You never know what a day may bring forth… right? Take this past Wednesday for example. I am in my office doing CEF oriented things and I get a mass text message from Pastor Richard Bragg. He was trying to find a few helpers to unload a truck of goods that had been donated to their church (Poplar Heights) to distribute to the needy in our area. Well, to be honest, at 63 and not as healthy as I used to be, I almost ignored the message. Yet, Richard and his congregation have been so good to us (CEF), helping us in a lot of ways. So, yep… I knew that I needed to help as best as I could.
When the truck arrived, I went down to start helping and at first, there we just a couple of us. Jokingly, I told Pastor Bragg that he better find a few more helpers or he might give me and Bobby Lewellen a heart attack! To be fair, this was during the afternoon of a typical workday, so many of his contacts were busy working. Ok, moving on…
It was not long until a whole family drove up and a mother, son, and his family pitched in to help with the unloading. A couple of other church folks pitched in too. Well, I discovered that this was the Walker family. The husband, Mike Walker, is the brother of a PHBC church member, Maggie Anderson. She reached out to him to ask for help. Well, that sets the stage for the rest of my little article. 😉
Beyond the fact that we unloaded a whole truckload of cereal, drinks, shaving cream, rice, other food items, and LAWDY, a LOT of lip balm… I met Mike Walker and learned of a connection to his lovely wife. Let’s start with his wife. I actually have two points of interest with her. First, we have a common connection to Romania. I served and lived there with IMB and her family heritage tracks back to this country that I love. Next, we both sang with local Gospel groups in the past. To that, I say… Slavă Domnului! It was also a pleasure to meet his mom and children. They are a lovely family and, mainline entertainer or not, he worked hard to help with the unloading – no pretense. I like that 🙂 All of them worked hard until we got finished.
During a few conversations with Mike, I really enjoyed the discussions about a few famous people that he knows had accepted Jesus as Savior. I feel certain that sometime regular church people can doubt whether these conversations are real. You know what I mean. Entertainers and sports figures are in vocations that certainly make it hard to toe the line, so to speak, with their faith and Christian witness. However, many of them do and even use their standing in that world to share their faith. I am sure it is not easy to balance the entertainment world with your personal faith. Anyway, something in my spirit tells me that meeting Mike Walker on this random day, “coincidentally,” may lead to a ministry connection in the future… we’ll see. God knows all about that. I just see a glimpse.
If you would like to learn more about Mike, here are a few links to guide you. Mike is a well-known singer, songwriter, and impressionist. He is based in Branson, MO but has ties to West Tennessee.
Here are a few photos from our little unloading adventure:
