and Swift Current Salvation Army, Wednesday January 14, 2015
Ray was a big part of The Salvation Army in Swift Current. We heard Romans 10:13 and John 3:16 read to us today. These were certainly two of Ray’s favourite Scriptures. Seemingly every Sunday Ray used to read John 3:16 out loud in church. I don’t think that I will ever hear that verse again and not think of Ray. Ray would pray with us regularly and Ray would also often read from Daily Bread or other such devotionals. He would find a good page in the Daily Bread and then he would go from office to office having each of us in turn read it aloud. As I was figuring out what I was going to say today to honour the work of the Lord in Ray’s life, I naturally turned to the Daily Bread and when I looked at the Scripture for today’s date – January 10 – providentially, do you know what it is? John 3:16 and 1-8. If that isn’t God saying loud and clear to Ray for our benefit, “Well done my good and faithful servant”, than I don’t know what is? Ray would often ask me to read the Daily Bread or other Scripture books out loud. Let me do this today one last time for our friend Ray today.
- Read Daily Bread for January 10, 2014 -
Ray knew this and lived this out in his life. He loved God and he wanted absolutely no one to perish. Ray would always pray for the salvation and peace of his daughter and his all of his family. It was so important that everyone he knew and loved, knew and loved Jesus.
I remember once Ray and I and some friends attended a Salvation Army men’s camp with people from all over the prairies. And it was very important for Ray that everyone knew Jesus, so he would frequently approach people and ask them to read the Daily Bread and he would ask them if they knew Jesus. One day, the person who was in charge of the whole Salvation Army on the Prairies, Major Bungay, my boss at the time; One day Major Bungay, who is the head of all these Salvation Army pastors; one Sunday, Major Bungay was going to preach to all of us men and Ray, before Major Bungay spoke; Ray has to speak to him; Ray needs to talk to him. So I interrupt my boss as he is getting ready to preach to all of these people and Ray asks Major Bungay if Major Bungay, in effect, ‘do you know Jesus?’ He asks Major Bungay to read from the Daily Bread and to pray with him because Ray just wanted to make sure that my boss, the head Salvation Army pastor for the whole division really knew Jesus. I was stunned for a moment. Major Bungay did read the devotional in front of everyone and he said the prayer. In talking to my boss afterwards I think Major Bungay had the impression that Ray wanted him to read all of this out because he thought that Ray couldn’t read. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that no, he just wanted to make sure you knew Jesus.
Ray did so much around The Salvation Army over the years. He was regularly the first one to church on Sunday. Sometimes I would pull up to the church at 7:30am and Ray was already waiting outside and Church didn’t start until 10:30. He would always put the coffee on and in gardening season he would always water the flowers in the garden. That was his job and he took it seriously. Ray would tell me they needed to be watered regularly and the water needed to be just the right temperature and everything else. Ray took care of those flowers.
This past Sunday was our first Sunday without Ray. It was tough. When I called for the ushers to come forward it was difficult not seeing Ray coming to the front. And during prayer time I kept half expecting him to appear and read John 3:16 for us one last time.
John 3:16 and Romans 10:13 were so important to Ray: Ray invited us make to cards with these written on them and then Ray would hand them out to everyone he met and every few days he would be back up at the Army asking Judy, our receptionist and his friend, to please print our more cards for him to hand out to everyone he met; so today, I asked Judy, our receptionist and our friend to make these cards for us for one last time so that we could hand them out to everyone here whom he loves.
Now for those here who do serve the Lord as Ray did, today can actually be a time of celebration because Jesus has won the victory so that we each have the opportunity to be with Him forever. Ray was a faithful soldier in The Salvation Army and in The Salvation Army we have a phrase for when a loved one passes on and that phrase is a ‘promotion to glory’ and promotions are good things aren’t they? And I am as sure of Ray’s promotion as I am of anyone’s because Ray indeed celebrated the fact that he really did have a friend in Jesus.
