I used to put forth the effort to write a Christmas poem to send out at this season of the year. It was a labor of love, but it really was a labor. Sometimes the rhyme was not on time. In other years it would pour from my mind to the pen. Nothing came forth this year.
We do enjoy other folks letters as they come. Having served six churches as a staff member, over fifty-four years, we have friends from all over. Some are still going strong. One is Doctor Joe Hooker of Center, Texas. Doctor Joe is one of those "survivors" still moving onward and upward..
Let me share some of his Christmas letter. It might encourage one of you readers to hang in there when the going get's tough.
"It seems like this has been an eventful year for us. I had an emergency operation for a bleeding tumor in my colon in April. I was in the hospital for about forty-five days and in the nursing home for a couple of weeks getting IV medication and so forth. I gradually got some of my strength back and am able to practice some, at least part time, by sitting in a wheelchair and having my patients brought in the room one at a time.........I don't know how much longer I am going to be able to practice. I get awfully tired right now but as long as my health stays reasonably well I'll keep on trying...........We enjoy our church work. I sing in the choir and in my Sunday School Class Quartet. The Quartet sings at 4 nursing homes 1 day each week. I teach my Sunday School class on the radio and television. I really enjoy this."
Dr. Joe was practicing medicine and singing in the choir forty-four years ago when we moved to Center to work at First Baptist. I was his choir director and his son's youth minister. That son, Lewis Hooker, is the incredibly talented pianist for Singing Men of South Texas.
Doctor Joe is well into his eighties, but is keeping on keeping on. He is an inspiration to a lot of folks. I am one of those.
