The Hotel McKee

On the night that I resigned as pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park in September 2005, God spoke to Tim and Elsa McKee. I didn’t know it at the time, but in retrospect it is clear that God spoke to them as clearly as he ever spoke to anyone. I knew nothing about it because our hearts were filled with emotion at saying farewell to a church we had loved and served for over sixteen years. That night we knew only that it was time to go, and that we were heading south to Tupelo, Mississippi, for some undetermined period of time, to seek the Lord’s will, and to do whatever he called us to do in the future. The path he led us on was mostly unseen and certainly unclear to us that night, blurred as it was with many conflicting emotions and with the hugs and tears of many of God’s wonderful people.

But our decision–our calling, really–to move forward meant that we were leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar. And it meant that our oldest son Josh no longer had a place to stay. He had a job in Chicago and no desire to move to Mississippi. But that night God had other plans. When I told the congregation that we were leaving, God spoke to Tim and Elsa McKee and told them that they were to take Josh in. To be clear about it, God spoke to them and not to me or to Marlene. We had no idea about the divine communication. But that night, Tim leaned over to Elsa and said, “I think God wants us to have Josh stay with us.”

China figured largely in all of it because Josh had just returned from a life-changing year as an English teacher at a school near Beijing. Mark had left for China a month earlier along with Dave McKee, Tim and Elsa’s oldest son. That meant that Dave’s room was vacant. Within five weeks we were in Mississippi, and Josh had moved in with the McKees. During those early months he began to bring around a sweet girl named Leah. The McKees approved of her immediately. Romance blossomed as Josh and Leah spent more and more time together.

Meanwhile Nick was traveling up from Birmingham where he was going to college. Where would he stay? With the McKees, of course. A year later Josh and Leah got married in Vermont and the McKees made the long trip to join the festivities. (And a year after that they traveled to California for Mark and Vanessa’s wedding). Mark stayed there for a while. Nick came and went. I can recall at least one time when Nick and some college friends were going to Chicago for a few days. But the McKees were out of town. Where would they stay? At the “Hotel McKee.”

Josh and Leah became close friends with Grandma McKee who died just before Thanksgiving last year. I didn’t know her as well as they did, but the last time she saw me, she said I was her favorite preacher, which endeared her to me forever.

We owe the McKees so much more than we can ever repay, and we love them all–Tim and Elsa and Dave (who is in China right now) and Elizabeth and Christina and Grandma McKee (who is in heaven). Mostly we will never, ever forget how on one very emotional night for us, when life was changing forever, God graciously spoke to Tim and Elsa and through them, the Hotel McKee opened to our boys.

I am happy to say that at this moment they are on the way south to celebrate Thanksgiving with us this year. We can only hope to show them a tiny fraction of the love and kindness they have shown our family in the last two years.