Thank you

I’ve looked for him before. In fact I’ve looked for him every time I’ve been in the church, which, to be honest, isn’t many times. I’m not often near the church, but when I am I’ve looked to see if he’s there. And, last week, he was! I hadn’t seen him for over forty years. I heard about him, and what he was doing, from my mum over the years. Actually, that’s the only reason I knew to look in the church. And when I did look in the church, I saw his picture! In the front entrance of the Minster, there’s a board with the pictures of all those who work in the team. And his picture is there. He looks a bit older than when I knew him, but it’s him (confirmed of course by his name written underneath)! I stopped off on my way back from my retreat - always do that because I grew up in Wimborne and something pulls me there! It turns out I arrived just as the Remembrance event was happening outside the Minster. And I thought: I wonder if he’s here today? And he was. I had to wait around for a while to speak to him because he had been leading the service and people wanted to speak with him at the end. But I waited. I waited because I wanted to say thank you to him. Over forty years ago he was one of my youth leaders. We loved him. He was fun and exciting and he loved being with us. So I wanted to say thank you. He didn’t recognise me! But why would he! Once we got chatting, the memories came flooding back: trips to the beach on summer evenings; playing football and French cricket, long conversations…We talked about life and faith and how things change. We talked about our different journey’s into ministry, about how he never thought he’d be a vicar and I never thought I be a Baptist Minister! We chatted for ages. I’ll probably never see him again. It was a chance meeting. But I’m really glad I hung around and took the plunge and asked: is it you? I thank God for him and all that he’s done in the years that have passed, and all that he’s still doing because he loves to help people find God. Which is what he did with me all those years ago. I walked away a little sad, knowing we’d probably never talk again. But also feeling I’d done a good thing, for him and for me. I hope he was encouraged. I know I was.