Legacy - Will Tyler

As most of you are probably aware, part of why I did this internship was to find what God is calling me to do in my life. What could my impact be? What am I tasked with? What will be my legacy? My thoughts drift to the legacy left for me, all the way to my great-great-great grandpa George White (6 generations ago). He was constantly in a state of drunkenness, going to bars and pubs and telling the most extravagant stories to any soul as poor and as drunk as him. His brothers got tired of dealing with the poor public image George gave them and bought tickets to send George and his wife and children to Canada. But traveling from England to Canada did not take away his desire to drink.

While George spent the family’s money on anything that would get him drunk, his son Ernest Ephrium White went to work at a local farm. He was very young (around 10-12 years old) and in a day with no workers rights he was often taken advantage of. Often Ernest, after a brutal day’s work, would have to go and walk his drunk father home. Life went on like this for some time, until finally George met someone at the local bar. A man from the Salvation Army had a discussion with George that would lead to him changing the course of his life. Immediately he gave up alcohol and converted to Christ, and his life started to change. He went from a hopeless drunk to getting involved in the Salvation Army. His family either converted or was filled with the sense of revival.

Ernest Ephrium grew up just in time to fight in World War One. His tough upbringing served him on the battlefields of Europe. He won awards for his bravery, as he would put his life at risk to save those who otherwise would have died.  He returned to Canada wounded and raised his young family in the Church, often making sure that they would spend time leading and helping. His son, also named Ernest, grew up leading in the church. He often played piano while his father spoke, and much like George was a storyteller his whole life.

As World War Two broke out, Ernest Jr. heard on the radio about heroic civilians who took their boats to grab soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk and bring them back to England. When he heard this, he joined up, much to the disapproval of his wounded veteran father. Ernest Ephrium made him promise to never smoke or drink, which maybe was inspired by seeing his own father’s addiction. While training, he met a man who was also a Christian, and they started a Bible study that others would come and join. Some people were even converted due to his faith. They were shipped out to England to finish their training, and it’s there that Ernest met his soon to be wife, Amelia. She was a Catholic, but she had never heard anyone speak about Christ the way he had and was slowly converted to Protestantism. In the rehearsal for their wedding, bombs were dropped on the city, and Ernest ran through a bombing to make sure the neighbours kids left at home were all safe.

He was soon deployed, and God protected him many times, from using a mouse to scare him away from a foxhole that would soon be shelled to making sure only his arm was driven over in the chaos of the battlefield. He returned home to Canada, with a pregnant wife, and suffering with what we would now know as PTSD. Home had changed also, as his father, Ernest Ephrium, had died. Due to his father’s death, Ernest’s brother had left Christianity to see what the world could offer. Ernest got a job as a mailman, trying to support his new family and eventually he had a daughter Gillian White.

Gillian grew up and married John Ty, whose grandparent’s met in China both as missionaries. John Ty’s father, William Tyler (yes, this is who I am named after), had grown up his whole life in China, and due to Japan invading China, his mission was where all the missionaries and many army units were evacuated from. He was one of the last to leave because of this. William eventually returned to China, but was then made director for China Inland Mission in Canada and moved to Ontario, where his son John Ty grew up. Gillian White married John Ty in Ontario and her whole life was a mission to spread Christ’s love, first as a social worker and foster mom and even to this day as a leader in an organization called World Tailors that helps immigrant and refugee women make money for their families. John Ty and Gillian White then had a son JT. JT felt called to attend Providence College in Manitoba and pursue a degree in missions. Although he dreamed of leaving Manitoba, he settled down and married Susan Kehler. Now he works as a mental health counselor and is used by God in the Steinbach area. Then I come along, William Tyler. Obviously, I don’t know where I fit into this legacy but there are a couple things that stand out to me.

First, I think the greatest legacy we can leave is to glorify God with everything you do. Whether it be at your job, at school, in sports or hobbies, earnestly seek to love God and worship Him with the way you live your life. Remember that it does not matter what time in history you’re living in, whether it be in a time where the world is at war, in times of economic strife, or in a time of lockdowns and pandemics, we are still called to glorify God. It doesn’t matter your situation, whether you're being shot at, evacuated, locked down, providing for your family at a young age, have PTSD, are stuck in Canada when you want to see the world, or a mother with struggling foster children, you are still called to glorify God. Now you may ask, well how do I know how to glorify God in any situation? This is the beautiful part the Bible actually shows you how. The Bible shows you how God is glorified in family life, how God is glorified in your workplace, how God is glorified in relationships. When we read the Bible, it shows us how to glorify God, it shows us how to love God by obeying Him.

Second, be someone who talks to a drunk and changes the course of his whole family. We need to be people ready to respond to the Holy Spirit’s call to tell others about how great God is. We need to be people who disciple other people, showing them how great God is by the way we live our lives and how deeply we love them when no one else does. If we do this, we can have faith that God will work in them and lead them to the salvation that He has for them. When we disciple, we also hope and pray that the network of people they know, especially their family, would be changed because of their salvation.

My last point about legacy comes from Deuteronomy 7:9 which states “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” If you want to leave a legacy that will forever change your descendants, love God and keep His commandments and inspire that change in your own children. Now obviously your children will need to at some point love God, because they love God and not because you told them to. I’m not advocating forcing the love of God on your children. Rather I’m saying with everything you do, love God and obey His commandments and have faith that God in His steadfast love will open the eyes of your children so that they will want to live to glorify God with their lives. Make glorifying God seem as attractive as it truly is so that your children will also desire to glorify God if you do your family history could really change. If you need evidence of that just look at the story above. In six generations the Holy Spirit worked through my family to keep faith alive through wars, floods, and pandemics, all starting because some Salvation Army worker spent some time talking to a hopeless drunk man. Every generation after that showed the love of God to their own children all the way up to the sixth generation and hopefully for 994 more.