{"id":1364,"date":"2014-07-06T20:15:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T01:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2014-07-06T20:15:02","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T01:15:02","slug":"bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1364","title":{"rendered":"Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"webeagle\"<\/a>Today, we attended a memorial service for Bill Basinger.\u00a0 Bill died suddenly last May at the age of 89.\u00a0 His heart was much older; for it lives in the lives of so many that he touched.<\/p>\n

He had a fairly large family.\u00a0 There were six children; ten grandchildren; and eleven great-grandchildren.\u00a0 That\u2019s not counting nieces, nephews, and cousins.\u00a0 The church was packed.\u00a0 It was filled with people from so many different professions, religious beliefs, and political affiliations.\u00a0 They were all friends. \u00a0Bill\u2019s only adversaries were self-proclaimed.\u00a0 And they probably worked for a government.<\/p>\n

Bill was one of the original peaceniks.\u00a0 The program carried the phrase of Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount:\u00a0 \u201cBlessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.\u201d\u00a0 He was the first member of Iowa\u2019s Veterans for Peace.\u00a0 He was a member of the Women\u2019s International League for Peace and Freedom and served in leadership positions.\u00a0 And he has protested at incidents that have lead to his arrest.\u00a0 Jean once told us that most parents worry that their children will end up in jail.\u00a0 In this family, the children worry that Bill and Jean would end up in jail \u2013 and they have.<\/p>\n

Bill was an amazing man.\u00a0 His signature was his hug and the occasional offering of a peppermint lozenge.\u00a0 Everything he did he did with a smile.\u00a0 He knew the Bible and understood the message that many passages brought.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t a preacher, just a teacher.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t use his biblical mastery to pummel unbelievers.\u00a0 He simply lived the example.<\/p>\n

The service itself was a reflection of the man.\u00a0 Bill was a medical missionary.\u00a0 With Jean, they began in Japan (6 years) and followed up in South Korea (six years).\u00a0 During these 12 years they raised a family.\u00a0 And when they came back to the United States, they didn\u2019t stop practicing their missionary skills.\u00a0 Many of the trips they have taken to over 50 countries since their time in Japan\/Korea have been for medical missionary purposes.<\/p>\n

A trip to Burma was brought up more than once during Bill\u2019s memorial service.\u00a0 Bill taught the children how to sing \u201cIf you\u2019re happy and you know it, clap your hands\u201d in English.\u00a0 As they were traveling down the mountain, they could hear the children singing that song at the top of their lungs.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we sang it as a congregation during this afternoon\u2019s service.<\/p>\n

And being the Peacenik that Bill was, we also sang \u201cWe shall overcome\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bill believed there was good in everyone and would actively seek it out. A collection of quotes that he had collected were found by Jean. A few were shared during the service. We can only paraphrase the one that stood out for us since the quotes went by so quickly: The values of government can be measured by how its money is designated. For Bill\u2019s memory, we will give it a valiant attempt to find good in politicians that do not come even close to sharing our value system.<\/p>\n

We came away from the memorial service with a song in our heart and a renewed sense of working for justice. Bill\u2019s spirit will live on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He didn\u2019t use his biblical mastery to pummel unbelievers. He simply lived the example. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264,17],"tags":[518,519,520,521],"class_list":["post-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fairness","category-issues","tag-bill-basinger","tag-jean-basinger","tag-peacemakers","tag-veterans-for-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1369,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions\/1369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}