Thursday, October 27, 2011

Gary Rowe's Funeral Service

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011
Calling Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Service Time: starting at 6:30 pm
Location:

6049 East 91st Street
Indianapolis, IN 46250-1398

(317) 849-1261

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Saying Goodbye to a Friend Starting the Ultimate Journey


And Another Thing . . . (Sam’s Blog regarding Gary Rowe)

Everybody each and all,
We’re gonna die eventually,
It’s no more or less our fault,
...
Than it is our destiny. –Rich Mullins, Be With You

I read those words, the whole song actually, to close Rich Mullins’ funeral service. Gary Rowe was standing next to me as I read them from a page that was getting blurry from the moisture in my eyes. We did the funeral service together, as we had done many things together, both before Rich’s funeral and since. He was my friend. We met in college and traveled with Rich Mullins in a ministry called Zion. Gary and I were the on Retreat team. Rich listened to me sing and then promptly invited me to teach.

We traveled together in an old (read OLD) copper colored Ford van that had wobbly steering and was fueled more by foolishness and prayer than it was by gasoline. We should not have driven it across town, let alone across the country. The people in that van, have remained a constant in my life ever since. Sunday night, Zion and company was gathered around the bed of one our stalwarts, Gary Rowe. We sang. Told stories on each other. Laughed. Prayed. Read scripture. Sang hymns. Sang songs Rich wrote. Cried. Hugged. Prayed some more. We gathered with his family and dear friends from church and watched our friend move on.

It was hard.

It was also glorious.

This is the part where I tell you how important faith is.

It is really important.

Gary’s faith sustained him all the way home. Watching a friend who loves God die can be an amazing argument for faith. I could see Gary’s faith become sight. I could tell that the things “not seen” were becoming visible (1 Cor 13:12). That, as the old hymn puts it, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” I believe that Jesus is real and that Gary is with him. I believe he saw him, and is seeing him, and will be with him forever. I believe that it is important for each of us to know that we are living in the shadowlands (as C.S. Lewis puts it), and that one day we will see beyond the shadows to a reality that is the source of all we long for. I believe that Jesus loves each of us so much that he went to extraordinary measures to make sure that when we face that day, we will be ready. That was certainly the case for Gary.

At one point towards the end, I heard him say “Rich!” I knew that all of us from the copper van days were together again for a moment, and that there would be a day when we would all be together forever. Jesus makes this so. Just as he makes everything so.

So Psalm 71:18 is very important. “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.”

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now