It was a special and spiritual blessing for me to meet Wayne Oates for the first time at an alumni conference at Southeastern Seminary, Wake Forest in 1965. I had known of him, read some of his books and been with very special persons to me who had studied under him. So much could be said and has been said about Wayne Oates and it is all worthy and I am sure appreciated by many.

Therefore I will limit my thoughts about him to two very special things that had much meaning to me and still does in ministry. Both came from the above mentioned conference some 34 years ago.

The first was that he introduced me to the writings of Dr. Paul Tournier of Geneva, a Christian and a psychiatrist. In particular his book: The Meaning of Persons created in me a new appreciation of the individual, so "fearfully and wonderfully made" in God's image and likeness. So I read this book and many, many others by him and Dr. Oates and found new avenues for ministry to persons.

The other thought that has stayed with me from this conference was Dr. Oates sharing his thoughts of Matthew 7:13-14. He expressed that for him the narrow road between two broad extremes represented on the right-legalism and on the left-license to be completly free of all restaints (as the prodigal son of Luke 15, at first desired). The narrow middle road was not necessarily sitting on the fence as we were so often taught. I have thought a lot about this over the years and this made sense for me too. I think that this continues to have meaning in our living as we enter a new century and millenium.

Over the years I had several other occasions with Wayne Oates, but this first time and what it meant to me really stands out. He has blessed many lives over the years, including mine and I am so thankful for his life and ministry. He will be truly missed by many.