Tuesday was a "voices from the past" day for me. During its course, I heard from 6 different people from various times of my life over the past 20 or so years. Most joyful, one sad.
I heard from a young lady named Sydney, or better known to me as "Scooter", who was a much-loved teenager in a youth group I pastored back in the late 1980's. She and her husband had moved into our area in the past couple of years, in fact not far from our home, and she had "tracked down her old youth minister". We emailed several times, then she came up to the church to see me- with her cute little toddler son! We sat and talked for a long time, catching up with each other's lives over the miles and years. It was a very heart-warming time for me.
Later in the day, I got an email from an old friend named Jud from my previous church, who I haven't heard from in some years either. And yet he contacted me to inform me of the death of another friend from that church, Russ, who had died the night before. Both men had worked in my children's ministry there, and I was shocked and saddened to hear of his sudden death. I'll be conducting Russ' funeral on Thursday. Jud and I caught each other up on our families, and it was great to hear from him, even though the news about Russ was sad.
Then I got another email from a fellow children's pastor in Miss., Jack, who wanted to say "hi!" and had a couple of ministry questions for me. Jack was my associate children's pastor for a while at my prior church, and it is always good to hear from him.
Lastly, I traveled to Griffin, Ga last evening to teach a conference, and was met there by another old children's pastor friend, a guy named Tracey. He used to be in South Ga., and I did some leadership training for his people there, then spoke at a children's camp for him once. I lost contact with him for several years, then here he is, at this church I was speaking at! "Its a small world after all..."
Strange, wonderful, even a little sad, day it was. But I'm left with a Bible verse God gave me that morning, that I passed on to "Scooter"-
"The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17
I experience this verse almost every day of my life- esp. on days like Tuesday.
Rob