Nan Powlison

Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow

Isaiah 1:18                                                   

This is the “over-the-top” GREAT NEWS that Peter Moore shared with thousands of people over the years of his life, including me at my first FOCUS camp in 1966, and then (with the his help and that of Neil Lebhar and others) brainstorming, designing and showing multi-media slide-shows to prep schools all over the East coast (1970-1977). Last summer I had the opportunity - as a gift to Peter and Sandra and in memory of this verse - to scrub and bleach the cocoa stained, pollen covered, grime glutted railings on the buildings at the FOCUS Study Center on Martha’s Vineyard in early September. Peter and Sandra were due to arrive to lead the Anglican Leadership Institute - 2019, FOCUS kids had returned home, my husband David Powlison (Peter had married us 43 years earlier) had died and “gone home” to heaven that June. For me, being in my FOCUS Vineyard “home” and doing this cleaning  job was therapeutic. I was reminded of the HARD work of cleaning which Peter exemplified over the years in his “energizer bunny” fashion. Peter was motivated by the HARD WORK of Christ- willing to go the distance and die on the cross on our behalf to present us “spotless and without blemish” before God. I suppose sometimes  Peter could  be a little OCD too :-)  tenacious to get it done to his standard and pushed to excellence. But lots of things : FOCUS, Trinity School for Ministry, Anglican Leadership Institute, churches he pastored, people he discipled, would not even exist now or be what they are today were it not for the “push of Peter Moore”.  So I pushed myself to bring those railings from grey to sparkling white, thanking God as I sang and remembered my favorite FOCUS tunes and Vineyard moments . After the last railing, I changed into my suit and started down the path to rinse off in Seth’s pond. Peter had just arrived and was sitting on the porch of the brown cottage reading with a sore hip (and wishing he could come for a swim I’m sure). We had a nice chat over the railing, and then in the cool of Seth’s pond I swam out with tears knowing that would probably be our last chat. And so it was.

Thank you Peter (and Sandra) for all your hard work for the Kingdom.

Enjoy His presence now - as white as snow!!   

Love, Nan Powlison