My sweet friend, Sara Baker, just lost her father last Monday. He was an incredible man that left a godly heritage. He worked as Assistant to the President of Child Evangelism Fellowship for over 20 years. Reese Kauffman, the President of CEF, spoke at Mr. Baker’s funeral on Saturday and he recalled some powerful things about the life of Buzz Baker. There were common threads through each tribute spoken. He was no doubt a God gifted encourager. Packages, notes, books and resources would go out from his office to those hurting and in need of encouragement. Wherever he went he looked for opportunities to encourage others.
But what struck me most was that he was a man of prayer and he was creative in his prayer life. I’ve never thought about creativity in prayer before. Mr. Baker was extremely resourceful in fundraising – to the tune of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the sole purpose of giving out Bibles and CEF curriculum to schools overseas that couldn’t afford the materials. Prayer had to precede something of that magnitude and Mr. Baker knew this. So he formed prayer teams. He understood the power of one accord prayer. Sometimes he would have a token or an object as a reminder to pray for the person, topic or need they were circling in prayer. If it was a Mr. Nichols they were praying for he would place a nickel on his desk and keep it there as a reminder to pray. He would place a nickel in the hands of other people and ask them to seriously pray. For some reason I just totally connected with this and loved the idea. Mr. Kauffman said he had been given a tiny bottle of honey by Mrs. Baker a while back as a reminder to pray for Buzz (her honey) while he had been battling cancer. A visual reminder to take a specific request to God. I am anticipating more creativity in my prayer life as a result of witnessing Mr. Baker’s home going celebration. He left a huge mark in this world and his family and so many others will miss him.
If you think about my friend, Sara and her family, would you please pray for them? A man loved so deeply is so hard to say goodbye to. I know this and many of you do too.
Father, increase my love for you and for others. Thank you for using Mr. Baker’s life to impact my own. Be with his family right now and through the Holidays coming up. There will be a vast void there. His full of life personality and crazy pranks will be missed. Nobody to mix up the shoes this year at the Christmas party. No jingling of the keys when it’s time to leave. May the signs of his absence be a vivid and comforting reminder that he is worshipping on high the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he wouldn’t have it any other way. In your Name Jesus, Amen.
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