I thank F. Allan Debelak, my fifth grade teacher at Greenfield Peace Lutheran School, 7000 West Outer Drive in Detroit, for playing his guitar and leading us in singing songs about Christ and our love for Him. We (an adventurous few) would sit on the backs of the chairs attached to our desks, in order to (perhaps) be closer to God, while we sang and clapped and reveled in not having to do social studies or some other such non-essential. We sang popular choruses from that era - Blind Man (Stood by the Road and He Cried), Thank You, Pass it On (It Only Takes a Spark), I Am the Bread of Life, I Cannot Come, Give Me Oil In My Lamp, Arky Arky, Lord of the Dance. There were more, I just cannot recall any others right now.
Mr. Debalak played his guitar and wore bell bottoms and had a huge white-person afro. I liked him but he only stayed for one year. He was replaced by Lonnie Nagel, whom I may discuss in another post. I think F. Allan was hired to replace Mr. Prokopy, who left for 'personal reasons'. (We found out later it was to go to another Lutheran school in the area, a school we regularly whipped in basketball contests.) I just found out Mr. Prokopy passed away in 2008.
F. Allan Debelak is now a Lutheran pastor (he likes to be called Pastoral, heh heh) at an ELCA church in Columbus OH (I know).
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| Mr. Debelak still likes to sing and play |
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