The Life of Leroy Brown

Leroy is my 2000 Dodge Quad cab gold pickup truck. (yes we name all our vehicles) We adopted Leroy from Don Davis Auto Sales in Arlington, Texas in 2001 when he had 39K miles on him.  I drove Leroy as my primary vehicle every day and spent a lot of years letting him pull my boat, small trailers, and always hauling something. I had no problem driving Leroy out of town and we took many trips with him for vacationing and camping. 

When my son Ricky went to college, Leroy pulled the trailer with all his stuff to Abilene, Texas. We almost didn’t make it back though; Leroy’s brakes were squealing and we had to find a shop that Saturday to get all new front brakes and rotors. Once we got that done we headed home to North Richland Hills, Texas. Leroy has been a huge help to the whole family when they needed a truck for hauling, Leroy was there for them. When a friend called and needed a truck, I always volunteered Leroy for the job. I kept him in great shape and did all the routine maintenance to keep him going strong. 

After my son graduated from college in 2005, he sold his car to my youngest son who needed transportation and then he drove…yep he drove Leroy! Once Ricky purchased his first truck t about a year later then I got Leroy back complete with gun rack on the back window and an ACU sticker on the window. Once again I was reunited with my truck and it felt great. A little while down the road, my daughter calls and needed to borrow a vehicle. Thiers bit the dust and they could not buy a new car right then. So once again I offered up Leroy Brown. She drove Leroy for about a year or so and finally I got him back. Yes, is great driving Leroy again.

For the next year or so my youngest son was between cars now and then and needed a ride so Leroy filled in. Well, one early fall day, I sent Joey, in Leroy Brown, to pick up some fire wood in Corsicana for me, about an hour away. He loaded up Leroy’s bed full of oak wood great for the fireplace and headed back to Waco where we lived then. It was getting dark and about half way back….it happened. Leroy had an engine failure and almost died that evening. I drove to meet Joey right away and we were able to start Leroy and pull him off the side of the road to a parking lot. He had over 170K miles on him by now. We managed to tow him home the next day and there he sat in the drive way, completely disabled. My son-in-law offered to rebuild the engine so Leroy was trailered to Corsicana for the rebuild. There he sat for almost 2 years, out in the pasture, waiting for Jessie to find the time for the daunting task. We would visit my daughter now and then and every time I would see Leroy just sitting there all alone with his engine pulled. Once we came to visit and he had his hood off and just bare naked to the elements. It was hard to see him like that. 

Well, long story short, Leroy got his new engine and boy oh boy does he run great. Jessie went all out with the rebuild and Leroy has never run so well! He got a new water pump, fuel pump, oil pump, rings, pistons, gaskets, had the engine bored, and all new belts and filters. The day he came home to Waco and was in my driveway was a glorious day for me. Leroy is back! Leroy has now been driven by every member of our family and always been there to haul us around. He has seen many sets of tires, oil changes, tune ups, inspections, and the wash jobs. He has a few battle scars but nothing major that would hold him back. Now thirteen years later there he is sitting my driveway again ready to work and drive. I don’t know how many days he has left with 173K miles now and fourteen years old but I will drive him till he drops. I love my truck!

Rick Cadden

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Come As You Are

(this is a long article for me but worth the read i believe)
Recently I had the opportunity to counsel with a young lady that had many questions about faith in Christ. One afternoon she came to the church office and we talked. I had never met her before but she was referred to me through a mutual friend that had been talking with her about faith as well but asked me to also talk with her. For the first part of our visit I just listened. She had a lot of great questions and I could tell she was very confused and really searching for some answers. For the most part, she had been led to believe that she was not worthy of God’s love and believed because of her rough past, she could not come to Jesus as she was. There must be something she had to do to “clean up” before Jesus would receive her she thought.

As I was listening to her story I immediately thought of my own story in life and how I must have believed the same thing in my past. The only difference in our stories is she is searching and I was not back then. After she was drawing to a conclusion of sharing her back ground, I sensed it was my time to respond. As I listened to her and at the same time thought of own story I was asking myself, “Why am I where I am today?” and “How did I get where I am serving on a church staff with my background?” You see, I believed the same thing she did growing up and yet I made it to where I am today. I was excited to share with her my story since she and I were so much alike.

I grew up in a Christian home but being the last of four siblings, it seemed we had strayed some from church and regular attendance. I don’t remember going to church much at all as a child except for special occasions like weddings and funerals. I lived a great childhood with great parents and had everything we needed, so I thought anyway. After high school however, I ended up in a rough group of guys and we did some things I would not be proud of today. We did a lot of destructive behavior and thought it was fun and cool. I wonder today how I would have ended up had it not been for my wife finding us a church. After we were married several years it was my wife that decided we needed to join a church.  Actually it was my wife and a friend that started visiting churches and dragging the two husbands along once they visited one they thought we would like. The last one we visited she really loved and I endured it. That following week the pastor of the small church and his wife stopped by our house for a visit. Long story short they led both my wife and I to faith in Christ that evening. This is what I am thinking while the young woman in my office was sharing her life story. How did I end up here as a minister with my past? That night the pastor shared scripture with us about God’s unconditional love and that you come to Jesus…as you are! 

You see the young lady in my office was confused and she had been led to believe that she was not worthy of God’s love and believed because of her rough past, she could not come to Jesus as she was. So now it was time to respond and I told her my best response would be to share my personal testimony with her. I think she really just wanted someone to say it’s all going to be ok. Little did she know we were very much alike and yet she was lost and confused and I was sitting is a nice office serving a large church with credentials hanging on my office wall. I proceeded to share my story and she became very attentive. I am sure now she did not expect my response. 

I told her that I believed as she did growing up and once I was an adult and married that I would have never believed that Jesus died for me and that all I had to do was trust and believe in him. I believed that Jesus would never want or accept me based on my past and the things that I had done. Since I believed that, I did not pursue God or church or religion or faith. I was just like this young woman in my office. After sharing my story, she and I immediately identified with each other and I think it eased her mind some as she was a little nervous coming to the church for help. I did the same thing the pastor did for me over 30 years ago by sharing some scriptures about how to trust and believe in Christ.

There was a pause in our conversations as we just looked at each other. I told her that the answer to her belief that Jesus would not accept her for her past was a lie. I then read her one more scripture. I could strongly sense that she was ready to make a dramatic change in her life. I asked if she would like to trust in Jesus and believe in him right here and now. She said yes and we prayed together. This young lady is now a Christian. 

What was that one more scripture? “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:6-8 NIV

After this verse she prayed and received Christ as her savior right there in my office, even though she was a sinner. During our conversation we had talked about Jesus dying on the cross and then he arose from the grave and is a living savior. In a few weeks we will be celebrating Holy Week or Passion Week or Easter as you may call it. For Christians, it is a time to celebrate that Jesus died for you and me, even while we were still sinners, and gave us his unconditional love. He then displayed his omnipotent power over death that whoever believes in him will have life everlasting.

Do you know someone who believes as the young woman did that day in my office? Share your story of redemption with others and watch God transform their life right before your very eyes just as Jesus did when he arose from the grave and appeared to so many! Come as you are and Jesus will receive you.

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The Hole Plugger

Our music minister came in my office one day and said he was giving me a new name...the hole plugger! In November my bookkeeper took maternity leave for the next eight weeks and I am the fill in guy while she is out. Keep in mind that Dec and Jan are the two busiest financial months of the year. Then in the middle of that, my Facility Manger has to have a surgery and will be out 4 weeks. I am the fill in guy for that as well. In the middle of all this we are remodeling and I'm the acting GC, General Contractor getting bids and lining up all the vendors for the projects. Then right before the holidays I'm filling a new position in the office and running ads. I was doing interviews as soon as got back in the office on Jan 6th. My bookkeeper comes back on Jan 15th so I was just seeing some light at the end of the tunnel when out of nowhere my Church Hostess passes away in her home. I am now filling her position in the interim in finding her replacement. That's me...plugging holes!

• Associate Pastor of Administration and Operations - hat number 1
• Bookkeeper - hat number 2
• Facility Manager - hat number 3
• General Contractor - hat number 4
• Food Service Director - hat number 5

 Are we having fun yet?

Comments? Discussion?

Luijarick

Maternity Leave Blues

This is the first of a series of blogs about when my bookkeeper was on maternity leave for EIGHT WEEKS and I am filling in mostly. I did have a girl coming in each week to help with the big stuff though. However, nearly every day I was in her office sorting and posting and getting things ready.

The first week I show up early at the office to get all set up for the Count team and be ready. I arrived an hour early and went straight to her office. I went to open the safe and did not have the combo. I have it written down on a small piece of paper that I keep in my wallet. It was missing! I remembered that on Friday I opened the safe and in a hurry I placed the small paper with the combo... in my shirt pocket thinking... I will place back in my wallet later. Guess what?  I never did that. Now I have no way to open the safe. I texted my bookkeeper (it’s week one and I am already texting her) and she did not respond right away. Running out of time I drove all the way home to check my shirt pocket praying the paper was there. Right when I arrived back home I got a text message from my bookkeeper. I keep the combo written down in the office. Great! I am already all the way back home. I drive back to the office, now late, and rush around getting all set for the counters. Whew!

Comments? Discussion?

Luijarick

Missing Person Alert at Church

Every Wednesday night at church for dinner I looked forward to getting my meal and sitting down with Albert. He and I have eaten dinner together for the past year and enjoyed fellowship and getting caught up with each other on the activities of our week. Albert was a school teacher for 51 years and was retired but still substituted at the high school. I always arrived at 5pm when dinner started and Albert would already be there eating. As I got my meal and joined him I would always ask where he substituted that day. It was fun hearing the classroom stories and how his week was going. He informed me one Wednesday he was having open heart surgery and would be missing dinner for a while. Albert had the surgery and I visited him after and he was doing well. The surgery seemed a success. After a few days he went to rehab and things seemed good there too. Suddenly I received word he was back in ER with some complications and the next thing I know he was gone. Albert passed away on Dec 20, 2013. Now my friend and meal companion was gone.

Every Wednesday at 4pm I would leave my office after a crazy long day and go to the church kitchen to get a glass of tea before dinner. I would visit with the kitchen staff and Naomi, our Food Service Director, would be there with the volunteers. We joked and laughed and talked about a variety of topics. Naomi was there at church just about every day even though she was a part time employee. Serving was her life and spiritual gift for sure. Just about every event we did would involve food and so that meant Naomi was there helping.  We ministered together. I got a call on Friday, my day off, on Jan 2^nd from the Waco police that they were there at Naomi’s home and that she had passed away in the night totally unexpected. I was shocked! My wife and I made the visit right away to her home and met with family. This made no sense!

I attended Albert’s memorial service and learned many new things about my friend Albert that I had never heard. Many testimonies from the school and students gave me new insights into Albert’s life that I wished I had known. I spoke at Naomi’s memorial service being her supervisor I wanted to be a part of her service. While visiting with the family the night before I learned so many great things about Naomi I wished I had known.

I have come to realize that a funeral or memorial service is not the best place to learn about a person’s life accomplishments, joys, likes, and personal history. I found myself thinking in my mind that I wished I had spent more time with Albert and Naomi getting to know them and their life. That was the message I got from each service. Yes we celebrated their lives but I could have known them better if I would have taken the time. I have known Albert and Naomi for over six years. Naomi and I worked together, yet I really never took the time to really get to know her. I wish I would have! Both Albert and Naomi were amazing people had I known them better I believe our time here on earth would have been even better.

My Wednesday nights at church will not be the same for a long time!

Here is the real lesson to learn from all this! Take the time to get to know those around you while they are still alive. Celebrate life together, pray with each other, and listen to their story. Everyone has a story to tell! Make time to hear their story! Share YOUR story!  Don’t wait until they are gone and then wish you had known something about them. Learn it now and have fun with it!

Comments?  Discussion?

Luijarick