How do we grieve? I'm no expert, but this is my Nancy Demus tribute ...
As Ivy and I were packing to leave for Sozo/Engalnd yesterday I felt the urge to write Nancy Demus a letter, the reasons will be obvious. Is sent this to her about 4 or 5 hours before she passed.
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Hey Nancy
Ivy and I are praying for you. Our worship team at Belmont
prayed for you before this weekend’s services.
She and I leave for England tomorrow for Sozo Festival with
Randy. And I’m thinking when I was at Sozo with you guys in Hungary for the first
time in 2001. I was desperate for some coffee and you guys had brought a coffee
maker – you are the coolest! You and Mike and I were talking about the
countries, the people there, and worship and music and stuff and - Nancy, you
told me this little word of encouragement
- “Rob you were made for this”. And I was like … nobody, not a leader,
just trying to find my way and serve God.
So I had a few opportunities with worship that year, but not a whole
lot.
The next year I was discouraged in general and
uncertain about whether I would go
again to Sozo, but decided to at the last minute. My faith was on fumes. I wasn’t expecting to lead, but I threw a couple of songs in my
guitar case - just in case. So, in his typical Randy way, he makes the staff
assignments the first day when we’re all jet lagged and puts me in charge of
worship with Nick Decean. And I was like – “dude you could have told me ahead
of time and I might have been able
to prepare…” But anyway, we had an awesome, amazing time. One morning, I’m
walking that looooooooong walk from the Sozo house to the Big Tent, getting
ready for worship, really enjoying this gig, and God’s talking to me and I’m
getting all kinds of revelation and I realized – “this is what Nancy Demus was
talking about – I was made for this” I never forgot that.
The whole Sozo thing changed my life. I’ve gone back every
year, I teach in Romania, they sing my songs over there and Hungary and Serbia
. It’s unbelievable. And it would never have happened with out somebody speaking
a word of faith and encouragement
at just the right time. That was you.
Thanks Nancy, you’ve always been a great encourager to
me. You were one of the first to
say you liked my music. You have no idea how much that meant to me back then.
Anyway, I was reflecting on these things before we leave and
wanted share these memories and my appreciation with you. May God bring you
complete healing and joy. We’d
love to help in some practical way after we get back
Much love,
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