David Drake, pastor of First Baptist Church McCaysville/Copperhill, Georgia, and his wife, Marilyn, had a unique way of celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Rather than taking a trip to some exotic place and enjoying life on an extended vacation, they decided to do something special each month during the year of their golden anniversary.
According to Drake, the most meaningful event during the 50th year of their marriage was a trip to Mesquite, Texas, where they met with a group of Christians who had been in their student ministry 45 years ago.
The Drakes had been married for two years when they left their home in Rome, Georgia, for Dallas, Texas, where David enrolled in Criswell College to prepare for the ministry.
Following his graduation from Criswell College, the aspiring young preacher enrolled in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Drake explained, “It was during that time that I was asked to serve as the youth minister at the Town East Baptist Church in Mesquite.
Family
For more than three years both David and Marilyn poured their lives into their ministry to the students at the Mesquite church. In the process of teaching, equipping, encouraging and loving those students they developed a family of teenagers that produced remarkable results.
To effectually orchestrate the reunion, four of the individuals who were in the Drakes’ youth ministry from the late 1970s took the initiative to locate those who were in the student ministry in those days, the names and addresses of those who were involved in those days were compiled, an invitation for a TEBC Youth Ministry reunion was crafted, and the reconnection process began.
Drake commented, “Although many of those who were in our group lived many miles away and others had previous engagements, there were 15 of those who had been in our youth ministry, and their spouses, who came to the reunion. A couple in their 80s, Don and Shirley, who were parent figures to the youth when I was there also came to the reunion.
“All of those who were in our ministry are married with children now and many of them have grandchildren. The last time I saw them they were dealing with typical teenage problems: dating issues, the challenge of passing chemistry, and just trying to establish their identity. Now, 46 years later they are dealing with college tuition for their children, planning their retirement, and trying to keep up with their grandchildren’s soccer schedules.”
“When I was their youth minister,” Drake added, “I tried to impress upon them my life Bible verse: “So he (David) fed them (Israel) according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (Psalm 78:72).
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by J. Gerald Harris and originally published by the Christian Index.
