Sunday evening John Perkins will receive the 2008 Jordan Lifetime Achievement Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. It will happen at a big banquet in Orlando, Florida, where Christian authors, publishers, and retails will come together for the International Christian Retail Show.

I’m thinking about the people who will be standing (figuratively) with him as he receives the award. Mr. Buckley and his prayers will be there. He and his wife were farmers near Mendenhall who held the Perkins family under their wing. His prayers that John’s accomplishment and recognitions would not go to his head had a reach well beyond Mr. Buckley’s lifetime.

John and Vera Mae’s son, Spencer, will be standing with him. Spencer’s sudden death ten years ago left a big hole. But it also left a legacy. It was Spencer’s decision to follow Christ that was the catalyst for that same radical change in his dad’s life.

I don’t know if Mrs. Perkins will go to Orlando with John, but she is the third person standing with John in my mind—just as she has for 57 years.