“Good Folks” Revisited
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” Rev. 14:13
Some months back, I did a series of blogs on the good folks in my life. One of these was a man who used to be an elder in the Corning Church of Christ……….for many years, in fact. His name is Troy Jackson. You may remember that I spoke about him.
He was a County Extension Agent (I think that was the title, anyway), and he and his wife, Elgie, ran a country grocery store located in front of their house, smack dab in the middle of the Corning Y where Highways 62 and 135 meet up. From the time I was around 13, we lived about a mile from there.
Troy and Elgie were great influences in my life. Sometimes I would ride to church with them, when Mom wasn’t going for some reason. He taught classes, and she did, too, and he did a lot of preaching around the area. In fact, he “preached” my mother’s funeral and was one of the two elders who baptized my brother, Denzil, years ago.
Through the years, since moving away from Corning, when something really troubling arose, especially in relation to church matters, I would call and discuss it with him. He was always knowledgeable and always willing to share with me. And he always made me feel (and Elgie did, too) that he believed in me.
Troy was amazing with a passage of Scripture. He could stand in a pulpit or in front of a class and quote, I think, CHAPTERS verbatim. He was a kind and good man. Elgie passed away quite a few years ago, and in recent years, he had lived either with or near his daughters.
One of the other long-time elders from the Corning church has a daughter who is one of my Facebook friends. Recently, I thought to ask about her dad and also asked if she had any information about how Troy was doing. She responded, and I saw the reply just today, that Troy has moved on to his heavenly home some two weeks ago.
I am saddened on the one hand but so happy that he was a formative part of my life. Heaven is a little dearer now that he is there, reunited with his Elgie. May God give him rest from his labors.
TODAY’S SMILES:
- Looking out the window at 6:30 a.m. My mouth dropped open at the unexpected, beautiful snow outside.
- Fat Bird is back.
- Phil is cooking for us again tonight.
- Saw a car going down the street a while ago with a snowman perched on top of it!
- Remembering one of Troy’s smiles. A man used to come in the store and talk about rabbit and/or squirrel hunting. Troy would laugh at him for saying, “you just have to barely kill him.”
See you tomorrow. And may God bless.
Judy Poyner
February 9th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Our little world is always enriched by such people. I’ve had a few in my world. I hope I’ve been one of those persons in someone else’s world.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Greg, my friend, you have been in mine!
February 10th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I too have had those precious people in my life. I often wonder if they know the difference they make. I hope so, I know God knows.
I agree with you about Greg, he is so wonderfully faithful about leaving comments on our blogs and he has become a very dear friend.