Grace Community Christian Church

 

Archived Things Above

Tribute to Bob Holstine (9/28/00)

It wasn't supposed to be this way.
On Sunday, September 17, Bob Holstine got up & headed for the shower to begin his day of teaching the Adult Sunday school class & worshiping at the Bux Mont Christian Church in Warminster, PA. He never made it to the church. By the time the final hymn had been sung, he was dead of a heart attack. My home church had lost its greatest missions champion; a warm & loving family had lost its father & husband; an overseas mission had lost its key human contact in the USA; & I had lost a good friend & long time encourager.

You may remember Bob sharing with us in May of '99 about the work in Myanmar (Burma). It was after that presentation that I was moved to invite myself along on the trip we just completed. Bob died less than two months after our return, & you can bet all the photos & video we shot now take on a special meaning that could not have been anticipated.

As sad an event as his funeral was, however, one constant quality kept popping up like the refrain to a song: Bob's life was well lived. As his preacher put it, "Bob was good because he had a good Savior." As one of you e-mailed me when you learned of his death, "He tithed with his life not just his checkbook." I can't think of a more satisfying epitaph. He walked his talk; he lived his creed; he put actions to his faith. Phrase it any way you like, truth is, God got hold of his life years ago & everybody knew it. Not because he browbeat them to death or papered the back of his car with obnoxious bumper-stickers, but because he cared about people.

He made countless trips with young people to visit Bible colleges. He was a stalwart sponsor at area youth conventions. He was thrilled in Burma to be able to purchase thousands of dollars of tuberculosis medicine, & even as he distributed it to needy preachers' families, he lamented that he couldn't do more. He quietly led a prayer & fasting revolution in his home church, not in any sense to puff himself up, but simply because he was convicted that the church's only power had to come from fully depending on God.

Right now, that's how those of us who knew & loved Bob are handling his untimely departure: depending on God. I'm sure he would have it no other way. Because you see, if God is Lord of our lives, then He's also Lord of the end of our lives. And that's the way it's supposed to be.

Hidden with Christ (& glad of it!),


Jim Dewar --