Morning Star Fellowship - part 2

Here's another installment on the history of Morning Star Fellowship.  Today I'm continuing to focus on Shawn Hart.  In the next installment I think I'll start talking about Fred Kealy and his family.

The 1960s
One summer Shawn Hart and Jacob Stephens went to a Christian camp over on the Oregon coast.  There Shawn met a girl named Lydia Robinson.  She was from the town of Oak Springs way down in southern Oregon.  They were both 16-years-old.  Shawn and Lydia started a long-distance romance that stretched over two years.  They frequently wrote back and forth to each other.  Shawn always sent Lydia a copy of a poem or two that he had recently written.  They also sometimes called each other long-distance.  They also often visited each other on weekends.  It was not unusual for Shawn to drive down to Oak Springs, pick up Lydia, and drive back to Kye Valley.  Ed and Marie both liked this nice Christian girl whom their son was dating.  In time they gave Shawn his own car so that he wouldn't have to borrow a car to go down to Oak Springs.

 Meanwhile Shawn frequently helped at the church in the afternoons after school.   In the office he helped with miscellaneous office tasks.

Then came the summer after Shawn and Lydia had graduated from their high schools.  Shawn planned to attend Kye Valley Christian College (KVCC) in the fall.  In August Shawn and Lydia suddenly broke up.  Ed and Marie asked their son what happened.  But, he wouldn't tell them.

Shawn's best friend, Jacob, asked him, "What happened between you and Lydia?  Did you two have a bad argument or something?"

Shawn just looked at him for a few silent moments and replied, "I'm sorry.  I can't talk about it."

In the fall Shawn went on to KVCC.  Something else happened that perplexed his family.  He suddenly stopped singing and he stopped writing poetry.  Whenever anyone asked him about it he just simply said that he was too busy with school work.  After graduating from KVCC Shawn went on to be youth pastor at Morning Star Fellowship.  Even then someone still asked him about singing and writing poetry.  He always smiled and said that he was too busy with ministry.  By that time he had married his college sweetheart Marianne Smith.

Over the 20 plus years following Shawn never mentioned Lydia to anyone - not even to Marianne.  Yet, there were a few times when he did remember her, in the back of his mind, and wondered about her.  He had a secret that he would not tell anyone.  The words just wouldn't come out.