“BUSTED” – Wednesday August 2, 2017

RECOLLECTIONS ...FROM A JEREMIAH PEOPLE Tour

By Sterling Swan, Technical Director

(Jeremiah People began in 1971. They were a comedy, drama, music team, part of the Continental ministry, that toured coast to coast nine months out of the year for 45 + years.)

                                        

A VIVID MEMORY                                                                                                       

Jeremiah People 1974-75...and the van

It was the 1974-75 Jeremiah People tour (they traveled doing concerts 9 months out of the year) and during these years, the J.P. team were in a Dodge van.  As you can imagine, that van was packed full of people, luggage, concert equipment, records, and personal items.

One morning, following a very heavy rainstorm the previous night, we were driving east along I-40 toward Little Rock, Arkansas.  Although low on fuel, we elected to bypass the exit at hand and stop at the next station down the road.

Less than 2 miles east of that unwise choice, we realized that we could easily run out of gas before the next gas station.  No problem, we’ll just cross the grassy median strip, double back and gas up.  Half way across that median strip we bogged down in what had become muck and there we sat…totally stuck!  This in itself was not unusual for a Continental tour, in those years busses and vans were frequently breaking down.  (Thank you, Sterling!)  We finally got a tow truck to pull us out, drove back and fueled up.

Little did we know that the Arkansas highway patrol, acting on a tip, had staked out that portion of the interstate looking for out-of-state vehicles carrying illegal drugs.  Our little median strip u-turn aroused the suspicion of the stake-out team and they started trailing us in unmarked cars as we headed east again.

It all came to a head on the western edge of Little Rock as three unmarked patrol cars pulled us over right on the busy interstate.  Jon Sherberg, who was driving at the time, was asked to get out and sit in one of the patrol cars while they check his license.  A few minutes later the detective in charge told the other six of us to get out of the van, open the back doors and empty the van.  EMPTY THE VAN!! …on the side of the road.

Now it was clearly time to play our Christian card.  We explained that yes, we were from California, but our president, Cam Floria didn’t allow us to use any drugs stronger than Tylenol.  Yes, we were smuggling things…Christian tapes and records from state to state that even the detective’s mother would probably like listening to and best of all, we were performing in a church in Little Rock that very evening.  He heard our story, looked at our sardine-like maxi-van, paused and sent us on our way.

That night, after we arrived and before our performance commenced, one of the church staff people commented with squinty eyes, “So, I saw your Jeremiah People van stopped on I-40 earlier this afternoon surrounded by police cars.  Seemed serious.  What happened?”

(Here we go again…) “Would you believe……” 

“Nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed…”

Members of the 1974-75 J.P. “smuggling team” were: Jon Sherberg, Mike Johnson, Jim Custer, Pam Bartlett, Vicki Robbins, Judy Walker and Sterling Swan.

Sterling Swan

After traveling two years with Continental Singers and Jeremiah People in the early 70’s, Sterling got married, raised a family, and worked as an air traffic controller. In the fall of 2006, he became a full-time caregiver, helping his wife battle advanced-stage melanoma cancer for over seven years. Karen died in 2014, motivating him to write a book celebrating her life, candidly describing the impact cancer had on his family, and explaining how this journey fundamentally transformed him.