Houston, Refugio, Ingleside, Houston, Rockport, Houston
March 27, 2010 (Saturday)
I am changing the schedule of blogs this week to make possible writing articles about each day of Holy Week, the final week of Jesus’ earthly life that included His death, burial and resurrection. Today, Saturday, I am concluding the series of blogs on “Texas Towns I Lived In,” and tomorrow, Sunday, I will have a blog about Palm Sunday. I will continue the Holy Week series through Easter Sunday.
Back to “Texas Towns I Lived In:”
After we retired, our daughter, Debbie, needed us to be with her and her family in Houston the rest of that year, 1996. She went home to be with the Lord on January 18, 1997.
We had been back in Rockport for a couple of months when the First Baptist Church of Refugio asked me to become their interim pastor. I was with them for only four months before they called a pastor. Then we attended church at Rockport with occasional engagements at churches in the area, supplying pulpits in the absence of the pastors.
After about a year, the Bethel Baptist Church of Ingleside asked us to serve as interim pastor, and that interim lasted one and one-half years, until the close of 1999. We made many new friends in that church and thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. While there, they called Wanda as their interim music director. She enjoyed that and did a great job. We both were blessed by the great spirit in the church.
After the work at Ingleside, again we attended church at Rockport and supplied pulpits here and there.
In the summer of 2001 the First Baptist Church of Refugio again needed an interim pastor and they called upon me. This time I moved our motor home to Refugio to give us a place of our own while there. Wanda became seriously ill as 2002 got under way, and on January 27 she went to be with Jesus in Heaven. On the next day I had a heart attack and a stent was installed in an artery. The church at Refugio said they wanted me to continue to serve as their interim even though I was forbidden by the doctor to preach for a month. Dale Pogue graciously performed those duties and after a month I resumed my work there until their new pastor started his work with them on January 1, 2003.
So I went back to church at Rockport until the summer of 2004, when the Timbergrove Baptist Church of Houston asked me to be their pastor. I moved to Houston and served the church until June, 2006, when the Rockport church asked me to become the interim pastor. Their pastor, Walter Knight, was retiring because of his health. When Johnny Melton asked me to do the job, I refused, because of my advancing age and the pressing duties of the growing church at Rockport. Johnny would not take “no” for an answer, and I resigned the church in Houston to return to Rockport for one and one-half years as interim pastor. At the close of the interim, the church voted to declare me “Pastor Emeritus,” and the pastor, Scott Jones, in behalf of the church, gave me a framed document to display.
At the age of 53, Walter Knight left us to be with his Lord on January 12, 2008. A service was held in Denison by Johnny Melton. Pastor Scott Jones and I conducted a memorial service for Walter at the First Baptist Church of Rockport, on January 18, 2008.
My interim work at Rockport was over, and at the same time Glenn Ray, the pastor at Timbergrove Baptist Church in Houston, resigned. The church then asked me to become their pastor again, and I returned. And so, here I am, still preaching at 78. The music director, Troy Conner, my lifelong friend, is also 78. Wonder how many churches have a 78-year-old staff?
[This concludes the series on “Texas Towns I Lived In.” These blogs not only describe where I lived, they sort of tell my life story, although not detailed. My daughter enjoyed them; I hope you did too. To review, this ole Texas boy lived in Houston, Marshall, Waco, Fort Worth, Cleburne, Lampasas, Fort Worth again, Briar, Kosse, Dallas, Rockport, back to Houston, again at Rockport, and then to Houston once more — all of them Texas towns. Yee hah! I like to think I was willing to go wherever the Lord wanted me, and I’m sure I went where He wanted me to go. Those places just happened to be in the Lone Star State].