Funeral Services for Elder & Sis Fordham

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so here [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] please rise as our family proceeds in [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] bruce [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] things [Music] [Music] easy [Music] so [Music] so [Music] when the saints that's when the king of kings will come in when the saints go up in praise that's when the spirit should inhabit this [Music] and begin to bless [Music] who [Music] of glory shall come [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're strong mighty [Applause] [Music] who is mighty [Music] we will [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you [Music] is the king and you're invited to call me [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign see me through [Music] me over [Music] hallelujah [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] for this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] i'm going to ask you to stand for the reading of god's word psalms 15 from the passion translation lord who dares to dwell with you who presumes the privilege of being close to you living next to you in your shining place of glory who are those who daily dwell in the life of the holy spirit they are passionate and wholehearted always sincere in always speaking the truth for their hearts are trustworthy they refuse to slander or insult others they'll never listen to gossip or rumors nor would they ever harm another with their words they will speak out passionately against evil and evil workers while commending the faithful ones who follow after the truth they make firm commitments and follow through even at great cost they never crush others with exploitation or abuse they would never be bought with a bribe against the innocent they will never be shaken they will stand firm forever [Music] shall we bow our at this heads our father and our god [Music] july 18th [Music] will go down as a day of infamy for this family that now sits on the water's bench personally for the allied east conference [Music] collectively we stand [Music] between the emotional crucifixion of that day and the knowledge that there is a better day coming [Music] and our prayer is a simple one that in between the numbness the tragedy of that event 21 days ago [Music] and the assurity that we know that our lord shall descent the shout and the voice of the archangel that in between that time that your promises will catch up with our pain [Music] surpass our numbness [Music] overtake the gravity of our laws that the wise [Music] be smothered by that hope that is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness and when noon time for this family feels like midnight buffer them with the assurance of a better day that will shine through with light into our darkness and remind them of the power that your word still works [Music] this family has lost [Music] a great grandmother and a great grandfather a grandmother and a grandfather a mother and a father the elegant east conference has lost its spiritual leader [Music] and his first lady [Music] we've lost a friend and colleague and brother [Music] and even though an enemy has done this help us to remember through the service and beyond that when we know you the worst things can never be the last things [Music] and while we are asked to journey on between our past tragedy and the future great day of our triumph when we shall see elder henry fordham and first lady sharon fordham again while we wrestle with our pain until your promises finally catch up teach us to sing the hymn of habakkuk though the fig tree may not blossom [Music] nor fruit beyond the violence though the labor of the olive may fail and the fields yield no food though the flocks may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the storms yet [Applause] yet i will rejoice in the lord and i will join in the god of our salvation for the lord our god is our strength we ask these blessings and for your comforting spirit in that blessed and holy name jesus christ let everyone say amen amen [Music] thank you pastor buford griffith for our scripture pastor jane donaldson for our prayer on behalf of this family we thank all who have communicated their love their care their concern we thank you for your constant prayers if uncle butch and aunt sherry only lived for houses if they only lived for lands they would have nothing but thank the lord that christ was and is all to them we're going to invite their niece evelyn fordham goodman to come forward at this time christ is all [Music] so [Music] easy [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] but i have christ he paid the price way back on calvary [Music] that christ is [Music] jesus christ is all means more to me than this world's richest speech is my sight my guiding light through birthless [Music] to know christ who might my friend all and all [Applause] christ is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] everything to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] him nothing would nothing would be yes christ is all all and this world to me thank you evelyn we are honored to have the esteemed state senator sharif street who's going to come along with the deputy mayor of baltimore mr ted carter as they present a proclamation as they are making their way we do want to acknowledge the presence of darlinda bagol our deputy communications director for the social security administration we appreciate your presence here and your support of the family at this time the honorable state senators sharif street and the deputy mayor of baltimore mr ted carter giving honor to god it is uh it is an honor to be here um to celebrate the life of people from me were always uncle butch and i sherry i have i will not read them all but i will make the acknowledgements because in the commonwealth of pennsylvania uncle butch and sherry were are remembered by a lot more folks than just me their life and their legacy is acknowledged by a number of folks so we have a part of my classes out uh we have an official condolence from the pennsylvania house of representatives it is sponsored by the honorable state representative donna bullock it is signed by the speaker brian cutler and attested to by the chief clerk of the pennsylvania house of representatives we have a condolence citation from the city council of philadelphia it is was introduced by council member curtis jones jr and is signed to and attested to by the city council president daryl clark the city council of philadelphia trying to keep these in order we have a brief letter from the governor of the commonwealth of pennsylvania tom wolf since it's from i think i'll read the governor's letter that's okay to the friends and family of the reverend henry fordham iii and sharon wright fordham i would like to offer my deepest condolence of the passing of reverend henry ford iii and sharon e wright fordham reverend and mrs fordham were exceptional leaders and their service is a testament to their commitment to the people of pennsylvania and beyond butch and sherry's dedication to ministry left an indelible mark on the lives of many exemplified their loyalty to faith service and community they vow to uphold the principles of faith and to offer knowledgeable and compassionate guidance to those indeed butch and sherry touched the lives of many and will be remembered by all who have joy and privilege of knowing them the loss of a loved one changes us forever as you gather in remembrance of henry fordham iii and sharon e wright fordham know that their legacy will resonate for many years to come may the memories that you share help bring peace and comfort during this difficult time it bears the seal of the commonwealth of pennsylvania and is signed by the governor of pennsylvania the honorable his excellency the honorable tom wolf were almost through we have a citation from the united states house of representatives introduced by congressman dwight evans and i'll dispense with the reading of that one and then finally the citation of condolence from the pennsylvania state senate that i introduced and i'll read that whereas the senate of pennsylvania mourns the loss of the reverend henry ford iii and sharon e wright fordham who passed away on july 18 2021 both at the age of 77. and whereas reverend and mrs fordham were affectionately known to their family members and friends as butch and sherry a graduate of oakwood university reverend fordham earned a master's degree from the ohio state university he entered church ministry as a teacher at pine forge academy and pastored churches in delaware maryland before he was elected as director of ministerial personal ministries religious liberty for the allegheny east conference of the seventh-day adventist while in this role reverend fordham also served as interim pastor at several churches within the aec territory he was later elected to serve the conference as executive secretary before becoming president in october 2012. reverend fordham also conducted evangelical campaigns in africa south america england australia india port and puerto rico and whereas mrs fordham worked for the united states social security administration in baltimore maryland for several years before dedicating her life to her children and grandchildren as first lady of the aec she supported her husband's ministry and often accompanied him to church his meetings and itineraries abroad now therefore be it resolved that the senate of the commonwealth of pennsylvania note with great sadness the passing of reverend henry j ford on the third and sharon e wright fordham whose life greatly benefited all those who lived served and worked with them and extended heartfelt condolences to their sons joey donovan and sean several grandchildren two great-grandchildren and many other family members friends and be it further resolved that a copy of this document sponsored by may senator sharif t street be transmitted to the family of reverend henry j fordham and sharon ebright fordham i have signed it along with the president pro tem of the pennsylvania state senate and it is attested to by the secretary of the senate megan martin embarrassed the seal of the commonwealth of pennsylvania you know so in conclusion i would just say it is an honor to stand here and speak at the life and legacy of uncle butch he uh he and i sure were great folks they imbued in our family a sense of pride a sense of faith a sense of community always impressing upon us that we could do and be whatever we wanted to be but at the same time we no matter what positions of government or faith we held we were never better than anybody else nobody was better than us uncle butch was always a little uh uncomfortable with people kind of treating him like he was a big shot and that is a lesson that so many of us can learn but he never backed away from the responsibilities of his duty so if each of us can in our lives carry out our duties in the way that we're supposed to without becoming big-headed about it to understand that what we do is ultimately to the service of god that we will have done his legacy well and have given honor to his life i thank you for allowing me to share i speak not only on behalf of the commonwealth of pennsylvania but on behalf of a kid who is going to really miss uncle butch on behalf of the entire street family thank you so much god bless you [Music] [Applause] good afternoon all glory to god on behalf of mayor brandon scott i'll read the memorial uh on his behalf in memoriam i brandon m scott mayor of the city of baltimore do hereby extend my heartfelt sympathies to the friends and family of henry j fordham and shirley fordham for your enormous contributions to the city of baltimore at this difficult time please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you and hope that the love and support from those closest to you provide comfort in the challenging days ahead mayor brandon scott on a personal note i just wanted to extend my deepest sympathies to fordham family i've known sean for 15 years and never had the blessing of meeting his parents i always saw the roots but hadn't seen the fruit i see the fruit here today and uh sean just so grateful that god has spared you and look forward to your continued blessings and contributions to the to this country and the city of philadelphia baltimore thank you [Applause] thank you so much gentlemen uncle butch and aunt sherry were known to many as president and first lady we will hear at this time from the president and first lady of the north american division they will be followed by the president of the columbia union and then we will hear from the vice president of administration for the allegheny east conference please come at this time to joey shawn and donovan the entire fordham and wright families we were profoundly shaken as we heard the news of the passing of our brother and sister elder and mrs fordham we extend our deepest sympathies in behalf of the north american division of seven day adventists we stand here today to represent not only our division but the entire seventh-day adventist church ranging from our general conference president elder ted wilson and as far away as nairobi kenya in the person of the president of that division blasius rigori who boasts in their condolences in our regional conference presidents who have a special bond and connection to elder and mrs fordham sent a special resolution as well as all denominational employees of our church and i'm going to ask anyone employed by the seventh-day adventist church if you would please join me in standing to honor this family today along with your spouses we stand here today to pay our respects and to acknowledge that we have had a great man and a great woman walk among us and to give tribute to their legacy which will far out live their mortal bodies the impact of their ministry has traveled far beyond the territorial lines of allegheny east conference spent to africa asia russia south america and has reached every corner of this division for a global influence and a global legacy you may be seen they modeled for us that ministry was not comprised in our titles or positions but in how we stood to help those that are wounded disenfranchised and less fortunate they indeed modeled how to reflect the compassion of christ through the administrative lands no matter what level he rose to he never never lost his shepherd's heart that's who he was she never lost her caring and compassionate spirit that's who she was he never forgot that ministry was staying in touch with the people she always sought to express a word of encouragement no matter who you were they truly modeled to us that your first congregation and your highest spiritual responsibility is to your family he modeled to us what it meant to honor your wife and be there through thick and thin and yet even until death do us part she truly modeled the virtuous woman of proverbs 31 which caused her children husband and others to rise up and call her blessed loved and respected she mentored ministerial spouses in allegheny east the regional conference administrators spouses and others throughout this division by the way they were both some fashionistas i think we can all agree that they always look sharp always looking good elder fordham recently took a leave of absence to take care of his lovely wife which is a prime example of how putting family first has always been a priority for the fordham family their legacy of compassion and love is indelibly etched in our minds and so many others des and i have been deeply moved and impacted the lives of butch and sherry ford they have made us better couple better leaders and better servants of christ joey sean and donovan we loved and admired how you honored your parents our lives and our church have been richly blessed and transformed as a result of knowing them we the seventh adventist church owe this family a debt of gratitude for sharing your father and your mother with us a few weeks ago we made a phone call to butch and sherry to encourage and pray for them and it ended up they just encouraged us that's who they were today this tragedy is only bearable as we recall how deeply elder and sister fordham believe that this is not the end of the story this is not the last chapter of the book this is not the last stanza in the psalm paul says i would not have you to be ignorant concerning them when you're asleep he didn't say he wouldn't be we wouldn't be sorrowful but he said don't sorrow as others who have no hope we have the same hope burning in our hearts that elder and sister fordham had in theirs the hope and the soon return of jesus then we are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord comfort one another with these words please know family that you're in our prayers and that we with you look forward to seeing them again god bless you good morning afternoon whatever it is it's not a good day it is a good day in a way to celebrate the life of henry and sharon but that day a few weeks ago still lives in my memory i can't put words to it so on behalf of the communion family to the fordham family for the right family we send our deepest regards sympathy today our condolences my wife becky would be with me today but due to the new surge she's immunocompromised because of her fight with cancer as well she wanted to be here she sends her love i stopped for a moment and think elder fordham that's how i referred to him when i first met him because i was younger that he i got to know him over the years i came to realize he was a quintessential christian leader he was humble he had a way of telling you something in a way that you just want to hear more and he said it in such a gentle way he he he just said it so kindly humble i remember being a mission trip with him in india one time had an orphanage in there orphan is there he dedicated to danielle didn't he well there was an idiot one time with him and someone got asked me for financial assistance and people said don't do that don't give him any money he couldn't pass by someone like that he gave money to that person then there were 10 and there were 20 30 around him he was giving out always trying to help the preacher wow could he live the word of god my children still remember the story he told of how he dressed up like a bum and went to church and and and wanted to keep that from the people in the church to to see how they would treat him and then it was time they're looking for the preacher where's i'll afford him he would just take off those bum clothes and step up the pulpit and then he would talk to him about treating people like jesus oh it was good and then not only was he a quintessential christian leader not only was he a powerful preacher he was an adventurer he loved life i'll afford him if you went to his office you thought you walked with the museum and some of you posted pictures on facebook of his office listen you have a hard time getting around it but if you take if he's there if he'd be there and he'd talk to anything and talk to you about what's in his office he would say and i got this here and i got this here and he talked about that snake skin he got somewhere probably where he should have anyway he had it and he even told me how he got it home all but sharon sharon was one of those unbelievable people that was so gracious and kind if becky was standing here today she would say dave i got to tell the people how gracious and sweet and kind sharon was our last conversation my last conversation with elder fordham went something like this i'm sorry that sharon's back in the hospital um yeah dave got a good day i said wait wait wait wait dave wait sharon's talking i said well if she's talking that's good well she wasn't this morning i'm sorry i'm sorry henry uh oh dave she's asked a question how's becky becky was fighting stage three in this fighting stage three stage four ovarian cancer she's still in those kind of treatments but lying on her bed of affliction that was sharing how's your loved one folks today we want to send our love a deep appreciation for this wonderful couple that have touched so many lives i know when i get to heaven all those things that henry talked about as officers they're going to be real you got to shake me around show me his pet lion and everything else i can't wait until the glory comes and the great awake comes and jesus says awake i'm gonna see henry and share in there i'm gonna be there are you gonna be there with me praise god so good morning family [Music] my wife and i rise this morning to pay tribute to the lives and ministries of elder henry j fordham and sister sharon wright before them i'm going to allow my wife to first reflect on the life and ministry of sister sharon fordham then i'll come back and brief my own reflections good morning family sister sherry was like a mother a mentor and a friend every time i saw her she greeted me with that big warm smile that made me feel welcome one of the thoughts that come to mind often is the last camp meeting that we had every camp meeting we would have a 50-plus banquet and the pastor's wives would help out would help serve her and the president and his wife were always special guests at the banquet and as passers-wise we wanted to serve our first couple as well and make sure that they were well taken care of so our access to sherry is there anything that she wanted and she said she just wanted some water and periodically we would check on them and finally sister sherry said in her humble manner stop fussing with on us we're okay just go ahead and do what you have to do and we're just thankful for that humble spirit that she had and this time i'm going to ask all the pastors wives of the allegheny east conference to please stand we are standing in honor of our first lady a woman of god who taught us in her own quiet way she would attend the minister's wives meetings with us and participate and we are just thankful for that time that we had with her we just want you to know that we are here for you whatever you need do not hesitate to call us any one of us we're all here for you we thank you and god bless thank you honey for me there are a couple of anecdotes that i believe are emblematic of the relationship that'll deform that many of us as ministers as office workers as employees of allegheny's conference had with him a couple of years ago after coming back from lunch we were driving up on campus of fordham and i and he and i said to him elder fordham as i've actually rolled onto the campus how before i sometimes i'm just overwhelmed by the grace of god that he would choose someone like me to serve his people and he said something to me that floored me he said so so online [Music] to put that in perspective he spent close to 30 years in the office he first served as you heard earlier as the ministerial director of our conference then he served as the executive secretary and then for the last seven now it's more than that last ten almost nine years he served as our president and yet he never lost his sense of being grateful to god for god using him i hope that in my position as vice president that i will never forget to be humble and to recognize that it is a privilege and is an honor to serve god's people my last anecdote speaks to the relationship that many of us as pastors had with elder fordham some time ago i won't say when i won't say how long ago i was having some challenges at the church and so i called elder fordham and said i'm going to have a difficult meeting and i need you to be at that meeting so he showed up and uh we gave him the floor first and in his inimical way he said um you know i like to watch watch nature anybody who knows him knows with all those animals and everything and stuffed animals he he loved nature so he he said um you know i was watching a nature program and there was this bear cub that had become orphaned and this male bear i think it was a grizzly had taken him in and this was unusual he said because typically male bears will eat the cubs so one day as the little cub is playing he happens upon a mountain lion and the little cub tries you know gets all of its strength together and he rares up on his hind legs and he growls his little bear cub ground and the mountain lion turns around and walks away and then the aperture opens and you begin to see the wider picture and standing behind the cub was this male bear elder fordham didn't have to explain everybody knew papa bear was in the house we have lost [Music] our papa bear i just have a couple of groups i want to stand very quickly i know a time is against us but i would ask all of our pa uh first our office staff uh with all of the office staff who worked with elder fordham some of you for close to 30 years would you please stand all of the office staff please stand and you'll notice that a number of us and most of us have our tams to come on sean we have our tabs [Music] you know that uh well i won't tell that story about how we almost didn't get back in the country on 9 11 because elder fordham had on that tam won't tell us that we don't have time for that story now i'm going to ask all of our pastors to please stand pastors active and retired ministers of allegheny east conference please stand look at us we're here sean we're here donovan we're here joey we're here wright family we're here fordham family [Applause] at this time i'm going to ask you to remain standing and now i'm going to ask all employees active and retired of allegheny east conference to please stand all employees please stand [Music] [Applause] keep standing because now i'm going to ask representative of the 32 000 members of allegheny east conference if you are a member of allegheny east conference please stand at this time thank you so much you may all be seated family elder and sister fordham always treated us as family and when i say us i don't mean my wife and i i mean all of us the 400 employees the 32 000 members we are now your family you need anything you see us and if we can do it we will and we can't wait until our entire family is reunited on the sea of glass we can't wait until the lord himself descends from heaven with shout with the voice of the archangel and the trump of god and elder and sister fordham rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the lord in the end so shall we ever be with the lord no more by bias no more howdies no more goodbyes [Music] we look forward to that day god bless you family [Music] some people want a god to match perception [Music] to lead them in their own direction but can you follow [Laughter] when you don't understand when the course you're on is not the course you've planned you can't see a king without a kingdom and in your mind i should rid your life of pain but through my eyes i see another plan one that selfish hearts won't understand a king wants to save the lost he traded his crown for a cross will you worship me now [Music] will you worship me now here between earth and sky on the cross willing to die for you will you worship me now will you worship me now [Music] i'm before you without my crown i'm your savior my head turned down and the question i place on your heart will you worship me now things go wrong in your life without a reason and naturally [Music] [Applause] you want someone to explain so then you come to me crying lord why this pain did i not confess my sin in jesus name there's one thing you must got to realize i'm still god full of mercy strong and wise so would you trust me in my master plan in which i live and die like a mortal man your faith in my strength will grow and then i will truly know if you worship me now will you worship me now hang here between earth and sky on the cross willing to die for you will you worship me now will you worship me now i'm before you without my crown i'm your savior my head's hung down and the question i ask on your heart will you worship me when your faith does not equal your pain you should know that i'll always be there to strengthen and comfort and care for you [Music] in the darkness of all that you face i will grant you my mercy and grace the question remains will you worship me now will you worship me now i'm before you without my crown i'm your savior my head's hung down and the question i place on your heart [Music] will you worship me now the question i place on your heart [Music] will you worship me now [Music] [Applause] thank you jeremy because of health concerns the honorable john street sends his regrets and his condolences uncle butch and aunt sherry were not just mr president and first lady they were also pastor and first lady we will now hear from two individuals who were colleagues of uncle butch and ansheri as pastors first the pastor of the new metropolitan baptist church reverend richard dixon dickens and then the chaplain of the united states senate dr barry black to our worship leader our eulogists to all of the reverend clergy all of you my heavenly father's children and certainly to this fordham family we have come today to share to shoulder and to support this family in this your aisle of testing and trial knowing that the god of all comfort will certainly comfort your hearts but as we come to share shoulder and support we come to salute this great man of god and this great woman of god as we come to share shoulder to support to salute this great man of god this great woman of god we also come to set the record straight i received a text message early sunday morning friend brother lester black had an article attached to it concerning what had taken place and so the first time i read the article i read it to find out all the facts you know facts evidence things you can prove statistics and data and i was devastated but then i read the article again but i didn't read it looking for facts i read it with faith come up with somebody the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things we cannot see and as i read the article the second time with faith i was reminded that the god we serve has a history of showing up in fires as shadrach meshach and abednego the king threw in three but he saw four and he said the fourth one looked like the son of god and so when i read it with faith i stopped by to tell you there were not two in the fire but there were three in the fire and the third one was the son of god [Applause] he made them a promise i'll never leave you i'll never forsake you so it's all right now i said it's all right now so lift up your hands oh you gates and being ye lifted up you everlasting door and the king of glory shall come in somebody said who is the king of glory the lord of hosts the lord strong and mighty he is the king of glory you know him don't you i'm talking about mary's baby the lamb of god god bless you god [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hmm i have sense enough not to try to jump on a moving train [Music] whom can a pastor turn to when he or she is grieving i have in my brief life turned to my brother and sister by another mother butch and sherry ford when my mother was in a coma in 1987 at the bone secure hospital in baltimore i was in australia i got back to baltimore as quickly as i could and when i got to the hospital although my mother was in a coma that she never came out of her pastor elder fordham was there sleeping in the family room watching over her as i tried to get to her when my mother died i [Music] was at the precipice of agnosticism and butch and sherry pulled me back [Music] they gave me enough spiritual fitness so that when my brother died on my birthday in 2005. i had a little more timex christianity inside of me and when my but butch and cherry were there for me again and when my sister died in 2019 [Music] they were there for me in fact i've heard elder fordham preach more eulogies [Music] than any preacher i've ever known so when i heard the devastating news and that's what it was for me a reflex was to want to turn to butch and sharon but i was forced to turn to the one that was sung about today when i heard the lyrics christ is all he's everything to me i was flipping through my devotion and i was asking god what would butch say to me if i could talk to him lord and he would say to me what he has said to me many times keep on believing even when god doesn't make sense and it was almost as if the holy spirit was guiding me because i was reading this morning stumbled on john 11. [Music] lazarus is sick the word goes to jesus jesus sends back the word this sickness is not unto death lazarus dies it doesn't make sense surely jesus will make the memorial service and deliver the eulogy lazarus is in the grave for four days decomposition it doesn't make sense which would remind me what jesus reminded martha and let's not diss martha martha said to jesus if you had been here my brother would not have died but i know that even now [Music] whatever you ask of god he will give it to you that's a declaration of faith one of the great ones but when they get to the tomb and jesus says roll away the stone reality kicks in and martha says wait a minute there's a stench there let's let's face reality but jesus says to her did i not say unto you that if you would believed you would see the glory of god because of butch and sherry when my sister died and there were two memorial services one in dallas and one at berea [Music] i delivered both eulogies something i could not have done had i not learned to keep believing even when god doesn't make sense when you keep believing when god doesn't make sense you cry out though he slay me yet will i trust in him when you keep on believing when god doesn't make sense you cry out i know that my redeemer lives and that he will stand in the latter day and though the worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall i see god when you keep believing when god doesn't make sense you cry out our god is able to deliver us from the burning pirate furnace and he will deliver us but if not if not we burn before we bow to idols if you keep on believing when god doesn't make sense you cry out with our lord from the cross it is finished turn out the lights the party's over father into your hands i commend my spirit i say to you hold on it won't be long soon we'll be leaving here and revelation 7 verse 9 says there'll be a multitude which no one can number from every kindred tribe people and the question is going to be asked who are those robed in white danielle is going to be there which and sh and cherry are going to be there my mama's going to be there my sister's gonna be there my brother's gonna be there and the question is going to be answered you don't know who those folk are who look like the second person of the godhead and the answer will come back these are they who have gone through great tribulation wash their robes in the blood of the lamb keep on believing even when god doesn't make sense greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends butch and sherry taught us greatest love hath no man than this [Music] that a man lay down his life with his friends hallelujah god bless them [Music] when peace like a river [Music] my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul it is where where it is my soul [Music] and lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight the clouds be rolled back as a scroll the trump shall resound and the lord shall descend [Music] my soul [Music] [Applause] [Music] is where it is [Music] my [Music] with my soul [Music] [Applause] is [Music] my souls [Applause] praise the lord thank you so much pastor phipps they were not just pastor and first lady they were butch and sherry i'm going to ask this next group if they would be kind enough to assist us by limiting their remarks to two minutes but we do want to hear from deidre trammell niece of uncle butchernet sherry miss ruby burrell co-worker of aunt sherry and mrs carolyn ward moore friend of aunt sherry let's receive them at this time president henry j fordham and first lady sharon porter were family to me and i've always known them as uncle butch and i cherry my nuclear family started a love affair with the wright family that transcended into a yearly pilgrimage to germantown during the thanksgiving weekend for 20 years or so oh how i look forward to that occasion and that experience my parents would stay at uncle paul and i'm betsy's house but i spent my time in oklahoma eleanor's time house where i was just thrilled to just make friends and hang out with marcy and andrea and and carla my bestie uh i was ecstatic with the anticipation of those trips every year and i remember though when we would go up to uncle paul and not in bessie's house and but you sure would be sitting in the parlor room that's what we would call i know the tv was on in there and the redskins dallas game would usually be on and we'd be losing but i see them sitting there holding hands and occasionally he would steal a kiss on the lips i would start giggling and hide behind my hands but inside of my soul i said i want to have a boyfriend like that one day hey after all butch was the man a sharp intellect unabashedly handsome as are all of his sons from good stock and certainly cooler than cool and he always had sherry in his sights butch and sherry uh married and they were in huntsville when i arrived at oakwood as a freshman they started a family which grew from the first bouncing baby boys to the joy of their hearts danielle who they lovingly called baby girl and yes i did babysit happily their home was an open house an open house each and every sabbath my cousins and i with boyfriends in tow would descend upon their home and there was inexhaustible love laughter wise counsel and plenty of good food sam was especially fond of sherry's shortcakes now cooking is not my talent but i always did what i was raised to do and i helped with cleaning up after these large meals and share would say dede you you're such a good daughter your mother raised you well butch and sherry uh were uniquely close with both of my parents throughout the span of their lives and they would regularly say to me cd and rin are our best friends that was not just a cliche statement it was proven true by their consistent loving interactions butch and sherry when their schedules will allow would always show up they'd be there for church services meals surprise birthday parties and shopping sprees they travel together and and sometimes they just show up unannounced with movies that they know that dad and mom would be interested in watching which always would have a lido's pizza and a leader of some kind of a soft drink and uh they said uh they would sit down and say charles cd and ring we brought you something to watch and they would sit down watching and during the movie mother and sherry were constantly consistently taught they're commenting they're asking what do you think was this a and then both the both cd and butch would say honey please just watch the movie i remember that well mother and sherry would talk daily several times a day throughout the day and i know this to be true because i called my mother religiously every morning on the way to work and every evening on the way home and oftentimes she would say to me wait a minute i've got sherry on the phone uh let me tell her i'll call her back they talked about life's issues life's battles and how the lord had given them victories they would share songs that touched their souls they spoke about how good god was during shirley sherry's illness i wanted to be there for her and butch as they had been for my parents i would call butch just to check on sheri and and see how she was doing let him know how hard i was praying he thanked me he told me that perhaps she was resting but he would tell her that i called and that i loved her and i was praying at times i would receive a call from butch out of the blue be at work drop everything i see butch's name on my cell i pick it up and you say hey dede cheri just wanted to speak to you and when i did talk to her she spoke like this deidre you know the lord is coming soon he's got to she spoke of being sealed and ready how important it is to be right with the lord with the conditions that we're seeing in this world she allowed me to pray with her and for her and she say amen and she'd tell me again how special i was to her after the last time i prayed with sherry she said to me i'm all right now god is good i just want to trust his will for my life there was a peaceful quiet resolve in her conversation in closing i want to share some words to a song that i shared during our recent fordham wagner family reunion and they brought me comfort and i hope that this fitting message will resonate with your hearts as well when trials and tests they come darkness only hides the sun and you can't seem to find your way no light of day there are some things we know for sure they never change they will endure no matter what it looks like all around us so in the midst of chaos in the midst of all your fears there's something we need to remember there's something we all need to hear joy is not cancelled he still remains god's goodness his kindness his grace isn't running low and he he has not changed his power is still abundant all his promises still true god's plans have not been cancelled he's fully in control and everything that matters still remains yes family everything that matters still remains god bless you good afternoon may the life i've lived speak for me there's so much we can say today about pastor henry fordham and my dear dear friend sharon fordham but nothing speaks louder than the lives they lived sharon and i were the closest of friends for over 30 years she was my sharon and i was her rude she was loyal with a beautiful heart we worked together i am godmother to her granddaughter brooke i also work with her brilliant son sean i adored pastor fordham and saw firsthand how much he loved and respected sharon we were like family sharon made my daughter lauren and my husband feel like the most special people in the room every time we saw them sharon and i last worked together in 2002 at the social security administration she was my executive assistant and was the glue that held everything together she was smart always calm and balanced her responsibilities at work with her devotion to her family sharon was soft-spoken but sharon was very very strong she was a fierce advocate for her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren always talking about each of you with such love and pride the only time i ever saw my friend sharon get upset is if somebody mistreated her family sean joey donovan i know you will carry on their legacy love and take care of each other and stay strong to danielle's children shane and caleb you know how you know how much your grandparents loved you india and i got daughter brooke you are beautiful smart and strong you can do and be anything you want because you're standing on the shoulders of your mother grandparents generations of strong role models sharon's story is one of remarkable faith i'm sorry sharon's story is one of unbreakable faith and confidence and prayer that that her grandmother instilled in her as a child that faith and confidence and prayer was there when she met and married henry it was there as she became the spiritual anchor for her family it was there as she raised her children lost her daughter and raised her grandchildren i believe it was there until she took her last breath sharon would always tell me rube when my time comes i want to be ready for the kingdom well my dear friend the life you live speaks for you my two buddies are gone but i compare the fordham's leaving us behind to the surprise that you get when you're in a classroom taking a very very difficult final exam and you're sitting there worrying and trying your best and the two smartest kids in the class get up they're done in record time they march up to the teacher's desk and they slam their test papers down on the teacher's desk with extreme confidence they prepare to exit the room the teacher glances over at their tests the rest of the class is shocked they look at the clock on the wall how'd they do that the teacher gives them the love signal thumbs up and waves them out of the room you've done well you've done extremely well in fact you have extra credit those were my buddies sharon butch and i and the kids go way back i helped take care of the babies during those days when sherry needed help managing the home i did not get a penny for helping i forgot about pity i forgot about the money we had so much fun we established a wonderful friendship and we loved each other dearly and when she took baby girl on a bus all the way out to california to see me while i was in graduate school i said she's really a friend because i don't like to go anywhere and so no matter what we stuck together we developed a great friendship god is faithful he used this couple henry was the kind of guy who didn't mind getting his hands dirty he actually milked cows sherry worked in the dorm they did whatever they did at oakwood to keep the family going and i'm just proud to have been a part of that the very last week of july 18th sheri and i were to be together in the home i was to help her take care of help butch take care of sherry during that time that very very weekend i was to be there i was to be in the home at the foot of her bed taking the place of butch who slept there at nights to make sure she was fine during her rehab days henry would say sherry is preaching in rehab she's telling everybody about the love of god she's telling everybody about jesus and how he's faithful in rehab so at home i expected her to give me those wonderful messages and sermons too and then when i had some difficulty getting my flight out henry says don't worry about it he says i'm the one that signed up for better for worse for richer for poorer in sickness and health to love and cherish till death do us part he told me that two days before they left us he said i signed up for that you can come so we made arrangements anyway even though he signed up for it we were all to be together god saw differently the two smartest kids in the class my friends my loved one god is always faithful i never worry about it sometimes his answers are faith-building for the rest of us and sometimes his answer when it can't be found god says simply trust me [Music] [Music] is all my troubles [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] oh baby earlier [Music] [Applause] my oh [Music] family [Music] [Applause] uh [Music] [Music] is amen amen the formal obituary can be found in your program but joey has written a personal obituary that we will receive at this time from cousin jacqueline wright palmer [Music] me the sabbath had started normally enough a call from joey letting us know he would be here later in the afternoon and a call from sean giving us his usual boisterous morning greeting also conveying that he would be here later nothing like having the suns around grandson caleb could be heard rubbishing in the kitchen for his normal bowl of cereal up on rising that boy can really sleep eat and sleep i miss going to church worst thing about this pandemic is not being able to wake up sabbath morning put on your finest and head to sabbath school the day wore on with us watching 3abn listening to sean who had arrived recount his virtual church service and laying down for the occasional nap a worship service to close the sabbath a couple of slices from the pizza brought home by caleb and it was time for bed we have been asleep for some time when someone is yelling fire lord help us we were born henry joseph fordham iii and sharon elaine fordham on august 23rd 1943 and november 4th 1943 respectively i was born sharon elaine fordham i was born sharon elaine wright the only daughter of paul and bessie wright and a little place called germantown ohio initially i was the youngest of three punj and tommy were my older brothers and brian was born 17 years after me life in the country surrounded by nothing but family and the spiritual direction provided all of us by my grandparents gave me a foundation in the church that would forever be a source of strength in my life we grew up without money [Music] but weren't poor life was nothing but rich i had my family life with the rights was an experience that everyone should have but life really did not begin for me until i met my knight in shining armor his family calls him butch i call him my everything have mercy my husband was born henry joseph fordham iii the only son and middle child of henry ii and geneva duncan fordham his older sister was named zella and his younger sister named kathy both already rest in jesus henry is the last of his immediate family his father briefly pastored the springfield church in ohio so we had known each other since we were both about seven years old time went by i never felt quite as pretty as my other female cousins but in the eyes of my husband there was no prettier woman to ever walk the face of the earth at least that's the way he made me feel guess it didn't hurt that i could cook love the lord and had big brown legs his words not mine my parents did not initially like my choice of henry as the man i wanted to spend the rest of my life with in their eyes he was a philadelphia hoodlum which in reality wasn't untrue [Music] but there was just something about him that i knew was special in those days we all took our prospective mates to grandma after meeting with them she would either give her blessing on the planned union or convey not the one after grandma sat and talked to henry she smiled and gave her blessing she told me he was destined for great things her blessing was all i needed after a physical fist fight between henry and my father we eloped and were married in massachusetts by his uncle wilmot who was an adventist preacher just like his father my aunt rudy supplied [Music] her blinn rights dress that she wore on the album cover as my wedding dress at the age of 19 henry and i were married life was initially tough in massachusetts henry was working multiple jobs trying to support us and i was a country girl and all i had never known was germantown i missed walking up and down the road seeing my grandparents uncles and aunts i was so homesick a few months later henry decided if we were going to raise a family he could think of no better place than germantown so home we went because henry was such a hard worker by the age of 23 we were able to purchase land just off the family road and build our first house he was able to accomplish this against all odds sometimes not owning a car and walking to work which was 17 miles away [Music] there was nothing he could not do i could not have been happier and just knew we would be in that house when the lord came surrounded by family the kids began to come henry joseph iv followed by sean lamarr then donovan troy and lastly our beautiful daughter danielle henry during this time was happy but there was something in him that was not settled then one day he came to me with the idea of going to oakwood so that he could study ministry i said but henry we have our own home we're raising the kids and the country surrounded by a wonderful support system he backed off later that night before he came home from work i distinctly heard a voice softly saying to me do not stand in the way of my manservant right then i knew it was the lord who was directing us to oakwood the blessings came one after another through the years from oakwood to a master's program at ohio state to teaching at pine forge academy to our first church in wilmington delaware to brinklow to berea stinson capitol hill and dupont ultimately we landed in the office of the president of the great allegheny east conference on the very grounds that his grandfather was at one time the grounds keeper nothing my husband couldn't do if he had said he was going to be a doctor i would have gone out and bought a stethoscope if he had said he was going to be an astronaut i'd have measured him for the space suit that's my husband it's quiet now smoke is filling the room thankfully the room is empty so just my husband and i now face what the lord has seen fit together no fear no panic and that's the way it should be just the peace that only jesus can give henry and i go to sleep just the way we lived together we love you all [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you so much please do not take advantage of this announcement but there are individuals who are concerned because they know that we should be exiting at 1 15 to make our 2pm cemetery appointment praise the lord shelley palmer did something with uh god on high and the cemetery has given us an extension so i want you to be able to worship i want you to be able to reflect and i want you to also continue to be expeditious can we do those at the same time praise the lord we're going to actually adjust the order of this next section we're going to go from the ones that came into uncle butch and aunt sherry's life the most recently we're going to hear from the grandchildren represented by leila then we will hear from their son donovan representing the brothers then we will hear from the right first cousins represented by snooki brooks and then the fordham first cousins represented by walter fordham mama and papa you guys won that life you guys won these are the words of my cousins those are the last words i remember before i said goodbye to my grandparents just five days before i would never see them again four days after my birthday mom and papa had everything kai could ever dream of they have love they have faith in their beliefs they have family they have each other it makes me angry now i lost them so soon i wasn't loving them and i wasn't done being loved by them mama papa had this way of making me feel special i could never do wrong in their eyes and no matter how imperfect i may be they always made me feel perfect i know my heart the love i share to my grandparents will last forever today i found out my grandparents were god i wrote i have never felt so much pain i never knew i could feel so much pain mom and papa i love you so much i don't understand how i could have spent the past two weeks loving and spending time with you guys just for my goodbye to be the last i would ever have as someone who questions their beliefs and their trust in god one thing i know for sure is god love them i can only dream of experiencing love in my life as strong as my mom and papa had for each other as strong as the love the people around them had for them as well as god i will forever cherish the love they have for me all i know is that they are together and we're by each other's side until the very end and i have peace in knowing that i have never been more proud to be a fordham knowing that i come from literally the best and most pure souls i have ever known in my life mama papa i will strive for nothing more than to make you both proud for the rest of my life mistakes will be made along the way this i know but in the time i spent with my grandparents i have learned so so much i am proud to say my name is layla danielle fordham thank you [Applause] those are my beautiful kids so proud of them walk with me lord warned with [Music] [Music] amen well i left the house left my tie and everything i made it here though my good friend from hollywood tammy jim just jimmy this up this is really my handkerchief but we're making it work and thank you everybody for being here and those watching at home thank you so much and a special thank you and prayer for all the ones that have to deal with me and my brothers yeah we're passionate about so thank you for your patience well i had been home for three months i left a week before the fire spending time with my parents they live not far from pine forge academy dad used to teach history at the school you can still see a painting in the classroom that my father painted at prime forge so i decided to take a drive through pine forge academy and reminisce so i decided uh i'd go look at our old apartment um it was behind the girls dorm and uh trump kimbrell hall so we used to live in the back back of there so i went by there taking pictures reminiscing and uh thinking of things i could see us jumping from the rooftops to the storage things with cousin robbie booker and david barnes and tom tom kevin street um i could picture us swinging from ropes in the creeks and catching snakes we had a ball um stacy and tracy visiting getting on some big wheels with us we run down the ramp fly off a ramp that we made we had a ball so i was reminiscing and feeling really um emotional i called my one of my big brothers i said sean man i'm just sitting here at the old apartment at pine forge and man i wish we could go back to those days before the big houses before [Music] everybody was in good health my sister danielle florida was still alive you know i was really kind of filled up and um sean paused and he listened to me and he said well you can go back to that if you want to i'm not going back to that raggedy raggedy apartment i was like okay thanks i thought i was having a moment well i gotta tell you this tragedy right here is unthinkable it's um i can't i can't wrap around it um it's hard to think of a worse scenario think of one it's hard to beat this i mean you know we've been shaken we've been shook and we've been woke up this is just there is no drug no sex no money that can make me feel better but my parents left us something and it's not in the will they left us jesus and they left us god himself so that's what we're going to lean on and we're going to stick together as our family does my i elena wrote a song i auntie eleanor wright wrote a song and there's some great lyrics in it my uncle charles c.d brooks preached that my sister's life celebration so he used some of the words from the song and i'll try to remember some of this uncle charles looked at her sauce here so if you miss me don't dismay i may have to lay an amount of clay but when i hear the trumpet sound i'm coming up out of that cold program because i don't plan to stay here children with that i'll say to my beautiful parents and by the way if i can be just half of the man my dad is i'll be having something special just have but i would like to say to my parents well done faithful servants well done faithful servants sleep in [Music] peace [Applause] okay the reason i'm here is to introduce you all to the original nine i was born on september the 15th 1943 into the wright dale family i'm an only child but i soon learned that i had eight brothers and cousins who were like my brothers and sisters i'm going to tell you who they are paul junior punch willow calder vc william jr that's billy thomas that's tom henry that's hank yvonne that's sis dale junior punca me i'm sandra snooki sharon and sheriff our childhood was the best we didn't have much financially but our wealth was the times we spent together and we did a lot together we faced racism in our little school when in germantown ohio i remember about the second or third grade sherry and i were getting our little milk a little chocolate milk and we heard giggles somebody said y'all don't need to drink chocolate milk because you're chocolate already well you know the third way to kind of let that slide and then we signed up to be brownies that's that's the little club before you become a girl scout and we heard these little giggles again you don't have to sign because your brownies already giggle giggle i looked up my cousin sherry had stepped away from me and went over to this little circle who thought they were cute next thing i don't know what she said but i know we never heard those kind of remarks again and the nine of us we excelled in that school yeah we were artists orators the boys were killing in sports um and and and we graduated from that school with a good education and friends and i crossed out so much i got to find my place one of the highlights for us was church eleanor and audrey pulled the nine of us together and we became the berea chapel choir we had all the parts too i mean we had soprano alto bass and i'm telling you we had bass henry's song here we're here he was our base singer tommy tenor and we sang everywhere together we loved it uh by this time you've heard or seen the video of butch and sherry talking about us having our worship on friday nights well this particular little story i want to tell you relates to uh friday night when all of us the nine of us were over to bc sis and punka's house and when we got over there what we would do we'd study our sabbath school lesson go over it again make sure we knew the lesson make sure we knew our memory verses and we talked and and then sing gonna be together we don't sing and then when it was time to leave i remember billy and henry walked across the yard and dropped walked with me to my house tommy punch and sherry went the other direction to their house but in the doorway was bc sis and punka to see us all and as we walk down the road i can hear it today yeah see you at 9 15. i'll see you at 9 15 and we were there on time for sabbath school and we enjoyed savage school and we were right back there again for mv meeting that's the kind of relationship we had with each other um as we reached our teen years we graduated some of us went off to college some moved for jobs elsewhere and some just moved to explore other opportunities the dream and the hope of the elders and the family that all of us would stay in the germantown on family property is soon fading except for what you heard about tom sherry and henry coming back the rest of us moved away but we took our traditions and our family values with us uh sherry loved camp meeting and all of us did we enjoyed going to camp and it was a highlight we look forward to it every year and our last conversations together and often before that she would always talk about camp meetings and reminisce on our childhood you've heard that from what jackie palmer had to say i won't go into all those kind of things but right now tell you some of the family travels from other states to come and go to the ohio state fair been doing that for a long time it's a tradition it's a family value that that we love and sherry will call me up and say snooki you and victor need to come to the fair now we're having a good time and she tell me who was there what they ate and all that kind of stuff but uh the other thing was um i remember real quick here i'm going to tell you what tommy nem did to the girls we used to go to a amusement park called lakeside in dayton ohio and it when we went we were together and uh so tommy said whoever you know what i'm gonna tell you something i don't know what that little kiss meant but i got two more things to say [Applause] i'm snooki so we cool wow look we were at the fair and i mean at the amusement park see i'm old you can't stop me in the middle of stuff like that and i uh i don't know if it was henry or it might have been tommy called me and sis and sherry together said uh i think this time uh let's separate y'all go over there and say go see we trying to talk to some girls but they think y'all are girlfriends so we started to separate and let them have their way we went our way so it worked out for both of them but um our last time you know what this is the look here now this y'all don't know my little sheet of paper is all xed up and crossed out i'm trying to find my place but um this is serious business now the last time i talked to sheri she called she would call up and she talk about we talk about our children we talked about how they loved us and how they loved each other and talked about how we were having blessed to have good families and husbands last time too she called me up one day and she said snooki i was sitting here and i was trying to sing by and by but i can't remember all the words she said would you sing it with me and you know we sang yeah we sang that song yeah often she called and said let's just sing and two of us would say tell ya i'm gonna carry those conversations with me and i can hear her urgent voice saying okay we gotta be ready this is real the lord is coming he's coming any day and we've got to be ready so i'll take that with me yeah cause one of these days the nine of us are gonna stand together and i'm so happy that we have this background and that we can have that kind of belief and trust in the lord [Applause] i'm going to obey my son and try to make this very short very brief i was asked to represent the butcher's cousins carol wagner matthews and mary alice fordham because of health challenges could not be here today my sister audrey fordham booker if she'd raise her hand here in the front row it's one of those first cousins and i am the other one this morning when i took out my suit bag and saw my tie i didn't see a shirt [Music] and then i thought butch and sherry would have said walter you look fine so here i am butch and i had several things in common but i thought about two things we were both born in pittsburgh pennsylvania and i'm still a pittsburgh pennsylvania her fame butch became an eagles fan but i didn't hold it against him the second thing butch had two sisters and no brother i had two sisters and no brother so we began to consider ourselves as cousin brothers one thing you might know if you're part of this family is that family name is very important to us and before butch married before i married we used to talk often about we've got to keep this family name going well i had two sons but butch did better than i did he had three he had joey sean and donovan one of the things you might not know about butch is which was a fierce competitor at playing games he could play he'd like to play monopoly he could play scrabble he could play uno he could play checkers whatever it might be when i was at oakwood college and he was in the academy he used to come to my room and we would play two and rook up until the week hours of the morning every every family reunion we would have a tournament and butch and i were always partners and i do recall the last family reunion when we played we won the trophy some years ago butch visited me in kansas city missouri and he brought me up to date on all of his travels he had all sorts of pictures and we had kept in touch through the years but i remember butch said let's play some scrabble and i was a pretty good scrabble player and we played i couldn't beat him and then it done on me butch had memorized the entire scrabble dictionary and knew all of the short words and what have you that he had on that i can't imagine i can't imagine a family reunion without my cousin brother i can't imagine one but i just look forward to the great reunion when we'll meet together again and see each other thank you uncle butch and uncle henry made an agreement [Music] that whoever preceded the other in death would have their eulogy preached by the other after the most appropriate song that this family can think of we will receive our eulogy by pastor henry m wright [Music] [Music] man [Music] there will be there'll be a better day [Music] there will be [Music] day [Applause] oh [Music] how is [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] um [Music] so [Music] wow [Music] yes [Music] um help me [Music] i can't wait to have a birthday [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] so i feel very comfortable right now because nobody rushed so the pattern has been set never make a deal with another preacher we buried my son michael in 97 and henry fordham did his eulogy then we buried henry and sherry's daughter was it the next year 98 2003 bit longer well 79 nobody expects you to remember anything and i remember getting the call from hank we were on vacation carol and i and so this is your prayers i've spent the weekend in the hospital with my wife even the family doesn't know that had to rush into the hospital friday and uh carol has dementia and parkinson's disease so she had a spat and uh but anyhow he called carol and i we won vacation we rushed home so i could reside as pucky has done so well today about two months after that we were visiting henry was questioning me what it's like to bury a child and he was in deep grief about danny as you all know and in the process of the conversation we got to talking about our own demise and we came to the he said it first he said look if i pass before you will you do my eulogy i never thought about any such thing i go yeah if you do mine and i felt safe because i'm older than him but here we are i have some things to say today not here to entertain you or try to get you to shout or get happy this is too serious for that two good people covered by the blood of jesus have shockingly and unexpectedly and tragically gone to sleep we're jarred by it are you sitting there all whatever we are shaken by this when the phone rang on that early sunday morning and i heard joey who's like a son to me my immediate thing punch was that it was shanny that's what i call sherry because she'd been ill i said joe why are you calling me at three o'clock in the morning boy i said is your mama all right i couldn't make myself say well she did i just couldn't say that cherries she was my sister not my cousin and joy's response was uncle henry it's worse than that what do you mean and then he started sobbing he said both my parents are dead it took me out and we sobbed on the phone together as we adjusted to this new reality i want you to listen to me today for death is the unconquered foe of mankind without jesus and though we try to bear up under though we try to ease ourselves with thoughts it's not a person sitting in this room right now under the sound of my voice who does not have and i know we partially say i'm not afraid to die you're not being truthful with yourself death unnerves us see think about it think about it i want you to think of adam and eve perfect in form and stature they had no blisters no discomforts no anything heart rate perfect pulse perfect nose perfect eyesight perfect ear drums perfect feet perfect shape perfect face perfect lips perfect they were disgusting they were perfect you know i i've come to that i'm i'm at that old stage of life you know what that is you get my age uh jane you you live with the oh yeah you wake up in the morning and your wrist is not right oh you know i'm telling the truth are you walking you're walking and all of a sudden you get some something funny are you listening to me adam and eve had no oh stay with me stay with me stay with me they were perfect and when god said to them in genesis 2 and verse 17 i'm preaching now when he said to them when he said to them if you eat this tree you shall surely die how how do perfect people conceive of death you've never seen a heart failure you've never you've never you've never had a a stubbing of the toe never a pain never never a discomfort and somebody says if you eat you'll die and out of respect for god okay okay but in your mind you cannot grab that concept this is why you're listening to me this is why over the years mankind has been unable to accept the reality of death that's why we have makeup stories about its nature satan started it did he not did he not say you will not surely die but god it says the day you eat thereof and i find that interesting he said tommy in the day and the day do you know that ii peter says the day with god is like a thousand years and no human being has ever lived a thousand years somebody's thinking in the day everybody born has died in the day nobody has ever lived beyond the day is anybody thinking and listening and so the egyptians they filled their graves with stuff for the afterlife which did not exist and and and this race and that culture came over the with came up with other ideas about the nature of death because because even after sin even after adam and eve held in their arms can you can you imagine how they felt looking at the first dead body it was their son his name was abel and now the reality sets in people can cease to exist quickly unexpectedly unannounced it can happen the fire can take place the car can crash the boat can sink the gun can go off and that person you ain't suffered with last night is not at the table the next night and they will not be just stay with me i'm going somewhere when god bent over adam and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life on that day on that day god saw this day and knew that everybody from those in this orchestra to those in the choir to those in the family to those guest speakers god knew when he made adam you would be here today and therefore henry and sherry's death is for you do you have a text all sermons should have a text that's what they taught me in homiletics and the text as soon as the brother said look henry we want you to do this the lord put me here i've never deviated from this text in the year in the year that king uzziah died hey calm down henry i saw the lord now now now jesus made it clear in john that the dead are asleep not conscious it's a comforting thought i i know it's a comforting thought to think that the person we've lost is in in heaven looking down on us i don't i don't knock that it's not biblical i don't knock that i understand that but jesus said they're asleep now think about it i don't know about you but at 79 i'm 79 at 79 sleep is a good idea you know i i've become as i've gotten older the bed i love the bed can i get it with this out there i love the bed the bed and god knew that sin would drain us use us gut us deny us rob us and we've reached the point in fact be honest sometimes the most exciting part of the day is when and you're at my age you go to bed early in nine i'm in y'all don't call me after nine i'm in i'm getting the rest the rest the unconscious peace that god allows a human mind and a human soul when the body can revive itself i'm going to give them rest you see i'm going to get lazarus i'm going to wake him up and the dumb disciple said but he's dead jesus said okay you don't get it yes he's dead but i'm going to wake him up because sleep is that unconscious rest of peace that jesus gives the saints it does not threaten him it does not intimidate him because he carries on his belt buckle the keys hey to death and hell and so when he wants to wake you up he can do that no big deal for him he just gives you rest he does not want me going to sleep and then straight to heaven and then watching you in misery and if i go before carol and she marry somebody else it's going to be a hard time in heaven and have no peace up there i'm making you smile purposely you need to understand how practical god is death's function is to give you rest from this life that we're living it's a it's a hard life and even those who have billions and millions have you noticed when they die where is the money it's in somebody else's hands see the only thing that you take to the grave that's of any value is your connection with the life giver are you listening to me and so the lord uses your life and your existence to keep calling you back to the fact that he's the source of your life without him you can do and be nothing therefore the only purpose of life on earth hey let me say it the only purpose of life on earth right now is to prepare for eternal life let me say that again the only purpose for life on earth is to prepare for eternal life how do you do that connection with the life-giver the eternal one the one who's always been this is why we get upset about death but god is so calm he always says to us in fact he don't said to paul tell those thessalonians i don't want them to be ignorant concerning those who are dead at the at the last trump those who are dead shall rise up i have a trumpet that has the power to manipulate molecules and bring them back into place no matter where they have died and they shall come forth mortal having put on immortality corruption now devoid of corruption and full of incorruption i can do that with the trumpet we don't need to lie about death they're dead so then why did you read isaiah 6 1. see if you read the text you ought to say something about the text [Applause] homoletics 101 in the year here's the first option of that see my family you donovan you sean you joy bonds tommy and brian you brothers my buddies we'll never forget july 18 in the year listen to me every death that affects your life has a date and that date is a mark on your calendar and in that moment you pause from the rat race you look to see what's happening you re-evaluate your status and existence do you not you cannot shake it that's why god lets it happen the way it does so that death is the one it's the one thing that will make you stop don't sit here pious today you know when you heard about it you pause and ask yourself had that happened to me would i have been ready you know you did it god knew you would do it death is personal king oziah in the day july 18 the king of zia sherry and henry death is personal you've lost a sister you've lost a mother you've lost a father you've lost a cousin you've lost a brother you've lost a friend you've lost a president god listen to what the pastor was saying god arranges these absences in your life at particular points in your life because he knows that particular absence will affect you for the rest of your life we can't shake this one it's been three weeks and i don't know where you are i'm just just shaken today as i was on the 18th it's just as surreal to me now victor as it was that morning three o'clock when joey called me oh um the title homiletics the title of my remarks is what do you see help me in the day that king josiah died would you see isaiah i saw the lord now you've got to read the rest of the text he sees the lord high lifted up sees the angels crying holy holy holy father son of the ghost holy holy holy earth is full of their glory and then watch the pastor having seen the lord he suddenly feels unholy see the purpose of death is to give you a brutal self evaluation something about losing a loved one close you stop lying to yourself in those first immediate moments think with me in those first immediate moments you start doing a self-evaluation that is true that is brutal you you you you stop telling yourself the lies and in that moment you see like like isaiah you see yourself as you really are and you don't like what you see is anybody listening to me you do not like what use god wants you in the light of the loss of these two people he wants you to pause and ask yourself some serious questions questions you cannot evade and the question is very frankly are you ready what's still going on that shouldn't be going on i i i don't preach eulogies i preach homilies at funerals funerals are about the dead but they are for the living we can't sing enough songs we can't read enough obituaries we can't tell enough anecdotes to change anything about them it's signed and sealed and thank god because of the life they lived we know when the trumpet blows they're coming up no question about that we don't have to dwell on that the question now is what about you well it doesn't stop there it doesn't stop there i'm undone i've seen the king see when you so when you compare you when you compare yourself with henry wright you can come out looking pretty good but when you compare yourself with jesus do you come up short you know you do you come up way short and you find yourself saying on my own i can't make it so look what happens verse 6. i'm almost done y'all verse six then one of the seraphim flew to me having his hand alive cold verse six which he had taken with the tongues from the altar verse 7 and he touched my mouth with it and said behold this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah you see the whole purpose of this moment is for you to face the fact that when you do the self-evaluation and you come up short you don't have to sit here and worry because jesus has paid it all we're all covered we're all kept we're all claimed we're all sold and and and sealed and ready and kept because the purpose of death is to open your eyes to the need of jesus and jesus saves jesus has paid it all we can leave the funeral not worried about our status it's been covered everybody here has been covered by the blood of jesus christ [Applause] everybody so i'm crying but i'm covered i'm hurting hey but i'm covered i'm gonna miss him but i'm covered i wish i could change july the 18th can't do that but one thing i can claim is i'm covered hey turn to somebody right now tell them i'm covered no more death no more pain no more sorrow no more sickness going to put marshals out of business and every other mortuary thank god for them but thank god for the day we will not need them and you know what they're going to be just as happy as we are and then god did a very strange thing he not only said no more death he said time shall be no more why does he eliminate time and death because the main purpose of time will smith is to tell you how much time you have before you die so since you ain't gonna die no more you don't need no clocks no more i wish somebody would give god some praise right now [Applause] i i love them so much when um when my wife was diagnosed with parkinson's on top of the dementia last summer i called channy i was sitting in my den and i was sobbing like a child i called channy i said shanny i need to cry and snooki no she said i'm listening and she let me cry she just sat there at the phone chris and she let me cry and then she said are you finished i said yeah i think i'm gonna be all right she said henry it's gonna be all right and she said if you need to cry some more just call me when she got sick with the brain cancer i called your daddy i said hank how you doing and he just opened up his heart to me and we shared frustrations dealing with sick spouses i got done talking to him he said henry thank you can i call you again sometime well i won't get that call but on that great getting up morning you're gonna have two preachers standing by two of the finest women you ever laid eyes on thank you uncle henry as we prepare for our recessional we want to make sure that things can move as expeditiously as possible as our funeral directors are coming forward after our closing prayer we will have the congregation to be seated we'll ask for the family to remain standing our allegheny east conference pastors wives will be our flower ladies we'll be asking them to come gather our flowers and follow the funeral directors out our pallbearers we're asking you to assemble in the lobby now our pallbearers we're asking you to assemble in the lobby now after our flower ladies and our platform participants our family will recess we will ask the congregation to remain seated so that our recession can be as expeditious as possible we will receive the selection when the roll is caught up yonder as we are receding at this time i am inviting pastor s peter campbell to come and give our closing prayer [Music] [Music] oh as elder campbell is making his way our pallbearers are in the lobby our flower ladies will come next we ask that as we stand now for prayer that our congregation will be seated after prayer with the exception of the family our flower ladies will come first followed by our platform guests then our family will receive pastor s peter [Music] campbell [Music] shall we stand for our closing prayer [Music] let us pray almighty father and our god this cup of bitterness has been presented to us but we look forward to its mitigation by the resurrection the resurrection that is our hope we pray o lord that our bend our minds towards this reality we pray for all those who mourn today and help them to settle in the peace that jesus gives now bless us as we leave this place [Music] and be our protection guide we pray in jesus name amen if the congregation would be seated with the exception of the family our flower ladies will begin to come forward our platform participants will recess followed by our family our mass choir under the directorship of dr lloyd mallory when the role is called of yonder [Music] me so [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] is thank you [Music] right now [Music] yes [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] boom is [Applause] uh is is [Music] [Music] [Music] so thank you meatballs [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you ask how much i need you must i explain i need you oh my darling my roses need rain you ask how long i love you i'll tell you until the 12th of never i'll still be loving you [Music] never let me go [Music] [Music] forget to bloom i'll love you till the clover has lost its perfume [Music] run out of until and that's a long long time until long time all the world is mine the moon the stars that shine this is what he's done for me if i just kneel and pray and let him lead the way [Music] he showers me with love divine and gives me peace [Music] is [Music] everything everything everything oh what joy to know that he has loved me so that he wants to share with me his glorious home his wealth his immortality precious thought how can it be i know it's true [Music] the world belongs to me all the world is [Music] [Music] joy to know that he has loved me so that he wants to share with me [Music] his glorious home his wealth his immortality precious thought how can it be yet i know it's me true in my heart soon i will be done in trouble of the [Music] will be done [Music] with gold number [Music] i'm [Music] [Music] is [Music] is to leave with my love there's a steel small voice closer closed captioning me [Music] everyone i may close to here closer closer all night [Music] with me [Music] me every message but if i can just close to here closer closer how many steps how many friends will i lose [Music] times when i face temptation so many times only one step away how shall i choose step aways holy unto him one step away one step how shall i choose [Applause] [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] sweet [Music] say [Music] me [Music] wow [Music] thank god [Music] hallelujah you know i've been blind oh but now i can see [Music] [Music] you know i am [Music] hallelujah you know it was great [Music] you brought your child [Music] lord you brought me [Music] lead me [Music] [Music] [Music] do you know do you know what's great [Music] hallelujah thank you and i know your grace [Music] [Music] please [Applause] is though he will live to me or it has a place in history sure he died to me till by faith i met him face to face and i felt the wonder of his grace then i knew that he was more than just [Music] [Music] helping me then one day i met him face to face and then i knew that he was more than just a god who didn't care [Music] helping me to find the way [Music] day i have a spring of joy and time that feels too overflowing and sometimes when you see me crying my happiness is showing my heart isn't heavy every time 100 is the reason for my happiness is easy to explain my heart 100 is if i can help somebody if i can cheers [Music] he is [Music] me after my my messages and my living shall not be in bed [Music] somebody is i'm on my way home um what's up dude thank you are you gone all right back now i have it assistant oh foreign um okay oh uh jesus uh nice yes uh oh oh this is oh all right uh it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body behold i show you a mystery we shall not honestly in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump but the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the same and it's written death is followed up and oh death where is this where is thy victory sing of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to god giveth us the victory to our lord you're so appreciative he said in um warriors yes uh okay with at this spot now are two unseen angels assigned aside first face it's not the face of jesus face of the guardian ancient let us pray our father we thank you for the unseen stand here now not just the sorry angels of these two those angels get aside because those of us who remain we understand better than we do what has happened to you yeah but with anxious arcs they await the day when they will gather us all together and so lord we thank you and we commit these unto you and by the grace of god and the promises of his word that have never been broken these two shall break forth in the fullness of duty the pastor just read it corruption becomes incorruption puts on immortality lord we cannot wait we cannot wait we ate to see it we want to be a part of it bless us this day hold us up we're still hurting lord we won't lie to you we're still hurting hold us up keep us warm and whatever lessons we need to learn from this sorrow may the promises made out do the sorrow experienced in jesus name amen as much as god is infinite love and wisdom have permitted our dear father mother grandfather grandmother great grandfather great grandmother cousin uncle aunt to fall asleep in christ we do tenderly commit their bodies to the ground earth's earth ashes to in the sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection hallelujah when the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a out the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of god and these dead in christ shall surprise you and we who are alive and so shall we ever be with them each other before we turn our internment into the hands of our funeral directors i'm going to invite joey to come forward at this time and to give words on behalf of brothers bruh uh and i know i'm not alone i need to go back it's hard but i'm standing amongst the feeling i know lord took kept the brothers of china well the lord in taking my parents decided that we needed something to get the people that we did not yet had but everybody ever because that every member of the alligator conference there's a lesson here that we have mercy and my parents to make sure we recognize that lesson when it comes for everybody the greatest conference they were there at every turn come here man because there's not a day that went by that in some form another my father did not mention his his thanks and gratefulness of having he there to hold up his hands and me and the brothers just felt at peace knowing me man not available so that's about all i have to say i just wanted to thank everyone involved and and helping just stuff stuff now just sir so don't forget us keep us in your prayers give us the occasional call hey just thinking about it believe me we'll leave because now that the services are over we're going to go back to their normal lives we are now thanks for a song was cut from the service you're going to do that song now that's all down for the right to anybody else who knows the song okay we're outside for acoustic shots all right somebody [Music] is [Music] um oh [Music] um please wow [Laughter] um oh today [Music] uh um hello amazing in this very moment i'm standing here remember that remember that because the business i'm i stand here their ministry thank you they are today all right okay oh hmm uh uh how hard first all right yes hello she needs our attention uh we all traveled here in funeral procession although broken at times um please be mindful please travel carefully and if by chance on the way here you'll receive any type of a red light citation feel free to bring it to any of the march locations and we will give you the documentation that you need to excuse that that is just for today once again we appreciate our large funeral directors this concludes our services we do have a repass taking place at the emanuel greenville seventh-day adventist church let's buy our heads together those that need tickets for emmanuel brinkleo please meet at the rear of the tent diane and robin will be happy to give you those teams any other announcements okay let's buy our heads together dear heavenly father thank you for these lives thank you for your promise thank you for the blessed assurance in the name of jesus we pray amen you

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Published: Sun Aug 08 2021