The Observer-Reporter, Washington, Pa., Sat., June 28, 2003, page unknown:
After 45 years, 'Murf' Polan stepping down as YFC director
by Don Herschell, Keeping The Faith columnist
"It's all worth it," read the T-shirt that D. Carey "Murf" Polan wore as he sat in his office Wednesday night. Although Polan put on the shirt without much thought, its message accurately summarized his feelings at that moment,
Polan, who has directed the local chapter of Youth for Christ for 45 years, will retire as executive director on July 1. He said he will remain a volunteer ambassador for the youth ministry, but he will hand over leadership of the chapter he founded in 1958 to Rick Moore, who has been Polan's assistant since Sept. 1.
"It's been worth it. It's been great," said Polan, who celebrated his 72nd birthday in May. "Working with kids has been my life."
When Moore joined the YFC staff, it was with the idea that he would take over when Polan retired. At the time, Polan had said that he did not plan to stay in the position much longer.
This week he said that Moore has progressed well and that the timing is right for Moore to take over as executive director. Moore became a Christian in the 1970s at one of the annual week-long YFC summer conferences, which until two years ago were held in Ocean City, N.J.
"I'll never forget that night at Ocean City. I remember him and two of his buddies in black leather jackets. We really kept an eye on them because we weren't sure what they were going to do during the week," Polan said. "He went to Canon-Mac High School and was a senior. On the last night of the conference, wouldn't you know, those three guys went forward."
Polan said the staff permitted such young people to attend the conferences because those were exactly the kind of teenagers that YFC was trying to reach.
"And boy, I'll tell you, his life has changed," Polan said. "He is such a dynamic Christian guy and a really solid businessman."
Polan said he is not quitting but will be "a right-hand man" to Moore, working mainly in the area of development and fund-raising. He refers to the transition in leadership as "the changing of the guard."
In a letter to YFC supporters this week, he wrote, "With changing times we must do whatever we can to see that the ministry continues because the Master's orders are still --take the Good News about Jesus to the entire world--especially teenagers. We look forward with great anticipation to what the Lord is going to do through YFC in the coming days and months."
Polan became a Christian when he was 13 years old. On June 23, 1944, he and some other youngsters encountered a tornado at Camp Buffalo.
Everything came off of the foundation, and I'm there holding onto this little tree. That's how it all started," he said. "I was scared to death. I said, 'Why doesn't someone pray?' Nobody could hear me. The wind was so loud you couldn't even hear yourself think.
"I said, 'Lord, if you get me out of here, I'm yours.' And so, I started to pray, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..," he said. By the time I got done with what I now know is the 23rd Psalm, (the tornado) had gone and the whole mess hall was gone. It went right across, over top of us, down that hill and up the other side."
In its wake, the tornado left twisted cars and a path of sheared trees. It also left a young teenager who took seriously the commitment he had made.
A few years later**, as a student at Waynesburg College, he met the young woman who would become his wife. The students were seated alphabetically, and his wife's name was Carolyn Polen, which meant she sat next to Polan.
The Polans will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in August. The couple have two daughters, Lenee and Christy, and four grand-.....
(part missing)
...working at Montgomery Ward in Washington a little less than three years, making a good salary for the time and next in line to be head of the automotive department. That's when, at a Christian businessmen's meeting, he and four other men were nominated to look into the possibility of starting a local YFC chapter.
The following month, YFC held its first meeting in Washington, and by that September Polan had quit his job. He began working full-time with YFC as its first--and, up to now, only--executive director.
For years, the ministry rented office space, but in 1998 it bought the former Allison Avenue Baptist Church and converted it into a ministry headquarters. It now has its administrative offices on the lower level of the church's former fellowship hall and a large meeting room upstairs decorated with the banners of every high school in Washington and Greene counties.
"Now we have a home headquarters and we can do a lot of things. That's what this building is for," Polan said. "If we had this building before, think of what we would have been able to do."
The local chapter of YFC/Campus Life has touched the lives of an estimated half-million young people across the years. At the annual YFC banquet in March, a few of those young people shared the story of how YFC had influenced their lives.
(part cut off...)
... about how YFC had enabled him and five other young musicians from across the country to tour Scandinavian countries for four months, performing in churches. The Rev. Denny Krajacic, a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor in Butler, told how YFC influenced him to be where he is today.
And a woman spoke about how, years ago, YFC had helped her when as a teenager at Trinity High School she got pregnant.
"Carolyn helped counsel her, and we helped her through that so she didn't get an abortion and so forth," Polan said. "She's now married and has four kids of her own. Her husband is a pastor, and I'm going out to her church in Cincinnatti, Ohio, in August to speak.
"She said, 'I wouldn't be a Christian today if it wasn't for Murf and Carolyn," Polan recalled.
He said that July 1 will mark a major life change for him and his wife, who taught at Trinity School for 20 years.
"Life goes on," Polan said. "We're not worried. As I've said, 'When God guides, He provides,' and we're trusting and He's guiding in all of this--so He's going to provide."
--
Don Herschell is religion editor of the Observer-Reporter. His e-mail address is (rest cut off).
Sources:
The The Observer-Reporter newspaper, Washington PA newspaper, "After 45
years, 'Murf' Polan stepping down as YFC director." by Don Herschell,
Keeping the Faith Columnist. Saturday, June 28, 2003, page unknown.
The Observer-Reporter newspaper, Washington PA, "Ill wind changed local
man's life: Tornado 54 years ago started Youth For Christ leader on religious
course." Campbell, Christie. Washington, PA: The
Observer-Reporter, June 23, 2004.
The Charleroi Mail newspaper, Charleroi Pa., numerous articles.
Information from ex-Campers.
