Darrell's Officially On The Team

It's official. Darrell Clark bought his ticket last week. He's on the team.

Some months ago, Thamer Calhoun and I purchased plane tickets to the Philippines for our January 2-15 Mission Trip there. We didn't know if anyone else would be going for sure, but we felt that God was leading us to go back to help Pastors Doming Valdez and Joseph Zerna with the work they are doing in Oriental Negros. For a while it looked as though we might just be a two man team. Rick Gunnell was unable to plan for the 2008 trip, due to some personal and family needs that require his presence here. Furthermore Joey Spurgeon and Darrell were not having much success in coming up with the funds needed for the $1700 + plane fare.

In September, Pastor Randall Robertson from Locust Grove Baptist Church signed on to go back for his third trip to Negros Island. He bought his ticket, bringing our roster to three.

Darrell had "hit the wall" in his efforts to raise the money to go on the mission trip. Frankly, three weeks ago, I had pretty much accepted the fact that he would not be making his fourth trip as he hoped to do. Then came his "magical week" when several generous individuals came through with enough contributions in just six days to allow him to purchase his ticket. The Lord must have been in it. I say that for two reasons.

First, the amount of money he still needed was great and the time was ticking down quickly. The other concern was that the website for Cathay Pacific Airlines (which is our carrier) showed our trans Pacific flights (both directions) to be full. Even if he were to raise the needed funds to purchase tickets, he would have to travel on different days than the rest of the team, which would cause a little trouble in scheduling, group insurance, etc.

Once he had the monies in hand, Darrell contacted Kimberly Blatt. Kim is a member of Westmoreland Baptist Church and is station manager for US Airways at Tri State Airport. Although Kim has never made a mission trip with us, we consider her a key member of our team as she has been so helpful in the past in getting us reservations and overcoming a number of logistical problems. He was hoping she could work her magic one more time. Kim called Darrell back with "good news and not so good news".

The good news was that she was able to find him seats on our overseas flights. That was a major accomplishment. The quoted plane fare was over $100 more than what we had paid for our tickets, but considering the fact that he had seats with the rest of the team, that was not a terrible thing. The problem was that she could not confirm his US Airways flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles. It wouldn't do much good for Darrell to have tickets from LA to Dumaguete, if we couldn't get him to LA Kim informed Darrell that they would know for sure within 24 hours.
Well, when she called him back the next day, all flights were confirmed, and the price ended up to only be about $5.00 more that we had paid months before! This was hard to believe due to the scarcity of tickets and the skyrocketing cost of fuel.

Those of you who know me well, know that I give Darrell a hard time. We grew up in the same part of town and knew a lot of the same people. We attended the same high school (although Darrell is a mere child - five years younger than I) - he graduated from Huntington East with my younger brother, Bruce. I razz him pretty hard. He is an easy target and I can hardly resist. He gets a shot in on me every now and then, but generally speaking, he takes the "hits" with grace and he knows that I love him like a brother (even when I tell him "only ONE song!)

He still needs to raise the money for room and food, but he believes that is do able since God used a number of our people to help him overcome the large hurdle of buying the plane tickets. The last year and a half has been rough for Darrell and his family when he was caught in a "RIF" from his 24 year job with BFI. He has worked hard under difficult circumstances and is certainly overqualified (and under paid) for the job he is presently doing. There may still be someone out there who would like to help him with additional costs for the mission trip.

Darrell has been a helpful member of our team in the past. His music has been a blessing to us and to the Filipino people to whom we minister. Pastor Doming (a master of understatement) says, "Darrell is a good singer". He is that. A couple of years ago Darrell felt the call of God into a preaching ministry while on a mission trip in the Philippines. So this mission work has a special personal meaning for him. Seeing the work of those Filipino church planters first hand, should be a great example to Darrell in his efforts to grow a new church in Wayne, WV where he serves as mission pastor.

So, now it is official. Darrell is on the team and the challenges are now before us. Somebody gets to share a room (and bathroom) with Darrell. Been there - done that. Since Thamer and I already have our room reserved, looks like Randall Robertson will be the lucky guy. That's tough, but as team leader, I get the toughest task. I not only have to try to keep him under control on how many songs he sings - now he'll want to do all the preaching too! :-)

Welcome aboard brother.