Over the past number of years, my parents have been helping my grandmother make some fairly large transitions as she continues to age. The most recent transition occurred last December at Christmas when we moved her from her own apartment into a facility that would provide her with care while at the same time allowing her to retain her independence. With that move, came the large job of working through 90+ years of memories and stuff.
Recently, I was visiting my family in Niagara Falls and had the opportunity to look through some of my grandparents old Bibles. As I was doing this, I noticed one very small, well worn, old Bible sitting there with some of the pages falling out. Towards the front of this Bible was my grandmother's handwriting that outlined a message she had heard on August 16, 1998. This is a very important date in my life as it was the Sunday I was inducted as the pastor into a tiny church plant in Kincardine, ON. This church carries many wonderful memories as we led them through a building campaign into their first facility (pictured above) and we saw God grow the church both spiritually and numerically. It was very much the place where I got my feet wet as a Sr. Pastor with very loving and gracious people.
But more importantly, the hand written message in my grandmother's Bible from 2 Timothy is very much a message God has written permanently upon my heart. The challenge to me as a pastor was and still is:
1) Guard the Gospel
2) Transfer the Truth
3) Preach the Word
I'm very grateful for a grandmother who believes this truth with all her heart and has faithfully given herself to the task of praying for her grandson to fulfill the challenge laid forth on that Sunday in August of 98.
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