Sadness

On Thursday, our friend died. He was mowing the yard outside his parsonage in a little farming community when he was stung by a wasp. No one knew he was allergic to wasp stings, least of all he. Our friend was able to get to the parsonage where he told his wife he didn't feel well, then collapsed. She performed CPR until the first responders arrived. Sadly, modern medicine was simply not enough.

He came to the service of God later in life. Perhaps it was the tragedy of the of the Murrah Building bombing, where both he and Hubbs lost friends and acquaintances. Perhaps it had always been in him. But whatever it was that inspired him to become a minister, it took hold and stayed with him.

We travel back to Oklahoma City tomorrow for the funeral on Monday. Our friend will be memorialized where he was born and raised, another little farming community southwest of OKC. The place Hubbs was raised. They had been friends since grade school.

With your forbearance, I would ask that you pray to whomever you hold sacred or holy. Pray for the family of a good man. A man who gave up a tidy retirement in a career he was already vested in, to preach and minister to the spiritual needs of farmers and ranchers out in the middle of nowhere.

After studying and serving several churches, he was ordained as an Elder of the church just this year, but his was a life and a calling that he had loved with the quiet passion of someone who had preached the Word for decades. His was a kind and gentle soul, and the world is a colder place without his warmth. His passing is deeply grieved, and he shall be missed by all who knew and loved him.

Thank you,

Flitter