In memory of Len

Today was Len's memorial service. Two ministers and the founder of Mission 911 spoke about Len, with the last speaker urging us to pass on the baton/message that Len so enthusiastically lived. In fact, each family was given a new racing baton to make this more concrete to each of us. (When I'd arrived at the church and was sitting sometimes in prayer, I wondered what the church did with these two large baskets on either side of the center lectern--each piled with batons.)

When Len and his family lived in Chicago, they volunteered through their church to help with mission trips to the Navajo reservations in AZ and NM. Since moving to Corpus Christi about five years ago, Len worked with the Community of Shalom and Mission 911.

This is what Len Hall wrote in 1994 after his first mission trip:

We are back. Were we gone? Yes, and we carried home some of what we left on the Reservation --seeds of Christian love.

What we learned, we learned together! What we taught, we taught together. Teamwork. On God's team. How we labored is NOT the monument, not the gallons of paint or new lumber on the outhouse. Do not judge or measure this Mission. Our calendars and our yardsticks are inappropriate.

Just get ready to go back, or to send another in your place. Those seeds will need watering and weeding, both here and there.

Lord, help me to be a sower AND a seed for Navajo Mission II; keep me from being rocky ground.

Most of all, today I learned how Len was a friend to whomever he met, showing God's love.

Somehow, reading Matthew 25:31-46 with the passing on of Len's baton to each of us fits this man's life and memory.