They have meant so much

Last Thursday night Tracie and I went to the funeral of Sandy Richert. Wow, it was hard, tough, sad, amazing, wonderful, a celebration. Rolly and Sandy have meant so much to us over the years. I first met them about 9 years ago at William Tyndale college, Rolly was guest teaching. Then in 1998 I was hired at Ward Presbyterian Church as their interim Sr. High director and Sandy was one of the small group leaders. They were amazing encouragers. They were one of the first people to encourage me to concentrate more on teaching and less on other stuff. After my talks, Sandy was the first person to stop me and encourage me and let me know to keep working on it. In 2001, Rolly actually had a tough talk with me about where I was putting my time and energy. Basically I was teaching, planning events and leading worship and Rolly was so bold to say, you need to pick 2 to focus on and it's not the worship leading. It was tough to hear, because I loved leading worship, but it was the best thing I have ever done.

Rolly has met with me countless of times for encouragement and motivation and every time I saw Sandy she was nothing but encouraging. My mom, Tracie and the kids actually saw Sandy and her family at the zoo this summer and took some pictures for them. All that to say, I love Rolly and I am praying for him and I am so thankful for him. And I am thankful for Sandy's encouragement and love.