Religion

By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor

Perhaps Art and Jewel Umberger started a small Christian meeting in their Tyler home because they were used to living dangerously.

Capt. Art Umberger flew 50 missions in a B-24 Liberator in Italy during World War II, participating in the Ploesti Oil Field raids in Romania. He came away with a Distinguished Flying Cross and a load of shrapnel in his body, a present from anti-aircraft gunners who didn't appreciate Umberger's final mission, knocking him out and almost bringing down his airplane.

Jewel Umberger recalls her childhood in West Texas when her mother refused to flee to the cellar as dangerous storms bore down on the home.

"We'd just sit in a circle in the living room, hold hands and pray through the storm," she said. "I learned early, just as a child, not to be afraid of anything."

Or anyone. Art and Jewel did it their way for years. But in 1982, Tyler businessman and fellow pilot James Arthur Exum invited the pair to a Full Gospel Businessman's Association luncheon. The meeting, featuring Lear Jet General Manager George Otis, signaled the beginning of the end of Umberger's old ways and a launch into something new. Art Umberger was 60.

"When we found the Lord, it sure did change our direction," said Mrs. Umberger on Thursday. "We used to travel constantly. We used to buy and restore old mansions, fixing them up and selling them. I saw later I was worshipping old piles of lumber."

Drawing on her art degree from Stephen F. Austin State, she once hand-painted 24 rooms in a Tyler mansion.

"Each room had to be perfect in my mind," she said. "I put a plaque by the front door when we were finished. A lawyer in Denton bought the house and had it moved there."

The Umbergers loved to hunt fossils and minerals, too,

"We hunted minerals throughout the United States, selling and buying them," she said.

She even wrote several books on the subject, including "Texas Mineral and Fossil Locations," a detailed guide to minerals, fossils and Indian artifacts of Texas.

So when the invitation by Exum was made, Art Umberger's life was already full.

Mrs. Umberger recalled, "When I asked if he wanted to go, he used what I call his 'Air Force' language, but what it meant was no. I said, 'they're going to have a pilot speaking,' and Arthur said, 'let's go then.'"

Not that she had any idea what change was about to come. Both Umbergers were surprised by what they saw and heard at the meeting.

"At first we thought, 'these people are crazy,'" said Mrs. Umberger. "I was raised a Presbyterian and I'd never seen anything like this. I'm a down-to-earth person and it threw me. But these were doctors and lawyers, pilots, wonderful people."

Otis, who died in July 2007, was a self-made millionaire by the time he was 35. In his obituary, he was quoted as saying, "Is this all there is?" when he "reached the top." He began his "High Adventure and Voice of Hope" radio ministry in 1979, which went worldwide.

This was the new and unusual world the Umbergers stumbled into. It was unfamiliar. Still, there was an attraction, Mrs. Umberger said.

"We saw that George Otis and the group had something we didn't have," said Jewel. "Art started crying and got up at the invitation to go forward. I grabbed him and said, 'where are you going?' and he said, 'that man has something I have to have.'"

Art went forward and the rest is history. He was a different man, Mrs. Umberger said.

"I sat there stunned that night," she said. "I didn't know what to do, I was completely astounded. But he was a changed man that night. He gave up his Air Force language and was transformed. He's never looked back."

Praying and reading their Bibles as if "it was the first time we ever did it," Art began staying up late and night, writing down what he was learning. In 1984, the couple started a Bible study in their home. The study outgrew the house and when they moved, they started a small church, The Lord's Refuge. It still exists today at 2940 Spur 124, the Old Henderson Highway, just past Loop 323.

The mission of The Lord's Refuge is to be "a mission to reach out" to desperate people with little or no resources, they said. For more than 20 years, they've ministered with little funds or a lot of fanfare.

"We've never once asked for money," said Mrs. Umberger. "We felt the Lord told us to be a mission to help (desperate) people, saying to us, 'you will be the Lord's refuge.' And that's what we've done. The Lord has provided all along."

Adhering to her pattern, Jewel Umberger has written a book about the couple's adventures in ministry, "Do You Really Want a Small Church?"

The book reads as a living-room raconteur might relate personal experiences rather than a point-by-point discourse on the theological implications of any particular doctrine. It's a personal, confidential and advice-giving 67-page book to "those who may be considering a similar life."

Section headings include "Tact," "We Need to Do Away with Discouragement," "Necessary Intercessory Prayer," "Jail Ministry," "Suffer the Little Ones," "Do You Recognize a Miracle When You See One?," "Praying and Believing," "Fire in the Soul" and "God Speaks Softly."

"The title is not a warning," she said. "It's just that there are more pitfalls to starting a small church than just sitting down and deciding to have one. I wanted people to know just what a preacher experiences, the funny and sad things that happen. You'll be happy, but you're going to have heartaches when you start a small church."

TRANSFORMED: Retired Air Force Maj. Art Umberger was 60 years old when Tyler businessman Art Exum invited the couple to hear Lear Jet General Manager George Otis, founder of the “Voice of Hope” radio ministry. The 1982 meeting transformed Umberger, said his wife, Jewel. The couple started The Lord’s Refugee in Tyler, the subject of Mrs. Umberger’s book.
(Staff Photo By Herb Nygren Jr.)