Things To Be Thankful For: Mr Ivor Fenton

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Mr Ivor Fenton

I'm giving thanks today for my friend Iver Fenton who was buried today at the cemetery in Dollingstown, Northern Ireland. Ivor was a Christian and a gentleman as well! He was also fond of rugby and has rightly been described as being larger than life. I first knew him thirty years ago then lost contact until a few years ago when my wife and I met up with his wife and family at the New Wine conference in Sligo. I already miss his big smile but I'm thankful that we were friends. Thoughts go to his lovely family.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: I am shocked to hear of Ivor's passing.We discovered he was a relative and became a great friend.We met him 14years ago when he helped us get our first mortgage he was always helpfull and kind.He was the only one who went out of his way.Ivor used to keep us going saying we were his youngest ever clients.My thoughts go to Olive,Josh and Naomi.Peace perfect peace.Nicola and glen fenton; 5 August 2012 at 06:06
Anonymous said...: He was a good business man who served his clients well.; 6 August 2012 at 05:33

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Gracias

In his book entitled “Gracias,” Henri Nouwen talks about his experience in Peru and Bolivia, he writes: "The title of this (book) summarizes what I found, learned, and heard. The word that I kept hearing, wherever I went, was: Gracias! It sounded like the refrain from a long ballad of events. Gracias a usted, gracias a Dios, muchas gracias––thank you, thanks be to God, many thanks! I saw thousands of poor and hungry children, I met many young men and women without money, a job, or a decent place to live. I spent long hours with sick, elderly people, and I witnessed more misery and pain than ever before in my life. But, in the midst of it all, that word lifted me again and again to a new realm of seeing and hearing: 'Gracias! Thanks!”

"In many of the families I visited nothing was certain, nothing predictable, nothing totally safe. Maybe there would be food tomorrow, maybe there would be work tomorrow, maybe there would be peace tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever is given––money, food, work, a handshake, a smile, a good word, or an embrace––is a reason to rejoice and say gracias. What I claim as a right, my friends in Bolivia and Peru received as a gift; what is obvious to me was a joyful surprise to them; what I take for granted, they celebrate in thanksgiving; what for me goes by unnoticed became for them a new occasion to say thanks.”

"And slowly I learned. I learned what I must have forgotten somewhere in my busy, well-planned, and very "useful" life. I learned that everything that is, is freely given by the God of love. All is grace. Light and water, shelter and food, work and free time, children, parents and grandparents, birth and death––it is all given to us. Why? So that we can say gracias, thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and everyone.”