Rod got his first taste of volunteering at Faith Mission 25 years ago, helping his church serve Christmas Eve dinner. He was living in Henrietta at the time, working as an oil field electrician. He was medically retired after receiving a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis. He said, “I was disappointed and a little put out with God that I couldn’t do what I have trained and worked so hard to do.” He went on to say, “One day the Lord spoke to me saying, ‘you’ve whined long enough, I’ve got a job for you. You need to get up and go to work for me.’”
Someone in his church asked him if he wanted to teach an addiction recovery program called Celebrate Recovery at Faith Mission. Rod started to help teach the class at Faith Mission and at a local church. In addition to teaching, Rod started driving the van at Faith Mission. Since he liked to listen to Christian rock, the guys nicknamed him “Rock’n Rod.” He could not think of a better topic to talk about than Jesus, since Jesus was his favorite subject. Because of their openness in expressing themselves in the van and Rod’s abundant counsel from the Bible, the guys started calling the van the “confessional.”
When asked what he would say to someone thinking about volunteering at Faith Mission, Rod said, “If somebody really feels like they want to volunteer, they need to come down here because it’s not anything that you would expect. The staff here is the best staff of any place I have ever seen. This place is run as well as any faith-based mission can be run. They have the resources and the opportunity for anyone who needs a place where they can get their life turned around. I have never seen so much help and devotion from people in any place. I just recommend to anyone out there, that if they come in with a need, that Faith Mission will meet it. But the greatest need that we all have is coming to know Jesus as our Savior.”
From an early retirement to serving men while driving down the road, Rod never doubts that God is in control. “I know that God is in control. I know that I don’t have to worry about it or be concerned. I do have to know how to react to what is happening to me during the day. But I do know that the Lord’s got me in his hands, and it is a promise that He will never leave you or forsake you. My life is in the hands of the Father, so how could I be in a safer place? I mean, God’s got it.”
