Even more from the Golden Tape

                Anything new or interesting to add to the “golden tape” story?  Yes, there is, thankfully, and I hope even some effects I know nothing about.  To date, I have mailed or hand delivered maybe 25-30 of the actual CDs.  However, another unanticipated ease of access to this recording has been added to the Prep South class website.  To say the website has been kind to Jim would be an understatement, but I know working on the 50th reunion certainly reconnected Jim to his class, and the reunion weekend more than lived up to the hours of planning and great team effort.

                It is curious to me that the site (prep66.weebly.com) now presents Jim in a very serious, for him, description of God’s work in his life up to about 1990 and also Jim at his comedic best adding a little amusement during the Saturday evening events of the reunion weekend, including a mass, dinner, and program.  And perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here.  So often, we let opportunities to share our faith lives in words or offers of prayer go by.  I know for sure I have held back when I could have spoken or prayed with someone. 

                Jim and I had some good “training” for sharing our faith when we volunteered in the pastoral care department at Missouri Baptist Hospital, a large health center in St. Louis.  We had actual workshops that were informative and helpful.  But we also had “on the job” training, sort of like student teaching.  Eventually, we figured out the list we were given each time we went were new admissions, not patients who requested a visit.  Talk about learning true humility.  Many times when I walked into a room, I immediately felt the rejection.  There were times such resistance gave me pause, thinking perhaps my attempts to engage them in some element of faith in their stay might be the last they would hear, a rather sobering thought.  But always, there would be at least one person who took us up on an offer to pray with them.  We had chosen Missouri Baptist because it was the only hospital that allowed volunteers to hand out literature AND offer to pray during a visit.

                Just this morning I listened to my copy of Jim’s testimony—probably my fifth time—to feel his faithful presence again.  I will have to watch his funny routine at the reunion again.  I always find some amusement in it, not sadness.  Many fine men, faithful men, are or were part of that class.  Continued friendship among them even now will only bless lives and provide good times together.

                So, again my thanks for adding this testimony to the website.  Here is the address that will bring it up:  https://prep66.weebly.com/test.html.  Stay tuned.