My Dear Friends at Sion Baptist Church,
This is my sixth letter to you – not that I am counting! I do wonder,
however, how many of these will be written before we can gather
together again under our church roof. I was watching a TV programme
recently and someone said, in no way connected to the current pandemic
that, “You never know what the future holds…” How true indeed, we
just don’t know.
In our church as in the world we have men and women who are
“out there” working under strain. Remember to pray for them in these
uncertain times.
Poet-theologian Nick Fawcett captures perfectly this sense of
precariousness about the future in his reflection-prayer,
“When the future seems bleak and uncertain”. I offer it to you now:
“When will it end Lord?
When will this nightmare be over?
We’re told things must get worse before they get better;
that the death toll will rise
and the number of those infected will continue to climb,
despite every measure being taken to prevent it.
Yet we’re promised also that,
eventually,
the disease will peak,
and that we can then slowly start picking up the pieces of our lives again,
rebuilding our economy, and hopefully returning to some
semblance of normality. But will that happen, or will this virus
prove more stubborn, more resistant,more difficult to eradicate
than we imagine.We just don’t know.
Give us the patience to make whatever sacrifices are necessary,
however long the duration…
Give us fortitude and determination,
strength and wisdom,
to respond sensibly to whatever challenges we face.
And help us to keep faith that,
However interminable the tunnel may seem,
We will finally see the light at the end of it. (Amen)
For all the things that we don’t know in life, we know with a certainty
that we want to honour our friend, Derek Booth. So I offer a tribute to his life.
We know we don’t need to worry about Derek now. He is at home
with the Lord. But pray for his family in their loss, that they might
discover the Lord of Derek’s life – that they might say, with us,
“Him we do know!
A TRIBUTE TO MR. DEREK BOOTH – April 24th 2020 at Burnley.
Born and raised in the Rossendale Valley Derek Booth was part of a
very large and loving family which comprised six brothers and six sisters.
He often spoke affectionately of a childhood spent in the beautiful surrounds
of Love Clough, dawn-to-dust playing with his siblings in “God’s country”;
he never forgot his favourite - a pet cow called “Red”. Derek remembered
with tears in his eyes a loving mother who, not only tended to an
ailing husband who was never-quite-the-same after returning from
the first Great War, but recalled a strong woman who would
“walk over broken glass” for the family she reared and loved.
Derek was a man of gratitude.
By his own admission Derek was frequently in trouble at school and,
as Joanne his granddaughter tells us, “he got the cane quite a lot!”
This rebellious streak continued throughout Derek’s
National service and more than once, in Cyprus
and elsewhere, Private Booth ended up in the
“glass house” for conduct unbecoming!
And later on, his return to Civvy Street would unfortunately see this
pattern perpetuated. It would be the good offices of the Lord and the
civilizing influence of his beloved wife Joan which (together)
eventually helped curb Derek’s more wayward ways.
Derek was an honest, humble and plain-spoken man.
Joan and Derek had a whirlwind romance and they were married within
six weeks. Though they had precious little in the way of wealth they
worked hard together (Derek in the mill) and built a home and a life
rich in love, a life which they would go on to share with many
foster children and ultimately with David, whom they adopted as their
son. At the age of 50 Derek became a grandfather to Shaun and Joanne
who describes daft memories and amazing times in the house of her
hero in Newchurch. Derek was a man with a large and generous heart.
Derek was a family man.
Derek and Joan were much loved and faithfu members of Sion
Church over the years.They made many friends in the Community
and in the church fellowship where Derek, describing this as one
of the great privileges of his life, would go on to serve his Lord as a deacon.
After Joan’s death Derek remained steadfast in his faith, continuing
to be a stalwart in the church and, in every sense, he became an
elder in Sion Baptist Church. Derek was a man of God who lived out
the promises of his baptism and new birth in a life dedicated to prayer,
to a constant desire to know God through His Word and by serving all
those in need – even when his health began to fail in later years.
Derek’s friends would return-the- compliment by taking care of him,
and he singled out Derek Bell as a great help and comfort to him
in his last years.
Under normal circumstances this chapel would struggle to accommodate
all the people who would have come gladly to celebrate the life of
their friend Derek – such was the extent to which he affected their lives.
From my point of view, Derek Booth was confidante and partner in prayer
– one of the “old geezers” as he; Norman Slater and I became
affectionately known. Derek was a man of prayer.
Derek was an evangelist too, always prepared, gently, to share the hope
he had in Christ. He led his brother Neil to the Lord in the days before
he died. Derek partnered me in our Abbeycroft Care Home worship
services every month for almost four years. Most times he would
stand up and sing solo and unaccompanied, “I come to the Garden alone”
and he always received applause from staff and residents alike.
Samina Yusuf (the Activities Officer) said in an e-mail to me last week
that Derek was a “beautiful soul”. No one would disagree
with that assessment…
While we would say that Derek was godly and kind
(and much more besides) there were times when Derek did not see
himself that way. You could call it humility but truth-be-known he was
often far too hard on himself and, while this sometimes caused him
great pain, the truth is the Lord always loved him, “warts ‘n’ all” and,
in the cross of Jesus Christ, God had long since forgiven our Derek.
He will know that to be the truth now! Derek was a man who was and
is greatly loved.
When time permits we will gather again in far greater numbers to
honour our friend Derek Booth who loved his family, who loved his
church and who loved, like another disciple, loved his Lord and God!
Thank you Derek. We will miss you. We’ll meet you again!
Mark Faris-Robertson
MFR/22-04-20