I've been a pastor since 1989, but I'm still learning a lot about this ministry. In fact, the longer I pastor, the more I realize I have a lot to learn. I've also come to understand that in order to be a learner, I have to unlearn many things first. That may be the hardest thing for me to do. But this is still the most exciting journey I've ever taken.
November 13, 1989. 11:30 AM I had just finished my lunch in the teacher's workroom and was walking back to my classroom. I was teaching at San Jacinto Elementary in San Angelo, Texas at the time. Up until then, it had been a typical November day. As I walked past the school office, the door swung open, and a fellow teacher stepped out with a look of concern on her face. She spoke directly to me and said, “Your wife’s on the phone, and it sounds serious.” I ran into the office, took the phone, and heard my wife say, “I don’t know what happened, but your brother is on life support in a hospital in Austin.” Twelve hours later, my father and I were sharing a room in a hotel on I-35 in Austin. My sister-in-law, Sandy, and her six-year-old daughter, Araceli, were in a room across the hall. I hardly slept that night. I would doze off and suddenly wake up to my father crying and calling out my brother’s name. My brother was dead. Osiel had collapsed that morning while his high s
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