A few weeks ago, one of our elders at MVBC was diagnosed with Leukemia. He immediately went on a round of chemotherapy in the hospital, and now visits a clinic each day for several hours for treatment. In a few days he will get the results of a test to see if he is improving or if the cancer is having its way.
Gerry is 73 years old. He grew up in Georgia, played baseball at Georgia Tech before majoring in journalism at Georgia State. After working as a reporter for what was then the Atlanta Journal newspaper, Gerry spent most of his life in publishing.
He married Carolyn in 1962 and they are getting ready to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Gerry came to Christ as a young man, and has been a member of Mount Vernon since 1999. In my brief time here, he has been a real encouragement. He is hungry to know the Word better, has organized evangelistic bible studies, and poured himself into dozens of boys through children's basketball. He has labored to see relationships built between younger and older members in the body. He is a faithful shepherd, one of our first elders.
At least for now, Gerry can't come to church--too many people carrying too many infections for his weakened immune system to tolerate. So at our last Church in Conference (a members' meeting) we decided to show a brief recording. In the following, three-minute video, Gerry says how he's doing, talks about the sufficiency of God's grace through this trial, the beauty of marriage, and the call for believers to rejoice in suffering. After all, as he put it, "I'm a sinner saved."
Gerry Chatham Interview from Mount Vernon Baptist Church on Vimeo.
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