LIFE Circle – October 2 2015 – Remembering Rob

 

The past 2 days have been an amazing time of shared love, words of encouragement, fellowship, making new friends and witnessing for Christ.

 

The viewing Tuesday night brought amazing joy and comfort as several hundred people passed through to pay tribute to Rob and many shared with us what Rob had meant in their lives.  One of our dearest friends flew in from Texas and surprised us when she knocked on our door at 8:30 a.m. that morning! Others drove from Indiana and all over Ohio, and Rob’s brother-in-law was able to get leave from the Navy and flew in from the West Coast. 

 

Our Lord has created us all in such a way that we hunger for and need relationships and he even orchestrates it so that the opportunities to form those bonds are there for us.   As I was thinking Tuesday night of what I wanted to say at the celebration service, I thought back to a conversation earlier in the evening when one of Rob’s friends told me what a profound impact was made on her life through our relationship, and that our witness is what pointed her to Christ. She is a beautiful young woman who loves Jesus and is now raising her family to love Him also. Another friend, who couldn’t make it to the funeral, wrote and shared “…please know that Rob’s life has inspired me to make the latter part of my life the better part of my life and to be reminded that God IS.”  And the thing that came to me as I was reflecting is about these God-given relationships and that the ideal relationship is one where  each person makes the other one a better person.  That’s what Rob did and what we should all strive to do.

 

Greg Murphy-Dillow (Lifeline’s Media Director) spent more than a day putting together the most beautiful DVD/video presentation of Rob’s life and family.  People were glued to the TV watching the tribute. The copies were gobbled up by friends!  (You can view it on our Facebook page)  The Lifeline staff also created a handout for the services, which were scriptures I saved that Rob had shared with Jen (his wife), Bob, and I the past few months.

 

Today’s service couldn’t have been more perfect. The music, the testimonies from family and friends, Keith Dimbath’s (Lifeline’s Work Team Director and ordained minister who Rob had asked in advance to perform the funeral service) message from God’s Word (and also a tribute to Rob), the beautiful flowers, the love of family, the food provided by the church, the memorial contributions to Lifeline, having the Lifeline staff present, and the stories shared about Rob’s sense of humor were all amazing.  But the icing on the cake was the tribute paid to Rob by his Proprietors Motorcycle Club buddies who turned out in record numbers from all over the state, in full gear on their bikes, to participate in the service and then lead the procession to the cemetery.  As the ceremony drew to a conclusion each member of the club filed up the aisle of the church and placed a special commemorative medal in the casket.  Rob’s wife, Jen placed her leather jacket (called a “cut”) in the casket alongside Rob who was in his full cut also.