Where There’s God’s Will, He Makes a Way
HOW DALE BIEHL WENT FROM GEMTRON MANAGER TO RETIREE TO CHURCH PASTOR
f it’s God’s timing, God’s will, nothing
can stop it from happening. This is a
truth Dale Biehl knows all too well.
Though he was an Indiana native and
returned to his roots many years ago, for a
time, Dale Biehl and his wife, Gaye, called
East Tennessee home. The company Dale
worked for in Indiana was bought out
by Gemtron, which was headquartered
in Sweetwater. Dale relocated nearby
to Knoxville, where he and
his wife lived for over a
decade. During that time,
Dale managed multiple
manufacturing plants for
Gemtron, including the Sweetwater plant;
one back in Vincennes, Indiana; and even
one in Mexico! His wife, in the meantime,
spent many years as a librarian at Farragut
High School.
The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in
a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be
like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11, NIV
The two loved the beauty of East
Tennessee – the mountains, the food,
58 FARRAGUT LIFE HOLIDAY/WINTER 2020
and the people. Dale jokes that he loved
it when the women would say, “Bless
your heart.” But eventually, his job would
become as such that he was able to move
back to his hometown in Indiana so he
and his wife could be closer to family.
Dale retired from Gemtron 12 years ago
and settled into a comfortable life back
in Indiana where he participated in a
golf league and would teach a Sunday
School class at the local church he
attended. The class started at around 20
people but within five years had grown
to a whopping 48! Dale began to think
perhaps he had something to offer,
but he wanted to make sure he wasn’t
misinterpreting his calling. It’s easy, he
said, when you’re a confident person to
get into trouble. “Are you doing right, or is
it just your ego?”
Then he found a book that he was planning
to use in his Sunday School class called The
Power of a Whisper. In this book, there
were five filters to go through to see if what
you are wanting to do is truly from God,
and Dale felt like this book was meant for
him. As this was happening, he saw an ad
in the local newspaper for an auction for a
church in Vincennes and
felt like God was telling
him to buy the building
and start a church.
Almost jokingly, he
mentioned in Sunday School, “I’m gonna
buy a church. I’m gonna preach.” He didn’t
have any idea if he could even do it.
This was in May. On June 25th, they held
an open auction for the church. Now, this
wasn’t your average church building. This
was a historic, 100-year-old building with
by Jennifer Porterfield
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