In a day when tragedy and heartache fill our headlines it is refreshing to hear stories of faith, hope and love. I would like to share such a story with your readers today.

On Thursday, Jan. 21, I went to the Mariposa Cemetery to attend the graveside service of a dear woman who had died from a brain tumor. Like many of us in the current economy that we find ourselves, the family of the deceased woman did not have the funds to pay for the high cost of funeral arrangements, or to purchase a casket. As I listened to Pastor Ken Trujillo of Cathey’s Valley Baptist Church preside over the service, I was touched to hear how this church, and its membership had pitched in to take care of one of its own members at her untimely death.

Pastor Trujillo, along with certain men of the church spent many long hours designing, building, sanding, staining and varnishing a casket that they made with their own hands, and at their own expense, in order to ease the heartache of the family. It was a beautiful oak casket that anyone of us would have been proud to have for our own loved one. I was greatly touched to see the genuine love of this church, not just a love in word, but also in deed. Not only did they build the casket, they also brought the casket to the cemetery in their own van. The membership of the church also dug the grave, lowered the casket into the ground, and buried this dear saint of God.

Although I am not a member of the Cathey’s Valley Baptist Church, I am very grateful that I was able to experience the genuine love and devotion of this church for one of its own. It was very moving and touching to me to see a church that exists to serve, and not to be served.

Ray Shull