My Rev'd, Ave been reluctant at writing a tribute for you, somehow I just felt the Lazarus experience could still be repeated in you. It's beginning to Dawn on me that you're truly gone.
You're many things to me encapsuled into one. You're my pastor, my physician, my brother, my friend and my confidant, (I refuse to refer to you in past tense).
You are a very loyal friend who sticks to one through thick and thin, you identify with one's glory and one's shame, you share in one's joy and pains.
Whenever any of your brethrens is going through trials, you have a way of feeling it in your spirit as a good shepherd, you will surface at the nick of time, offer a shoulder to cry on and proffer an immediate solution.
I remember how you used to respond whenever I reported one of my erring sons to you, you would say " Banky (as you fondly call me) leave him to me" and like a magic wand from a good fairy, you have a way of casting out the spell of disobedience from erring youths.
My beloved Rev'd and brother, this page cannot contain all your virtues and qualities. I take solace in one of your favorite Biblical quotes in Romans 8:30
"Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified"
You were called, you were justified and you have been glorified, glory be to the name of the Lord. Adieu, my Rev'd.