Have you ever met someone who knocked you socks off from your first encouter? I don't think I had ever experienced that feeling until Thursday afternoon. Enter Cec Murphey. He's a author, ghost writer, teacher, preacher, missionary, mentor, husband, father and encourager. We scheduled Cec at our church through his equally charming assistant,
Twila Belk . They were looking for a place for Cec to speak on Sunday after the Christian Book Expo and Twila asked if we were interested. Interested? Most people who have ever met Cec crave just a few more moments, so having the priveldge of having him in our church was wonderful! We booked him and then had to wait 2 months!
We met them at the airport to get them settled in a rental car. I watched as they came through the revolving doors, and although had never met either, knew who they were before we even reached them. I held out my hand to introduce myself and Cec pulled me into a fatherly hug...and then the chatter began. Warm, fun, engaging conversation that lasted only 20 minutes while we waited for luggage. It was a wonderful appetizer for what was to come.
After they finished at the CBE in Dallas on Saturday I was honored to have them in my home for dinner. Simple soup, salad, blueberry muffins and drinks headlined the meal, but the real flavor was the conversation. The literary industry has a real champion in this small framed, big hearted, generous giving man. His love for the Lord, church, family, friends is sprinkled into bits of conversation.
I could go on and on- but the real gift was seeing him at church interacting, pouring his life into others, having conversations with complete strangers, building up people, sharing hope. We were definately the blessed ones.
