Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Keep Leading Us Robynn, We Will Follow

I needed to be reminded of the good in people today, so I am going to share a story about Robynn. I had heard talk about a homeless man that Robynn actively served, but I did not know the extent until after Robynn passed. What inspired me to ask was the signature left in her guest book "Ede Kume". At Robynn's service in West Sac a man that obviously was homeless wandered into the church. He observed the crowd and was greeted by Quin Harker who let him know we were holding a memorial for Robynn. He walked over to Robynn's guest book and signed his name and a smuged imprint of his palm was left on the the white paper as well. I stared at that page and my heart filled with joy. It was just so fitting that he was drawn to her like the rest of us. Robynn would be so tickled.
The man at the church was not the same homeless man that Robynn looked out for. His name was Johnny and here's his story in Brian's words;

He was a homelss man from Thailand. We first met him when we moved to West Sacramento and were getting our Mail service set up. I guess he would hang out in front of the post office regularly as we saw him there every time we went. He never asked us for anything but would always say hi to Robynn, myself and the kids. As a family we really took a liking to him. Some of the times we saw him, we would give him money, others we would take him across the street to Raley's to buy him groceries that he would store in the rolling suitcase we gave him. Sometimes it would be the kids going through the house to pick out things we could take to him (jackets and blankets in the winter and t-shirts & shorts in summer) and other times, just talk to him about the bible, where he was from, how he ended up here, and what he liked. He was a very interesting man with multiple stories, but what stuck most with the kids was his love for Hickory Smoked Jerky. The kids told Robynn about his favorite treat and from then on Robynn always kept a bag or 2 of it in her car just in case she saw him. We actually haven't seen him for about a year now but Robynn still kept the Jerky in her car just in case.

I have an overture playing in my head..."They will know we are Christains by our love,by our love..."

Pray on!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is one thing that Robynn shared with all was her love. What a loving person and a loving family. It is a rare and special moment when someone reaches out to others, and this is unfortunate. But this is a true testament to the way that Robynn lived her life. Remember the questions that she asked "What was the best part of your day today?" and "What did you do to make someone’s day better?" If this is the way you live your life the answer to the first question through your acts will become the same as the answer to the second question. May we carry on with this as stated before.
I also have a prayer request my father- in-law Larry was diagnosed in May of 2007 with stage IV Colon cancer and after Chemo went into remission. He has since had to return to his chemo treatments and although it is working he meets this week with the Dr.s about the use of the cyber knife on his liver to remove some spots that when this thing started where considered inoperable. Please keep him in your prayers.

Lois said...

That is a beautiful story..!! Please keep them coming. I love hearing about all the special things Robynn did to "make someone's day better"...

I think of all of you every day.

With love,
Lois

Anonymous said...

The Goodell's just keeping that Jerky ready for Johnny speaks volumes.

Let's all pray for Larry