My Dad's New Joy-Description at Age 70.

A PRICELESS STORY WORTH YOUR PRECIOUS TIME. I PROMISE.

My Dad, Billy, has been working on the water in and around The Graveyard of the Atlantic Ocean all of his life. Fishing, crabbing, scalloping, and mostly shrimping has been his livelihood. Old Salty would properly define him. Now at age 70, because Dad's retirement fund never really got funded, he's got a new job-description. (Most all of the commercial fishermen along the North Carolina coastline have experienced less than overflowing nets, especially over the past 20 years or so.) About that new job-description? Dad would see it more as His new joy-description. Yes, my Dad is now working twelve-hour-a-day shifts on a ferry boat for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Though he's been a boat captain of his own vessel for more than thirty years, he now goes back to being a deckhand and an engine oiler -- both servant-jobs he performed everyday of his life, even while he was captaining his own shrimp boat. My Dad has been and continues to be the very definition of a servant leader. That's one reason he's a hero of the faith to his family.

Well, recently Dad shared a story as our family of fifteen had gathered at the water's edge to celebrate Dad and Mom's 5Oth Wedding Anniversary. Dad's story was about a boy named Jesse.

The story began with Dad loading vehicles for a ferry boat passage across the channel, when he saw an over-sized van pull onto the deck. A severely handicapped boy was riding as a passenger. When the van stopped and the ferry pulled away from the dock, Dad watched from the cabin window as the boy's father unloaded his son in an electric wheelchair to sit on the deck and watch the coastal scenery during the half-hour crossing.

Dad stood at a distance as long as he possibly could, but he's never been good at posing as an innocent bystander. He likes to get involved once he senses permission from the Holy Spirit to do so. So Dad made his way out towards the father-and-son duo. After friendly introductions and careful questions, Dad learned that the boy, who looked to be seven or eight, was actually fifteen. Yes, his name was Jesse, and though he was severely handicapped physically, he had complete mental capacities. Jesse could only control his body basically from the neck up. He was bent and totally dependent on his father for pretty much everything except breathing and talking. It broke my Dad's heart.

Dad elevated the conversation with Jesse by beginning to talk prayerfully about Jesus and a place of total healing called Heaven. Dad gently reminded Jesse about the great day coming when he would have a new body, a day when physical pains and human limitations would be things of the past. Jesse was encouraged by Dad's words and agreed wholeheartedly with Dad's forecast of hope. Jesse, indicated that he knew life would be more than wonderful for him soon enough. Dad, touched deep within, went back into the cabin, all the while keeping a close prayerful watch on Jesse and his dad.

Inside the ferry boat, Dad kept thinking on something Jesse's father had said earlier. Yes, Jesse and his dad were actually making their once-a-year trip on the ferry. Each year Jesse asks to make the ferry boat ride --thirty minutes one-way and then to make the return across the channel, to the mainland where he lives. Jesse's father told Dad that his dear boy just loves sitting on the deck in his wheelchair. Obviously, it is like medicine to his soul.

Finally, Dad said to the Lord, "I think I might be able to make Jesse's day." With that declaration, he went back to the deck and knelt down beside Jesse's wheelchair once again and asked: "Jesse, do you like ice cream?" Jesse gave Dad a big grin and said, "I think I do! I love ice cream, Mr. Billy!" Dad showed Jesse a five-dollar-bill and handing the cash to Jesse's dad said, "Jesse, I know there's a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Shoppe on the journey back to your hometown. When you and your dad pass by, I want you to stop and have a big, ice cream sundae on me." You guessed it! Dad was right. Jesse's day was made, indeed! His countenance was invigorating proof. Yes, Jesse's day was made by a silver-haired, should-be-retired-by-now (by this world's standards for success) boat-captain who took on the saintly joy-description of a deckhand and engine oiler at the age of 70. Could it be that being refired beats being retired?

As Dad walked back toward the cabin, Jesse's dad tenderly called out gratitude something akin to: "Thanks Mr. Billy. You'll can't possibly know how much encountering you on this two-way, ferry boat ride today means to Jesse and me." I know the feeling was mutual. You see, in making Jesse's day? Jesse, Jesse's dad, and especially Jesus had made Mr. Billy's day, too.

At the end of his story, my Dad was weeping big tears, and so were the rest of us listening around the table. Then Dad spoke to us his secret. "Each day when I wake up, I tell God the same thing. 'Today don't let people see Billy. Let them see Jesus in Billy.'" I'd say God is answering my Dad's daily prayer. Wouldn't you?

A vast crowd was there as He (Jesus) stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them... -- Matthew 14:14 (NLT)

Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men". -- Mark 1:17 (NKJV)

For this is the secret: Christ lives in you... - Colossians 1:27 (NLT)

Dad still has his shrimp boat, The Lady Melba. It's tied up at the dock most days in the Refuge Harbor on the west end of Harkers Island, North Carolina. My guess is, that Dad will probably wet his shrimp nets a time or two again before the Lord calls him home. But right now God has him witnessing on the ferry boat. Life is good, even without early retirement funds. My Dad, Mr. Billy (still "Captain Billy" to most of the people who know him best) is invigorating proof of that.

*A 2006 YouTube clip of my silver-haired Dad scalloping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnOoEN3OzA

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful