Thank you for showing up, Leroy Thomas

When Leroy Thomas accepted the job as preacher for the Causey Church of Christ in August of 1970, he didn’t expect it to be a long-term post.

“They said, ‘We’d like for you to come and preach for us until we find a real preacher,’” Thomas said. “Well, I guess they never found one.”

Thomas and his wife, Gaynelle, are better known to many for their long association with The Print Shop, the business they began in Portales only a month before Leroy was called to preach in Causey.

All week long, they kept the presses running, but come Sunday — almost every Sunday for 47 1/2 years — they made the 35-mile drive from their home in Portales to Causey.

If my math is right, that was nearly 2,500 times for church services alone, a number that doesn’t even begin to factor in the funerals, weddings, and visitations that come with the job … not to mention 2,500 sermons.

“I married ’em and buried ’em,” Thomas says with a characteristic twinkle in his eye.

He said he told his congregation all along that there was a catch. “I told them when it quit being fun, I was going to quit.”

While the Thomases rarely missed a Sunday in Causey for almost a half century, last year Gaynelle had complicated surgeries that kept Leroy away from the pulpit for two months.

He said it was that extended absence, combined with failing eyesight on his part, and maybe his age (“If I live to May, I’ll be 84”), that put him “in the mood of thinking of quitting.”

It hasn’t been easy.

“I love the people there,” Thomas told me Sunday afternoon. “I miss them already and I’ve just been gone a week.”

Thomas’ ties to Causey began while there was still a school in the small rural community in east central Roosevelt County.

In fact, “I did the last baccalaureate at Causey High School,” he said.

Thomas, always humble, said he “never was much of a preacher.”

I expect he would find some argument there, but many church-goers would appreciate this: “I was never very long-winded … 20 to 25 minutes maximum for me. I won’t say I always hit a home run, but I always enjoyed it.”

Lest there be any question about this man’s commitment to causes he believes in, let me offer this: Thomas joined the Portales Rotary Club in 1971 (Rotary’s motto is “Service Above Self,” by the way).

This week he received a pin honoring him for perfect attendance … for the last 47 years.

I am tipping my hat to you, Leroy Thomas.

Week after week after week … after week … you keep showing up to make our world a better place.

Causey was lucky to have you. So are all of us.

Betty Williamson has been a member of the Thomas family fan club for most of her life. Reach her at: [email protected]