“Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous man who walks in his integrity – blessed are his children after him.” Proverbs 20:6.
When I first came on to the land on my fifty-third birthday in 1996, I came from a far place – not from far away physically but from the remoteness of a spiritual wasteland, cynical about Christendom, profoundly concerned about the rapidly disintegrating moral values of contemporary culture, and despairing of ever finding a place of love, joy and peace in the midst of this dark, dark world. The minute I stepped into the visitors’ center, I knew I had come to a different world, to a place deeply planted and rooted in a faith that I did not know. It provoked in me a deep “jealousy” and longing to discover what this was and how this community of faithful people, who really lived what they believed, had possibly come to be. And so I was introduced to Bro. Blair’s vision for the church to live out and exemplify an alternative culture, a “kingdom not of this world,” and to the astounding revelation and experience of a life-changing, personal, enduring relationship with Jesus. All this was possible because, in Bro. Blair, I encountered a man of steadfast faith who never wavered from the path that God continually called him to walk and who, his whole life “walked in his integrity.” The scripture in Luke 18:8 says, “When the Son of Man comes will He find persistence in faith on the earth?” Bro. Blair showed us by his example, his ministry and his great love for us, what it means to have “persistence in faith” on this earth. I want my life to honor his example so others will discover the “pearl of great price,” as I have.
Thank you, Bro. Blair. I will love you forever.
Kay Toombs