Marty Purks

As I continue my Lenten journey of attending mass, it really seems appropriate that I had dinner with Marty Purks when I was in Williamsburg, Virginia on business last week.

I was one of the many high school students at Heidleberg American High School that participated in Marty's and his wife Carolyn’s Club Beyond, a Young Life Ministry in the early 1980s.  Through the magic of Facebook I found him again.  This was actually the second dinner I have had with him in the past year.

Marty now works for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at William and Mary University in Williamsburg.  When I was there last fall, I put it together and we made contact.   Marty, Carolyn and I had a wonderful dinner catching up over 25 years of our lives.  We touch based on our common friends.

At that dinner last fall, of course, we reviewed my estranged spiritual walk.   It really began me thinking about my need to actually attend church.  It is clear that attendance to church does not make a member of the faithful, but it is a part.

Last week, I got to let Marty know where my kick start of attending church came from. In the end, as I told Marty, I have enjoyed that dumb luck, fate, or divine intervention that have allowed us to visit and reconnect.