This is Bill Pritchett. He may not be “famous” according to how Americans define fame. You won’t find the paparazzi stalking him and placing their photos in People magazine. But when Bill finishes his race, hopefully many years from now, he will most definitely be famous when he steps foot through the pearly gates. At 96 years old, Bill has crammed more prayer, good deeds, and love into this world than a thousand people combined. When he was a younger man with a young family he packed up his family and drove through Mexico and Latin America and landed in Costa Rica to heed God’s calling to serve the people of Costa Rica on the missions field.
After nearly 30 years of serving those people Bill helped radically transform the entire nation by raising up countless disciples and pastors. He most certainly is famous to the people of Costa Rica as a most recent trip back to Costa Rica revealed. At a reunion of pastors, numerous teenagers and young adults came up to Bill to get their pictures made with him many of them saying, “Thank you, you led my grandmother, grandfather, etc. to Christ!” Think about that! Generations have been effected by his faithfulness and willingness to invest in people, one life at a time. As Bill told us, “You want to be famous? Don’t worry about fame. Invest in others around you and they will make you famous.”
These photos hopefully capture some of the life and warmth that Bill brings wherever he goes. He’s a youthful 96. When he was 84, some of his friends convinced him to take up the game of tennis and he played it for more than a decade. Bill told me, “I didn’t have a lot of strength in my serve, but you should have seen my slice!” The second picture is of Bill and his daughter Karen sharing a moment. You can see that Karen treasures every minute that she has with her daddy. Whether your loved ones are 96 or 36, we too should savor every minute we have with them and seek to love them and honor them the way that Karen loves her daddy.
