Speaking of Friends... and Love not War by Bill Childers
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Speaking of Friends... and Love (Prelude)
It is a blessing, a very special blessing, that we sometimes experience in this wayward journey called life... the blessing of friends above and beyond. Such was my fortune, perhaps more than once, but sometimes they come in pairs as in this particular instance.
I met them together, as they should have been. The had been together about sixty years at the time... husband and wife, life-long friends in the most wonderful way. It could not have been any other way!
I had been sent to be the pastor of their church in a small town south of Dallas. It was at a "get-together", along with some folks from another church in a nearby town which I would also pastor, when these two people walked up to me. He introduced his wife as Lois, and said his name was Weldon, but his friends called him Bo. I came to know and love them as Bo and Mama. Bo came to be not only a great friend, but like a second father to me, and Lois also came to be like a mother to me after my own mother died eight years later.
Bo had a long-time friend named Dan, and they both became my right hand around the church. I only had to let one of the know about a problem or concern and they were right there. A few years later, we dedicated our friendship center to them for all they were and meant to the church. Dan had left this earthly realm a short time before, but Bo kept right on as long as he could, being stubborn enough to keep at it. Dan had been just as stubborn, having lost one of legs many years earlier, but kept doing just about all he wanted to do. The Lord enables those who are willing and who respond to his call.
Bo ended his earthly pilgrimage when he was about eighty-nine years of age. Lois is still tending her flowers at the wonderful age of ninety-six.
These are about Bo and Lois, Bo and Mama...
Bill Childers
2003