October 22, 2013 (Tuesday)
Yesterday I had the privilege of hearing the “Prime Time Singers” from the Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville. They gave a concert at Gulf Pointe Plaza Monday afternoon.
My phone rang yesterday around 9 a.m. and I was very surprised to hear Susan Brown calling. I had not heard from her or her husband Kenneth in about 8 years, since they visited the worship service at Timbergrove Baptist Church in Houston where I was pastor. I can’t recall when we had visited together before then. She and Ken invited me to lunch with them and to hear their choir sing at the retirement center. Mr. & Mrs. Eddie Hoots are also in that singing group. It was wonderful to see them there. I enjoyed hearing them all sing. It was great.
I met Susan when she was a freshman at Baylor, and later I met Ken (who went to Howard Payne University) after they were married and Ken was attending Seminary, as was I. We worked together making ice cream at Vandervoort’s in Fort Worth. C. Wilson Brumley (who later became pastor at First Baptist Rockport for nine years in the 1950’s and 1960’s) also worked with us there. Ken and Susan and Wanda and I had many happy hours together when we were students and pastors and new parents. I was working at General Motors in Arlington on October 19, 1955 when Susan called me to tell me Wanda needed me at home. She was about to give birth to Dan. I hurried home, then hurried to the hospital, and Dan was born soon after we got there.
Ken retired from being pastor of Kirby Baptist Church in San Antonio, and Susan retired from Buckner Benevolences, where she headed the work with headquarters in San Antonio. We enjoyed our visit with each other yesterday, and when we parted, Ken and I shared our hopes of seeing each other again one of these days, if not here on earth, then in Heaven.
Seeing old friends and family after many years of being parted is a reminder of our eternal heritage. “When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory!”