Not exactly sure how I feel about this.
When I was in HS, we started supporting this struggling church on the west side, Central Baptist. Their pastor is named Wayne, totally awesome man, soft spoken, serious heart for the poor in Modesto. His assistant pastor who did youth was named Tim. We spent a lot of time over there, putting on VBS, had a joint HS choir. Tim lived in the manse on the church’s property and at one time, had a few of their youth group’s boys living with him. I lost touch with him when I moved to Chico but spent one summer in Modesto working at our church and was over at Central Baptist a bit when I was a jr. high leader.
When I moved up to Corning, I was looking for opportunities for our kids from there to do some mission work. So I called Tim and asked him if I could bring my kids down for VBS. We spent a week working in the summer and stayed at my grandparents’ while they were on vacation. It was a fun week so we came back for a long weekend with about 15 kids. We did graffiti paint over, worked at the church, all over Modesto. It was really fun and Tim and I became good friends.
After I came back to Modesto in ’98, I went over to Central Baptist with some of our kids to work for a weekend. Tim was no where to be found so I asked a lady who worked there where he was. She said he’d resigned. I was shocked because he was so dedicated to that church and well liked. I didn’t pry a lot but she said he was still living in the manse and if I wanted to talk to him, to go over there and knock on the door. I did but he didn’t answer the door. When I had a better opportunity, I asked what happened and she told me there were rumors of him being inappropriate with one of the boys in their youth group. Wayne asked him to go get help, that if he did he’d have a job to come back to but he refused. They asked him to resign. It was devastating for the church, for the people who really cared for him.
Fast forward to when I bought my house in 2000. I went into Kelly Moore paint store to buy the paint. Tim was working there. He didn’t say anything to me the first time but the second time I went in, I walked up to him and said hello. He seemed to be doing well. He was renting a room from someone nearby. Every now and then when I was in there, I’d ask if he still worked there and to tell him I said hi. I hadn’t seen him since I left for England.
Terribly sad for the people he’s hurt.
I feel like I want to comment on this, but I don’t have any idea what to say. I always have wondered what ever happened to him.
I know. I hadn’t seen him in a while and when I opened the paper this morning, I just stood there in shock.
Wow, that is terrible! There are really good people that work with kids and then there are good people that somehow go bad and it is really, really sad. I feel bad for those kids.