I turned around twice, and it's already near the end of October again. I'm just now finishing my 2026 planner, and life is getting busy, BUSY, BUSY!!
Sadly, we are in the final stages of preparing for our Pastor's retirement dinner. He has been at New Jerusalem for 34 years. I remember the day he moved into the office, although I wasn't aware of that at the time. My grandmother had died, and her funeral was that day. Mom was the church secretary and would come to think of Randall Cauble as another of her children, although she never called him by his given name. That was, in her judgment, improper and disrespectful. She felt as comfortable sharing her thoughts with him as if he was one of us. There were many, many conversations between the two of them. Mom talking about her family - concerns about what we were doing, how we were doing it, and why didn't we just follow her directions. Him, talking about his family, worries about his mother when she was diagnosed with dementia, and the joy of discovering that he and Vicki were having twins after many years. Both of them discussing things going on in the congregation, and eventually, bigger concerns about the direction our denomination was taking. By that time, our family had moved back to Hickory, and we were members there.
Pastor has been with our family through many happy and sad times. He married our son & daughter-in-law, Dale and Raye Lynn. He baptized all of our granddaughters - and would have baptized our grandson, too, if he had not been out on disability at the time. He walked with us - Karen, Jamie, and me - through Mom's heart surgery, heart attack, stroke, and was with us at her death. He mourned her alongside us, and reminded us that she was in heaven and no longer in pain. I consider him and Vicki to be my brother and sister, just as much as the biological siblings I was given.
Sunday is his retirement dinner, although he has officially been retired for nearly a month. We will soon have a call committee, and our church will begin the arduous process of finding our next pastor. As much as I know this is natural and necessary, I dread the whole process. No one will ever replace Pastor Cauble in our hearts. And it seems so cruel that he is required to find another congregation and not stay with us. They are a part of our family, and I cannot imagine them not being there on Sunday mornings. Yes, this is a normal part of the process, and has gone on for a very long time, but it seems unnecessarily painful and cruel - both to us and to him and his family.
As usual, it is entirely too late, and I need to be heading to bed. Our new kitten even has enough sense to know that. He just came in to look at me with a question clearly written on his sweet face - "Mom, are you coming? Please?"
