Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Early in my sophomore year in high school at Hillcrest in Springfield, Missouri I was sitting in Mrs. Reba’s history class when one of my classmates fell out of his chair. It appeared he had passed out. No one else seemed worried about it except the teacher. She hobbled over and stared down at him while she called his name.

“Mark, Mark, are you alright? Does anyone know what we should do?” She was at a loss. She had never had a student pass out in class before. Veteran teachers prepare yourselves for this possibility. Not the one that this Hillcrest history teacher thought she was experiencing that day. As she speculated out loud about the possibility of loosening his belt to allow him more room to breathe Mark could not hold in his amusement any longer and he began to laugh.

The game was up. The student that had been told to go to the office was not out the door. He stayed. Mrs. Reba was exasperated beyond words. She sat down at her desk while many of Mark’s friends snickered at his coop. He had taken over the class. When the teacher fully recovered, she started the lesson once more. As we left at the bell I cannot remember if Mark had to stay after class or was sent to the office or not.

That was the day I became aware of who he was. A cross country runner, a teenage boy with a wicked sense of humor, a good friend, and brother in ministry both as a music leader and a deacon at Hamlin Baptist Church, Mark and I would experience life together over the next fifty years.                                                                                                            

My friend was taken to Heaven by his Lord and Savior on Thursday, October 28, 2001. He was 67 years old. I teased him every year when he turned a year older than I and reminded him around my birthday that I, finally had caught up with him, again.

Our friendship did not take flight until he and his family came to Hamlin several years after graduation in May of 1972. I did not know about his marriage to Lynn, another classmate, until that time. They and their three children became part of our church family, and we served our Lord together on many occasions.

He and I were asked to begin a Sunday afternoon church service at a senior housing facility by another church member. Our monthly foray into being the preacher and music leader continued for a few years. When the attendance dropped to two or three and it seemed the residents were losing interest, we moved on to other endeavors.

Mark and I were two of ten ordained to the deacon ministry at the same time. We continued to serve with that body of men. Some of the guys that were brought into that ministry with our wives that day preceded Mark to Heaven. Others left Hamlin for other churches, and one became a pastor and moved to the Kansas City area. I was sitting with Mark in a deacon’s meeting when he attempted to resign because a family situation made him feel he had failed us. Those wonderful men gathered around him and refused to let him step down because his assistance was still needed.

We have been through births, weddings, funerals, church staff coming and going. We welcomed others into the church and deacon ministry together for all these years. I worried and prayed with his family as he struggled through past illnesses that might have been his end at those times. God was not done with him then.

When he was ordained into the gospel ministry and joined the church staff to help minister to those that were in the hospital or had problems that kept them from the rest of the congregation when we met together, I was there. I knew he had been a lay minister for years before that.

Our families grew. Our children left home. We lost friends and family. We cried and prayed together. I visited him in the hospital. He came to see me as well. We have stood hand in hand around staff and other church members. We have grieved with other families who have lost fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, and friends.

Now I will be with his family as they mourn. What can I say to them? God gave me a thought last night. When Jesus came to get Mark as we are told He will for each of His children, everyone that he knew who have accepted Christ was in Heaven when he arrived. They had not been waiting for him. There is no time with God. His family greeted him. My family is with him. He is visiting with deacons that we served with. Some of our high school classmates are there. His wife, children, and grandchildren are there.

We do not know it because we are under the God given restraints of time and space. When He said, “Let there be light” and created everything, time also began. Mark does not miss any of us as we miss him. “A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.” Did he notice Lynn wasn’t by his side? No. She is a believer and is waiting for time to join him. Her heart is broken. We must comfort her and encourage her and the children to follow Mark’s example. He believes that “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We discussed what that meant and agreed that we accepted it. We did not know what that truly meant. Mark now knows. Save me a place in the choir, brother.