Contagious!!

My favorite memories of JD are when Jeremy lived with us those two summers, and the boys would all come over and just be boys! I have absolutely NEVER before or since seen anybody have as much fun in a swimming pool playing with a little basketball and poolside goal than JD, Jeremy, Steven Anderson, and Matt Ervin!! They'd stay out there for HOURS, "hooping" (pun intended) and hollering, and splashing and laughing! The laughing was the fun part! They'd just crack themselves up about something silly they'd do or say, and just start laughing until they hurt! We'd hear them all the way inside the kitchen and start laughing ourselves, like listening to one of those laugh boxes! Contagious!!

But then, he had his serious side... when he talked with you, he gave you his undivided attention. He loved with his whole heart! He never seemed to do anything half-heartedly, but did it because he had a deep passion for whatever it was he was doing at the time....whether it was spending a few moments talking with a Student Leader at church, talking with a younger member of the youth group, being a part of the Devore Family,....or simply splashing around a swimming pool with his best friends....Jonathan Devore was quite frankly very contagious, like his laughter! Oh , that there were more contagious Christians so passionate as JD! I can't wait to see him again, and see if I'm right about him splashing Jesus, or surfing on the crystal sea!! :)

-Peggy Brown

Would you like a napkin with that ice cream?

Jonathan was three years older than me so I looked up to him and thought he was so cool. I can remember one time when we were really young and the family was having a get together (I'm sure for someone's birthday) picnic. It was time for dessert and Aunt Dottie had just given us some ice cream, and Jonathan started tearing up his napkin into small pieces. He asked me if I wanted to see something cool and he put a piece of napkin in his hand and ate it with his ice cream, (or so I thought.) He told me you couldn't taste it but it's what big kids did. So like any five year old, I started chowing down on paper napkins and vanilla ice cream thinking I was so cool and grown up, but when we were done with dessert and went to play, all the paper napkin pieces flew out of his pocket and I was yet another sucker to believe the words of Jonathan Devore. (Makes me think of Travis Lee and his bright colored blazer!)

Three years have flown by, but I can just imagine him in heaven muting the angels microphones while they are singing praises, and him and Jesus laughing at their expense!

Much Love to JD,
Katie Smith Arnold

Sunsets

When I think of “Jonathan stories” my mind is flooded with millions of stories. I can never settle on one that seems just right or that can begin to explain any part of who Jonathan is. Over the past three years the things that have blown me away is how much Jonathan was in the little, every day things of life. I knew how much Jonathan meant to me, but I don’t think I realized how much Jonathan was a part of me – a part of my every day life. Not long after Jonathan died, I was having lunch with a friend in downtown Jackson. We were sitting close to a window and were in the middle of a deep conversation. I was mid-sentence when through the window I saw a Red Bull truck, and I stopped immediately and just sat there. My friend told me that one day these small things would be what makes me smile in remembrance, but I’m not for sure I believed him. I now know he was right.

It’s the small things that bring the Jonathan stories, moments, and memories rushing through my mind. The small things like a new board game on the shelf at the store – a game that would be perfect for an all night gamefest, and a game at which Jonathan would obviously beat me. I almost always think of Jonathan when renting a movie. The obvious movies like The Ladies’ Man or Lock, Stock aren’t the ones that stop me in my tracks. However, movies like Ronin or What About Bob, or Mean Machine, or even the latest movie with lots of car chases and explosions are the ones that make me stop, smile, and maybe laugh out loud. When in the grocery store about my bi-monthly shopping for food I come across Tab or Fresca, I always think of those post-church, Sunday night parties at the Devore’s. Foods like meatloaf, crunchy romaine toss, and French bread pizzas have Jonathan attached to them in my mind. I never see a blue, Z71 drive down the road that I don’t listen for it to sound like JD’s truck or think of the times Jonathan would use the intercom to tell motorists to go faster or get out of his way. There are millions of these small things, and they are the things that I cherish most.

Of all the small things that remind me of Jonathan, one stands out as the biggest. Jonathan loved sunsets. He was borderline obsessed with sunsets. His ebay username even had the word sunset in it. For me, sunsets are the one thing that capture the most of who Jonathan was. As I think back, all of our serious, heart-to-heart conversations happened while watching the sunset. On the Reservoir watching the sunset after playing catch for an hour, we sat and talked about how he really felt about moving to California; we talked about life and dreams and what those meant to us. A year later after spending the day on a road trip for a shoot, we watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean from Ventura and realized that not much had changed in how we viewed life and dreams.

Jonathan often got frustrated about being in California, and he needed to be reminded of why he was there. No matter where Jonathan moved (and he moved tons in that year and a half), one of the first things he did was to find a place to watch the sunset. He couldn’t always find time to go and sit to watch the sunset, but he tried to at least three of four times a week. His place (which moved each time he did) was a place he could go and sit for an hour and forget about whatever was going on; it was a place where he could re-charge. Sometimes he would call while he sat and watched the sunset. He would try to describe it, but as often with God’s creation, words never were enough. He often talked about how the clouds made a difference in the colors and the beauty of the sunset. In a place that often seemed Godless to him, Jonathan could always see God in His sunsets. I think it served as a reminder that God hadn’t called Jonathan to California and just left him; God was still there with him.

I don’t get to see the sunset daily, or nearly enough as I would like. I often only get to see them when driving from Atlanta to Mississippi. But when I see the sunset, I’m reminded of all of who Jonathan is. Eudora Welty says, “The memory is a living thing – it too is in transit. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and lives – the old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead.” Sunsets have become one of my favorite things too because as I watch, with the help of my memory, if only for a moment Jonathan still lives.

--Elizabeth Crews

Excel Camp 2001

There are soooooooo many stories from Excel Camp. It's become Student Ministry lore at CH for those who were there. Excel Camp was the summer camp that we went to in Ducktown, TN (I think). Typically Jim Randall, Student Minister at the time, would take a pre-trip to scout out the location for summer camp. He sent a group in August. In August the camp was still being constructed, but hey, that was 10 months before we were to be there and the owners had ensured us that everything would be ready by the time we got there.

We arrived the following summer to a camp that was ..... less than complete. We arrived to Excel Camp believing that we had the camp to ourselves. By the end of the second day, we were there with two other youth groups, meaning there were approximately 350 people there sharing a men's and women's bathroom with 2 sinks, three toilets, and two shower stalls. The water pipes were exposed and broken meaning there was no drinkable water (it was dirty and gritty), there were no walls on some of the cabins where some of the girls were staying, and on and on and on.

The pavilion we were having worship in didn't have any walls either and it rained like we were in a tropical rain forest throughout the week. We were getting wet and our sound equipment was getting wet. After one day of a typical downpouring and drying off the sound equipment once again, I turned around and all of a sudden JD and Matt Ervin walked in with power tools that who knows where they got. Immediately they were climbing around the pavilion like a couple of monkeys (with Bryan Rose) attaching think plastic lining around all of the outer walls of the pavilion to provide some kind of shelter. I'll never forget seeing how JD sprang in to action (as he always did) and started addressing problems... and usually with a set of power tools and Matt Ervin. Excel Camp was one of the worst and best experiences of my life and JD was all up in the middle of it!

--Crull Chambless

Electricity... eeeeeeelectricity...

Back in 1998 (or so) the Colonial Heights Student ministry did a missions project one weekend. It was a local project and we ended up working with the Mississippi Family Council. We did everything from yard work, light demolition, painting, etc. At the MS Council office there were two long hallways that ran parallel to each other down the length of the building with a closet between them that was used for storage. The only way you could get around the office was to go to either end of the hallways (kind of made a racetrack around the office). The Executive Director for the MS Family Council wanted the storage closet removed to improve traffic flow. So, Jonathan and I started working on the "light demolition."

We removed the shelving, et al from the storage room and started demolishing the sheet rock between the hallways. About 45 minutes in to it, Jonathan and I had basically destroyed everything... except the electrical outlet box that was in the wall. We had a long metal 1" conduit with the junction box on the bottom. Our thought was that we would cut the power, clip the wires to the box, slide the conduit off, tie the remaining wires off with electrical tape or whatever, coil it up and stick it up on the ceiling, and voila! done!

So, we plugged in an electrical drill in to the outlet, pulled out our "pocket Booker" and had him start cutting breakers to find the right switch for our outlet.

"Ok Booker, start cutting the switches!" .... " I think that's it! Cut it back on one second and let's make sure! ... yeah! that's it. ok kill it!"

Jonathan, who I swear always had a set of tools with him wherever he goes, whipped out a set of wire snippers. I pulled the box back at a 45 degree angles, exposing the wires, and Jonathan went to snip and.... BOOM!!!!

There was a loud pop and flash. Jonathan was thrown back and the lights in the office went out.

So upon further inspection, we had killed the circuit to the 120 volt outlet, but there WAS A LIVE 240 in the junction box!!! Thankfully the snips JD was using were insulated and all we were left with was a good scare (and the hair on Jonathan's hand got singed off).

To this day, I don't mess with electricity.

-- Crull Chambless

The Truth of the Sharpie Legend

Well, I guess it’s time that the guilty must come forward. If you thought that JD carrying a Sharpie all the time was cool, I guess it was mostly my fault. If he ever ruined anything that belonged to you by writing on it, I deny all knowledge.

Some (many actually) years ago, Jim Randall came to my house for dinner one night, and during the course of our conversation he shared an idea he’d been working on. Jim said that he wanted to do a choir tour, but not a choir tour like most churches and youth groups do. He told me that he wanted it to be cool, not cheesy, and like nothing anyone else was doing. I told him that it would be easy. All you’d need is a sound system WAY bigger than was necessary, video projection, some intelligent lighting flashing all over the room, and a LOT of fog juice! Jim loved it!

At the time, I was working for a company doing concert audio for all types of acts and had traveled a great deal and met a lot of famous and interesting people. So, I started calling in favors, and before you knew it, we had all the stuff that we “needed.” Jim had another idea for the choir tour. He wanted to involve all the kids that didn’t really care about singing in the choir. So, he created the drama team, the set designers and of course, the technical crew. Although there were about 10 kids on the tech crew, the real protégés were, you guessed it, JD and Matt Ervin (Irvin? I can never remember). They thought what I did for a living was cool, and they enjoyed sitting and talking about the people I had worked with. They did work very hard, and they seemed to really enjoy learning all about how audio and lighting systems worked.

Anyway, amongst all this vast technical knowledge that they believed I was sharing with them, I taught them the 2 “Rules of the Road.” First, duct tape will fix anything, and if it doesn’t, it’s too broke to fix! Second, never get caught without a Sharpie. JD and Matt took Rule 1 to new heights. Some of the things they made work with a little duct tape and imagination would boggle the mind, and it was always fun to see their creations. Rule 2 is where I personally had the most fun. After a few days of asking to borrow their Sharpie (which they didn’t have), JD decided to never get caught Sharpie-less again. He began to carry one on him at all times. Therefore, it began to be my job to sneak into his stuff at night, or in the morning, and steal all his Sharpies. It was priceless! I’d get up early, steal his Sharpies, and then all day long I’d ask to borrow his. When he’d tell me that he couldn’t find it, I’d accuse him of slacking on the job, not listening to a thing I’d said, and any other lines I’d heard from my parents and bosses a million times. Finally, after a few days of the disappearing Sharpies, I got caught laughing as he frantically searched for his Sharpie that I’d asked to borrow. We all got a great laugh, and of course JD never minded being the focus of a friendly joke. Lord knows, he pulled enough of them on all of us! Anyway, after that I would periodically ask if he had a Sharpie, and I don’t remember a single time that I caught him without one.

The day we said “goodbye for now” to JD, I felt like it was only right that I leave a Sharpie for him to make up for all the ones I had “stolen” from him. I miss him, too.

--Kiley Ham

Weekend plans

Friends always do stuff on the weekends, it's just a given. There would be something to do, no calling to make plans or anything like that, just get together and stuff happens.

That made it awkward the first time JD calls on a Thursday and says "what you doin' this Saturday?" I was thinking, what do we always do?, is he joking?, is there something cool happening?... Which got me to the answer, "nothing" thinking that what would follow would be an invite to some adventure that would finally be planned out and not happen on the fly like normal. Then I found out what it was all about, "I'm going to mow the Logan's grass, do you want to help?" Now knowing what it was, I was trapped, I already said I wasn't doing anything, so I reluctantly said "sure." (mowing the Logan's grass is another story in itself.)

This would happen lots of times, helping people move, cleaning up things, taking clothes to Mexico, etc... It always found me (sadly) with the same reluctant response. I used to joke with him, when he would ask me what I was doing, I would say "who needs help now." Each time we would go help someone, it was definitely an adventure in itself (that's what you got when you were JD's friend), and way better than selfishly doing "nothing."

There's too many "morals to the story" to list. Each one are reasons to miss him, and reasons to be that kind of friend to someone else.

--Steven Anderson

Red Bull

I sit in the lobby of a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona sipping my red bull. Many of you know where this is going. Almost seven years ago, Jane and I were about to leave for a vacation to Florida. Just prior to pulling out of the driveway, JD shows up with a travel gift for us. A case of red bull. Most diehards know that there are 32 cans in a case. Jane and I iced several down and threw the whole case in the back. Here is the sad part. We found ourselves stopping at a gas station on the way home to buy more. We had gone through all 32 cans in about five days. Needless to say we became addicted. Now, I find myself measuring the stress of the day by the number of cans I drink. "It is a one red bull day" or "it is a two red bull day". To this day we blame or thank Jonathan for being our dealer.

Jonathan shared so many things with Jane, Jared and myself. The greatest was his love for life and passion to be uniquely used for God. We think of him often...
- Jim Randall

Who needs a key when you know JD?

One was that, even as a kid, he was always very polite. That remained true about him as he got older, too. He never made me feel like an old lady that he had to be nice to. Instead he had what I believe was a gift of making even old ladies feel like talking to you was exactly where he wanted to be at that moment.

Secondly, I never ceased being amazed at how he could find things….anything that anyone needed, no matter how bizarre it seemed. I remember one particular weekend that he was helping with a preteen retreat and Jim R. was teaching. Jim mentioned during a break that it would be cool if he had a cement statue of some kind to make his point. JD was ready to take off sure that he could have it and be back before the break was over. Well, Jim didn’t send him on that run. But there were several times when Jim would hand me something he had “borrowed” from my resources. I would ask how he got it or knew that I had it. He would always say something like, “You don’t need to know.” When I would press him about getting into places without a key, he would say, “JD doesn’t need a key!”

I suppose there is a third thing that I will always be grateful to JD for and that is the mark he left on David. I see so many reminders of JD in him – the sweet spirit, the hard worker, the politeness, the ingenuity, the ability to problem solve, the impish grin, and more.

Thank you, God, for Jonathan and the sweet memories we can still enjoy as we think of him.

-Barbara Brown

Dancing with the Angels

Memories surround me
But sadness has found me
I'd do anything for more time
Never before has someone meant more
And I can't get you out of my mind
There is so much that I don't understand
But I know

You're dancing with the angels
Walking in new life
You're dancing with the angels
Heaven fills your eyes
Now that you're dancing with the angels

You had love for your family
Love for all people
Love for the Father, and Son
Your heart will be heard
In your unspoken words
Through generations to come
There is so much that I don't understand
But I know

You're dancing with the angels
Walking in new life
You're dancing with the angels
Heaven fills your eyes
Now that you're dancing

We're only here for such a short time
I'm gonna stand up
Shout out
And sing Hallelujah
One day I'll see you again

We'll be dancing with the angels
Walking in the new life
Dancing with the angels
Heaven will fill our eyes
When we're dancing with the angels

--Monk and Neagle
"Monk and Neagle" the album
2004

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

One of the more memorable birthdays was when Jonathan turned two! He was an early riser so we often went for a bike ride while others were sleeping. Of course he rode in a toddler seat on the back of my bike. We came home and had a special birthday breakfast with Kirsten and Sam. The morning was a bit off schedule since it was a special day. When I finally got a chance to go have a shower, Sam had already gone to work. I left Kirsten and Jonathan watching Sesame Street and went to my bedroom to get cleaned up. I returned to the den a very short time later and discovered the fireplace glass door open and ashes strewn all over the den!!! That was my first glimpse into his "let's see what will happen if we...." attitude. - Mom

(Editor's note: This is a day late since I was out of town!) :)