Early yesterday morning, Monday, September 19, one of our Celebration employees, Hank Terry passed from earth into heaven. 

Yesterday and again today our Staff gathered to pray for Hank’s family (his wife Eileen and their adult children Staci and Jack), to rejoice in his promotion into heaven and to reminisce about Hank.

I remember when Hank first came into the Celebration family.  Right away you could tell that his life had been radically transformed by the Lord.  Later on, Hank join our Celebration Facility staff, where has served the Lord and our congregation faithfully, and where he grew to be loved and appreciated by many in our church family.

As our staff prayed and shared together, we commented on some of the qualities that Hank constantly demonstrated that made him such a unique man of God.  For example:

• Hank loved people, and was always looking for ways to serve and encourage others

• Hank was a hard worker who enjoyed working for His Lord and his church family

• Hank was a student of the Bible, and was always striving to live by the Word of God

• Hank’s confidence in the Lord was unshakable - regardless of the situation he was always assuring people that “the Lord would come through”

• Hank loved to witness and encourage people to receive the Lord’s salvation

• Hank loved to praise the Lord – and often was heard saying or shouting, “Praise Jesus”

• Hank had no fear of death – he eagerly looked forward to going to heaven

• Hank had a burden for hurting people and was particularly drawn to the down and out

• Hank believed that Jesus was the only One who could bring help, hope, healing or salvation to people’s lives, and so he was always encouraging people to trust in the Lord

• Hank loved Jesus with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength.  The bumper sticker on his truck read, “If it ain’t about Jesus, it ain’t about nothing.”

• Hank was greatly loved by his immediate family and by his church family

Yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, Hank was promoted from the service of the Lord into the very presence of the Lord in heaven.  We know that because the Bible says in regards to true followers of Jesus that “to be absent from the body means we are present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).  Hank was certainly a true follower of Jesus, and now he is up in heaven receiving many rewards from Jesus because of the love that he showed and the life he lived (2 Timothy 4:7, Revelation 14:13).

One of our Staff members was telling her grandson that Hank had gone to heaven earlier this morning. He said, “Mr. Hank – isn’t that the ‘Jesus Man’?”

May we all, like Hank, love and live for the Lord in such a way in the days ahead that we become known as the “Jesus Man” or the “Jesus Woman.”