A Long Time Friend

In our last post, we shared a story about my son called “The Father’s Day surprise”.  In part two, we are going to share the story of "A Long Time Friend"

As a part of the realization of my ten-year plan, I have been blessed to work with a number of men whom God has gifted greatly.  One such man was written about in “The Puerto Rico Story”.  A second man, who truly has been a long time friend, is characterized in this posting. It coincides with the story, which began in McDonalds more than ten years ago. Men today need to read and hear of encouraging stories like these to help us grow in character as men of God.  This is one such story that will teach humility, patience, consistency and waiting upon God before making snap decisions.  

A LONG TIME FRIEND

While having breakfast with my son at McDonalds I glanced across the room and saw a man reading a book and finishing his breakfast apparently before going off to work.  I thought I had seen him somewhere before and I asked my son if he knew who the man was.  He said, “yes, that’s the same guy that sat only a couple of tables away from us during our morning meeting.”  Then I recalled having seen him once or twice before at church.  When we finished eating, I went over and introduced myself to him, and that encounter began a journey that has continued to this day.  It was the beginning of a long-term friendship. 

On the last day of the 24-week men’s Fraternity, the leader encouraged the men to continue those early Thursday morning meetings, and challenged someone to take the lead.  He contended that he would not be able to continue facilitating because of his work schedule.  I had been thinking about beginning some sort of ministry like this, and with very little thought, I stood up and told the group that   I would be there on the following Thursday.  Of course I was thinking there would be numerous men show up and I looked forward to carrying on the program.   Boy was I ever wrong.  I told them I would be there, and would continue the meetings, even if just one man showed up.  And guess what, that was exactly what happened.  Only one man showed up.

Scott Roy

I had arrived at the Church a few minutes before the normal 6:00 o’clock hour. My son could no longer come, and here I am just a very few minutes from 6:00, and I am the only one there.  I waited around a few minutes, thinking I would give at least 15 minutes to see if anyone would show up.  Low and behold, just a couple of minutes before 6:00, Scott Roy drove up.  


He was the only one to show up that morning.  We sat down and talked for a few minutes and wondered if anyone else would come.  After a little while, it was obvious that there would be no one else.  We had prayer, and did a short study and at the end of our time we agreed that we would continue to meet, even if it were just the two of us.  There was something about this man that was different, and a little voice inside of me said, "you need to stay close to this man."  

We started making some plans of how we could develop the program.  We advertised and announced the early morning meeting to all the men, but still could not get any commitment.  The following two weeks, no one showed up, and we were a little discouraged, still we believed we should continue.  Finally on the fourth week, one other man showed up, and in the faith week another.  

Now we were off and running, thus began what is now known as TMMG (Thursday Morning Men’s group). It was clear in my mind that God was teaching us that we must remain faithful and be consistent.  That was exactly what I was seeing in Scott.  He is consistent.   These meetings were the beginning of a long time friendship. 

We plodded on with our meeting, wanting every man to feel welcome and be a part of what we were experiencing.  Some days they would join in, some days they didn’t.  But Scott and I were always there. 

We have seen several groups formed through this effort.  Scott and I decided we needed to stretch our boundaries, so we began a triad, and met with one other man every Saturday morning at McDonalds. 

After finishing a year together in the triad, we started brainstorming on how to make our men’s ministry grow.  We now had up to 20 men who were involved in TMMG.  Some were hit and miss, but over all, at that point we had about twelve attending whom we could count on to be regular attenders. 

We walked together, talked together, and prayed together wondering what God’s will would look like as we carried out our man-hood plan.  I  was about five or six years away from retirement, but was becoming miserable in my job. The thing that kept me going was working in groups with Scott, until I finally reached a place I could retire.  Things got much better for me after that and I really started getting involved with a lot of work at the Church. 

One morning after a group meeting, we decided to meet at McDonalds for planning.  We felt things were slowing down and perhaps getting a little boring for the men.  We wondered what we could do to spice it up a little.  We decided that maybe just as the triads were designed to start over after a year and reach out to new people, that might be what we could do with TMMG. We decided to see if we could start another program just like TMMG but on another day.  So, we picked Friday, and that is how FMMG (Friday Morning Men’s group) got started

Several more years passed, and I began to notice something a little strange about Scott.  He seemed to be losing some of his fire and enthusiasm.  It dawned on me that he may be going through the same funky stage that I had gone through a few years before.   Sure enough, he told me he was getting very bored, and needed some kind of change in his life.  He said that he had started praying about moving to Florida.  

For the next year when we met, part of the discussion was around how he could make a plan to get to Florida but it seemed that almost everything was working against him.  Over and over he asked me to pray with him that God would make a way for him to get there. I told him I would, and I did, but I was not as fervent with my prayers in the beginning as I should have been.  I had never read his man hood plan, but I am quite sure it must have included that he wanted to go to Florida.  At any rate, after a few months, I began to see how much he wanted this, and I started taking him very seriously.  Previously, I don't think I was serious enough, maybe  because I didn’t want to see him go, and I didn't think that he was so serious about leaving.   But when I finally saw how bad he wanted this, I too, began praying more passionately for God’s perfect will in his life.  For the next full year, job opportunities came up and he applied, but for one reason or another, none of them worked out.  He still continued praying about it and kept on asking me to do the same.  One job after another seemed to cave in which was frustrating for him to say the least.  Close to the end of the second year, a wonderful opportunity came up, with a Christian organization, and we both felt that was it.  He had a good interview, and it looked as if that would be God’s will for his life.  

He was very confident he would get this job, and even started getting his house in order for the move.  But a month passed, and he still had not received a confirmation from the organization as to whether or not he would get the job. Then another month passed.  He contacted the company, but they only told him they had not made a decision.  At this point, he was ready to give up, but he held on to that one little thread of faith.  We talked about how something better was coming if that was not the answer. Then, within the week, out of the clear blue, he received another offer from a Church in Florida.  From here, all is history.  I will leave the rest of the story for him to tell, but for me the

most important part is watching a man living out his faith.  

Within two weeks, he had the job, and moved off to Florida, beginning a whole new life and ministry.  This is the story that all men need to be reading; that consistency counts in God’s sight.  His answers sometimes come after a long time of faithfulness, testing and proving. And in Scott Roy, you find a man who has been faithful to the Word, living out the Gospel, and putting it into practice, rather than just playacting, or talking to the wind.  

Seeing how God’s plan developed for him after almost 12 years, and seeing many prayers answered, I have been highly encouraged through the process.  It made it much easier for me to see a friend leave, even though I didn’t want to see him go. At our final good-bye on the last Thursday morning, I told him once again, what I had already said many times in the past to very close friends. "I am not going to say goodbye, I am just going to add my blessing for the extension of our ministry. " 

Together we had experienced seeing God’s plan of action at work.  

And that is the very heart of this story.  We need to see God's plan, at work and  not our own.  By this we are not saying we shouldn't make plans.  Plans are great.  Ten year plans are great. But we must be astute to God's presence and working in our life.  My friend Scott is that type of person.  He was well aware of all of this.  He accepted God's plan, and worked to get his house in order.  Although frustrated at times in the wait, he was patient enough to wait for God's approval.  Then when the time was exactly right, he was ready to go when God gave the final marching orders.