The Power Of One
Dear friends,
Recently, I was asked to do something I’ve never done before: officiate a funeral service. I’ve officiated many weddings over the years and spoken a bit at many funerals, but I’ve never officiated one from beginning to end.
The service was for Mr. Roy Heathcoe, the stepfather of a dear friend and a man I’ve known for many years. He has been a faithful prayer and financial supporter of our ministry for many years. It was an honor to perform his funeral service.
As I was preparing for Roy’s memorial service, I asked his dear wife Shirley for some of the details and background of his life.
Born and raised in Florida, Roy graduated from the University of Florida in 1958. It is said he walked across the commencement stage at UF and right into a job with Boeing. A year later, he went to work for Hoffman Electric. This is where Roy’s story gets very interesting.
Roy was sent to Scotland to work on the world’s first nuclear-powered American submarine, the Abraham Lincoln. This submarine was completely self-sustaining and could stay underwater for an unlimited amount of time. It carried the world’s most powerful guided missiles. But it had one major flaw: it couldn’t communicate while it was underwater. Roy was tasked with the job to fix this problem, so he engineered and installed a telescopic antenna on the submarine. His successful work on the Abraham Lincoln resulted in him receiving two letters of commendation in 1961. I have read that Roy’s work on this submarine is believed by many to have been a major deterrent during the Cold War.
One man tasked with one project that had a profound and lasting impact on countless others.
Roy’s life demonstrated the “power of one”—not just because of his engineering accomplishments, but because he was a faithful prayer and financial supporter of our mission to reach at-risk youth with the Gospel of Christ.
Roy Heathcoe, and many like him, enable us to reach young people like Jordan who is now studying to be a cardiovascular surgeon. And like John, who just graduated from Florida A&M in three years, finished at the top of his class and is now going on to grad school. And like a young man named Charles, who has a beautiful wife and four girls and who just told me he’s going to keep having kids until he has a boy who can be in our boys’ group. I get phone calls, texts and emails all the time thanking me and our team because Leverage Ministries has changed their lives.
We know there is potential in the power of one life—including yours. It’s the power of your unique life that God uses to bring about transformation in the lives of others. What a gift it is to allow God to use you to help us reach the abused, abandoned and arrested youth. It brings comfort after trauma and can even reveal a glimpse of heaven here on earth in the lives of our hurting young people.
“For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son…” — one Life that changed the world.
As you spend your one and only life on things that truly matter, would you consider supporting Leverage Ministries as we continue to reach at-risk youth in central Florida??
In His Service
Scott Hirdes