“O My Help, Come Quickly to My Aid!”

When I was discharged from the 2nd Marine Air Wing in August 1976 after four years enlistment as a Navy Corpsman, Kay and I along with Lillian, who was a year old at the time, returned to Florida where it was my mission to complete the necessary undergraduate requirements, with Kay’s help, before I could begin Seminary. We had arrived in Beaufort in the summer of 1974 and were assigned enlisted housing at the air station. We found our first year to be lively and fun. One cannot help but get used to loud noise when you live so near to the end of an air strip. Our neighborhood was close, too. Neighbor looking after neighbor and sharing yards and children for playtime. It was a tight-knit community where everyone knew the person next door, and helped one another when a spouse was deployed.

Before Lillian entered the world, Kay would drop me off at the medical clinic at 6:30 am. While I was running my 3 miles and working during the day, Kay was driving back and forth from the Holy City, Monday through Friday, to finish her degree in elementary education at the College of Charleston. On the night she graduated, I was on location for training at the Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM. Such is military life and having to adjust to separation when it may not be timely or convenient for the family. I have always considered myself blessed and fortunate to have Kay. Always understanding and supportive, and never lamenting or complaining.

Returning to Florida, we lived in Inverness (named after Inverness, Scotland) where we could be near to family and friends. Lillian would accompany her mother during the workweek on a 17 mile drive to Crystal River, a small town located on the gulf coast where Kay taught in an elementary school.  Through the week, I lived with an aunt and uncle while I attended classes at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, 90 miles away. The salary for elementary school teachers in the 70’s was minimal (not that it’s anything to brag about today.) Kay played the organ for her home congregation at the First United Methodist Church to supplement her income while I worked at a local funeral home on the weekends to supplement my monthly check from the G. I. Bill. As you can imagine, it wasn’t much but it was well earned and we were grateful.

All these years later, I remember the Monday morning when I caught a Greyhound bus to Florida Southern for a week of classes and left Kay and Lillian with little food in the refrigerator and only $19 in our bank account. If my check from the G. I. Bill was on time, it was scheduled to arrive in the mailbox Wednesday afternoon. My spirit was very low. It was not a good feeling leaving one’s wife and child with hardly any food and so little money. But this is what happened. Surprisingly and unexpectedly, Kay and Lillian received invitations for supper on Monday and Tuesday nights, and the check was delivered in the mail on time! Thanks be to God!

I share this story because I am aware of friends and neighbors in our community who have already lost their jobs and are frightened by their pending financial insecurity  It was reported last week that a megachurch pastor in South Florida who lives in a majestic home and enjoys a wealthy lifestyle, a person I shall refrain from naming, encouraged her congregation to give their money to the church before they paid their mortgages and other bills. In this time of anxiety and uncertainty, please know that the work and ministry of Sea Island is conducted for the sake of Jesus Christ and to the Glory of God. Your pastoral and program staff, Session Council, Board of Deacons, Stephen Ministers and other groups are here to serve and not to be served.

As we look to the future, I am very much aware of the loss of wealth and the financial consequences for those out of work, people who live from paycheck to paycheck. As your pastor, I think it important to share with you that I know what that stress is like along with the fear and insecurity it perpetuates. It is my fervent prayer that the coronavirus will soon be eradicated and that it will not resurface; that we are able to return to normal as soon as possible; that all of us will be able to land on our feet and find ourselves mentally, emotionally, financially and spiritually stronger for what we have experienced and passed through.

In recent years, I have followed the wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who believed it was critically important to read and pray the Psalms. Jesus did just that on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Also included in the Psalm are the words, which help frame our prayer for tonight, “O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!” May we continue our effort to remain calm in a time of distress, extend compassion to those who are suffering, and pray for the healing of the world. Stay safe! Stay well! Good night and may the peace and security of Christ Jesus be with you!

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Steve Keeler, Pastor