Blessed Christmas 2023!

Cathy and I are pleased to send you our love as we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. 

2023 was our first year of retirement as a couple and we have been quite busy. In *review:

• We became members of First Baptist Church of Port Orchard WA, where our first born and his family are members.
• Following Cathy’s birthday on March 14, we took a three month “road trip” in our 1995 motorhome from March 15 to June 10, traveling over 10,000 miles, visiting family and friends, passing through over half of the states and part of Canada, visiting historical sites and natural wonders, and relaxing while camping and cruising. We experienced every kind of weather from heavy snow to energy-sapping heat and peaceful calm to extreme winds while driving past wild fires and tornado damage. No regrets whatsoever except that we wish we could have seen more friends and family.
• We gave our vegetable garden a sabbatical but will go at it again in 2024.
• We returned briefly to Oklahoma in July to attend the funeral and memorial service of our dear friend, Pastor David Young, with whom I served for 22 ½ years.
• In September we took our fourth cruise to Alaska and met wonderful new friends when we attended the worship service at White Cliff Church (formerly FBC) in Ketchikan.
• Also in September, we attended the Northwest Baptist Convention’s “Life Enrichment Conference” in Cannon Beach OR. We will be going again in 2024!
• I turned 71 in October. I still have most of my teeth and will be getting a new (replacement) one in January.
• In December we took another trip across the country to attend a very special occasion for one of our kids. More on that in the family update.

*Each of these events could easily be a long chapter in a book of how God has blessed our lives. There simply isn’t room to mention all the wonderful people we had the privilege to see and visit and who treated us like royalty, nor describe the experiences we had such as all we did to celebrate our 49^th anniversary at Niagara Falls.

Updates on the family—

Mom is 94 and doing well. She still lives in her own home in Eugene OR and still drives her own car, although less frequently. She misses Dad but is at peace knowing he is in heaven and that she will join him someday. We are not ready for her to make that journey, yet, and are so grateful for my niece, René who stays with her each night.

All three offspring and their families are in the same places we left them in last year’s letter.

• Aaron is still working for the government at the shipyard in Bremerton. He, Denise, Sélah, and Emma still live in the same house here in Port Orchard but Jada is no longer their foster daughter/sister because on September 19 her adoption became official! To put it in its proper perspective, Cathy and I have our eighth grandchild.
• Alison does something with cryptocurrency and is, apparently, fairly good at it. She, Shane, Cecilia, and Avery are still in Eureka CA but Dr. Shane Calhoun will have finished working in the California State University system at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (formerly Humboldt State) by the end of December and will be growing his private counseling practice.
• David continues as the “Executive Pastor of Discipleship” at Graceland Church in New Albany IN. Earlier in December, we joined him, Jordan, Levi, Maelie, and Hank in Wake Forest NC as David was hooded, receiving his EdD (Doctorate in Education) from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, concluding five years of academic work. We are very proud of his accomplishment as well as all the extra work Jordan has done while David was studying and traveling for school.

Now that we are both retired, Cathy and I are “relaxing” by trying to learn how to operate our toys. Cathy has Cricut and Silhouette machines that are supposed to make letters, designs, and stuff. I think they are best at making her frustrated. For my birthday, Cathy gave me a laser engraver and, so far, I have learned how to fill a room with smoke and make wooden objects that may or may not resemble Christmas ornaments. I also now have a box of very dry and expensive kindling for whenever we want to cook some s’mores.
Additionally, I have been given the opportunity to write the “Group Plans” (teaching plans) to go along with three months of adult Bible study for next winter. I am already behind.

In the near future—
We are looking forward to taking our first trip to Hawaii in March, paying off the car right after observing our 50^th anniversary in May, and this coming October we plan to console ourselves regarding this aging thing by attending our 50 year class reunion at Oklahoma Baptist University. It will be our first in many years. Surely we will feel better after seeing how old everyone else is.

Please, know that you are in our prayers! If there is anything in particular you would like us praying about, just send us an email, text message, or one of those snail mail things.

In His love, 

Jim and Cathy

Pastors, let’s be more like David

As the sun began to rise on Sunday morning, February 19, 2023, David B. Young, was sleeping. When he finally opened his eyes, he was face to face with Jesus and was, finally and ultimately, declared “cancer free.”

David’s only pastorate in the NWBC was when he served as pastor of Trinity Baptist Church of Lakewood, WA from September 1983 through November 2011. However, his impact reached far beyond his beloved congregation. While coming to the Northwest greatly benefited David by helping him develop a real sense of humor, his contributions to us were many. But those who knew him well seem to always bring up one strength that he passed on to so many of us, including me as we served together at Trinity for 22 1/2 years.

There is one statement pastors make that can discourage those who serve with them. Those people know from past experience that it does not really mean what it literally says. The statement is often made after a person voices a suggestion or concern to the pastor. The state given in response is, “Let’s pray about that.” It is church speak for “I don’t want to come off rude but I’m not going to deal with this, at least not at this time.” I will never forget what happened when David Young came to Trinity Baptist Church and I expressed a concern to him. He stopped, he listened, and he said, “Let’s pray about that.”

“Oh great,” I thought, “I’m being put off again.” Then, before I even had time to finish that thought, David’s arm was around my shoulders and he was praying… out loud… sincerely and passionately… for a long time. This scenario would repeat itself over and over again with me and everyone else who ever expressed a concern, an idea, or just needed advice. It did not even matter if it was in the middle of a worship service or a worship song that I was leading. Too bad. It had just turned into a prayer time.

When David came to Trinity, he was besieged by members who shared serious needs and concerns, for themselves and for the congregation as a whole. There were debts that had been unpaid. There were problems with the building. There were personal problems. Everything was dumped on David’s shoulders. A year or so later, most of those problems were gone. The members were amazed and grateful. One day, when David he was out of town, I was leading prayer meeting and folks were praising God for all the problems that had been solved. They were thanking God for sending a pastor who had such insight and problem-solving skills. I asked if they wanted to know how David had managed to fix everything in such a short time. They enthusiastically said, “Yes!” So, I told them. 

“We have a staff meeting every week in his office or mine and nothing interferes with it. We each have a legal pad and begin to name and write down everything and everyone that is messed up. It is common for us to fill up at least two full legal-size sheets of paper. When we can’t think of anything else, we get up, turn around, kneel, and begin systematically praying through our lists, adding anything else that comes to mind as we pray. An hour or so later—we never keep track of time—when we are done, we get up, smile, give each other a hug, find out what the other guy is working on, and get back to whatever we were doing before staff meeting. That’s all we’ve ever done. David has never tried to solve a single problem. God has done it all as we have prayed.”

Those staff meetings went the same way for 22 1/2 years. We never solved anything. We just prayed.

I thank God for the extreme privilege of serving with David all those years. My heart rejoices that he is in the presence of Jesus forever and my heart hurts for his dear wife and partner, Marsha, as well as their kids and grandkids. It is a lonely life for them without this great man of God. May God carry them and give them great joy as they continue.

You can read a post about David’s passing, written primarily by their daughter, Christy, here: https://www.facebook.com/christalyn.sotelo/posts/pfbid02zGjEpFpKx5JeugYjt3CfAqrWe2yvBHx5CnMFNaDCxzRD2zHAYytCVrtakaTpuyR2l?comment_id=757231495954186&notif_id=1676930686106523&notif_t=mentions_comment&ref=notif