Reflections Upon The Death of My Partner in Crime

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Up early this morning, reflecting on my 30 plus years of deep friendship with a giant; a spiritual giant who finally laid down his "Elijah mantle" Sunday morning at 7:26. 

Beth, the "Little General," as he most lovingly referred to his helpmate, texted me and others around 8:00!

Kevin Frack and I first met one evening when he was visiting from Ohio, entertaining (no, praying through) the possibilities of moving his family down from Ohio, to pastor Ardmore Moravian Church.

As I recall, it was on a Wednesday, and he was to "try out" as a new preacher, but first had asked the church board to schedule meetings with other churches impacting the city of Winston-Salem.

I'm told that was a prerequisite for him?

Perhaps others on our staff were preparing for our own Wednesday night service, but being the more flexible of staff at First Assembly, then housed on University Parkway, and given it was near "quitting time", I had agreed to meet with this unfamiliar church board, and their new candidate.

We all gathered in our board room and I recall an awkward introduction to this tall but very fit young man named, Frack...strange last name I thought!

Their board explained his hesitancy at accepting the role without evidence of other potential collaborators with a vision for their city. 

I began to weep...for I had earlier begun privately entertaining the insane thought of leaving my staff role in order to launch out on my own, so as to better impact my home town in ways less often entertained by most churches.

My wife and young daughter had just three years earlier, finally settled in from our move from Lexington, where I was serving the school system with potential for retiring at age 50! 

We even had a new home under construction in Clemmons, though she had agreed to my chartering a side business called, Master Counsel, Inc.  It was a name the Lord spoke to me one night while I was sleeping. 

LaDonna got a little nervous that evening as I shared the thoughts released in my mind upon meeting with this new, visionary leader that perhaps God was bringing to our town.

We would soon become partners in "crime" whether it was bringing mega-pastor Greg Laurie to town through the late Big Stu Epperson or birthing an early childhood program with then Commissioner John Holleman Jr. in the Southside area. 

We called it, The Living Water Family Resource Center, and recruited a collaboration with five other major downtown churches by way of a new nonprofit Board called, First Start.

Then Frack stepped up to man the prayer room

at the Millennium Center for what would later became known as, Christmas for the City.

I also recall him awakening me early one morning in the Czech Republic; he had fixed breakfast for me in the apartment which he had arranged for our stay.  We would later stand and weep together in the historic remains of Bethlehem Chapel, where Jan Hus had ministered in the 15th century.   Then we prayed in the ancient but still maintained  prayer tower in Hernhutt, Germany where Moravians had fled the Hussite wars after Hus was burned at the stake.  They prayed there 24/7 for 100 years.  Some would later would settle in Salem, as in Winston-Salem!

What few knew, Kevin was a descendant of the original surveyors who had mapped out the land we now know as The Wachovia Tract.  Given that the first stake in the ground was on the Clemmons side of Muddy Creek, Kevin, myself then mayor, and a historian with Clemmons Moravian would later place a historical marker on Hwy 158!

Unlike many clergy, he could just as easily hop on a roof, repairing a large house purchased with a designation as a midstop for inmates returning to society.  In partnership with Goodwill Industries, it would later serve in the launching of the late Stephen Powell and his wife Michele Bryant Powell as Transformed Lives. Of course of late, many know him for his leadership in the New Canaan Society with Jay Helvey and others at River Birch Lodge.

Oh, I forgot to mention his full time role of late, as I recall the phone call from Kevin, seems he was entertaining the thought of an "interim" role with a relatively new church in Davie County called, Cornerstone.   How appropriate the name for my friend. 

He had earlier stepped down from Ardmore and would soon become full time pastor for that then struggling but now thriving congregation, serving there for over a decade until his recent challenges with cancer.

Oh, and I almost forgot, how we learned of his residual vision from days spent as an agricultural missionary in Nicaragua!  It was after a massive hurricaine had hit their coast, blowing down acres of mahogany and teak wood.  We then collectively launched a lumber mill under the name of Terre Verde.  Kevin would fly back and forth as CEO. 

I'll never forget the story as told by another partner, Robby Lee upon his first onsite visit.   He told of the quite hairy thought of driving into a blue tarped jungle like village, with Kevin singing kids songs from the back of a pickup truck, all in their native language, Mískitu!  I think that is a derivative of Mosquiti!  I was told of young kids popping up their heads from under the blue tarps...it was as if Jesus had arrived!

He wasn't green, but he was jolly, and a spiritual giant! 

Love you man, til we meet again.