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BR. EDGAR IRVIN LEINBACH October 14, 1920 - July 24, 2005

Bethania, NC Moravian Church Memoir

We have come together this morning to worship God who created us, sustains us, and redeems. We are gathered to affirm the truth that God through Jesus Christ was reconciling the world unto himself and that our Lord Jesus Christ broke the bond of death securing eternal life for all those who believe.

We have also gathered with grateful hearts to celebrate the life of Brother E. Irvin Leinbach and rejoice in his triumphant entry into the more immediate presence of his Lord and Savior.

Brother Leinbach began his earthly pilgrimage on Thursday, October 14, 1920 in the home of Comenius and Addie Brewer Leinbach. The Old Testament reading from the Moravian Daily Text on his birth day seems to reveal the God directed purpose for his earthly life-Psalm 34:11: Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. A footnote in my Bible says: The fear of the Lord is an Old Testament expression meaning reverential trust, including the hatred of evil.

The hymn verse chosen for this Psalm comes from a hymn written by The Reverend John Newton, 1725-1807

   Lord, I will not let Thee go,

   Till the blessing Thou bestow;

   Oh, do not my suit distain;

   None shall seek Thy face in vain.

The previous verse of this prayer hymn, I believe, gives testimony of Brother Irvin’s spirit and love of the Lord as he served Him in his earthly pilgrimage. It is:

   While I am a pilgrim here,

   Let Thy love my spirit cheer;

   As my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,

   Lead me to my journey’s end.

Br. Leinbach lived a life manifesting a loving spirit from the Lord. He shared his love through his life, talent and stewardship. He has touched untold lives with his generous love, humility and forgiveness. Christ’s love radiated through him as he always looked for the best and potential in others. Each one present this morning and hundreds not present have had special experiences of love shared with him. All of us have been touched with unique experiences known only to each one personally. We were blessed not so much by his talk but by his Christian life lived out before us.

Irvin spent most of his life in the Old Town community in which he was born and raised. His Christian family helped mold his life into a strong, yet humble, loving, and giving person always having a caring concern for others. He attended Old Town School. The first day, in the first grade in school he met a young girl in the same class who became his sweetheart, Gretta Gene Grubbs, or as he always called her, his gal. Later, it broke his heart when driving a school bus that he had to pass his young lady who lived less than one mile from the school and he was not allowed to let her ride on his bus. He played soccer in school but it seems he enjoyed cheer leading the best because his gal played on the basketball team. He did not graduate from Old Town School because he quit about two months before graduation. Never-the-less, he had a keen mind for calculating numbers in his head, faster than some could use the calculator. The sight of a tractor at a neighbors and the invitation to drive that tractor dominated his life more than an education at that time.

He later went to work at Hercules Powder Plant in Radford, Virginia. He worked there a short time before he went to Norfolk, Virginia to drive a bulldozer. In the meantime he married the young girl on May 24, 1942, that he met in the first grade on the first day in school. They lived a short time in Norfolk. His buddies were being drafted to the armed service so he joined the service to get the branch of service he wanted.

Brother Kenneth took him and his gal to High Point so Irvin could catch the Mississippi Cotton Blossom Special Train for New Orleans. It was the same day that Bethania Moravian Church burned in 1942. It was a sad day for the Leinbach family, wife Gretta Gene and the Bethania community.