Hello Rich Fans,
The following letter, forwarded to me by Diana Morris, is from Mark Lowry courtesy of the Mark Lowry Mailing List (info for that mailing list can be found on Mark's Page at http://www.marklowry.com/).
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 10:37:05 From: marklowry@marklowry.com Subject: [remarks-list] reMarks - 10/2/97 October 2, 1997 Hey Everybody! Things are kinda slow around here. That's why you haven't heard from me lately. I'm doing Gaither concerts on the weekends and laundry during the week. Life is pretty routine around here these days. But, in the middle of the mundane, I lost a friend, Rich Mullins. For those of you not familiar with Rich, he was a songwriter and Contemporary Christian artist. He was killed in a car wreck September 19, 1997. My most memorable time with Rich was on a Sandi Patty cruise. Sandi had invited Kathy Troccoli, Rich Mullins, Max Lucado and me. I talked Rich and two of our friends into going scooter riding when we got to St. Maartens. When we arrived, the four of us grabbed a taxi and I told the driver to take us to a scooter-rental company. We talked all the way and nobody paid attention as to how we got to this particular scooter company. We jumped out of the cab, threw down a credit card and took off on the scooters. We only had a few hours in St. Maartens so we had to do all of this quickly. When it came time to return the scooters and head back to the ship, we couldn't find the scooter company! We looked at the map we'd been given. It made no sense. We circled the island several times. We stopped and asked directions from people who couldn't help us. We were totally, absolutely, hopelessly lost. We should have just gone back to the ship, given the keys to someone and asked them to return the scooters for us. Or, called the owner and told him where we'd left them. It would have been cheaper than what happened. We missed the ship...which was at sea the next day headed for Nassau. We had to spend the night in St. Maartens, fly to San Juan and spend the night, then fly to Miami to catch another flight to Nassau to meet the ship. None of us had a change of clothing...we didn't expect to miss the ship in the first place. Nobody had their passports...they were back on the ship with our clothes. No toothbrush. No shampoo. No clean underwear. Nothing but the clothes on our backs. I had to smooth-talk our way in and out of customs...leaving San Juan, entering the U.S., leaving the U.S., and entering The Bahamas. How did I do? Fine, thank you. I got us all to the ship. I was embarassed, though. I am rarely late to anything, much less miss it all together. Sandi forgave us. I went to a wake for Rich the other night. I saw a lot of mutual friends. But, these people had known Rich from the early eighties. I loved hearing their stories about him. I told my story to a lady at the wake who had known Rich the longest. She told me that missing the ship wasn't my fault. Stuff like that happened to Rich all the time. He'd be half-way around the world when he'd realize he didn't have his passport. He was always losing his car keys or locking them in the car. He really was an absent-minded genius. When I heard Rich had died in a car wreck, the first thing that went through my mind was, "No! I'm not through with him, yet!" I wanted to spend more time with him. I wanted to explore his mind a little more. He knew things about grace I am just beginning to understand. He really walked humbly with his God. And, I'll miss him. "The race is not always to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor satisfaction to the wise, Nor riches to the smart, Nor grace to the learned. Sooner or later bad luck hits us all. No one can predict misfortune. Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds in a trap, So men and women are caught By accidents evil and sudden." Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 (The Message) -Mark