Pastor Rob Olsen, family and congregation of Becker Baptist Church celebrated their 25th year together Sunday.
Words were exchanged, food was eaten, prayers were said and hugs were hugged.
Pastor Rob, we suspect, was doing most of the hugging.
Pastor Rob, we suspect, will always do most of the hugging.
He’s sort of a hugging guy.
We know for sure when he walks into the room, eyes gravitate towards him. A smile is sought. A smile is warmly tendered.
The Shepherd has entered - but it’s never about Rob - it’s about the joy he will share with the flock.
The warmth of his character is all about the Becker Community. Not to say other parsons don’t have their followings.
With Rob, there is a bright light, a light based in faith and love for his fellow men - and women - and children.
I suspect when God made Rob, he inserted a bright light bulb in his head. It’s an LED, for sure. It helps him show others the way.
And he’s done it well for 25 years in Becker.
Volunteers Everywhere
A most-fun part of our weekly newspapering is to catch up with the volunteers in our midst.
There are big volunteers - and medium - and small volunteers. Many of their deeds go unnoticed as we travel through this week of life.
And many of the volunteers would shun publicity, for they don’t do it for publicity - they do it because it makes them, and the recipients, feel good.
We’ve covered many stories in the past few weeks about volunteers within our community.
The Mounted Shooters, a 50-member cowboy mounted shooting organization, was in Clearwater recently to compete in the ring and raise money for good causes.
Three Becker and Monticello teachers organized a mid-summer STEM (Science, technology, engineering and math) symposium for kids in the two communities. Keeping the kids’ minds active through the summer is the cause, they said.
And then there was Adair Friedman of Becker, who made a long journey to Madagascar to preach about God’s love and give gifts through Operation Christmas Child shoebox.
You remember, she’s been doing this with family and other volunteers for the past several years in Becker - filling shoe boxes with gifts and necessary items to those around the world who would never have guessed someone loved them so much.
There is much good in our society. We love to bring to you the stories of voluntarism.
Because that’s the best of love - and life.
