As the pastor, I sometimes have the blessing and the burden of knowing certain things before they go public. I have known since before Christmas that Dave and Sue Marsh would be leaving HBC and heading west to be nearer to their children and their grandchildren. Since that time, there hasn’t been a day that I did not wish they would reconsider, that the Lord would change their minds, that their kids would all suddenly receive transfers back east.. When you have that long to get used to something, it doesn’t always hit you. The early announcement of Dave’s resignation coupled with the the fact that Dave and Sue have continued to minister faithfully to our children and young families even as their departure became more imminent pushes it even further from the forefront of one’s mind.
Last week, though, it hit. As the work week came to an end for us in the church office, the reality set in that this week would be the last week to work with Dave in this ministry and in the church office each day. I’m really going to miss Dave. Truth be known, after all these years of ministry I have found that I always miss staff members, some because of how good they were at their jobs and others in spite of the frustrations they often caused the rest of us who worked with them. Dave is a good one.
Two years ago, when his resume came across my desk for the very first time, I knew that this was a man that, at least on paper, loved the Lord and loved people. After working day-by-day with Dave and Sue for the last year-and-eight-months, I know that it was more than just on paper. So, I want to take a moment in a blog I seldom write to talk about the phenomenal blessing that the Marshes have been to me, my family, and this church.
On the day they arrived (we were moving out of the parsonage, and they were moving in), Cassidy (seven at the time) was just home from school and needed to do homework, but all of our furniture was already gone. As Dave and I began to walk through the house and talk a little, Sue sat down on the floor with Cassidy and began helping her with her homework. Here we are so many months later, and just yesterday I heard a mom talking about Sue helping her child prepare for the CRCT tests going on in the public schools this week. From art lessons to tutoring, from summer trips to game nights here at the church, Sue Marsh has ministered so personally and lovingly to our children (yours and mine) – and I am so thankful for her and her heart for kids. It is always great to hire a good church staff member – it is a double blessing when you hire one with a spouse like Sue, a true partner in the work.
I hope you have had the opportunity to get to know Dave like I have. Our children love and respect him, as do we all. I cannot sum up in a blog what this man means to me. He has been to me a gifted minister, a trusted colleague, and a faithful friend. I simply have not known of a task, great or small, that Dave has not tackled with enthusiasm and a servant’s heart. He has, as we all do in church work sometimes, kept late hours at hospitals while one of you was sick, shared in memorial services for our church family members, cooked hot dogs, moved furniture (only to move it back an hour or two later), cleaned toilets (that’s in neither of our job descriptions), prayed with children, loved broken families back to health, baptized new believers, grieved over prodigal children and prodigal parents, served the homeless, chaperoned teenagers to camp, and taught the Word of God with conviction and clarity. For all of that, and so much more, I am grateful. With my parents both ill and hospitalized multiple times over the last year, I have had to call on Dave to cover for me in one way or another several times. He always cheerfully agrees to do whatever needs to be done, and then he goes above and beyond and does even more! He has ministered to and cared for this pastor as a pastor, as well as as a friend. God has given me a great blessing in Dave Marsh. He is everything that I think of when I think of someone being a Christian! His love for Jesus spills over into every single aspect of his life. His love for his wife and children and grandchildren is matched only by the way he loves all of us, our spouses, our children, and our grandchildren. I could go on and on…
I know I am not telling any of you anything that you did not already know about Dave and Sue. But many of you do know and understand that in ministry we deal with difficult situations, spiritual warfare, and heartache (many times with some of you) that no one else gets to know about. May I just add to what I’ve already said that as I look back over the last twenty months of ministry together, through many of the most difficult moments Lee Anne and I have had allies in Dave and Sue, and I know that God gave us them to weather some of these battles together. I’m not sure I would have survived some of what the devil has thrown at me had it not been for the colleague he sent to serve alongside me.
Thank you for being a church that believes this ministry is eternally important. Thank you for allowing me the blessing of serving alongside such faithful men and women as have been part of our staff, past and present.
This weekend we’ll say farewell to Dave and Sue, I refuse to believe that it is “goodbye.” Instead, I just think that God is expanding HBC’s ministry to the Dallas, Texas, area, and we’ll celebrate across the miles all that God continues to do through Dave and Sue. We are so blessed… I pray they have and will feel the warmth, love, and gratitude we have for them. I love you Mr. Dave and Mrs. Sue!
