Howard and Delina Sly

Howard and Delina Sly—In the early spring of 1975 Oscar Meyer, a fine bus workers was making contacts on South Eleventh Street in Pekin.  He came across a little girl by the name of Leslie Sly.  He talked to Leslie’s mother and asked her if she could ride his bus, #21, to Sunday school that Sunday.  Delina, her mother, consented and little Leslie began to come to Sunday school.  Later that spring we planned to show the film, “When Blood Flows Like Water.”  Leslie’s Sunday school teacher talked Delina into coming to see the film.  As the film was shown Delina Sly came under powerful conviction and that day was saved by the power of the gospel.  Immediately, Delina began to come to church with her daughter Leslie.  She grew by leaps and bounds and shortly thereafter began to go soulwinning herself.  Her husband, Howard, was a district manager for Clark Oil Company.  I went to see him shortly after Delina got saved.  But being a businessman, Howard had all the answers.  He tried to tell me he was already saved.  He couldn’t tell me when, where, or how; but he figured that if he could convince me that he was saved, that I would stop bothering him.  And indeed, Howard was a tough customer as far as the gospel was concerned.  Later that summer, one of our other assistant pastors, Larry Forsberg, was calling on the Slys’ neighbors.  He didn’t get very far at the place he went to visit, so as he came out of the house he met Howard Sly there in his yard and began to talk to him.

That evening, after much conviction, and persuasion, Howard Sly stopped fighting the Lord, and accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.  Praise the Lord, he got saved.  Howard was in church the next Sunday and went forward for baptism.  He was baptized, and almost immediately began to go soulwinning.  Not too long after that,  a bus route open up that had no workers.  The Lord laid Howard and Delina on the Pastor’s heart.  At first they were hesitant, but finally agreed.  They took over the bus route that goes into the Sunset Hills area of our Community.  This is a quite affluent area where many of the wealthier individuals of this community live.  Needless to say, a bus route in such an area is not an easy one.  But Howard and Delina built that route to a high of 54 riders that fall, and have held a steady average of over 30.  But Howard and Delina Sly probably would not have gotten saved if a faithful bus worker had not made contact with their little girl.  Through that bus route contact, little Leslie got saved, her mother got saved, and then her daddy got saved.  And as a result of that bus route contact Howard and Delina Sly have been responsible for many others coming to Christ.

This post was an excerpt from Dr. David H. Sorenson’s book “From Buses to Drive-in Crowd”