Gib

Gib. He's 80 years old and volunteers at Living Water. Back in the day, he was an overseer at Phillips and trained managers. That has come in handy at Living Water. He may not be the fastest worker at Living Water, but he's steady and meticulous about details. He keeps track of our food (71 tons of food will come through Living Water this year--so it's no small task!). He rotates the food so we'll have first-in-first-out on our shelves and in our freezers. He always knows what we have and what we need to order. He rotates what we give to our clients each week--and this is all written on a board so every other volunteer is able to do their job of filling the bags. Gib is the best kind of leader. He leads with love and humor.

But that's not what Gib does best. Gib preaches. About once a month, Gib lets me know when he has a new message ready. He labors over it and prays over it. There have been times when he's told me that he's had to scratch the whole thing and start over. He'll test out the high points w/ about 3 of us on Wednesdays when we sit and drink coffee together. And then on the Friday he's preaching, you can find him in my office about 20 minutes before we open our doors, preaching to himself. He'll give it out just like he does to the crowd--right there in my office--all alone. I wish you could hear Gib preach. In fact (light bulb moment!), the next time he preaches, I'll have to video a few minutes of him doing just that. He's not exactly eloquent--he reads most of his sermon. And even though he's not a great orator, his messages are simple and yet profound. He's a great believer of the Truth and the power of it to change lives. And therein lies Gib's greatness.
We've seen a pattern when Gib preaches. Hundreds have come to Jesus in the past 2 years when he gets up to preach. I remember one week when 18 were saved. I think there's been a minimum of 2 getting saved when he preached. This week, 13 came to Christ when Gib preached about heaven and hell. He's a gifted evangelist. In fact, I'd say he's anointed. But I think Gib would tell you that it's the fact that he gets out of the way so God can do what He wants to do...because that is his constant prayer as we pray together. And I would tell you that I think it's because of the hours of prayer that Gib puts into each message.

Gib is my hero. I want to be just like him.

I love this photo of Gib. This is Gib in action--and the way we see him most days at Living Water.