Blankets for the Soul

The summer of 2004, I lived in Reynosa, Mexico at Big Heart/Casa Hogar Corazon Grande (forgive the lack of properly accented words; I can't accent via blogger). While I was there, I met two girls that God used to demonstrate His loving-kindness towards me: Liz and Miriam.

Liz was my age. She was from Highland Village, TX (a suburb of Dallas) and in some similiar life situations as I was. Together, we served tons of people who were coming to assist the orphanage in reaching out to the local community. We worked our tails off! We were also in charge of cooking, cleaning, and helping out with the 20-30 kids who were living at the orphanage. It was a blast!

Miriam was a 24 year old Spanish teacher in Highland Village, TX also. She and Liz knew each other. In fact, they went to the same church. Miriam was the one who had encouraged Liz to spend some time at Big Heart. Miriam was a hoot! She was practically fluent in Spanish and really was able to bridge the communication barrier between the native speakers and silly American English-speakers. Fabulous girl.

We three became pretty close. We bunked together and stayed up many nights well past our bedtime talking about life, love and other mysteries. One night, we were outside lying on the trampoline looking up at the purple sky. There was a lull in the conversation and I piped in, " I know that I shouldn't be, but  I am really struggling with apathy." I don't know where it came from. I wasn't consciously planning to spill my guts to these girls. But I did. And they were so very gracious to me. They talked to me about what I was thinking and feeling and tried to give me some wisdom and insight that was from God's Word. Liz told me that when I arrived back to the states, I should download a sermon series by Barry Keldie from The Village Church that talked about apathy. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had struggled with this... Comforting. They shared some of Barry's sermon with me and I was encouraed.

When I arrived back home, I listened to the series and began the fight for joy. Praise Christ that He is faithful and meets our needs by giving us Himself. I still go back to that sermon series in my head from time to time. Thank the Lord for Liz and Miriam who were able to steer me towards some Christ-centered resources.

As I would later learn, Matt Chandler was the lead pastor/teaching pastor at this small church. I really was challenged by his no-nonsense presentation of the Gospel. He wasn't trying to "win friends" or coax someone into following Christ. He was just being a faithful steward of the text and trusting God to draw those who were His own.

That was almot six years ago. The Village Church now runs about 5,000 people spread across several different campuses. They were not trying to grow a big church, but their way of teaching about Christ is contagious and God has drawn people to Himself while using TVC.

I tell you all of this so that you will have some background information for the following news:

This past Friday, Barry Keldie passed away. He is survived by his wife, Charity, and their two children, Will (3) and Layla (1). Barry had long suffered from insomnia and apparently had a reaction to some sleeping medication that he was prescribed taken with a Tylenol PM.

I know you probably don't know the Keldie's, but please pray that God would show Himself to be who He is in this situation: sovereign, mighty, and overflowing with mercy.

As Chandler has often said when referring to his own battle with brain cancer: the truth of God's sovereignty and the fact that nothing escapes His knowledge and will has served as a warm blanket to my soul.