Remembering Kevin

What I composed (but not necessarily what I said) for Kevin's memorial service: How do you reduce a friendship of nearly two decades to a few brief words of remembrance? How do you summarize all those choir tours and affirmation cards: beach trips; youth council retreats with team building; Heart Song; all the various skits; Good Friday passion mimes; and thousands of games of Catch Phrase? You really can’t. Over time, I will share some memories with Sarah and the girls, as I am sure countless other will. Kevin’s heart was fully given to Huffman UMC and the surrounding community. In fact, Kevin played a vital role in drafting our current mission statement of “Embracing our Community through the transformative love of Christ.” This is Kevin’s church. Some of you taught him as a child or youth in Sunday school, choir or VBS. As a young adult, Kevin began attending the Heart Song contemporary worship service here, where his dad was in the praise band. Knowing the important difference between attending church and being actively involved, when Kevin showed an interest, Mike and Sandy encouraged him to find his place to be involved. This just happened to be when I needed another member of the drama team. Kevin embraced it. Almost instantly, we became good friends and developed some great characters together. Kevin took on other leadership roles in the service, as well. Later, the youth director job opened and Kevin felt called to apply for the job. The rest, as they say, is history. Kevin embraced it. In fact, he embraced youth ministry so much that I wondered if Sarah realized what she was getting herself into when she started dating him. By the time they got married, she was definitely a part of our team. He was the youth director here for only about 6-7 years, but those years as youth director shaped him, as it shaped countless young people with whom he crossed paths. We worked together on many aspects of youth ministry, but KEVIN is the one who developed special relationships with the youth. He made every youth feel important. As youth matured into young adults, some, in hindsight, thought that they surely did run to Kevin with some silly things. Someone recently said “What was he thinking!?” “Surely he wanted to just tell us to quit whining.” But they were thankful that he helped them navigate those teenage years. He maintained relationships with people long after they had moved on from the youth department and he was no longer the youth director here. The fact that Kevin was no longer on staff did not keep him from serving the church. He embraced several leadership positions to which he devoted much time. And he had a way of incorporating his love for the church, the people, the community and sports. Most of his adult life was committed to Huffman whether it was youth, young adults, small groups, committees, VBS, The Children’s Place, or basketball and softball - the list goes on. Kevin O’Kelley’s fingerprints are all over the ministries of this church. And Kevin O’Kelley left his impression on the hearts of all of us gathered here.