Dear Roland,

          I was saddened when I heard that you’d passed away this last June. I don’t know if you know how much I cared for you and how much respect that I carry for you still. With all the hustle and bustle of our week with you at the Vah Ki Presbyterian Church, those little things can get lost in it all. The couple of times that I stayed home from our service week over the last twenty years or so you were one of the things that I missed most; I’m sure that it will all sink in when we arrive there in a couple of weeks and you aren’t there to greet us. I will miss seeing your face and the wise eyes and ready smile that you always carried whenever you were around our kids.

Roland Stewart

In many ways, you have been the face of the Gila Indian Community to me. You have been welcoming, warm, and genuine. When I am on these trips with our kids, even for the adults, I feel like a shepherd and it gives me great satisfaction when I find a person who takes that role with our kids without even having met them. Thank you for that. You helped take care of us when we arrived and made us feel welcome and at home while we were away from home.

 

Roland with the 2004 Team

          I have always appreciated your genuine faith and the openness about your love for our Lord and Savior. I also appreciate how willing you were to share your testimony and through that, your wisdom. It has been good for our groups to hear you speak, to hear and see you play the piano during services, and to watch your reverence for Jesus.

          Thinking about you now in the presence of our Lord and Savior I have to tell you something that has come to mind. You remind me in many ways of my Grandpa Matt, my maternal grandfather, who passed away many years ago and shortly after my wife and I were married. It was likely in the way that you both walked about and observed and taught by your words and actions. I was close to my grandfather and still feel him close by me now. I can easily see the two of talking together and probably getting a laugh out of some of things I do and say. There was a kindness in his laughter as there was in yours.

          While I’m writing this from my own heart I am pretty sure that many of those that have been with me on our trips feel the same way and would say “Amen” as to how we see you as our friend. I am also pretty sure that you were welcomed into His presence with open arms and heard something like, “Welcome home friend. Well done my good and faithful servant”; words that all the believers hope to hear one day.

         

Peace my friend,

jerry