Dear Wes: my story, HIS STORY, Our Story

By Roy Garren

The author's son, Wes, once commented that he wondered what had kept his dad so strong in his faith all these years. Dear Wes is an answer to that question. It begins with a compelling story of how he came to faith in my story. HIS STORY, what God is up to, is described by the author's pastor as a "fascinating read." Our St

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roy Garren
• Release date: Dec 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798987314517

Book preview

Dear Wes…my story, HIS STORY, Our Story

© 2022 by Roy Garren.

All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.​zonde​rvan.​com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Contact the author through d​earwe​s2022​@gmai​l.​com

Editing and proofreading: Lori Price, Grammar Fanatic Cover design and formatting: Carla Green, Clarity Designworks

I dedicate this book to my dear friend

Jim Selland

who went to be with his Lord and Savior

on March 12th, 2022

Without him, his friendship, and influence in my life,

there would not have been much of a

reason to write this book.

Thank you, Jim, for being such an incredible friend.

I look forward to the day

we will be reunited in glory.

To and for my son, Wes

Contents

‘til the End of My Time

Foreword

Introduction

PART ONE: The Story

Chapter One:   my story

Chapter Two:   HIS STORY

Chapter Three: Our Story

PART TWO: The Rest of the Story

Chapter Four:   A Biblical Worldview

Chapter Five:    The Word of God

Chapter Six:     The Good News (The Bridge Illustration)

Chapter Seven: The Assurance of an Eternal Relationship

Chapter Eight:  Spiritual Growth (The Circle of Growth)

Chapter Nine:  The Promise and the Blessing

Appendix A: Thoughts On Shame

Appendix B: Thoughts On Marriage

Appendix C: More from Vietnam

Acknowledgments

References

‘til the End of My Time

You tried to break through

I was not interested

I finally woke up

Our lives intersected

You touched my heart

You opened my mind

I invited you in

I was not left behind

Our lives have merged

Our stories perfected

Telling our tales

Will not be neglected

I’m to tell our stories

Both Yours and mine

To those who are listening

‘til the end of my time

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story

PSALMS 107:2

Foreword

I love hearing Roy tell his story of coming to faith. It so beautifully pictures the power of grace and truth to change one’s mind. I hope you are blessed in hearing it.

I love Roy’s zest for life. He’s always up for a new adventure, and one of the hardest workers I know. I hope you are inspired by it.

I love his continual quest to learn. Whether it’s learning a language, studying the Scriptures, or taking up the guitar again at eighty, he is undaunted. I hope you are challenged too.

And I love most of all that I know where he is early every morning…sitting at his desk, spending time with the Jesus he loves. I hope you love that too!

Deborah Garren

September 8, 2022

Introduction

It is the twenty-first of July 2020, and we are nearly four months into the COVID-19 pandemic. I turned eighty-one about the same time the pandemic started and have never felt more alive, more hopeful, or more excited about what the Lord may have in store for me in these twilight years. I have often thought I would like to write a book—who hasn’t?—but it has always seemed something of a pipe dream. What in the world would I write about? What do I possibly have to say? It seemed to me that writing about some of my experiences in Vietnam for my son, Wes, would be a good thing to leave him—memoirs about his old man. I read a good book, Writing About Your Life by William Zinsser,1 and I was off and running. I started with writing about significant events involving our C-130 crew during that war, which are included in Appendix C.

Something began to change around my eightieth birthday in 2019. My son, Wes, and my wife, Deborah, collaborated and bought me a very sweet Breedlove acoustic guitar.

A few months before my birthday, Deborah and I had spent some time at Crescent Beach, just south of St. Augustine Beach, Florida, and were heading back to our home in Gainesville. We stopped for happy hour and a bite to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Corky Bell’s. It is a typical, older Florida seafood restaurant with a huge wood deck overlooking the St. John’s River, a portion of which seems more like a great meandering lake extending from Jacksonville to Lake George, just north of Orlando. That afternoon we were being entertained by a young, aspiring country singer and guitar player, Craig Hand. I was so into his music that I went up to chat with him during a break. I commented, You sing Waylon (Jennings) better than Waylon! I love the sound you are getting out of your guitar and amp!

It was an amplified Taylor acoustic guitar, an expensive high-end model, but this one was beat up with quite a crack in the face of the guitar. I think I also said something to my wife that if I could get a sound like that, I would start playing again. At least that is what she heard. Of course, it registered with her, and an idea began to emerge—what a great birthday present that would be!

Not long after that, my son and I met in Buford, Georgia, where he was playing at a popular live music venue just northeast of Atlanta. We had a little time before he was to perform, so we made a trip to a nearby music store, arriving about fifteen minutes before closing. As Wes generally does, he headed to the guitar section, and one of the first instruments he picked up was a beautiful Breedlove acoustic guitar. The store owner told us that Breedlove was started by two guys who had worked for Taylor Guitars, and this particular guitar was a knockoff of a Taylor acoustic. As a lifelong, professional musician, Wes really knows his guitars. The first words out of his mouth were, This guitar is amazing! The tuning anywhere on the fretboard is perfect. Great sound! It was priced considerably less than a similar Taylor and sounded as good. He bought the guitar on the spot as my birthday present from Deborah and him. What a birthday gift! I don’t think I missed a day practicing that beautiful instrument at least thirty minutes for the first six months I had it. I have since missed a few days, but not many.

So here I am, beginning to play this guitar in earnest, at eighty-one no less. Wes is also an excellent guitar instructor, and we have graduated from occasional lessons to one every two weeks. When we went to biweekly, I really began to improve. It is great one-on-one time with my son. I have also greatly increased my appreciation for just how accomplished a musician he really is. I have no idea where this is going. I know I will never play in a worship service. I will probably only pick and strum for my own enjoyment, though Deborah says she likes to hear me play.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Deborah informed me that Kelley McRae2 was going to teach two four-week workshops on Zoom. The Saturday workshop would be on Creative Song Writing and the one on Sunday would be on Creativity.

Deborah has known Kelley since she was a newborn. Her parents, John and Sharon, along with Kelley and their other two children, Shane and Ryan, were like a second family to Deborah as she raised her son, Tom, as a single mom. All attended Creekside Evangelical Free Church, now Creekside Community Church,3 in Gainesville, Florida, where John served as an elder.

Kelley grew up to be an accomplished guitar player, singer, and songwriter. I had the honor of marrying Kelley and Matt in a quaint garden ceremony in Brooklyn, New York. They traveled a great deal giving concerts and selling their many albums of excellent original music. With the pandemic, the concert touring shut down.

Kelley is also quite a songwriting teacher and workshop leader. To try to fill in for some of the lost income, she decided to teach these workshops via Zoom. Our first thought was to support and encourage Kelley, so we both signed up—me for the Saturday afternoon creative songwriting workshop and Deborah for the Sunday afternoon creativity workshop. We also thought it would be a kick to hang out with Kelley on Zoom. I had no earthly idea what I would do with the songwriting workshop. It turned out to be as much an introduction to unblocking your creativity as it was about songwriting itself. It was also great group therapy. I found out the principles are just as applicable to unlocking your true self to experiencing life and relationships more fully. It was one of the best investments I have ever made.

There were ten women and two men in the workshop. The other guy was glad I decided to take the course with him. The first thing Kelley asked us to do was to write daily morning pages, three hand-written pages of stream of consciousness thoughts—whatever we wanted to write about. I jumped right in and began.

After the first workshop session, I was sharing with my wife about the experience. I asked her if she had ever heard of Julia Cameron and her book, The Artist’s Way,4 since Kelley quoted from this book several times, including Julia’s recommended morning pages. Deborah responded that she thought she had bought the book some time ago, probably after hearing Julia quoted during her master’s in Christian Counseling program at Colorado Christian University back in the mid-nineties. After going through our many bookshelves, Deborah looked in our closet and found it in a box of books about to be taken to the local used bookstore.

Julia talks a lot about synchronicity: The simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related, but have no discernible causal connection (Oxford English Dictionary). Talk about synchronicity—this was no coincidence.

I immediately began to devour this book, along with what Kelley was teaching and having us do in her workshop. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity is a twelve-week course. The subtitle of the book states: "A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self." Along with Kelley’s four-week workshop, I enthusiastically started Julia’s twelve-week course, which was just a continuation of what Kelley had started with me.

The heart and soul of what both Kelley and Julia teach to unblock your creativity are the morning pages. Julia spent considerable time in quoting the impact that writing these daily pages had had on the participants. Halfway through the second week of Kelley’s workshop, I came across two quotes. One woman thought the morning pages were like prayer. In the next paragraph, a Catholic nun said they were like meditating. Viola! I had not thought of these pages as either and decided to follow up my daily quiet times with the Lord in His Word, reflecting more on those times and writing