Growing and Thriving in Every Season
Faithful in all
Seasons Two Lifetimes of Commitment “Serve [the Lord] faithfully with all your heart.” Kathy and Leland Flyger, members of the Lubbock Seventh-day Adventist Church in west Texas, have taken this instruction in 1 Samuel 12:24 very seriously throughout their lives. And that’s saying a lot, since this summer Leland celebrated his 90th birthday and Kathy is 83. “It seems to matter little how many years rack up; they continue to have the same commitment to serving the Lord and being active in church,” says Phil Robertson, Texico Conference executive secretary/treasurer and Lubbock church interim pastor. Every week, Kathy helps out in the church office, while Leland puts his engineering training to good use fixing anything that’s broken. This image of the Flygers hasn’t changed since the day they married in 1955, when they lived in Wichita, Kansas, for seven years. This is where Leland says he learned to be a deacon. “The head deacon at the Wichita church took me under his wing and trained me,” Leland says. “He taught me to serve the people and gave me my start in being a church leader.” It was here, too, that Leland and Kathy recommitted themselves to Christ. “We wanted to dedicate our lives as servants in any way we could,” Kathy remembers.
we don’t see anything but God’s hand in it, orchestrating our move,” Leland says. When they arrived, there was not a Seventh-day Adventist church in Arlington. People drove many miles to the closest towns to attend church. Following a evangelistic crusade by Bill May that was sponsored by the Irving, Grand Prairie and Fort Worth Handley churches, several Arlington Adventists, including the Flygers, decided it was time for a church in Arlington. Together, they started the process, and as of December 14, 1963, Arlington had a church. Over the next 40 years, the Flygers helped build the church from the ground up as two of 36 charter members. Leland served as head deacon and head elder, and Kathy served as the church clerk, Cradle Roll Leader or wherever else needed. According to Kathy, the highlight of her service was working with the late pastor, Gayle Tucker, in the church office. When Leland retired, he turned his attention to maintaining the church facilities. “Church was everything,” Kathy recalls. “Our family was church. Our friends were church. All of our kids went to church school and we took turns picking up each other’s kids. There was never a conflict for us trying to live our lives and be involved in church; our life was church.”
Planting a Seed in Arlington
Nurturing Growth in Lubbock
“We’ve dedicated ourselves to Christ in any way we can be of use,” Kathy says. “And God has taken care of us.”
When Leland’s work sent them to Dallas, Texas, they searched for a house with the stipulation that he didn’t have to drive facing the sun both ways to go to work. They were unsuccessful at every turn. Finally, they went to Arlington— the one place they didn’t want to live because it meant driving into the sun both ways on the commute. Without any problem at all, a house was available—a house that didn’t require a down payment until they got their tax return. “Looking back,
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Finally, the Flygers decided it was time to settle in and enjoy retirement. They moved to Lubbock, Texas, to be near their daughter and grandchildren. They weren’t there long before Sean Robinson, pastor of the Lubbock Church at the time, reached out and asked Leland if he would serve as head elder. After much debate, Leland accepted. That was twenty years ago, and the Flygers still feel they have been divinely led to Lubbock—just as they feel they were
