I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...

I want to introduce you to my friends, Jamie and Donice Gibson.

It's hard to know where to start to tell you who these guys are to Beth and I.
Beth worked with Donice at the church offices in West Columbia for several years and got to know her in a lot of different and stressful situations that can arise in both in people's personal lives as well as at the office. Beth, Donice, Suzanne, Linda Wilson, Linda Ragland, Cindy Mann, and others forged a friendship that can only come to people whose hearts share the same values. They went to work every day to serve, with no agenda but a pure heart toward God and toward the leaders to whom he had assigned them. (This is by no means a complete list of the fabulous team that worked there. These are the ones I can think of tonight.)
Donice was raised in that church and she loved everyone there. She showed it every day. She showed it when everything went right and church people acted like Jesus was really the Lord of their lives. And she lived her faith when it didn't go that way. And just in case you don't know it, it doesn't always go that way.
It seems to have a special barb to it when Christian people, who worship with you, turn and backbite you. But even now, you can't get that team of ladies that worked together in those days to tell the things that were done to them by self important people.
Occasionally, when referring to something particuarly egregious that was done to one of the OTHER team members, they will tell you what really happened. They won't defend themselves, but they will tell the truth when one of their friends is attacked and accused of some nefarious motive.
Now, anyone who knows Beth(my wife) knows she is a person who keeps her mouth shut and who from her heart refuses to judge the motives of other people. (Sometimes that drives me crazy, cause I'm so far behind and below her in that area of obedience to Jesus. She won't agree that I have true and deep insight into the reason someone has pulled some un-Christ-like stunt and that gives me the right to tell others what those motives are.)
A few years ago, I learned that someone accused Donice of being evil. I told Beth what was said about Donice. WHOOOWEEEE! I can't recall all the things Beth said and probably wouldn't put them in here if I could. But I remember the tone. I assure you, it was right and based on her firsthand knowledge of Donice's character. She did say, in short, that if you can know Donice, and still call her evil, you probably do not know Christ yourself and are attributing/projecting YOUR character and motives to her.
Donice is one of the greatest Christian women I have ever known. She is a woman of prayer and compassion. I would rather have her praying for me when I am in trouble than any of the folks you see and hear about in books or on tv. Why? God made it that way. You can pray with real compassion for those you know and love.
She is a woman of fun and humor and faith and she is one of the great friends of our lives.
How could we ever say we are not RICH, when God has placed friends like her and Jamie in our lives. Isn't amazing how that characteristics that anyone would call "good," are found first and in the greatest abundance in Jesus? Donice is, in so many ways, like Jesus. She has a sweetness and a goodness about her that was in her Mother and in her Father and before that was in their Creator and Lord.
She is also a great worshipper. She plays the piano and sings and just leaves the planet and gets lost in the spirit. She was that way before the revival that we all experienced in 1994 and after that it only increased in power and effectiveness. I think that right now, if you were to put a piano in front of her, you would be amazed at the anointing and the presence of God that accompanies her worship. One thing I know for sure. If she worships, and the presence of God, the mighty Holy Spirit of God, comes into the room, there is no limit to what God can accomp;ish in the lives of those who are participating.
Now, Jamie is just as good of a friend as Donice is, and Jamie is like Jesus in other ways. As in the case of Beth and I, one of the best things that can ever be said of Jamie, is that Donice saw something valuable and good in his heart and fell in love with him. Jamie is a walking miracle. I have known so very few people who have been exposed to the levels of strife and disobedience in people he should have been able to trust, i.e. his early church relationships, etc, and still be walking with Jesus after all these years. He still loves Jesus. He is a giver to missions and to outreaches and to his friends. He still brings forth fruit that is consistent with being a child of God.
As a young man growing up in a church in Bay City, he witnessed a fist fight behind the pulpit, as an "elder" tried to force the pastor out of the pulpit. He was raised around constant backbiting and distrust of anyone and everyone except their little group and then saw the evil that this produces, and saw it very close to him.
When he was in high school, he dedicated his life to Christ anew, and started going to early morning prayer with his pastor, who then had an affair in the church.
Still he loved Jesus.
Later he met Donice and he discovered that there really are some people who have a pure heart and who follow God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. He found as so many of us have, that it is not always the famous and the known leaders, who get paid for their ministry that are the greatest example of a what a follower of Jesus looks like. Often it is the folks who don't get paid that are the "saints." ( He saw real Christian living in Donice's father and mother, and Jamie is living for God today in a real and special way.)
Jamie is our mechanic and he is a good one. He has had to be good to keep our cars going. He gives good advice, he works hard.
We have spent so much money with him that he keeps promising to dedicate the new wing of the shop he will to us... "The Strickland' Family Pavillion is dedicated "to people who would rather fix their old cars than to pay for a new one! YEA!!!!!
Jamie and Donice are for real. They are our great friends, and I am better for having known them. It really makes me thankful.