SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Recently, the pianist for our church celebrated her 40th anniversary as pianist. The church as a whole celebrated with her. We gave her gifts, and then, after the morning worship service, we held a luncheon for her.
One of the gentlemen in our congregation had a bunch of pictures from past church events printed up and put around on a table. The picture below was one of them. It was taken in about 2004 and includes Fred, myself, and a sweet friend, Lynn Latham.
There is a story behind this friendship: When we lived in Virginia, Fred was Chairman of the Personnel Committee with the Peninsula Baptist Association (PBA), which is a network of all the Baptist churches in the area that cooperate together, as Southern Baptist churches do. Lynn Latham was part of the PBA staff, but I’m not sure just what her title and expertise was there. Fred, being involved with the PBA, knew Lynn fairly well.
We moved to Florida in late 1995, and I became the church secretary in September 1996. I was in that position until 2008. During that time, I dealt with our local Baptist association, known as GOBA – Greater Orlando Baptist Association.
So imagine my surprise one day at work to see the name Lynn Latham in the GOBA flyer that we get every month! I called the GOBA office and spoke with the secretary, asking if Lynn had been with the PBA in Virginia. Yes, she had been. WOW!
So I spoke with Lynn, and gave her our home phone number (Fred wasn’t working at the church at that time), and told her to give Fred a call.
He was beside himself when she called and told him who was calling! They had a very nice conversation.
Lynn and I became more acquainted through the years I was church secretary. She had a heart as big-as-all-outdoors. I’m not totally sure what all she did at GOBA, other than being the Director of Community Relations, and working with the Orlando Union Rescue Mission. But I also remember she worked a lot with the “working girls.” We had a luncheon one day at our church with some of those ladies that Lynn worked with. They had left that life; some went to school, but all were all dressed well, and looking for honest work. All that was Lynn’s influence. She was a jewel!
We learned, quite incidentally in a conversation, a few years ago that Lynn had died. I believe it was from an inherited disease. It was difficult to get past that, for us. Although we weren’t that close – and Orlando is a big city – it still hurt that we didn’t know of her death. She never married, and didn’t live close to her parents.
But in spite of all that, we know she accomplished on earth what the Lord wanted her to accomplish, and is now rejoicing with Him in Heaven. And we’ll get to see her again, when we join her in Heaven, ourselves.
Until that day…..We Miss You, Sweet Friend!
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 
Soft and lovely post.
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