On All Saints Sunday, we showed a wonderful video in worship featuring some of the great saints of St. Luke’s. These were all people who have entered God’s eternal kingdom. It brought back great memories of folks who I have loved and worked with in past years.
One of them was Fred Bucklin. Fred died a little over a month ago after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. It was a courageous fight as he endured a difficult surgery/recovery and lots of chemotherapy. Fred had many reasons to live. He had a wonderful family, many friends and he loved his church and the chance to serve.
I know Fred regretted he was not able to beat this terrible cancer, but he had no regrets about the type of life he lived. Fred’s life was about serving others. It was about putting other’s needs above his own and it was about kindness. Fred had been a leader on our St. Luke’s Congregational Care Ministry or CCM for short. Fred was never too busy to go and visit someone in the hospital or take a meal to someone.
I knew about many of the people Fred was caring for through the assignments we made each week for all the lay members of our Care Team but I was really amazed at all the folks I didn’t know about that Fred had touched. I was privileged to help lead the service in which we celebrated Fred’s life. Before and after the service I got to talk to many of the people who came to say goodbye to Fred. Every one of them had a story about some kindness that Fred had done for them or others. I begin to wonder how many hundreds of people had Fred blessed? Fred was not the sort of person who would have spent a lot of time thinking about all the people he cared for. It was just something he did. It was something he believed as a person of faith he was called to do daily.
Fred was also one of our persons involved in our At Home ministry in which St. Luke’s members make regular visits to our shut-ins. When one of those persons whom Fred visited was told he had died she was sad but not surprised. Fred had shared some about his illness. He had mentioned he hoped to live a lot more years but realized that might not be the case. He said he wasn’t afraid to die. He had lived a good life with many blessings, many friends and lots of wonderful memories. No regrets there.
I will miss Fred for so many reasons and he can’t be replaced. I however believe that as one person leaves us that God is faithful to send us another who can be a care giver, who can share immeasurable kindnesses with a hurting world. Who will that be? I don’t know. Just maybe, that person is you.
Rev. Dave Poteet, Pastor of Congregational Care
