Capt. Billy’s (My Daddy’s) Old Net

Yesterday, I was having a tender season in my soul, yes, I was missing my Daddy, Capt. Billy. 

After our glorious circuit-riding journey for 16 days in our Four Winds RV from eastern PA to southern New Jersey — twice — we are at our home office for a few days to refresh, reload and relaunch back into the harvest fields. 

I went to pray in my garage for a while and remembered I had one of my Daddy’s old nets, a shrimp try-net, folded in the corner by my workbench. I went over and grabbed it up and hung the net from the rafters. It was therapy for my deepest being. 

After hanging the old shrimp net, with the trawl doors, green webbing and tickler chain, I checked the tail-bag and realized the knot tied there by my Dad was still tight after many years of storage. 

You see, my Dad never trusted anyone but himself to tie the end of his net, the tail-bag, because it always broke his heart to lose the catch, to let the harvest from the sea get away, because of negligence or incompetence. By far, Capt. Billy, was the best net-tail-bag-knot-tier ever known to fishermen on the planet. 

As a pastor, I am somewhat like my Dad, in that, I don’t want to lose the harvest. For Dad it was seafood; for me it is souls. 

For those who partner alongside me, I pray there will not be negligence or incompetence when it comes to the details of “fishing” for a harvest of the eternal souls of men, women, boys and girls. God forbid. 

Note: A try-net, is a small net pulled in front of the big nets and is pulled up and checked every few minutes as an indicator of the shrimp being caught in the big nets. 

Dad’s shrimp try-net now hangs from the rafters of my garage. 

The final knot my Dad tied in his try-net, tail-bag. 

Dad emptying a tail-bag full of a sea harvest in The Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, 2001.

Presence Matters Most!

That is... Presence. Unity. Souls. Love.

Pastor Kerry Willis