Promise Keepers

It's Monday night, and usually right now I'd be sitting down at our church with the men of the Promise Keepers. Since I'm not, it seemed only fitting to talk about them.

I've probably talked about PK numerous times in the past, but it seems right to give a brief overview. PK at Wesley started in the summer of 2000. Phil Disney was wanting to start a men's Bible study based on the PK model. There were four of us who took him up on the offer back then--Richard Ruble, Dick Kleypas, Clarence Hesselrode and myself.

We met at Phil's house every Monday night at 8:00 pm. The TV might have Monday Night Football on occasionally, but mostly we'd sit around the kitchen and talk about things before heading into the den to have our devotional and study.

Then, after a couple of years, we were able to see faith in action when Phil unjustly lost his job. Instead of worrying on how things were going to pan out, where the money was coming from, he simply trusted that God had a plan for him. He interviewed a few places in the area, but nothing happened.

His faith was justified, however, when he received a job offer in Kentucky, his home state. Not only was he going back to his roots, but Owensboro was right between his son and his daughter, both of whom were married and had just had grandkids.

Needless to say we were very happy for him, but that meant we lost him (and our meeting spot!). We moved down to the church and, for a while, we were just four. After a preacher change, the new pastor would come occasionally, but he too moved on.

Clarence works in Clarksville, which is 20 minutes away, and lives even farther away than that. There were times he wouldn't make it in, which became more frequent as the processing job he holds started having him come in at three and four in the morning.

Most weeks we'd meet, though some we wouldn't if we knew it was only going to be two of us. We seemed to be in a rut membership-wise, even though we tried numerous things to get others to join us.

Then, one evening, a guy none of us knew showed up. We didn't know what to make of a complete stranger sitting in with us, but we welcomed him in. Turned out he actually was a member of the church, though he hadn't been attending for a long while.

Darren wasn't like the rest of us, which made for some great new blood in the group. His background was one where he came to God late, but he was determined to make up for lost time. He brought a passion and unique viewpoint to the group, which always meant we'd have good discussions if nothing else.

With a solid four people meeting, our weeks off became fewer and fewer. Occasionally it was still just two of us, but not often. Darren and I would sit down there waiting and talking, or Richard and I might chat a while before giving up for the evening.

The Lord had plans for Darren, though, and they weren't around Russellville. Earlier this year he moved off to Georgia, where he's involved with a ministry spreading the word among homeless people in the Atlanta area. Again, we were glad for him and knew he had to go, but hated to see him take off.

With it back down to the three of us, the group was still good and a highlight of the week, but meetings were a little more tentative. Richard was supposed to have knee and hip surgery at the beginning of December, though that got postponed until the beginning of January. Dick was going to England for Christmas, since his wife is from there, and left a week earlier than expected due to the death of his wife's brother-in-law from cancer. With him being gone a month and Richard then being out of commission, we decided to skip December and get back to meeting in the middle of January.

So it's very strange not being out on a Monday night. It doesn't seem like things are going as scheduled when I don't get down to the church and enjoy the fellowship. So that's one of the few reasons I'm looking forward to the middle of January, to get back into that embrace!