My brother…

Sunday, we finished up Daniel’s service and they buried our best friend. I wish you could had seen it man…it was unbelievable. We met at Holly-Gamble Funeral Home and assembled there were about 200 motorcycles called the Patriot Riders, all draped with American flags, along with several police cars, fire trucks, rescue squad, a limo for the family, and a vehicle which carried congressmen Zach Wamp and Rand McNally. Then there were some 100+ other vehicles all with American flags on them, to fall in the middle of the motorcade. We left the funeral home at 1:30 p.m. and traveled through Clinton, en route to West Wolf Valley.

It was unreal Jeff. There were people lining the streets all the way from the funeral home till we made it through South Clinton. They were holding flags and signs, waving and some were crying. The traffic on the other side of the street was all stopped and people were standing in front of their cars with their hands over their hearts. The entire KMart parking lot was full of people standing as we drove by. Once we turned the corner in South Clinton, there were two fire trucks with their ladders extended and had the largest American flag I’ve ever seen hanging over the street for us to drive under. Once we reached West Wolf Valley, there were more people and more flags. The people were standing outside their homes holding flags as we drove by. Almost every home and driveway had someone in it. The valley was lined with flags and yellow ribbons. Once we reached Lakeview Baptist Church, there were people out there holding a huge flag and signs for Daniel. It was a hard drive through the valley seeing all those that we went to church with and those that knew and loved Daniel. Once we reached the end of the valley and got out onto Edgemoor, there were more people, signs and flags. Finally, at the entrance to the gravesite, there were even more people with flags.

It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Never in my life have I experienced anything like Sunday. I’d say 90% of those people never knew Daniel, but they were there. The leader of our prayer ministry at New Life said besides accepting Christ, she’d never done anything that was more important than standing on the side of the road holding a flag as Daniel was driven by. I cried the entire way, seeing the patriotism that I witnessed on that day. The funny thing is, Russel, Billy and I laughed because Daniel would had been so embarrassed. All this for him.

Bobby Williams
Pastor of Student Ministry (Fusion)
New Life Fellowship
Clinton TN