I won't see you at church tomorrow, because I am in North Carolina honoring the couple pictured here, on the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Walter and Mary Lynn Porter were the young, energetic Baptist campus ministry leaders at Valdosta State University in 1966 when they volunteered to direct a summer missions work camp for fourteen college students from eight different campuses. The location was the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, and the goal was to build a new facility for a Cherokee congregation that had outgrown its one-room wooden building. It was a powerful summer for each of us.
That was when Linda and I met. I loved her work ethic and humor; maybe she liked my paint-spattered face. For nine years we were not on the same continent long enough to get married. 
By the grace of God, this is what the church looked like at the end of our eight week adventure. Bethabara Baptist Church still worships there, but they have added an expansion and a beautiful face lift to the front since that long-ago summer. In 2006, nearly all of us were able to return for a reunion, and it was a thrill to worship in this building again. But this week end we gather a the home of one of our members (we call ourselves "the chillun") in Asheville, North Carolina, specifically to honor Walter and Mary Lynn. They blessed us in many ways, and it is a joy to be able to tell them so this week end!
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