I interrupt this brief series on my friend Terry’s gathering for an important announcement. We’ll finish the series on Tuesday after Monday’s All Saints Day post. The departed saints just received a new member: my friend and Navigator colleague Roy Fitzwater, about whom I wrote on October 22, passed yesterday, October 30, 2021.
Shortly after the update I reported in that blog, I sent Roy and Margaret this email:
June woke up this morning thinking about Roy and then about this song, which she first heard when we were staying with her sister and brother-in-law in North Carolina back in 2019. It was a profound spiritual experience for her, and she used the song in her quiet times for months after.
Lyrics are here. It’s a Christmas song, but it looks like Roy is going to get an early Christmas present. (Us, not so much. ☹)
I sang a little louder in church yesterday because my first awareness of Roy was his congregational singing in Bible Study Fellowship. On the rare occasions when I played the piano, he would sit near the front so we could make music together. It has been an honor and a joy working with you both. [Roy loved to sing and could do so loud and on key!]
Love, Bob (and June)
I didn’t expect a response, but they wrote:
Bob and June,
Thank you for taking the time to write and for your prayers and encouragement. I haven’t heard that song and it really blessed me. It is a Christmas song but I’d say there’s a good chance I’ll be there by then.
Thank you for your investment in our lives both before and after joining Navs. It has been significant to us! We’ll never forget when we were checking out [The Navigators] and found your name in the staff list and being able to call you. You always said if it was a good hire you’d take credit. 😃 It sure has been from our perspective.
We love you and pray God blesses you both with many more years of fruitful Ministry.
Roy and Margaret
At the time of the wedding, Roy had had a cough since about April that was finally diagnosed as cancer in late December 2019.
This is part of today’s CaringBridge post:
Chris and Stephen here. We wanted to reach out to all our dear family and friends and let you know that our dad, Roy, went home to be with the Lord, Saturday afternoon. Dad took his last breaths while sharing fond memories with Mom and Stephen, and Chris and Melissa via skype. Early Saturday morning, one of Roy’s last things he asked for, was Mom to read Psalm 23 from the Message. In addition, he asked for us to play This is the Air I Breathe by Joe Mettle performed by Michael W. Smith.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEDcKZB7r2A This song was particularly important to both Dad and Mom as the song happened to come on the radio while Mom was on the drive down the pass to meet Dad before his lung biopsy last January. Mom called Dad once hearing it and told him to listen to it. He had just heard the same song on the radio prior to her call. His passing was much faster than anyone expected, but it was peaceful, surrounded by loved ones.
Rest in peace, my brother.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12.1, 2, ESV, emphasis mine)