Pastor Mehl, photo by Suzette Wenger, Lancaster Newspapers.
September 13, 2010
Now that he’s retired for the second time, the Rev. L. Guy Mehl has the time to do what he loves – learning and teaching.
“I love to learn anything I can,” Mehl said.
Mehl quoted an Asian spiritual leader: “You’re never old as long as you want to keep learning.”
The 75-year-old Lancaster resident’s recent studies have been about Muslims and Islam.
“I’ve read the Quran, and, recently, the autobiography of Jehan Sadat, the wife of (the late Egyptian) President Anwar Sadat, who is a devout Muslim.”
Last spring, Mehl taught a course on how the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions relate to Jesus and Abraham for Pathways Institute for Lifelong Learning.
“Muslims have a great deal of respect for Jesus,” Mehl said.
This fall, Mehl will teach about the healings of Jesus in relation to the practices of healing in the first-century Roman Empire.
The Roman world of Jesus’ time had many theories of what caused sickness, he said. Some thought it was from the devil, while others thought it was caused by magic spells or because the sick person was a bad or sinful person, he said.
Therefore, access to good medical treatment was only for the rich, at best. There were no hospitals and no government services, and private philanthropy was reserved for the well-to-do.
“Christians came along and changed the whole scene for medical care,” following Jesus’ unique way of caring for the sick, Mehl said.
The change between medical beliefs and practices prior to the Christians and after the Christians was dramatic, he said.
The early Christians established the first hospitals by the fourth century and took care of the poor who had contracted horrible plagues, burying those who died.
Mehl’s course will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 2 and 9 at Landis Homes Retirement Community’s Harvest Room.
Mehl earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Gettysburg College in 1956. He then served in the U.S. Army in Germany. After his discharge, Mehl earned his master’s of divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1961.
He served two churches, in White Plains and Mount Vernon, N.Y., before deciding to go into counseling for the next 30 years.
Mehl graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City with a master’s of sacred theology degree in religion and psychiatry in 1963.
He began working as a counselor in Princeton, N.J., and moved in 1971 to Lancaster, where he worked as associate director of Lancaster Career Development Center until 1974.
Mehl then became director of the Mid-Atlantic Career Center in Lancaster.
He earned his master’s of science degree in psychology from Millersville University in 1978 and became a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania in 1981.
After retiring from the career center in 1999, Mehl took on the role of visitation pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster in 2001. He retired again in 2007 when his wife, Nancy, retired as a first-grade teacher with the Penn Manor School District.
Since retiring, Mehl has volunteered to work with a Liberian refugee family and worked in the last presidential election to get people to vote.
Family also takes up much of his time. He has two children and three grandchildren.
To register for Mehl’s class or other Pathways Institute classes, contact director Susan J. Stauffer at 381-3577.
Email Lori Van Ingen at: lvaningen@lnpnews.com
© 2010 Lancaster Newspapers
