Realizing nobody will stalk Joey as much as his own parents, I am going to link the funeral service yesterday of his beloved former pastor, Nathan James, below.
Pastor James pastored Calvary Memorial for 32 years before retiring during the pandemic, then facing cancer. He would have turned 70 next Friday.
He has six children. His only daughter is married to the new pastor of the church. Of the five sons, three are overseas missionaries, with their families, and at least one of the other two sons appears to pastor elsewhere in the States. All six children spoke during the service and one sang "It Is Well With My Soul."
Like our pastor, Pastor James has been in a pastoral role since he was young and even while getting his education. In this case, Pastor James, who always thought God would call him as a missionary, has been pastoring since age 19.
I always knew Pastor James, having been raised in Texas, was somewhat of a character. The 2-3 times I heard him preach, he wore a cravat instead of a tie. I loved hearing one of his boys tell how he was known for his hats, even wearing a pith helmet and a Siberian wrestler hat (which was placed on the pulpit during the service) around Racine, Wisconsin.
And growing up in Texas, he met some remarkable people, too. He shook JFK's hand hours before his death in a group of schoolchildren meeting the motorcade in Dallas. He sand dune surfed one day with George W and Jeb Bush as teenagers when their families happened to meet at a park.
I love that Joey is in this community. When he was at Shepherds College, there were three options for church on Sunday. Joey tried one where the preaching was sound but the music a little too progressive for him. He settled on Calvary almost ten years ago now.
The funeral appeared to have 200-300 people in attendance. The church is about our size. A meal was prepared in the fellowship hall for everyone. Since Joey's caseworker's wife was in charge of the food, we had Joey give her a donation to help him realize we all work together in a local church.
Today they bury the pastor.
Tomorrow is an all church picnic after the morning service as they celebrate the retirement of the interim who brought them through the two year search for the new pastor, who turned out to be the assistant pastor son-in-law who was there all along.
They also start missions conference tomorrow. Please pray for their strength as they go through the rest of this week together.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Y7sjpSt_s2s?feature=share
The part that made me cry the hardest was when the pallbearers got up, which I believe were the five James sons, and the pastor, Pastor Davis, instead of going as an in law to the sixth spot, went and got his sixteen year old son with Down’s syndrome by the hand and brought him to the sixth spot.
The family adopted two additional special needs children, girls from China. Joey had the pastor for his Sunday school teacher for years before the transition. The church has a heart for special needs people. Like Tab.
The children spoke well of him as did his friend. He was loved and respected by them.
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
I don’t know what Siberian wrestle is, but that hat is certainly a Mongolian hat!
Thanks for sharing, I like to watch christian funeral service, hear the testimony especially from the family members (will finish watching when I have a chance)
“Life can be lived well & finished well”.. part is going to stick with me today to be pondered.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻