Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date:  July 31, 2008 - # 8831 - Title: open – Old Friends meet again (814)

Next to family friends, life long friends, friends who share similar beliefs and culture, friends with whom you have labored for years in bringing about good, provide one’s life with something special, a life worth living.

            Beginning in 1962, the year we moved to Atlanta, we began accumulating these friends that have indeed made our life worth living. Many years ago, before our numbers began to dwindle due to the aging process and the reality of mortality, our special group of friends totaled over forty.

Last week we drove to Gwinnett County to break bread with this group for our quarterly luncheon. While our numbers were down to 21, the love and respect we had and have for one another still burns brightly, even after 46 years.

            The common denominator that brought this group together was our religion. Most of us were newcomers to Atlanta and had no local family other than our growing families. We came to Atlanta with job transfers or in search of jobs and have remained here. In 1962 we all lived in a small section of DeKalb County but today we are scattered throughout metro Atlanta. We gather quarterly to renew our long held friendships. There are few groups in Atlanta that have bonded so closely and remained intact for so long.

In 1962 many in this group were new converts to our religion. And because our beliefs were not common in the south (it’s a lay church) we were needed as our church struggled to grow here in Georgia and the southeast.  Each of us played major leadership roles over the years as we have seen our church grow from the three initial congregations in 1962, all in downtown Atlanta, to nearly a hundred congregations throughout the metro area today and from only a million worldwide members to over 13 million today in 176 nations worldwide. This need bonded us together as nothing else would – or could. During these 46 years our church has grown to be the fourth largest Christian church in America.

Today we watch as our children assume the leadership roles needed to make a lay church succeed. During this luncheon we did a lot of reminiscing about the ‘old days,’ when often Sunday was the busiest day of our week: teaching classes, traveling to counsel newly called leaders, or installing new programs. Then on Monday we would go back to our jobs and resume our livelihood. Young men I taught then are today leading large congregations as bishops and stake (dioceses) presidents. And the young women I taught, including my daughters, have assumed leadership roles in the church auxiliaries.

But age has caught up with us. The oldest is 87, the youngest is 77. All have gray hair, if they have any hair at all, and all have wrinkles, many wrinkles. George Medley, one of the 21, told me his grandson asked him recently, “grandpa, aren’t you glad wrinkles don’t hurt?” What a clarifying question regarding our aging process and how the next generations view their aging grandparents. Several of us use canes and walkers but we continue to continue on with the task of living and enjoying it in spite of the disabilities most of us now have.

And even though this special group of friends are scattered throughout the metro area and we see them only a few times a year we continue to make new friends locally through our local congregations, or as in our case, through being involved in the community. Our common denominator with these community friends is our belief in our form of government and in seeing that honorable and good leaders are elected from amongst us to make our laws and lead us through the difficult economic times we are in today.

My love for our Savior and my membership in His church has provided for me nearly 50 meaningful years of service to my family, friends and fellow man. It indeed has been a good life.

I find it a bit ironic that as we are set to dedicate a new chapel here in Cherokee County that our church membership here in the county now exceeds that of metro Atlanta in 1962. And both Joan and I continue to serve locally as we can, Joan more so than I. Last week I was given the opportunity to speak on my second favorite subject, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at our Forth of July flag raising ceremony, and then asked by my son-in-law to accompany him to Eli-Jay to speak on the Lord’s words regarding America’s source of freedom and His role in establishing America as a choice land where liberty could be restored in these latter-days - even as Moses restored liberty to the Israelites anciently.

Life if good, especially when you have family and good life-long friends. .