"I GOTS MY JOY" thoughts about Rev. Billy Meek Jr.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."  (Psalm 116:15)

My dear friend the Rev. Billy Meek, Jr. passed from this world into Heaven on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 6:20 p.m. Central time.  I am having very mixed emotions about that!  Of course I rejoice that he has "crossed over Jordan" as his son wrote online.  But I truly loved Billy and for me this is a big loss.  I wish I could attend his funeral.  Since that will be many hundreds of miles away from me (in Tennessee) I think the next best thing I can do is write this eulogy online.  

I have given this a lot of thought.  Billy would not want me writing a piece about what a wonderful person he was unless I would tell about what the Lord Jesus Christ meant to him.  Many years ago, Billy received Jesus Christ as his Personal Savior and Lord.  He read the Bible regularly and practiced what he read.  He was sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit and walked in the Spirit.  God was everything to Billy.  That is what made Billy Meek, Jr. a great person!

I offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the Rev. Billy Meek, Jr. and to The Assembly at Hohenwald where he pastored for many years until just a few months ago.

I never met Billy in person, nor did I ever speak to him over the telephone.  Thus it may seem very strange that I'm describing him as a friend who was pretty close to me.  I got to know Billy somewhere around eighteen years ago on the old AOL Assemblies of God Message Board.  I not only would leave messages there but would also correspond by email with Billy and another pastor, Wade Martin Hughes from Kentucky.  In more recent years we all communicated a lot on Facebook.  A few years ago Billy posted that he loved Good 'n Plenty candy.  That didn't bring him too many positive comments, but I posted that I also love Good 'n Plenty!  I promised him that if I ever visited him in Tennessee, we'd share a box of Good 'n Plenty!  This morning I remembered that several years ago as he attended District Council in Clarksville, TN I posted a video of The Monkees' Last Train to Clarksville on Facebook in his honor.  He got a big kick out of that!

I went through some very difficult times over the past thirteen years or so.  During that time, Billy was always encouraging to me.  If I were to actually eulogize him at his funeral in person, I think I would stress that Billy was always a Faithful Friend to others and a Faithful Servant of God.

One day during the Autumn of 2020, a family member had posted online that Billy had become very seriously ill and that he might pass away.  I was at work at a call center job when I read that post on my phone.  I quickly signed off the computer, walked into the men's room, and broke down weeping.  In less than five minutes I asked God to work a miracle and please spare Billy's life.  At that time, God did exactly that!  I then began praying for Billy and his wife Pam every single day!

Billy was a great pastor and he led a great church there in Hohenwald.  I know the people of that church were very supportive and helpful to Billy during his time of ill health.  May God continue to richly bless that church!

There is so much more I could write about Billy.  I entitled this post, "I Gots My Joy".  Billy was constantly posting those words on Facebook.  In my own life I've often struggled with negativity.  So, Billy was a tremendous inspiration to me!  I want to be an "I Gots My Joy" kind of a guy!

His son Billy Meek III posted that he would carry on his father's Legacy.  God bless Billy III!  ALL of us who knew Billy Meek, Jr. in any way, let us ALL carry on his Legacy! And even any reader who did not know Billy Meek, Jr.  - well, now in a sense you do know him!  YOU carry on his Legacy, too!

A REAL CHRISTIAN

 "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."  (Matthew 10:42)

I heard from a truly wonderful person last night - A Real Christian - and I want to tell you about it.

The typical format of Assemblies of God churches has greatly changed over the past forty years or so.  It used to be that almost every AG church had Sunday School for all ages every Sunday morning, immediately followed by a Morning Worship Service which lasted about an hour.  The big service of the week was Sunday night.  In most churches, the Sunday evening event started at 7:00 p.m. and could last till 9:00 p.m. or in some cases even later.  These evening services were well attended, and where you'd be most likely to experience the Gifts of the Spirit such as Tongues and Interpretation or Prophecy and where it was not uncommon for people to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit or for just about any other wonderful spiritual experience to take place.

During the 1990s, attendance at Sunday night services began to drop, as did the supernatural events which took place during those services.  In some parts of the country AG churches still hold Sunday evening services, but in most of New England they disappeared entirely around 2005.  

At Bread of Life Church where Mary Ann and I actively attend, we have a once a month Sunday night time of fellowship.  It starts around 5:30 and ends around 7:00.  Last night was the April fellowship night.  There's a class for parents of kids who are mostly age 12 and under.  There's a Bible Study for other adults and teens. And, there's a special evening children's church during which Mary Ann really does a magnificent job ministering to what my Aunt Estelle would have called "the kiddos".

At last night's Bible Study, Pastor Gary focused on the Story of the Good Samaritan from Luke chapter 10.  We  spent time talking about "Wounders, Wounded, and Healers".  He did a great job teaching and facilitating the discussion.  Now, I opened talking about a truly wonderful person - A Real Christian; and that is what I want to share with you in this post.  I don't know she or her husband well.  I'd say they're about my age (I'm 68) and maybe just a tad older.  I don't want to use the woman's name.  I don't have her permission to do that, and she might not be comfortable with me using her name.  In the course of discussing being a "healer" to the "wounded", she humbly told us her story.  It was the story of ministering in a church on the west coast a number of years ago.  She's not a pastor or an evangelist or anything like that.  She's what most people would call, an ordinary Christian.  In fact, after what she shared, I'd say she's more of an extraordinary Christian.  She and her husband attended a small Assemblies of God church located near an Indian reservation.  (I guess today it might be called "A Native American Reservation".)  She led a Missionettes group in those days.  (Up until about fifteen years ago, Missionettes was the program for Girls sponsored by the Assemblies of God and available at most AG churches.  Today it's called "Girls Ministries".)  She said her Missionettes group was small.  I got the impression the girls were maybe around 12, 13 or 14.  She said most of them were Native Americans.  And, most of them came from homes where there was a lot of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and in some cases teenage premarital sex.  The woman said she tried her very best to minister to and help these girls.  You could tell she truly loved them.  She remembered that one night she went to the Missionettes meeting and one girl told her she'd tried to phone her a couple nights earlier.  The girl added, "I overdosed..."  As this dear woman told the story, she was fighting back tears.  She told of how the girls told her there were boys who wanted to attend Missionettes.  She informed them the boys really couldn't attend Missionettes because it was for girls only.  But she got a great idea.  She started a youth group in that church for both boys and girls!  "I'm not a youth pastor," she said, "I didn't know what I was doing, but I did what I could."

I'm almost getting choked up as I'm typing this!  The woman added that a number of years have now gone by.  Sometimes she does hear from some of those people she'd ministered to.  Sadly, a number have gone on to repeat the same cycle of alcohol and drug abuse and illicit sex, although some have not.  

So many times in evangelical churches we make heroes out of great singers and musicians (and please don't get me wrong, I love to hear great Christian singers and musicians) and we make a lot of pastors and teachers who can speak very well.  I can speak very well.  But I've never done anything as great as what I believe that dear woman did at that little church near the Native American Reservation!  She really made me stop and think.  In fact, she made such a big impact on me last night that I felt compelled to write this piece.

Many times we don't think we matter - we don't think we're very important - we don't think we make a bit of difference for the Kingdom of God.  When God calls us, often it's to something that's not glamorous or easy.  We may feel so inadequate.  But He just asks us to say "Yes, Lord" and to trust Him.

That's all.