Noel Smothers

Two weeks after our wedding, Joel and I made our way to family fellowship week at Memorial Baptist Church in Florida. While attending the sessions that week, Dr. Wingard had a problem with his rental car and needed a ride. I was so nervous to have the founder of the board in our car! Yet, he treated us with such grace and I remember feeling like he was so respectful of us even as brand new newly weds. When we returned to the hotel after the last session he was attending, Dr. Wingard invited us into his room to sit on his bed and asked us, “Now, what can I do for you? How can I pray for you?” I remember being overwhelmed by his humility. This man didn’t even truly know us and we were just starting out, and yet he took the time to love and pray for us as though we were his own children.
That was four years ago, and we never had a lot of time with him following that brief prayer meeting in his hotel room, but his model of humble leadership has forever impacted us.
May God grant comfort to those loved ones he left behind. I am so thankful to have had the privilege to know him. What a wonderful servant of God. Heaven is all the sweeter.