When God Chooses Our Friends
I knew before I ever met BobbyD that he was going to change my life.
Maybe it was the stories his brother Mike had told us. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit whispering to me, "Get ready!"
Mike was the youth pastor at St. Gregory's Catholic church in Sitka, Alaska. But really, he was much more than that. A few years before Mike had come to town, the Assembly of God church where I grew up had been rocked by a church split. The adults voted our pastor out. As it sometimes goes in denominations, when a senior pastor leaves, the youth pastor leaves. And so for most of my high school years, we had no youth pastor. Enter Mike DeLorenzo.
Mike was a dynamic, spirit-filled Charismatic who was highly relational. By the time he left town, I'm pretty sure he knew all 8000 plus people in our small Alaskan town by name. He started an ecumenical youth group called "Youth Alive" and kids from seemingly every youth group in town as well as many unchurched students attended.
We were all hungry for God and the worship at these meetings are still some of the most powerful services I've ever been in. We met in this beautiful chapel on a local college campus. When we worshipped, we "left it all on the floor."
Mike and Bob came from an Irish Italian family with 12 kids, and the older siblings prayed years over their family. Revival hit the Seattle community they were a part of and the entire family got saved and filled with the Spirit. We had a sister community in Burien (and Vancouver) that we heard stories about for years before finally meeting. So Bob's reputation as the prophetic younger brother preceded him.
The thing about Bob? was that he was radical in his devotion. I was 16 years old to his 14 and had grown up in church, but had never met anyone like Bob. Talking to him was like talking to a walking Bible. He was one of the most convicting people I had ever encountered. He was single-minded and the thing he was on about was JESUS with a capital J. The best I can offer is that it's what I imagine it would be like to meet a hippie from the Jesus movement. All Jesus, all the time. At times, it could be annoying like the afternoon when we were all hanging out at their home and we were laughing and joking over some lame thing. Bob called out, "Talk about something edifying!" shutting down the conversation for the moment.
But the anointing on him was sure. Mike told me that Bob spent most nights reading the Bible for hours. We had a lot of retreats in those days and Mike would often invite some of the Seattle community to come up and give talks at our retreats, "Brother Bob" included. I can remember one retreat where the anointing on him was so strong that I cried of conviction thru most of his talk. My friends thought I was burdened and interceding for souls; nope---I had a "holy jealousy" for his walk with God but was not quite willing to pay the price that he did. He would regularly spend hours in prayer up in the mountains.
Mike was pretty radical too. We spent many nights in his home, worshipping, breaking bread, talking over the word, and interceding. To prepare for retreats, Mike would usually go on long fasts, and we were encouraged to join him. 3-7 day fasts were pretty normal for us, with Mike leading the way in 21+ day fasts. And he had a way of keeping spiritual things light and joyful---like the time he only ate carrots on his fast and slowly turned orange in front of us over the course of a month or so.
It's been many years since those wonderful, rich days of chasing hard after the lover of our souls and I've told such a small part of the story. Our youth group eventually went and had a retreat with the Seattle group and the Vancouver group. We met all 12 of the DeLorenzo siblings and became emeshed with the rest of the community that we had heard so much about. Sandee Swarner and I were introduced to one another at brother Terry's wedding and have been fast friends ever since.
A bunch of the Seattle group came to an all-night prayer meeting at PBC and some of my friends from that night still refer to "that barefoot kid with the blanket around him which we think might have been stoned" referring to "Brother Bob." And there was that time in the PBC dorms when I heard that I was "engaged" to one of the Seattle crew (A different Michael for the record) right before Micheal and Tony came and escorted Sandee and me to the PBC banquet. A few weeks later, it was reported back to me that we had "broken up." I could talk for hours about my beloved Seattle people and the lessons of faith, idealism, loss, and growing up we all learned in those years and still have plenty left to tell.
Bob and I have kept in touch over the years and he remains the person which has had the most influence on my life. Bob's passion and life painted the most beautiful picture of Jesus that I had ever seen and have ever seen still. I fell hard in love with Jesus because Bob showed me how deep a relationship we can enjoy this side of heaven. And that has made all the difference.
Talks with Bob almost always leave me with an undeniable thirst for Jesus. I aspire for my life to do the same for those I love. My pastor says God chooses our friends. I think He's doing a pretty good job.
“When God wants to birth a destiny, he births a relationship. ”
Pictures belong to me.
Above: Sheldon Jackson College Chapel.
Below: With Bob at my 50th birthday.