Promise Keepers: A Volunteer’s Perspective -- By: Faith McBurney Martin

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 11:2 (Spring 1997)
Article: Promise Keepers: A Volunteer’s Perspective
Author: Faith McBurney Martin


Promise Keepers: A Volunteer’s Perspective

Faith Martin

A founding Editor of Cornerstones. Faith Martin was a founding board member of CBE, and is author of Call Me Blessed (Eerdmans, 1987). This article first appeared in Cornerstones (Vol. XL, No. 2), and is reprinted by permission.

“Why don’t you attend as a volunteer, and then we can observe the rally from different angles.” This was Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen’s suggestion. She was coming to Pittsburgh to report for Books and Culture on the 1996 Promise Keepers’ rally to be held at Three Rivers Stadium. I wasn’t sure about the plan. Mary would be there in an official capacity and that seemed more up-front to me. I didn’t want to be a spy. But she proved persuasive, and at the last minute I offered my services for the second day of the rally.

As we walked across the stadium parking lot, the sound of male voices in song swirled out of the stadium, haunting and beautiful. Promise Keepers were beginning their day by singing old-fashioned hymns. Later, they would switch to contemporary music accompanied by a loud band; but I will never forget my introduction to Promise Keepers and that welcoming sound drifting down around us in the early morning air.

Mary had warned me that dress was casual, and I was glad for the tip. The printed information for volunteers contained the admonition to dress modestly and I had assumed that was code for “no shorts.” But Mary said shorts were the uniform of the day. And so they were. Everyone— male and female—wore shorts, baggy and comfortable and cool. It was to be a very hot day without a cloud in the sky. I was glad that I would be under a tent.

Mary and I parted, agreeing to meet after lunch. She would try to get me up to the press box with her. But first I would do my volunteer stint. I approached the volunteer command center not sure what to expect. Could I do it with a right spirit?

I was directed to an enormous tent where my assignment was to take orders for tapes and videos. The information was clearly presented to me, and everything I needed was there on my table. To my left were women selling shirts and to my right were women selling hats. Books and music were in the middle aisles of the tent. Our pattern was repeated several times throughout the enormous tent, and there were three other tents like ours circling the stadium. We were selling to 44,000 men, so the set-up needed to be elaborate. The men filed in at the center from two entrances on either side of the tent and exited through both ends, In front of each exit was a bank of six or eight electronic cashier stations, somewhat like a large K-Mart. I was glad I wasn’t a cashier.

Behind our s...

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