Caleb Batchelor’s Reviews > Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson > Status Update

How many pastors would return to a former site of ministry and try to contact all of the most difficult people? .... Tom did not even glimpse that his choice of whom to visit on that trip through Drummondivlle served as dramatic witness to the pastoral heart God had given him. 117

"The pastor again preached from 1 P. 5, this time about resisting the devil. His message was sober, good, but missed the text.... The message was true, but had nothing to do with the text." An entry from Tom Carson's journal, 105

But although the zest for challenges had dissipated and the joy of the Lord peeped through only intermittently, not once is there a suggestion that he missed his calling or that he wished to abandon ministry in francophone Canada. 77

Jim [one of the three Carson children] recalls barging into Dad's study unannounced, finding him on his knees praying, and quietly backing out. "But that image has always remained with me, especially during my later, rebellious teen years. While walking away from God, I could not get away from the image of my father on his knees, praying for me. It is one of the things that eventually brought me back." 72

A recent note from my sister Joyce comments, "As I look back on life with Mom and Dad, perhaps the one thing I recall most vividly is the memory that I don't have. Try as I might, I cannot recollect one time when either of them spoke negatively about another person. Although Mom was an extremely astute judge of character, her analyses were well seasoned with grace and the latent potential for redemption." 60