Solace

Part of being a pastor is sharing joys and sorrows with the people you teach and shepherd. A church is a family and in the best cases a place for children to grow up, for people to become family. Lives are intertwined and knit together. 

When Rory first started volunteering at Vaughn/WayPoint he started out with a group of 5th grade boys. He got to work with and mentor them through graduation and beyond. Then this year the unthinkable happened. We had to say good bye to yet another one of our boys- Donald Gene. Rory was honored to do the memorial service, and I definitely prayed for him all the way through. Donald left behind a baby girl. Not only did Rory love Donald but seeing all the pictures of  him with his little girl was a little too close to home. God gave him the composure to speak through his tears. The very next weekend Rory took part in performing the wedding ceremony for Drew another one of the guys from that first group of boys, and child hood friend of Donald's.  We had one weekend where we entered into the sadness of Donald's family, and the next weekend we entered into the joy of Drew's family. 

In between those two major events the girls were sick. However, we treasured some time to just be together and hold our little girls.