September 28, 2012 (Friday)
Yesterday I wrote about the Wednesday evening report from Bob and Carol Crawford, Robert Edwards and Jennifer Edwards, on their mission trip to Cuba. They reported that they were involved with L.M. Dyson, Baylor professor and former member of the Rockport church, and Manuel Galindo, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Olmito, Texas, also a Rockport native. The Texas Baptist Men were also involved. Read a June, 2012, Baptist Standard article about them. Manuel’s picture is in it. See the footnote.*
Manuel Galindo stands out in my memory because of an event in his earlier life as a young man. He graduated from high school and had been planning on going to college to prepare for the ministry, but sudden complications found him living in Dallas with relatives and postponing those plans. I had no idea about how to contact him. I was in Dallas for a Baptist convention. There was no afternoon session and I was walking down one of the downtown streets after lunch. I waited for the “Walk” sign at an intersection, but just as I stepped from the curb, an old friend from student days called my name. We visited for a while before I resumed my trip across the street. When the “Walk” light returned, I started across the street, and–would you believe it–walked right into Manuel Galindo. We walked back to the same old curb again and visited with each other. He had no immediate plans, but he did want to go to college when the opportunity presented itself. I told him that a reception was in progress on the top floor of the hotel by which we were standing, and that Wilson Brumley, former Rockport pastor and then an executive of the Home Mission Board in Atlanta, Georgia, was up there in the reception line. We walked into the hotel, got on the elevator, and in minutes we were talking with Dr. Brumley, who said a scholarship for Manuel was available through Oscar Romo, who was standing in the same line. Manuel met Dr. Romo, who told him to come to his office in the Baptist Building the next morning. By the end of the next day, Manuel had a scholarship and when school started in the fall, he was a ministerial student at Howard Payne University. “God moves in mysterious ways” is not a Bible verse, but it is certainly true.
Manuel went on to become Presidential Assistant at Valley Baptist Academy, President of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, member of the North American Mission Board of the SBC, and actively involved in mission work of many kinds during the 17 years he has been pastor in the Rio Grande Valley. His picture is in the article cited above.
If an old friend had not stopped me when I first started across the Dallas intersection, I might never have seen Manuel that day. If we had not found each other that afternoon, the Lord would have found another way, because God seems always to have a “Plan B” ready, but I’m just thankful I happened along to be a little part of His “Plan A” for Manuel Galindo, a true servant of God.
* (Click here for the Baptist Standard article cited above).