Encouragement

Working with the Shelby and Kim Cooper family in ministering to individuals and families who have suffered tragic loss, we wish to help those families come to grips with their loss and to be encouragers.

Steve Owens is a Heisman Trophy winner as a running back for the University of Oklahoma some years back.  He went on to have a successful NFL career.  There came a day when Steve and two other Heisman winners came to Enid, Oklahoma.  A friend of mine knew that Steve had lost a son due to suicide.  My friend approached Steve about calling me as my daughter, Tracy, had died recently due to an issue with pain medication.  Steve did call and left a message on our voice mail at the church where I pastored.  It was a long time before I could even erase it.  I just couldn’t believe it!

Then later, Steve returned to Enid with the fellow football stars once again.  I attended and approached Steve and he made time to speak words of encouragement to me.  As he spoke with me, the one thing that has stayed with me that he said was, “remember the good times and dwell on that.”  That was a great help for me!

The Cooper Family through this ministry want you to know that we are reaching out to you in love.  Perhaps those we reach out to with this website can become a mutual encouragement and support fellowship.

Shelby and I had a mutual hero in Dr. W.A. Criswell who was pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas for some fifty years.  I read this morning the following by Dr. Criswell.  He shared that when Sir Walter Scott was a lad, that he struggled with his lessons, thus he was very discouraged.  Sir Walter Scott would later share that he would one day sit down beside Bobby Burns who was known as Scotland’s sweetest singer.  Burns read to him some of his poetry.  Criswell wrote, “Burns put his hands on the head of the boy (Sir Walter Scott) and encouraged him.  Sir Walter Scott said he went back home and wept for joy.  There was a marvelous change in his life because of that one word of encouragement”.

Gypsy Smith became one of the great evangelists of his day.  As a youngster, he went to hear the great Dwight L. Moody preach and to hear the songwriter Ira Sankey sing.  Before leaving, Gypsy approached Ira Sankey.  Sankey talked to the young boy, and touched by God, Sankey said, “Someday God will make of you a great preacher.”  Criswell went on to state that “It was just the warmth of a hand.  It was just a smile – kind, tenderhearted, sympathetic.  But that kindness changed Gypsy Smith’s life.”

Let me share this benediction from the Epistle of Jude .  May it lift us up and move us forward.  Jude 24-25 (KJV) “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

As we reach out to you in this time of sorrow, hurt and tremendous pain, we extend our hands of friendship and understanding to you in this moment.   We can move forward with the help of Jesus and others around us who understand what we are going through.  Take a moment to reach out and encourage others.