It’s a new year and I have no real medical maladies to
report. I had a lymph node flare up at the beginning of last week. It was
tender and had me worried for a couple of days. I self-diagnosed it (not using any Internet symptom checkers) as
Monomumpalosis, a cross between mono and the mumps, but it went down and things
are back to normal. And yes, I totally made the word Monomumpalosis up. I do have a check-up with one of my oncologists later this
month. I will tell her about my Monomumpalosis episode, but I really think it must have
been sinuses. I am proud to say that I’ve lost 37 pounds since July. That’s a
plus – even though it’s a minus.
Since there isn’t any weird junk going on with my body
lately, I’ll tell you what I did after church today. Why not? It’s my blog and I’ll write if I want to.
After church this morning, my dad was looking through an old
1978 church directory from when we went to Southside Baptist Church. I was
about five or six, depending on the time of year it was published. As I looked
through the pages, there were so many people I didn’t recognize or remember. We
left Southside and started going to Bethlehem Baptist in 1980, so it wasn’t
surprising to me that a lot of the faces and names weren’t clear to me.
Of course some faces were familiar to me. I recognized Bro.
Steve, who is at present graciously preaching in the interim at Bethlehem until
we are able to call a new pastor. He had a full head of hair back then. Looking back through the old directories
of Southside sparked an overwhelming feeling to reminisce through the pages of Bethlehem’s
directories.
I think the first one we got in the early 80’s was missing.
It’s in a box somewhere no doubt, but because of its absence my look back at
Bethlehem began with the 1986 directory. To give to you a time frame that was
the start of my freshman year in high school. I looked through almost 30 years
of directories. Now obviously there isn’t a directory for every year, but let’s
say there’s one for every five years or so and that’s still quite a few pages
to thumb through.
I started looking at how certain individuals had changed over
the years. I saw many faces that are no longer with us in life and some that
are no longer with us for other reasons. I saw kids I grew up with that have
either moved on to other churches and/or now have families of their own.
I looked at choir pictures, drama pictures, youth pictures,
pictures of how the inside of the buildings have changed. So many changes.
Hairstyles, glasses, clothing and in some cases the amount of makeup that
is/was worn. Then I started looking at the staff pages. I noticed Janice Curry
in every staff page. She is as lovely as ever. I noticed David Headley in every staff page. His smile is just as bright as ever. But what
struck me the most was that Bro. David Hughes was in every staff page from 1986
to 2011. 2011 being the last year Bethlehem has published a directory.
As the changes in fashion, decoration and even people hit
me, the realization that the next time Bethlehem Baptist Church publishes a
church directory, David Hughes and his family will no longer be within its
pages.
Now anyone going to Bethlehem at present and even Bro.
Hughes himself might say, “Well duh! He’s been gone for a year now.” And I
would have to agree with them as they give me a V8 smack in the head. But here is
the revelation brought to the forefront of my mind when I look through these
directories:
David was my youth minister from grades 8-12. Although he
never knew it, he guided and directed me through much of the teenage turmoil I
overcame.
When I moved on to the College and Career class, he too
moved on to be the Minister of Education, where he and his wife, Carol, who was
my Sunday School teacher, both taught me how to rely on and how to apply God’s
Word in my everyday life. They explained the meaning of being a Christian and
what commitment and sacrifice meant.
I sat for their kids and spent time in their home.
I planned events with them, ate dinner with them and went on
church mission trips with them.
They counseled me, consoled me and consulted with me.
They have protected, defended, prayed for and loved me.
By the time David became our pastor, I had already learned
so much from him and Carol. It seems as if every time I grew, their roles in
the church changed and were there to help me through the next set of problems
with words of wisdom, comfort and acceptance. Perhaps that was God’s way of
making sure that I found the right path to continue on my spiritual journey by
having these two extraordinary people accompany me.
David and Carol have been two of the biggest influences of
my Christian life. When he announced his retirement at the end on 2012, I
smiled, I encouraged and congratulated on the outside, but on the inside my
heart broke. I knew that he and Carol had to do what was best for them. The
time was right and logically it made sense. Emotionally though, it tore me up.
The two rocks I leaned on were leaving. How was I going to get through the next
part of my life without their direction?
The thing I realize now is that all the years I spent learning
from them, listening to them and being nurtured by them, was also God’s way of
preparing me to let go of them and be the friend to them that they have always
been to me.
It’s taken me an entire year to be able to look at the
situation objectively. While I don’t get to see them as often as I would like,
you can be assured that I keep in touch on a regular basis. They still accept
me into their home and I still can contemplate life’s problems with them. This
isn’t meant to put anyone on a pedestal. That would be unfair, but the fact
remains that they are very special to me and always will be. No amount of
distance can ever change that.
There are many people in my life who have affected me in
profound ways who are just as special to me. Perhaps, I’ll write something
about them in future. One thing is certain – God has placed very special people
in my life for a reason. Sometimes you don’t understand why until years later
and sometimes you figure it out right away, but it is always important to let
them know they are loved.
A lot of depth from looking through a church directory. The
memories are precious, the people are special, but God has always been at the
center of it all.
-Kat
1 Peter 5:7
