Welcome Home, Ralph

This is why you should never give up.

Ralph Mitchell taught Sunday school to elementary aged children and led Royal Rangers (A/G Boy Scouts) at our church for the past two and a half decades.  That was after he had been involved in ministry elsewhere, and after he started coming to our church, and after he was already retired.  Ralph was short, feisty, funny, and sincere.  He loved NASCAR and was retired from the Navy.  Ralph's body gave out and he left us to be with the Lord last week.  He was 80.

When all of us around here stopped and thought about all the kids Ralph had influenced over the past many years, it kind of blew us away.  He was the favorite teacher of so many children, including my own.  At the funeral, my senior in high school cried, and so did the 14 year old, the 13 year old and the 9 year old.  Oh, and me, the 42 year old.

Ralph was the guy who wouldn't give up in his service to the church.  People find a lot of reasons to teach Sunday school for just a quarter, or back out on a commitment to children's church, or beg off coming to the prayer meeting, or whatever.  It's nice to have guys (and gals) like Ralph around. 

Ralph's longevity in our local body gave him a far reaching influence.  No flash in the pan was he.  He probably wouldn't have won any awards for his methods, and he was not a perfect man, but he was faithful, and that counts for a lot.  It's hard telling how many little ones he told about Jesus over the years, but he was still doing it just a couple weeks before he died.  That's how I wanna do it.  Right up to the end.

Welcome home, Ralph.