing that,
I was, I was an apprentice to a cabinet maker, a professional
(25:29):
cabinet maker. And, and so I was learning
cabinet making at even as a teenager.
Then of course, his problem withthat cabinet maker was that he
was an alcoholic and his alcoholism got so bad that my
dad had to fire him. And about this time, a couple
(25:50):
ordered a set of kitchen cabinets for their house.
And so I built and when I was still a teenager, I built a
whole set of cabinet kitchen cabinets and installed them in
their home. And that's was the first, first
work that I did there. Started as a cabinet maker.
(26:11):
Yeah. And then my my dad got into a
boat building because the the millwork house used to be a
boat, a boathouse where they built boat.
I mentioned earlier about Bill Kemmick built boats.
Well, he built boats in that they made build Arrowhead boats.
And so since it was slower in the summer, dad started building
(26:34):
boats again. And then he started putting
fiberglass on both sides of a red cedar core.
And that's where the name Core Craft comes from.
It's it's a boat that has a cedar core with fiberglass on
both sides. He patented that idea and, and
so we were, that's what I helpedwith.
(26:57):
And until we moved from them in about 1955, we moved from there
to a new plant. That's where the Bluekins N is
now. That's where our, our factory
was, where we built those boats.And this is where Joyce comes
into play now because she, afterher, the kids got old enough to
(27:20):
go to school, she started layingup fiberglass on, on, on these
boats. And, and later as, as we got
more advanced, we started makingall fiberglass canoes and, and
that, and she was, and then, then she did that.
(27:41):
And, and so for, I think it was close to 16 years, she worked on
laying fiberglass off in the boats and in the canoes.
And, and then about this time we, we had a connection with
Arctic Cat and, and they wanted,they needed fiberglass,
(28:08):
fiberglass hoods for their snowmobiles.
And so we started building fiberglass hoods for them and
which we did for several years build all the hoods.
In fact, we had two shifts gone on that.
That's pretty amazing, Dave, andI'm really glad that Joyce, for
(28:30):
our our studio audience today. There's a table over here to my
left of some some photos and some some brochures and all
kinds of good stuff. You'll want to definitely check
that out of of all kinds of things.
I did see some cars over there though too.
Dave, how do the cars fit in? OK.
Yeah, that's what the that's when I work for after, after we
(28:57):
sold our business in 75, the Kotakor craft business, we sold
out in 1975. Then I went to work at at Arctic
Cat. I worked at Arctic Cat for about
5 years and I just worked in theengineering department there and
(29:19):
where, where, where they designed the, the, the new hoods
for the new year and all that inthere.
So I had a part in that and, butthen Arctic Cat because about in
1980 or so interest rates are uparound 20% and they had, we had
(29:43):
a real bad winter and the snowmobiles weren't selling and
they just went bankrupt. Hardy Cat went bankrupt.
And so then we had to come back to Bemidji.
But then I got a call from Classic Roadsters that they
needed somebody. So I went down there and, and
(30:04):
managed their full fiberglass department and then immediately
got involved with the developingof, of, of helping him develop
new kit cars. And that's it.
That's very interesting how thatwent because to do to to when he
(30:27):
wanted like a 39 Jaguar, he I had what I did to create that he
what I would take the parts off They had they had M GS.
Now it was just a 2 little 22 door small car, but it wherever
(30:47):
those fiberglass pieces were fastened to their frame and
stuff. I maintain that, but I took the
pieces of fiberglass and changedthe shape of them till I got a
39 Jaguar. He gave me a picture of a 39
Jaguar and and so that's what I did and and that was given away.
(31:11):
The production model of that wasgiven away on Wheel of Fortune.
In fact, you'll see that pictureof it on the there's.
A photo over there. A photo over there of them that
they gave. That's the car that I did in,
in, in, in Fargo. Then I came.
But I, but I, we got, we got my folks were here.
My, my mother-in-law was ill. My dad was ill and we wanted to
(31:33):
get back to Bemidji. So I built a product development
shop right on my place on Big Bass Lake.
And by this time Arctic Cat was back in business again.
And, and I, I continued to work for classic Roadsters.
And there I, I built, I did the same thing with it was a little
more work to that one because hewanted this Merced 35
(31:56):
Mercedes-Benz coupe. It's called the Marlena because
Marlena Dietrich was a girlfriend of Mercedes himself
and so he had Mercedes. Mercedes built that cart for in
her honor kind of. And so we called the Marlena.
(32:17):
It was called the Marlena. And I did quite a bit more on
that one because I had to reshape the car entirely in the
back and, and then the fenders and, and I put put roll up
windows in it. And I also built a top fork that
fit on there that the roll up windows that go in.
And, and so that's, you'll see pictures.
(32:40):
You see some of the pictures of that on there too.
They even made a Christmas card with the Marlene and.
That's who that is in that picture, OK.
Yeah, right. And as far as that picture, that
big, big picture that's on the wall there, everybody knows
that's a Ford Ford Cobra. So what's different about that?
(33:05):
Well, that that car there the the owner of classic rotors,
that's his favorite car was thatFord Cobra and he and he had he
had one. I don't know if it was another
kit car or what he had for a body, but he had one and it's
(33:26):
and he's pretty big guy. And and then there's the story
that goes with that is really crazy because some reason or
other, the kit car people or something sponsored a race
someplace where people race their cool, which could present
to get the fastest car. Well, he wanted the car to be
(33:48):
more stable. So he wanted that wider.
He wanted that 4 inches wider wheelbase.
And then he and then of course, make this where you sit little
bigger. Yeah.
So he gave it to me and and I end up having to cut that car in
about four pieces. I mean, because I had to.
I'm I, I put 2 inches wider and then I added an inch to the
(34:12):
fenders on all sides. But by the time I get in with
all that, the picture, I, I don't have any pictures of me
doing that. But that's what had to be done.
And, and of course then the whole car had to be reshaped and
finished and come back to this natural look.
And so that's what I did to that.
(34:33):
Yeah, I did that in my shop in Bemidji.
And the, the owner, he gave me that picture of it, one of the
completed car cars, the bed And so and, and, and, and then
that's when the Pioneer did a full page thing of my work that
(34:53):
I was doing in my shop. So you made the news.
Yeah, it made the news, but it was happened to be when I was
just finishing up on that one. So that's how that ended up OK.
Dave, I have to confess the whenyou told me a while ago about
classic roadsters, I I thought Iheard you say classic roasters.
(35:16):
Oh, roasters. And I thought.
For a second that you had a coffee bean roasting business
back in the day and I was reallygetting kind of excited that
maybe this was a skill you had in your back pocket.
But yeah, so I misheard you backthe first time I heard that.
So what great stories, Dave, just.
And and you really do need to look at some of those pictures
yes, Pat Sajak is in that picture, the Wheel of Fortune
(35:37):
photo over there. So, you know, the Lord really
gives us some of these really great stories, great memories
over over the many years of lifethat he blesses us with.
But you know, we all know, Dave,that, you know, with every every
high, sometimes there's some some lowers in, in life.
And I wonder, Dave, if you wouldn't mind just sharing with
us a little bit about maybe someof the tough times that the Lord
(36:00):
has helped you through over the years?
Yeah, probably the hardest was when our nine years ago when our
my my daughter was broadsided inwhat she was visiting in
Colorado and it was a somebody was a young man was texting on
his phone coming off a side roadand never stopped and hit her
(36:22):
broadside right where she was sitting and she never regained
consciousness. And yeah, that part was hard,
but the Lord, we really was our help and our in our comfort at
during this time. It's amazing how the Lord
comforted us at that time. And another time that wasn't as
(36:47):
serious, but it was pretty mortal was, was pretty difficult
was our plant. When we were telling you we
started building the hoods for Arctic Cat and we were still
making canoes and our car business was booming because we
were, we were running 2 shifts. We had a night shift and a day
(37:08):
shift and they made the snowmobile hoods in the evening
shift, which is done not by handlayup, but it was a gun that
sprays fiberglass and, and, and an additive that accelerates and
makes this makes the resin set up that's sprayed it with it.
And they're supposed to keep that booth clean.
(37:29):
But when that builds up, when that's curing, that creates heat
and they had that build up on the wall and that broke out in a
fire and our whole production plant burned to the ground at
that time. And so we had to start all over
with. But we were, we were well
(37:50):
insured at the time and, and, and for, and I don't understand
it myself hardly, but I was justcompletely calm and, and not
concerned at all about the material things that we had
lost. And, and had to be because
because of my faith in, in Jesus, you know, too had to have
(38:13):
something to do with it beside the fact that it was covered by
insurance and we just rebuild and do it.
But there was a special comment came over me at that time.
So that always intrigued me, kind of.
It can be difficult to reflect on some of those tough times,
tough memories in the past, but it is good to remember just how
(38:35):
the Lord was with us through those times.
It makes me think, Dave, just about what the apostle Paul says
in in First Corinthians when he talks about that the God of all
comfort comforts us so that we can comfort others.
And, and I hope just even you sharing a little bit of, of some
of the tough times that the Lordhas brought you through is a
comfort to some of us here and, and some that'll be listening to
(38:58):
this to this later. Well, Dave, you've got the
microphone here. And so I wanted to give you a
chance to also impart some wisdom to our church family.
Dave, what? What is something that you would
like to tell younger Christians in our church?
I would say to always be ready to give an answer for the hope
(39:22):
that is in you. Always be ready to give.
And I thought I think of that all the time from myself.
I have to be. I want to be ready to give an
answer for why what I believe and why I believe in and always
be ready to do give that. Amen.
Always be prepared. Yeah, yeah.
(39:44):
Well, Dave, this has been fun. I would love to keep talking all
afternoon here and and to just keep hearing stories of, of the
years that the Lord's given you.And and I'm sure we'll have more
opportunities to do so. But as we wrap up our
conversation, Dave, one of the things we do on this podcast at
(40:05):
the end of every episode is I like to ask the guest this last
question. You know, at our church here, we
talk often about being or becoming deeply devoted
followers of Jesus together. This podcast is called the
Deeply Devoted Podcast. It's that idea of being deeply
(40:26):
devoted to Jesus. Dave, what is one thing that you
have been blessed by lately thatis deepening your own devotion
to Jesus? Actually, it's answered prayers
that grew, that grew my face. Because of my age, I feel more
of a need to look to the Lord for help.
(40:49):
The words Thank you Lord have increased in my vocabulary.
When we ask God for something, He sometimes answers no.
He knows what we need spiritually and materially.
Yes, he does. Yes, he does.
Yeah. Thank you, Lord.
Yeah, I'm glad that the Lord is teaching you that and that
(41:11):
you're you're teaching us here on this podcast today.
So folks, that is going to do itfor this episode of our deeply
devoted podcast. Again, my thanks to Dave Vogel
this afternoon for joining me. And for all of you out here in
our studio audience, thanks for participating in this today.
(41:31):
We will be back in two weeks with another episode of our
podcast and I would love to do this with any of you.
So if ever you want to share some of your story or you have
some ideas for us, we would loveto hear those.
Come talk to me about that. But we'll be back in two weeks
with another episode. Until then, have a great week
(41:52):
and thanks for listening.
Hey folks, you're listening to episode 52 of the deeply devoted
podcast, A Ministry of the E Free Church of Bemidji, MN.
My name is Eric Nygren. I'm one of the pastors on staff
here at E Free Bemidji. And once a month on a second
Friday of the month, our Senior Connection ministry hosts A
(00:40):
potluck lunch as an opportunity for our senior adults to gather
together. And as Scott Englestead likes to
say, gather for food, fellowship, faith, and fun.
And we are certainly going to have some fun today because this
episode is being recorded live at Senior Connection.
And yes, maybe you can hear our studio audience in the
(01:02):
background. There we go, there we go.
And with me today is a very special guest, a beloved member
of our church family, Dave Vogel.
And we are going to get to know Dave on our episode today.
And so without further ado, let me say hello to our Senior
Connection audience and welcome to the podcast, Dave.
(01:23):
Yeah. Hi, Pastor Eric.
We are going to get started here.
And so Dave, it's it's a joy to speak with you today.
And I know our senior connectionaudience as well as our church
family who are going to listen to this recording later these
posts on Tuesdays. And so this coming Tuesday, this
episode should be ready to go. And so we will be blessed to to
(01:48):
hear our conversation here. As I was telling Dave earlier,
it's sort of like we're having aconversation and everybody else
gets to eavesdrop in on this conversation.
So Dave, let's just start off a bit with some of your
background. Dave, would you mind just kind
of telling us where you're from originally?
Well, this might take just a little while because I came from
(02:09):
a lot of different places. We'll start, we'll start with,
I'm going to start with my genealogy, which both my mother
and my father's families came from Holland and my dad was born
in Holland and and so I'm prettymuch a full blooded Dutchman.
(02:31):
OK, wooden shoes and everything.Yeah, we have a pair of wooden
shoes at home, that fifth Joyce.OK, Yeah, we, and I'm going to
start with the first, the first six years of my life I lived in
Bigelow, MN. That's where my dad was a
(02:54):
professional and career painter and he is also the town.
He was also like, I need to faceyou.
He was also the town constable and he he never carried a gun,
but he did have a a Billy club, which kind of intrigued me as a
(03:17):
little child. And it was made mostly of lead,
but. So he didn't want to get in his
way. He didn't want to upset.
Him. No, right.
One of the things that happened to me when when I was five years
old in Bigelow. As long as we were on the
subject of Bigelow, it wasn't necessarily the green apples
(03:39):
that I ate that made me very sick lunch time.
And up to this day, I do not care for any bit, any fruit that
has has a little bit bitter taste to it.
Yeah. But I'd like to tell you, tell
you something about one thing that that did happen.
(04:01):
My I have an older brother, Richard, who is smarter and
older than me of course. And one day when we were outside
he told me that if you go to a store to buy something and you
say charge it, you get it for nothing.
And well, the the next day when he was in school and I, I was
(04:30):
busy with my toy of the day, which was a, an old, an old auto
tire. I rolled it down to the I
thought I would try this out. And I rolled it down to the
local grocery store, the only one.
And I walked in the door and walked and the clerk asked me
(04:53):
what I wanted. And I didn't know what I wanted,
of course. And he was standing behind a
glass encounter that had all kinds of, I think fresh foods in
it. And I was standing on the
outside of it and and he asked me again what I wanted.
And I was busy looking at everything.
There was anything there that I did want.
(05:15):
And, and all things were things were bigger or I didn't
register. Then I saw a bunch of green
grapes. Now there are the size that I
could handle. And so I pointed to them and he
grabbed a clump of green grapes out of the the the counter and
(05:38):
asked me if that's what I wanted.
And I said yeah. And he put them in a brown paper
bag and I went out the door withit.
And then it worked. I didn't have to pay and, but,
but I got outside, I had a problem because I had a paper
sack with these grapes in it. And then I had my toy of the
(06:00):
day, my car tire and it when you're 5 years old, it takes 2
hands to roll a tire. And So what am I going to do
now? So I, I tried to put it in the
opening in the in the tire, but it was a bag in the grapes that
was, it was too big. So then I emptied the sack of
(06:21):
grapes into the tire and and rolled it home.
And that's was the last I've heard of that when we moved when
I was six years old. Then we moved to Hall, Iowa.
And there, oh, but I forgot to tell you that while we were in
(06:42):
Bigelow, we, we went to a country Baptist Church.
And now when we got to Hall, they didn't have a fundamental
Christian Church there. What would they call born again
Christian? And and so they started having
church in the homes. And our, our home was in the
(07:06):
back of a paint, a mall, prairies wallpaper store that my
parents had all bought. And it was right Uptown and
right next to the town square upthere.
And so that's where we had church.
And I remember something interesting that happened on
that church too, once in a while.
There were three, three men, My dad was one of them.
(07:29):
And my dad would go out on when the town was busy, maybe on a
Saturday night or something. But they would go and they were
all good singers because they, they had good voice and my dad
was a base and the other two areother good singers.
And they would go stand on the, we remember now we're right on
(07:49):
the city square. They'd go right out there and
they would start singing hymns and, and when they got a, a
group of people around listeningto them, then one of them would
give a gospel message. So so our church was kind of
active in spreading the gospel. The gospel in town, Yeah.
(08:09):
Yeah. OK, then something interesting
else that happened that evidently Oak Hills knew about
our little church and they sent deputation on deputation to our
home several times. I remember sure two times Jim
(08:30):
Schreiber was there. The first time that he came, he
didn't bring his tops and, and so he asked if we had tops and
no, we didn't have any tops. He's well, next time I'll bring
mine, which he did. So Jim Schreiber came and spun
his top tops for us kids there. And of course, I don't know for
(08:52):
sure if it was Jim Schreiber or another because there were
others that came to our our little church on deputation from
Oak Hills to tell about Oak Hills.
He when he left, he forgot his Bible and my dad noticed it
right away. And so he jumped in the car.
(09:12):
I know Richard, Richard and I jumped in the car with him and,
and we took off down the road. Now here's one thing that I know
about the car that we had. It was a fairly new Ford
V8193635. It was a 35 Ford V8.
And no, this engine that's in that car now is the same engine
(09:38):
that Bonnie and Clyde had in their in their thirty in their
34 Ford, which ran away from thepiece OK all the time.
And we took off down the the highway, I'm sure at close
speeds, close to 100 miles an hour, I'm trying to keep to
catch this old kills guy. And we caught up with him and
(09:59):
Dad gave the gentleman his Bible.
But that was kind of an interesting thing.
Is anybody else picturing this, this card, this Bible returning
car chase? What a what a great picture
there. Yeah, yeah.
Well, OK then. Now, this time, about this time
too, the warhead kicked in. That's World War 2 and dad, we,
(10:24):
we, we moved in and I was, I think, I think I was about 12
years old then we moved to SiouxCity, IA and there we only lived
less than a year, I think, and, and, and a couple of his friends
from our church in, in in Hall had moved to northern Minnesota.
(10:50):
And so that's where dad went. And so we, that's what we took
off to Minnesota. Then we arrived in 10 strike,
Minnesota and it wasn't too long.
It wasn't too long before that that my folks heard of a, a
small church SA West of of Bemidji that had a great youth
(11:14):
youth group. And so that's where we headed
and that's where we went to wentto that church then and we were
there for well, this would be about in 1942 or three right in
(11:35):
there. And, and there we spent the rest
of our time before we came to this church in 1999.
And while we were at that church, that's why I taught
Sunday school and LED boys clubsand was an elder.
(11:56):
And Joyce spent the majority of the time that we were there as
as church treasurer. And so she was kept busy doing
that. That's about what that that
ended when we came to this church here.
Yeah. So that brings us to Bemidji
that. Brings us to Bemidji.
Yeah, who knew that asking whereare you from would be, would be
(12:20):
such a complex question. But yeah, it's a great picture
though, Dave, of just, I mean, that's what our stories look
like. Is, is not just the locations
that the Lord has us, but the stories that are sort of made
along the way over a lifetime. And well, we're glad that you
ended up here in Bemidji. I didn't realize that I grew up
(12:40):
in Ohio, but we apparently we both came to Minnesota via Iowa.
So, so it's a good place to be here, up here in northern
Minnesota. We've had on this podcast, Dave,
we've had young adults, we've had senior adults, and we've had
everybody in between on this podcast.
And now, Dave, I hope it's not impolite to ask you this
(13:00):
question, but how many years hasthe Lord blessed you with?
I'm 94. 94 Amen. Amen.
Yeah. Yeah.
You can clap for that. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And so as long as I've known
you, Dave, I've only known you aportion of those 94 years.
But as long as I've known you, Idon't, I don't think I've ever
(13:22):
seen you here, Dave, at at our church without your lovely wife
Joyce at your side. Dave, would you mind just
introducing your bride to us? And how long have the two of you
been married? We've been more married 74
years. And Joyce, you want to stand up?
She can just. She could just wave.
(13:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
Good to have you with us, Joyce.Yeah. 74 years. 74 years, yeah.
Amen, Amen. What a, what a just a great
picture, Dave. And it's, it's fun.
I, I, I remember just, even whenI started out here, what, a
little over 7 years ago, that I remember meeting you, you too.
(14:06):
And, and Dave's really good about providing sermon feedback
after a Sunday. He's an encourager too
sometimes. Yeah, He'll, he'll give it to me
and I, I love it. And it's always good to have a
little bit means that you're listening, right, Dave?
Yeah, right. Well, Dave, we want to hear more
of your story. We'd love to hear a bit of the
(14:26):
story of maybe how you and Joycefirst met.
How did how did the Lord maybe start to write your love story?
OK, right. So we when we first started to
attend at the Chapel in the Pines, I don't know, you know
how we do in our church here, itseems like we always find our
placed. We sit every Sunday.
(14:47):
You're assigned to see. Assigned seats.
I just thought, we don't even think about it.
That's what we do. And that wasn't any different by
way back then. And a little small church Chapel
in the Pines. Doesn't matter how many seats.
Our family sat sat on the left side towards the back and her
family sat towards the front on the right.
And for some reason or other, I sat on the aisle on on the left
(15:12):
and Joyce sat on the aisle on I mean, I was on the right on the
left and she was on the other side.
And, and she would turn around and look back at me and smile
and, and well, that's how we first met, right?
(15:33):
But I found out later that she'sjust smiled at all the boys so.
Well, you were just in the line of sight though Dave, so that
that's it seemed to work out OK.It seemed to work out even even
though she's mostly Norwegian and Swede so she's a
(15:55):
Scandinavian and I was a full blooded Dutch.
OK, but somehow it worked out. Somehow it worked out all right.
Yeah, with the Lord's health. Amen.
Well, Dave, what do you like to do for fun?
When you have some leisure time,you get some some time to
yourself. What do you do for fun?
What are some of your hobbies? OK, the good Lord gave Joyce and
(16:17):
me the opportunity to participate in many activities I
would like to. I'd like to start with the
activities my golf widow, Joyce and I enjoyed.
Together we haunted deer, rode snowmobiles, rode motorcycles,
bold and mixed double S and water skied.
(16:39):
Say while we're talking about water ski, I have a water ski
story I have to tell. You love to hear it.
You know, when was pretty much the starting of of water skiing
and we just had a four small 14 foot fishing boat that we had
and we had a an old motor. I think it was either it's
(17:01):
around 16 horsepower is all it was, but it, it had a, to get it
started, you had to pull it. You didn't know it's electric
start on it and it had a spark lever on it and a throttle lever
show you how old it was. And sometimes it started kind of
hard. Well, my dad was going to give
(17:22):
me a ride on this on the skis and I sitting on the end of the
dock hanging on to the rope going like that.
And my dad was having trouble starting that motor and for some
reason or other he threw the throttle wide open and gave it a
pull. And when that boat took off, he
went over the back of the boat. And here I now if you think you
(17:44):
can think what you can think of in 1/2 a second I did think of
because I said, now what do I do?
I'm a pretty good water skier and I could control that boat
and probably direct it to where we want it to go.
But then I said, but but if I fall down, if I for accident for
some reason fall down, that ballcould circle and go over and and
(18:08):
kill me even. And so I I let go.
Now the boat went out in the middle of Lake Bemidji and was
circling out in the male middle of Lake Bemidji.
And by good stroke of luck, a gentleman that used to work for
us, that was retired, that was aboat builder he had, he had a
(18:30):
huge, huge craft boat that he was giving rides with down at
the city dock. And so I jumped in the car and
Bill, his name was Bill Chemic. And I said, Bill, but what
happened that boat circling out in the middle of the lake?
And so he'll happen in his big speedboat.
(18:51):
And we went out and he he pulledalongside the boat, the one that
was speeding. I jumped from his speedboat into
the other boat. And so that's how we got us got
that problem solved. For a moment there, Dave, I
thought you were going to tell me.
And that boat is still circling late Beverty today.
No. Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. So.
(19:13):
So water skiing, golfing, I heard in there all kinds of good
stuff. Yeah, OK.
Yeah. Joyce also loves swimming.
And on hot, hot days after day on the farm, the whole family
went and swam out into the middle of Grant Lake to cool
(19:33):
off. Yeah, yeah.
But I but I still to this day, I'm still golfing and bowling.
Amen. Amen.
So what? What?
Tell us a little bit about your glory days Bowling Dave.
Oh well. Do you have a high score
somewhere here in town? Yeah, well, somehow I I did
(19:54):
manage to bowl some pretty good games.
I was, I was the very first person in Bemidji to bowl an
800. I bowled an 8 to 15 and.
Later on, when I was 79 years old, in a city tournament in the
(20:14):
double, SI bowled a 775 scratch which which is just close to an
800 and so and in, in. And then also I was inducted
into the Bemidji Bowling Hall ofFame.
(20:36):
There we go. So we have a celebrity in our
midst there. And that was was something I
accomplished in bowling. Yeah, yeah.
Ever a hole in one in golf? I've had three holes in one.
Yeah, OK. Pretty impressive.
All right, well, we're going to switch topics just a little bit
here, Dave on this podcast, overthe many episodes we've had,
(20:58):
we've utilized this to really help our church family learn
more about the different membersof our congregation.
And one of the things we like totalk about is just how people
came to faith in Christ. And so I wonder, Dave, if you
wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit about your own
testimony for us this afternoon.How and when did you come to
know the Lord and and what are some of the ways that the Lords
(21:19):
grown your faith over the years?Yes, okay, you know, ever since
I was born, of course, I was born into a fundamental
Christian family and Baptist Church to even a small Baptist
Church. I lived there and I looked at I
was six years old. The the they gave the invitation
every Sunday just about and, and, and so I knew all about you
(21:46):
had to give your, your heart to Jesus, you know, and, and of
course, then we moved to Hall, Iowa was pretty much the same
thing. And I had Sunday school teachers
and, and, and I realized I always realized that I had to
end give my heart to Jesus. And I knew that as far as I
(22:09):
knew, that's what I had already done.
You know, I don't know when I did it, but I but when I got a
just a little bit older there, Iknew you and and one of the
first Bible verses we learned was for God so loved the world
that he gave his only son that whosoever believeth in him shall
not perish but have everlasting life.
(22:31):
And I believed in Jesus. But then I learned a little
later on, you had to know more than just that Jesus wasn't just
a person that existed, but you had to believe in him.
And so and I said, well, I do believe in Jesus.
And if that's a pretty simple faith, but it was real.
(22:52):
I had AI had a chance a little later than to kind of test that
faith. I sometimes we get early in the
morning in the summertime at life's sun comes up pretty early
and that's the whole town is dead.
There's no buddy, no cars going,no people on the streets.
(23:13):
And I would, I went out into thestreet, which I've done many
times. It's kind of interesting when
you're in this town just to see what's going on around the town.
And, and Kitty corner across from our paint and wallpaper
store was a grocery store. And there was a Bank of Kitty
the other way and Kitty corner across the gas station.
(23:34):
But anyway, as I walked past in front of this grocery store,
which was still locked up, but there was a screen door there
was open. And behind that screen door was
a was a bun was a bundle of cinnamon rolls.
And that's, I stopped and lookedat them.
And then I looked this way on the street and look that way on
(23:55):
the street there, there's nobodythat could see me, you know, And
I could take those and nobody would ever know.
Then I realized, no, Jesus sees me and I, I left, left and I
didn't take them. So that was kind of a test of my
(24:16):
I thought of my faith that Jesusreally was part of my life.
They say the character is who you are when nobody's looking.
Yeah. Well, Dave, as we kind of look
back along your timeline a little bit more, I want to ask
you, when you were younger, whatdid you and Joyce do for work?
(24:38):
What did the the Lord lead you to?
Because I've heard there may be a connection to this core craft
canoe. I've heard, I've heard rumors
about this and and we'd love to hear maybe a couple of stories
from those days. Yeah, OK, we'll start when I,
when I was a teenager and my dadhad bought a millwork house in
(25:03):
Bemidji. In fact, it's right across from
where the Dairy Queen is now in Bemidji.
And, and I would work summers for him in in that, in that
millwork place. And, and while I was doing that,
I was, I was an apprentice to a cabinet maker, a professional
(25:29):
cabinet maker. And, and so I was learning
cabinet making at even as a teenager.
Then of course, his problem withthat cabinet maker was that he
was an alcoholic and his alcoholism got so bad that my
dad had to fire him. And about this time, a couple
(25:50):
ordered a set of kitchen cabinets for their house.
And so I built and when I was still a teenager, I built a
whole set of cabinet kitchen cabinets and installed them in
their home. And that's was the first, first
work that I did there. Started as a cabinet maker.
(26:11):
Yeah. And then my my dad got into a
boat building because the the millwork house used to be a
boat, a boathouse where they built boat.
I mentioned earlier about Bill Kemmick built boats.
Well, he built boats in that they made build Arrowhead boats.
And so since it was slower in the summer, dad started building
(26:34):
boats again. And then he started putting
fiberglass on both sides of a red cedar core.
And that's where the name Core Craft comes from.
It's it's a boat that has a cedar core with fiberglass on
both sides. He patented that idea and, and
so we were, that's what I helpedwith.
(26:57):
And until we moved from them in about 1955, we moved from there
to a new plant. That's where the Bluekins N is
now. That's where our, our factory
was, where we built those boats.And this is where Joyce comes
into play now because she, afterher, the kids got old enough to
(27:20):
go to school, she started layingup fiberglass on, on, on these
boats. And, and later as, as we got
more advanced, we started makingall fiberglass canoes and, and
that, and she was, and then, then she did that.
(27:41):
And, and so for, I think it was close to 16 years, she worked on
laying fiberglass off in the boats and in the canoes.
And, and then about this time we, we had a connection with
Arctic Cat and, and they wanted,they needed fiberglass,
(28:08):
fiberglass hoods for their snowmobiles.
And so we started building fiberglass hoods for them and
which we did for several years build all the hoods.
In fact, we had two shifts gone on that.
That's pretty amazing, Dave, andI'm really glad that Joyce, for
(28:30):
our our studio audience today. There's a table over here to my
left of some some photos and some some brochures and all
kinds of good stuff. You'll want to definitely check
that out of of all kinds of things.
I did see some cars over there though too.
Dave, how do the cars fit in? OK.
Yeah, that's what the that's when I work for after, after we
(28:57):
sold our business in 75, the Kotakor craft business, we sold
out in 1975. Then I went to work at at Arctic
Cat. I worked at Arctic Cat for about
5 years and I just worked in theengineering department there and
(29:19):
where, where, where they designed the, the, the new hoods
for the new year and all that inthere.
So I had a part in that and, butthen Arctic Cat because about in
1980 or so interest rates are uparound 20% and they had, we had
(29:43):
a real bad winter and the snowmobiles weren't selling and
they just went bankrupt. Hardy Cat went bankrupt.
And so then we had to come back to Bemidji.
But then I got a call from Classic Roadsters that they
needed somebody. So I went down there and, and
(30:04):
managed their full fiberglass department and then immediately
got involved with the developingof, of, of helping him develop
new kit cars. And that's it.
That's very interesting how thatwent because to do to to when he
(30:27):
wanted like a 39 Jaguar, he I had what I did to create that he
what I would take the parts off They had they had M GS.
Now it was just a 2 little 22 door small car, but it wherever
(30:47):
those fiberglass pieces were fastened to their frame and
stuff. I maintain that, but I took the
pieces of fiberglass and changedthe shape of them till I got a
39 Jaguar. He gave me a picture of a 39
Jaguar and and so that's what I did and and that was given away.
(31:11):
The production model of that wasgiven away on Wheel of Fortune.
In fact, you'll see that pictureof it on the there's.
A photo over there. A photo over there of them that
they gave. That's the car that I did in,
in, in, in Fargo. Then I came.
But I, but I, we got, we got my folks were here.
My, my mother-in-law was ill. My dad was ill and we wanted to
(31:33):
get back to Bemidji. So I built a product development
shop right on my place on Big Bass Lake.
And by this time Arctic Cat was back in business again.
And, and I, I continued to work for classic Roadsters.
And there I, I built, I did the same thing with it was a little
more work to that one because hewanted this Merced 35
(31:56):
Mercedes-Benz coupe. It's called the Marlena because
Marlena Dietrich was a girlfriend of Mercedes himself
and so he had Mercedes. Mercedes built that cart for in
her honor kind of. And so we called the Marlena.
(32:17):
It was called the Marlena. And I did quite a bit more on
that one because I had to reshape the car entirely in the
back and, and then the fenders and, and I put put roll up
windows in it. And I also built a top fork that
fit on there that the roll up windows that go in.
And, and so that's, you'll see pictures.
(32:40):
You see some of the pictures of that on there too.
They even made a Christmas card with the Marlene and.
That's who that is in that picture, OK.
Yeah, right. And as far as that picture, that
big, big picture that's on the wall there, everybody knows
that's a Ford Ford Cobra. So what's different about that?
(33:05):
Well, that that car there the the owner of classic rotors,
that's his favorite car was thatFord Cobra and he and he had he
had one. I don't know if it was another
kit car or what he had for a body, but he had one and it's
(33:26):
and he's pretty big guy. And and then there's the story
that goes with that is really crazy because some reason or
other, the kit car people or something sponsored a race
someplace where people race their cool, which could present
to get the fastest car. Well, he wanted the car to be
(33:48):
more stable. So he wanted that wider.
He wanted that 4 inches wider wheelbase.
And then he and then of course, make this where you sit little
bigger. Yeah.
So he gave it to me and and I end up having to cut that car in
about four pieces. I mean, because I had to.
I'm I, I put 2 inches wider and then I added an inch to the
(34:12):
fenders on all sides. But by the time I get in with
all that, the picture, I, I don't have any pictures of me
doing that. But that's what had to be done.
And, and of course then the whole car had to be reshaped and
finished and come back to this natural look.
And so that's what I did to that.
(34:33):
Yeah, I did that in my shop in Bemidji.
And the, the owner, he gave me that picture of it, one of the
completed car cars, the bed And so and, and, and, and then
that's when the Pioneer did a full page thing of my work that
(34:53):
I was doing in my shop. So you made the news.
Yeah, it made the news, but it was happened to be when I was
just finishing up on that one. So that's how that ended up OK.
Dave, I have to confess the whenyou told me a while ago about
classic roadsters, I I thought Iheard you say classic roasters.
(35:16):
Oh, roasters. And I thought.
For a second that you had a coffee bean roasting business
back in the day and I was reallygetting kind of excited that
maybe this was a skill you had in your back pocket.
But yeah, so I misheard you backthe first time I heard that.
So what great stories, Dave, just.
And and you really do need to look at some of those pictures
yes, Pat Sajak is in that picture, the Wheel of Fortune
(35:37):
photo over there. So, you know, the Lord really
gives us some of these really great stories, great memories
over over the many years of lifethat he blesses us with.
But you know, we all know, Dave,that, you know, with every every
high, sometimes there's some some lowers in, in life.
And I wonder, Dave, if you wouldn't mind just sharing with
us a little bit about maybe someof the tough times that the Lord
(36:00):
has helped you through over the years?
Yeah, probably the hardest was when our nine years ago when our
my my daughter was broadsided inwhat she was visiting in
Colorado and it was a somebody was a young man was texting on
his phone coming off a side roadand never stopped and hit her
(36:22):
broadside right where she was sitting and she never regained
consciousness. And yeah, that part was hard,
but the Lord, we really was our help and our in our comfort at
during this time. It's amazing how the Lord
comforted us at that time. And another time that wasn't as
(36:47):
serious, but it was pretty mortal was, was pretty difficult
was our plant. When we were telling you we
started building the hoods for Arctic Cat and we were still
making canoes and our car business was booming because we
were, we were running 2 shifts. We had a night shift and a day
(37:08):
shift and they made the snowmobile hoods in the evening
shift, which is done not by handlayup, but it was a gun that
sprays fiberglass and, and, and an additive that accelerates and
makes this makes the resin set up that's sprayed it with it.
And they're supposed to keep that booth clean.
(37:29):
But when that builds up, when that's curing, that creates heat
and they had that build up on the wall and that broke out in a
fire and our whole production plant burned to the ground at
that time. And so we had to start all over
with. But we were, we were well
(37:50):
insured at the time and, and, and for, and I don't understand
it myself hardly, but I was justcompletely calm and, and not
concerned at all about the material things that we had
lost. And, and had to be because
because of my faith in, in Jesus, you know, too had to have
(38:13):
something to do with it beside the fact that it was covered by
insurance and we just rebuild and do it.
But there was a special comment came over me at that time.
So that always intrigued me, kind of.
It can be difficult to reflect on some of those tough times,
tough memories in the past, but it is good to remember just how
(38:35):
the Lord was with us through those times.
It makes me think, Dave, just about what the apostle Paul says
in in First Corinthians when he talks about that the God of all
comfort comforts us so that we can comfort others.
And, and I hope just even you sharing a little bit of, of some
of the tough times that the Lordhas brought you through is a
comfort to some of us here and, and some that'll be listening to
(38:58):
this to this later. Well, Dave, you've got the
microphone here. And so I wanted to give you a
chance to also impart some wisdom to our church family.
Dave, what? What is something that you would
like to tell younger Christians in our church?
I would say to always be ready to give an answer for the hope
(39:22):
that is in you. Always be ready to give.
And I thought I think of that all the time from myself.
I have to be. I want to be ready to give an
answer for why what I believe and why I believe in and always
be ready to do give that. Amen.
Always be prepared. Yeah, yeah.
(39:44):
Well, Dave, this has been fun. I would love to keep talking all
afternoon here and and to just keep hearing stories of, of the
years that the Lord's given you.And and I'm sure we'll have more
opportunities to do so. But as we wrap up our
conversation, Dave, one of the things we do on this podcast at
(40:05):
the end of every episode is I like to ask the guest this last
question. You know, at our church here, we
talk often about being or becoming deeply devoted
followers of Jesus together. This podcast is called the
Deeply Devoted Podcast. It's that idea of being deeply
(40:26):
devoted to Jesus. Dave, what is one thing that you
have been blessed by lately thatis deepening your own devotion
to Jesus? Actually, it's answered prayers
that grew, that grew my face. Because of my age, I feel more
of a need to look to the Lord for help.
(40:49):
The words Thank you Lord have increased in my vocabulary.
When we ask God for something, He sometimes answers no.
He knows what we need spiritually and materially.
Yes, he does. Yes, he does.
Yeah. Thank you, Lord.
Yeah, I'm glad that the Lord is teaching you that and that
(41:11):
you're you're teaching us here on this podcast today.
So folks, that is going to do itfor this episode of our deeply
devoted podcast. Again, my thanks to Dave Vogel
this afternoon for joining me. And for all of you out here in
our studio audience, thanks for participating in this today.
(41:31):
We will be back in two weeks with another episode of our
podcast and I would love to do this with any of you.
So if ever you want to share some of your story or you have
some ideas for us, we would loveto hear those.
Come talk to me about that. But we'll be back in two weeks
with another episode. Until then, have a great week
(41:52):
and thanks for listening.
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