No More Wednesdays with Maurice

I am still a little tired because my last meeting with Maurice Brockington was at 1 am on early Wednesday morning. Maurice didn't come. He had been called away by his Lord and answered the call. He is now with his beloved Lord Jesus. So I met with his wife of 59 years and the wonderful family that surrounded him.I had been meeting with him every Wednesday afternoon for 5 years.

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I first met Maurice while I was the Area Minister for San Diego. Bay View Baptist Church had just lost their Pastor and Maurice as head of the Deacons had contacted me for help in finding a new pastor. I conducted a consultation even with the church and sat with Maurice and some others as the Pastoral Search Committee. This was around the year 2000. We kept in touch and talked on the phone every once in a while. In 2006 after I had retired as Area Minister, Maurice called and told me that they again needed a new pastor. To make a long story short, I came and became the part-time pastor. I am thankful to him because he was my biggest booster and became one of my very best friends.

Even though I posted the picture of Maurice with his eye patch, this was not always how he looked. He was always a very proper gentleman. On Sunday morning he always came dressed properly. I confess that I was and am still not fully satisfactory enough in dress to please him. I have seen picture of him when he was young -- a dashing good looking man who married an equally good looking young lady. He was a merchant mariner just after WWII, a soldier in the Korean War, an Engineer and an airplane pilot. He actually developed a revolutionary aircraft engine for airplane racing. I forgot, he was also drove hot rods and automobile race car driver. When he was a young man he was also very involved with Youth for Christ in Los Angeles.

Well, by the time I came to Bay View he was no longer dashing and young, but he was prim and proper. He had a burning desire to learn more about the Bible. He asked me to teach him weekly everything I knew about the scriptures. We started an extended study that persisted until this week. As we studied, we began to know each other and began to swap sea stories (a sea story to an old sailor is really any old story about when we were young.) We became very good friends.

Maurice had been diagnosed with cancer in the 90s but he seemed to recover (yes, he believed in healing.) He seemed healthy when we began to meet in my office. I could hear him entering the parking lot (he never lost his love for automobile racing.) After a year or so, his cancer returned. At first, there was not much change. Then he had trouble focusing his eyes and an eye patch was required.-- see the picture. We continued to meet in my office. Then the fateful day came when the family took his car keys. I guess all of us will face that day. So we began to meet at his home. About a year ago, his cancer spread and he had trouble maintaining his balance and was prone to falling asleep while standing. He began to wear a helmet. Then he needed a walker. Yet, he was at worship every Sunday. Nothing could keep him away. Finally, he was in a wheel chair -- but he was still at worship.

As the cancer progressed, our talks got deeper. He didn't want to abandon his wife. He knew that he would be alright, but she needed him. He was also fearful of her leaving him. They were still love birds. We did a lot of praying together. Then, last Sunday he was not in church. But I was still planning on meeting him on Wednesday. Tuesday evening his daughter Dorothy called and said that he might not make it through the night. Sure enough, at 12:45 early Wed. morning, he left to be with the Lord. That is why he missed our meeting. 

I will miss Maurice. I know that he is a lot better off now. He really suffered at the end. Yet he never lost the faith -- and he never lost his sense of humor. Now there is a hole in my schedule for Wednesday. Good bye Maurice and God bless you. Thank you for your friendship.

Our New House -- and some of the family

The Spirit continues to move, but yours truly, is having a difficult time in moving. My primary problem in spending some time in writing is my taxi service. Linda and I live with our daughter, Robin, her husband Dave and our grandchildren, Hayley, Trevor and Katelyn. We need more cars. Our situation reminds me somewhat of our years in community. For those who don't know what I am talking about, you might check out theministeringcommunity.blogspot.com. In those days, we had about 20 people living together and although we had several cars, there were never enough. I was in charge of automobile maintenance -- and provided taxi service in our large van when needed -- which was pretty much every day. 

Hayley does have a car and she works in Sorrento Valley for Sony (she is a game tester.) Trevor also works there. Of course they can carpool, but, there schedules are not always the same. Therefore, Trevor sometimes has to call the Hensgen Taxi. He also attends Coleman College in the Evenings. How does he get there? You guessed it; he calls the Hensgen Taxi. 

Katelyn attends San Diego's School for Creative and Performing Arts. The school is in the Paradise Hills area -- definitely too far to walk -- although I have threatened her with this (only 7 miles!) How does she get there every morning at 7:00am? Well, it is the Hensgen Taxi service. She also takes the taxi home.

When Trevor needs to picked up at work (Sorrento Valley), Katy needs to go to and from school, and Trevor needs to get to school (Clairmont,) there is not a lot of time left to get much going in the way of sitting down and writing.

Linda has also been suffering from Atrial Fibrillation. The condition is potentially serious, but she is doing alright currently. Her biggest complaint is that she has no energy; she is normally a doer and it is hard for to just sit around. This condition requires many doctor appointments along with some hospital stays -- as well as out-patient procedures (Kearny Mesa.) Of course, I care and want to be with her, but this also requires that I put on my taxi driver's hat.

Having now spent some time in complaining, it does look like some good things are happening. Bay View church is doing very well. I have also spent some time with the Executive Committee of the Holy Spirit Renewal Ministries. I am really blessed that I get to attend these meetings and spend time with these people. I was also able to be a part of our Healing Service at Skyline Church. What a great time this was! Now I am trying to get back into the habit of writing. I have two posts for this blog partly prepared; a testimony from the healing service, and a review of Greg Boyd's, The Myth of a Christian Nation.

Any of you prayer warriors can pray for me especially that I will be able to follow through on writing, that I will have something significant to write and that my skills in writing will continue to improve.