A Modern-Day Saint

Cortez Cooper, Jr... a life well-lived. He died today and my heart is heavy for his family. Though he knew exactly where he was going and is now seeing Jesus face to face, the ones left behind have hard goodbyes to say. Corty was a pastor to thousands over his illustrious career, a devoted husband to Pat for 56 years, and was my girlfriend's father. Corty baptized my first two children in 1983 on the stage of Hillsboro High School, the meeting place for the newly formed Christ Presbyterian Church. Then nearly a quarter of a century later, he baptized my first grandchild. He was interim pastor at Chapelgate Presbyterian Church in Maryland where my daughter and her family attended. After the service, he and Pat joined our family at my daughter's home for lunch, and he entertained all of us that glorious afternoon with one joke after another.  We laughed until our sides ached. Simply put, he was larger than life. I will never forget this precious man. He did not know a stranger. I look forward to laughing again with him one day in Heaven.

Three Cheers For The Red, White, and Blue

Do you have a Bucket List? I have not developed mine but if I had, meeting this man would have been one of those items. Ten years ago just after 911, I agreed to send a package to "Any Soldier" through a ministry of the church in Nashville, TN. To my amazement, the recipient of my package wrote me back in the form of a hand-written letter. This began a penpal friendship between us. Sometimes hand-written letters, sometimes email, we communicated with each other about our families, his prayer needs, prayer needs of his men, etc. Lt. Cmdr. Mark "Mutha" Hubbard was flying off the USS Constellation in the Middle East and was in charge of a number of other pilots in his squadron. After his deployment he went to Rhode Island to War College and we lost track of each other when he left there. Fast forward to Sept. 28, 2011. In a conversation with friends of 33 years who live in CA, I discovered that these friends, too, knew my long-lost friend, Mark Hubbard. The next day I was able to share coffee with now Capt. Mark Hubbard who has served in the US Navy for 27 years. He is the Flight Wing Commander over all pilots at NAS Lemoore, CA, the very air station where my husband and I spent our early married days together in 1978. Meeting Ronald Reagan or either President Bush would not have thrilled me more, especially since I had a prior relationship with Capt. Hubbard. What a precious gift from God! How many people have we all prayed for in our lives that we never met or saw fruits of those prayers. Yet, we still pray on the behalf of others because we are instructed to do so from God's Word. If that is not enough of a thrill, this godly man may actually be in Nashville this winter where my husband and I could minister to him in our own home. There just are no words except to thank my Lord and Savior for this most incredible moment.

Trying Times With Technology

I like alliteration. I don't like fixing computer issues. I have had many readers tell me that they were unable to post comments on my blog, so with a little encouragement from an unlikely new friend, I have taken the bull by the horns and gone to the folks at blogger.com for a help session. I have changed a few settings which I hope will help you if you are trying to comment on this blog. Hope to hear from you soon!