Tuesday, November 15, 2005

All Saints' Day: Larry Saunders

Jonathon Norman and Gavin Richardson listed saints that were influential in their lives a while back for All Saints' Day. I'm late to the game, but the saint who has influenced me the most is Rev. Larry Saunders of the North Indiana Conference. Sorry, but there's no picture available in a format that will load on Blogger or my webpage.

Larry and I went to college together. We met early in our freshman year due to a scheduling error at our mutual employer. He was heading into the ordained ministry and eventually went to Princeton. But for now, he was my friend.

We had good times together, whether it was watching Star Trek: Voyager on Saturday nights, giving dramatic readings from trigonometric tables, or smoking a waterpipe in public on Parents' Weekend while pretending to be stoned.

I was not a Christian at that time and my observations of those people who identified themselves this way were not favorable...except for Larry. He was a faithful witness who was my friend.

Larry has a staggering intellect, but is a simple Christian with a pure and simple faith who grew up in the cornfields of West Lafayette. Right now, he's pastoring in DeMotte, and I greatly envy his parishoners.

2 comments:

Jonathon said...

give thanks for friends who can show us god's love and humor in such a real way. thanks for sharing that john.

shalom,
jonathon

gavin richardson said...

excellent share john. i could only imagine what it would look like to see two trig trekkies acting stoned. i'm sure i'd have some commentary during the laughter.

my living saint would be the now retired pastor who came into my church in nj after i graduated hs. i too had a large transformation into Christian leadership after this time which he helped guide and support me through. i still call him my pastor, event though i haven't talked to him in a year plus.