When Esther moved to Southwest Christian School as an 8th grader, she announced at dinner that first week, “Y’all, it’s the strangest thing. Today we had a sub, and HE KNEW MY NAME.”
I laughed at her incredulous statement, “Yes Essie, that’s Mr. Knox, he’s not a typical sub. He works full time at SCS and is there every day. He knows your name along with every other student at the Lakeside campus.”
Bob Knox was one of the first SCS staff to get my attention even before I started working at the school. I’d noticed the older gentleman subbing in and out of my kids’ classrooms, walking the halls, and knowing most all students by name. Once I started actually working at SCS in Admission, I caught Mr. Knox in the workroom and asked a little more.
Turns out, this “everyday sub” was on his third career.
Bob served the majority of his career in the US Air Force as an instructor pilot and fighter pilot, and then worked for First Command Financial Services. He lives just blocks from the SCS campus and heard the Friday night football games from his backyard. When his daughter, an Alabama schoolteacher, suggested he put his name in as a substitute teacher, Bob scoffed at her suggestion. But one day he rode his motorcycle onto campus, introduced himself and gathered a little more information, and short time later found himself in classrooms, knowing all the kids’ names.
One of the most interesting things to me about Mr. Knox, is that he “just” came to Christ 23 years ago, after his lengthy military career and after years of marriage to his wife, Billye. Bob describes his young adult self as “probably agnostic.” He did not grow up in a church-going family, couldn’t imagine that God would necessarily take an interest in him, and basically thought of himself as a “pretty good guy.”
He married early, divorced shortly after, and served as an Air Force pilot while a single dad with his young son. Several years later he met Billye. He had known Billye’s first husband well, a fellow fighter pilot who died in an aircraft accident in Egypt. In fact, that’s how Bob got to know Billye, as his squadron helped in the aftermath of her husband’s death. Bob and Billye married and combined families – his son with her twin daughters.
Years into their marriage, a pilot whom Bob had known since early in his career, Lamar Smith, asked Bob to listen to some tapes from Search Ministries. Bob had gotten to know Bill Kraftson, Search Ministries’ founder, over the course of some meetings and ski trips. In fact, on a ski lift at Beaver Creek, Kraftson asked Bob if he were to die, would he go to heaven. Bob answered “Yes, I’m a good guy.” Kraftson patiently listened without argument.
As for the tapes – Bob had no real interest in actually listening, but he felt he owed it to his buddy Lamar to keep his word. Billye asked about the tapes, listened, and her interest in spiritual things “lit up like a roman candle.” Bob and Billye began going to church and reading the Bible together. Within a matter of months, Bob says, “God gave me the faith to believe.”
Bob and Lamar share a sweet connection saving each other’s lives. Early in their military career during a formation flight, Bob barked to Lamar, “Lead, break out,” seconds before a plane collided into Lamar’s flight path. Years later, it was Lamar’s “listen to these tapes” that led to Bob’s saved (eternal) life.
Corbin and I have seen the impact of Search Ministries’ “tapes” (now podcasts) in the lives of many men and women in Fort Worth. While studies show that people rarely come to Christ after seventeen years old, I feel like Search Ministries has radically shifted that percentage in our city. In our early marriage, it seemed that nearly every man we met through church, Young Life, or TCU was spiritually influenced by Bill Kraftson and Search Ministries. Kraftson recently shared at the funeral of a dear friend, Lee Clay, last summer. Lee came to Christ by listening to those same tapes when he was about thirty years old. He then led his young daughters to Christ. Those two daughters now have seven (absolutely amazing) children between them, one of whom is my daughter Basden’s best friend and Auburn roommate. We have all raised our kids together, and my family has benefitted from twenty+ years of friendship with the Buells and Breedings. I’m touched that Charlotte and Courtney’s families’ straight string of discipleship flows from Kraftson and Search Ministries.
It’s interesting to think of young Bob Knox, Air Force fighter pilot, independent and prideful, not realizing his need for Christ. He didn’t see why God would take an interest in him. How comforting that in time, through others’ prayers, with Biblical knowledge and by God’s grace, Bob Knox became “good soil” for implanting God’s Word. And hundreds, if not thousands of SCS students (in such a small-world way, including some Buell and Breeding kiddos), have been implanted with Mr. Knox’s kindness, his faith, and his interest in their lives.
Turns out God was keenly interested in Bob Knox.
The Lord knew him, and called him, by his name.
**It has been such a privilege for our family to be part of the Southwest Christian School family for the past eight years. With the last of our four kiddos newly graduated, SCS continues to impact our family and our community. Mr. Knox is now officially retired from his career at SCS, but he and Billye continue to love and call people by their names across Fort Worth.