Three Harrys – Part 3

The third Harry H. in my life is Harry Hanger. My first contact with Harry was when I received an email from him regarding the text of a sermon I had sent to our mutual friend, Hank Mattox. Harry was quite encouraging in what he wrote.

Perhaps a year or so after Harry’s email Vickie and I moved back to Chesterfield and Hank encouraged me to attend the small group of men he met with on Tuesday mornings. Knowing that I needed to be in a small group I accepted Hank’s invitation and that is where I met Harry. Harry soon asked me if he could pick me up on his way to the group and I said “yes”. I wasn’t working at the time and my job search wasn’t going well and I needed all the encouragement I could get. When we are in need it is good to have friends and brothers (and sisters).

I didn’t realize it at the time but Harry was driving about ten miles out of his way, each way, to pick me up and bring me home. I know the drive he took well because three years later Vickie and I moved to a home just down the street from where Harry and Elaine lived at the time he was picking me up. Those early morning drives with Harry were sweet. Harry is committed to Jesus and the Bible and he has a sharp mind that critiques things through Biblical truth and the centrality of Jesus – so our relationship and conversations started off at pretty mature level. Plus, both of us had been followers of Jesus for many years and so we could draw on experience and the ebb and flow of life as we discussed things.

Harry was the facilitator of the small group and he did a fine job, as he would continue to do until ALS forced him to remain home on Tuesdays, but that was in the future; when I met Harry ALS had not yet invaded his life – or if it had it was not discernable.

One of the ironies of me attending this particular group, which is associated with Needle’s Eye Ministries in Richmond, VA., is that around 1989 I was in a men’s group that met down the street from my current group and that particular group was a spinoff of the group I’m currently in. My current group had a member who left it (with its blessing) in 1989 to start another group of which I became a member. That first group was integral to my life in many ways, and in a sense continues to be even though it no longer meets. From 1989 – mid 1996 I met Wednesday mornings with men who had a significant influence on my life – without that group I may never have ventured to seminary.

Those early morning drives with Harry were refreshing and encouraging.