At 76, I’m old now, but I’m still perkin’. I’m an extrovert, and I love to welcome people and make them feel at home at church. I’m trying to live a good life and find avenues where I can have an effect. I consider myself a back-slappin’, hand-shakin’, hand-clappin’ kind of guy; a Barnabus. I can build people up, encourage them, and be a friend.
I’m a creature of the 50s and 60s where most of my ministry is now, but I taught school and coached for 37 years, so I also love the kids. As I’ve gotten older, what worries me is that it seems the church is losing the youth, so after I retired from teaching middle school, I continued to substitute. I love to communicate with people of all ages, so to stay connected to the teens, I created a collection of what I call, “Substitute Raps.” The kids loved them, and they even made their way around social media.
Not long ago, however, I realized that the only age level of kids I hadn’t really tried to influence were the primary school ones.
That changed when I started going with my son to the Goodwill store. While he browsed for relics, I made my way over to the book section. That’s when I noticed all of the young children’s Bibles, Bible story books, and Christian literature. I knew exactly what I could do. Each time we went, I bought all the books that were in good shape and took them to the Sunday school teacher at church who taught grades kindergarten through third grade, and who was also my school colleague for all of my teaching career. I asked her to hand them out to her students. She was as thrilled to get them as the kids were to receive them, since some of those children came on the church bus and weren’t used to getting books.
A lot of my friends have passed away, and I recently lost my son and my wife, but I haven’t lost my faith. In fact, my faith has grown stronger and stronger. For me, it’s the only meaning for life. Why else are we here? I go to church every time the doors are open, not because I’m a saint, but because they are my family.
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