I met a guy last Wednesday while our College group was volunteering at
LifeSource in
Fayetteville. While we were arranging tables for a garage sale, we were talking about people we both knew and places we had both been.
Sign Post: Side thought
I am a
NWA Native, and as a Native Arkansas, I have connections that people who have just moved here don't have. Like I can show you were I went to School at, I can look at a
building and say "I remember when...". Priceless stuff, But one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to my
NWA heritage is my grandpa. I call him Papa most people spell it Papaw but I was never good at that stuff.
Papa is a great man, he loves people like no one else.
He just turned 81 and is still volunteering at
St. Mary's Hospital as a Chaplin. In his younger days, He was the pastor of
First Baptist Church, Rogers, AR and after that he was the very first "Chicken Chaplin" at Hudson Foods (now owned by Tysons) where he was able to work with and care for the working class whom he has a passion for.
Papa once told me this and I tell everyone I can.
"Get all the education you can get, forget half of it, and LOVE PEOPLE".
Sign Post:Back to the story
As we were talking, he asked me my last name and he asked me if I was related to Dean
Newberry, I of course said I was. He
began to tell me how my Papa is a great man. I asked more about how he had met him and he said this:
"I was taking a class at the U of A and in my
marketing class for some project I went to Hudson foods and while I was there I met him."
That was it. He met him for just a couple of minutes and 20 years later he remembers him and says good things about him.
I love my Papa and I hope that I can love people as much as he does. And then someday I will be able to make a positive impact on someone just by meeting them. Can you imagine.
Shine on,
Tim
