Page 20 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2021- Online Magazine
P. 20

Exceptional



                                                                                          SENIORS
       Odell Farr








         The Carpenter's Son




         by Gene Shelburne





            f you have read your New         were good years,
            Testament, you know that Jesus   Odell recalls. With
         Iwas both a carpenter and a         four athletically
         preacher. So was Odell Farr.        active kids under
                                             his roof, he found
         Even before Odell said “I do” to    himself umpiring
         lovely LaVonne Woody on July 21,    baseball and
         1962, they intended to devote their   refereeing basketball
         lives to ministry. They met one     and volleyball, and
         another and fell in love while they   he says he loved it.
         were involved in church activities.   More important, no
         Church mattered in their lives. A lot.   doubt, his kids loved
         For them, pastoring was not a way   having him there to
         to get rich or famous; it was a way   do it.
         to serve the Lord and his people.                                       one of his talented brood is doing.
         Having grown up as a small-town     The Farr offspring characterize their   He’ll tell you about son Jon, who
         boy in places like McCamey and      dad as a guy who loved family       (no doubt, largely because he grew
         Monahans, Odell was delighted       and not just his own children.      up in a carpenter’s home) serves in
         to spend most of his adult days     Daughter Dayna says hardly a day    Habitat for Humanity. Or Dayna,
         pastoring small churches.           passed when they didn’t see Odell   who (having been raised by a
                                             reaching out to check on his parents   preacher) serves on a church staff as
         The Farrs started their years       and siblings, or to someone in the   a children’s minister. Or Mark, who
         of ministry in a tiny church in     large passel of aunts and uncles    (also the product of Bible-believing
         Breckenridge, Texas. Like most      and cousins who make him kin to     and teaching parents) coordinates
         beginning ministers, however,       half the people in Texas (at least by   worldwide Bible translation in
         they migrated to several other      marriage, if not by DNA).           hundreds of languages. Or Deborah,
         congregations. The list included                                        who has been an admissions
         churches in Roswell, New Mexico,    Now grown and producing             counselor for LCU (where her
         Farmers Branch, Texas, and          grandchildren for Odell and         husband is an English professor)
         Unionville, Indiana – before Odell   LaVonne to spoil, each of the      and now for LCHS (where her kids
         settled down for the long haul in   Farrs’ children has compiled        attend school). All four of them are
         Littlefield.                        an assortment of remarkable         walking in the footsteps of their
                                             achievements, too numerous to       incredibly devoted and capable
         As Odell’s pastoral skills were     cite here in detail. Suffice it to say   father.
         growing, so was his family. The     that they’ve made their parents
         Farrs welcomed sons Jon and         immensely proud. If you have an     Like a jillion of their colleagues
         Mark and daughters Dayna and        hour or two to kill at Starbucks,   before them, though, Odell and
         Deborah into their home. Those      just ask Odell to tell you what any   LaVonne learned early in their



      20   Lubbock Senior Link
   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25