MIDWEEK MESSAGE #304
Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #304. As we have enjoyed a break in the weather recently, I hope your past couple of weeks have treated you well. Thanks for taking the time to read this week’s MM.
Our education prayer focus the next two weeks is:
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- Tom Arthur, Principal, and Duane Potts, Assistant Principal, at OVMS.
- Please pray for all our school personnel, employees and families during Fall Break.
FROM THE “WE ARE SEEING PROGRESS” DEPARTMENT:
We are making progress on our building addition! In case you have not been able to “take it all in” I thought a brief update was in order. After having the drywall hung, we had to take a brief hiatus due to funds. Since that hiatus we have done the following:
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- The drywall is finished.
- Parking lot expansion took place. Not only was the earth moved, but stone was brought in as a base and then another type of stone was used to solidify that. As of this writing, we are done until at least next spring (if needed). Please feel free to park on it!
- The main auditorium ceiling has been painted and the walls have received their first coat.
- That allowed the spiral ductwork for the HVAC to be hung.
- The doors between the two buildings have been installed but not finished. The same with the drywall surrounding the new doors.
- Our next steps will be determined by the building fund balance.
FROM THE “SPEAKING OF THE ANNIVERSARY” DEPARTMENT:
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- THE DATE: October 25th
- THE TIME: One service at 10:00 in the new addition; nursery & children’s programs in our current building.
- THE NEED: Your help!! As we did at Easter, we have to make quite an adjustment to be able to meet in the new auditorium for one service.
- There will need to be some clean up in the new addition, especially with the dust on the floors. More info will be coming on that.
- Sound equipment needs moved.
- Chairs need to be moved and set up. Additional chairs will be used from Abram Farms (we will have to get them Sunday morning due to a wedding on Saturday night).
- Parking attendants will be needed to help with parking, especially in the new lot.
- THE SWITCH: Instead of having a pitch in immediately following the morning worship, we are changing things around. We plan to start at 4:00 with some outdoor games (cornhole, etc), a pitch-in at 5:00, and a worship around the fire will follow. This will allow time for some to help with returning chairs, moving equipment back, and general clean up.
- PLEASE REMEMBER: All monies received on our Anniversary Sunday will go to the Building Fund unless otherwise designated.
I was given no youth news so I thought I would share something on my heart:
It was November of 2016 when my life changed in several ways.
For the first time in all the years I have been riding my bike (since the 70s) I was hit by a car. It was early afternoon. I was wearing bright clothes. I laid on the ground after his mirror hit me in the left hip and watched as he kept on driving without even using a brake light. Yeah…I felt then and still do today that it was intentional. But that day changed my life. Other than the obvious, something much deeper and more life-impacting happened. It drove me to investigate cycling safety and laws. I became aware of an organization called 3 Feet Please (or 3FP for short). I remembered it from a few years before and found out that the man who had been in charge had given all rights and privileges to a man named Dave. Dave Waechter from Gilbert, AZ. I reached out to Dave to inquire about 3FP and that started a friendship I had no idea would develop. Dave was serious about 3FP. Totally serious. Several years before I met him he was riding an MS ride with his daughter, Nina, and their family friend, Lynn. A 90 some year old man tried to pass a lot of cyclists at one time and when he realized he couldn’t he veered into the cyclists, killing Lynn, injuring Dave and Nina, and that began a pursuit of getting states to pass a 3 feet law between passing motorists and a cyclist. After my experience, I was all for that, so I collaborated with Dave on reaching out to a couple Indiana
legislators to get the law passed in Indiana. It finally did!
But far more important was the friendship Dave and I forged. Soon a weekend visit brought him to Indiana where I picked him up at the airport; the three of us (Dave, Jo and I) tried various restaurants, but more importantly we just hung out together. He attended OVCF on Sunday and immediately ingratiated himself to our people. He supported some of our efforts long-distance (like our diaper drive for New Beginnings Pregnancy Resource Center; our Christmas baskets for people who needed them, etc). When he wanted a break from the AZ heat during our winter months, he worked remotely from Maine (Maine? I never understood that!😄) and would stop through going to and coming from where he stayed. Then in February of 2024, he and Susan gifted us with First Class tickets to spend a week with them in AZ. While there they let us use their extra car and we were able to do our thing until the evening, which we spent with them. We ate out at different spots, but the coolest of all was the 3 days in Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Memories still fresh in my mind and on my phone.
It was just about a week later I got a phone call that changed my world. He was unintelligible and when I finally found out what was going on, he was in the hospital and was diagnosed with a glioblastoma. He did some experimental treatments that seemed to help some. In February of 2025, David and Susan came to visit us and spent 5 wonderful days just hanging out. He was not the sharp Dave I once knew, but nothing can take away those few days. Little did I know that would be the last time I would see him here on earth. September 30, 2025 I received an early morning phone call from Susan telling me Dave had passed.
ONE YEAR AGO THIS PAST WEDNESDAY. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think of him in some way, and yes, still shed some tears. I have cycling gear that reminds me. I have shirts that remind me. I have some bears he provided that I could give away to kids. I have the 4 of us having our picture taken at the Grand Canyon as my screenshot on my phone. I stay in contact with Susan on a weekly basis and hopefully Jo and I will be able to visit her again this coming February, as we did this past February. It never ceases to amaze me how God brings people together, some who are so different. We met because of cycling. I was older than him by a good 10+ years. I am a pastor; he was a tech geek who helped found a Suicide Prevention Network that boomed. His grasp of things and his intelligence was so far beyond mine. His life experiences would make mine look simple in real life. While I’m in my Delorean trying to make sense of things, he was Doc Brown trying to explain everything. I’m Marty McFly and he was Charles Eppes from the TV show, Numbers (and yes, that smart). But somehow we hit it off. Perhaps because we were able to look beyond the differences and see each other for who we were. I was in awe of his ability and intelligence (which he never flaunted); he respected my position as a pastor. In fact, in the greatest tribute I could ever be given, he told his family
multiple times (whom Jo & I got to meet) that I was his pastor. Oh…it didn’t hurt that Jo and
Susan kept us humble. 😄
I apologize for a little longer MM this time. Sometimes doing 2 weeks at a time makes it a bit rougher to compact information, plus I wanted to tell you about Dave. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings. This Sunday my sermon is We Speak Jesus and the next week is We Speak Fresh Starts. I know many of you will be “getting out of Dodge” for Fall Break. Have a great, but safe time. Just know you will be missed and will always be loved.
Pastor Bill
