We've been through a tough week or so at church. Scott, a friend and a member of the church was killed in a vehicle accident early on April 4th. For some reason, he had tried to walk from Baan Baa into town- a distance of 40 km- through the night. It appears that at some stage he was hit by at least two trucks, possibly more.
I found preparing for the funeral extremely difficult- it actually took me all day yesterday.
Today we had the funeral.
I expected maybe 100 people might turn up. As far as we can guess there must have been about 200 people here. It was literally "standing room only", and we had to direct people through our yard to the back door of the church because there wasn't room outside the front door.
Many of the people were there because they knew Scott's parents rather than Scott himself. Probably most of them wouldn't set foot in a church unless they really had to. There were some of Scott's old friends from youth group days and it was good to catch up with them.
So it was a perfect opportunity to preach the gospel of repentance in the context of Scott's own life and to share how Scott had also been a part of a community and of our family.
Scott had a musician friend called Ben, whom Scott had been trying to get to church for a long time. Well he got his way today. Ben sang a song as a tribute to Scott.
The whole service and the church setting was not what people were expecting either. We had our normal worship songs where people might have expected ye olde hymns. We had the comfortable seating, including futons and sofas, where they might have been expecting wooden pews. And the feel of the service, while somber was also peaceful and joyous.
Lots of people commented on the service, and the relatives all mentioned how Scott has always talked about Margaret and me. I feel that many lives were touched today.
It was a good day. It was sad to lose Scott at such a young age. It was also good to be able to say publicly that we KNOW he is with God and in a far better place. And it was so good to share the hope we have.
I was really blessed by our church members who just worked so well together and made the thing work. Everybody contributed their skills- music, sound, cleaning, organisation- without being told what to do. I love this faith community!
How very sad. You have my deepest sympathy and prayers for all who heard your message, either directly or indirectly. God gave you an opportunity and you met it well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lois.We've had some interesting comments on the service.Ben, the musician who sang at the service, said to us that he thought the worship songs we sang were "mad" (which means excellent). He had been standing near the door and couldn't see who the singers were so when he said that to Margaret and me, he didn't know Margaret was one of the singers.Scott's dad said to us, "You guys should produce a CD, the music was that good."The other day, Margaret went to a second hand shop that has recently opened and discovered that the lady who runs it is a soul-mate-- she is passionate about buying and selling things and wants to do it in a way that lets people buy good stuff at affordable prices, just like Margaret's approach to prams. Anyway it turns out Scott is her nephew, and she thought the service was lovely.It's interesting the way God uses these tragedies to remind people that He is still here.
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