I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
Ephesians 1:16
He and his wife had thousands of children.
Let me clarify: They never raised biological children, but during his over 50 years of serving in the student ministry at my home church, he fathered a multitude, including myself. Today hundreds will gather to celebrate his life. The student building will be bulging and stories recounted. There were the youth camps, the mission trips where he coordinated the transportation for 500 people in a complicated city, the discipleship weekends. Gathered will be Tom’s students from the seventies, eighties, nineties, all the way to the present. Each will have a story about how he listened. Guided. Laughed. Prayed.
I have my own stories of course. And when I got word that he had died I thought the stories were all written. But a few days later I heard a new one about Tom that I can’t stop thinking about. The night he went to Heaven, he was calling out the names of students throughout the years. His wife said that he called my name.
When I heard that, it stunned me. And it still does.
It’s caused me to reconsider the power of one life yielded to God. And ask myself questions.
Whom am I serving? What younger person am I investing in? What name am I bringing before God?
Father, thank You for the people You have brought into my life along the way to point me to You. Use my life to impact those around me for Your Kingdom.
Whitney
Let me clarify: They never raised biological children, but during his over 50 years of serving in the student ministry at my home church, he fathered a multitude, including myself. Today hundreds will gather to celebrate his life. The student building will be bulging and stories recounted. There were the youth camps, the mission trips where he coordinated the transportation for 500 people in a complicated city, the discipleship weekends. Gathered will be Tom’s students from the seventies, eighties, nineties, all the way to the present. Each will have a story about how he listened. Guided. Laughed. Prayed.
I have my own stories of course. And when I got word that he had died I thought the stories were all written. But a few days later I heard a new one about Tom that I can’t stop thinking about. The night he went to Heaven, he was calling out the names of students throughout the years. His wife said that he called my name.
When I heard that, it stunned me. And it still does.
It’s caused me to reconsider the power of one life yielded to God. And ask myself questions.
Whom am I serving? What younger person am I investing in? What name am I bringing before God?
Father, thank You for the people You have brought into my life along the way to point me to You. Use my life to impact those around me for Your Kingdom.
Whitney
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