Person of Peace--Bob.

For anyone who's new to an area, particularly someone who is looking to start a faith community, it is important to meet an individual who can connect you to the greater community--to others. This is how you start to fit it and are allowed to begin forging new relationships. This person, by bringing you in closer, tells others that there is something trustworthy about you, that you're ok and that basically you don't have the social equivalent of the plague. For me, that person was Bob Maul. I had been in the Tri-Cities for maybe a month or two and knew next to no one. So, on a day I was having coffee with the one guy I did know, I was introduced to Bob, and suddenly found myself a few days later sitting in a scull learning how to row. What?! As I would come to find out, I was not the first person to find themselves deeply involved in a Bob-project.

But, I told Bob who I was and what I did and he was supportive from the word go. And as I worked to be a part of the Lawn Chair Film Festival, the Rowing Club and Christmas caroling, I got to know more and more people. And I started to become something of a part of that Saginaw community. And as that happened, began to form a small community with some of those individuals I met through Bob. And as our, as yet, nameless community got more organized and started worship, he gave us space under the loft that he and his wife Arlene shared. Bob was, for me, my person of peace; and when he passed last month, I had the honor of co-celebrating his funeral. And after seeing what must have been close to 500 people piling into the church, I realized that he was a person of peace to many more than just me.

So, from my corner of the world, this is my little thank-you to Robert Maul. And I know that I join many in missing him.