The Parker Trio

As most of you now know, one of Ontario's Gospel Groups was devastated this week, with the death of their founding member. The Parker Trio, originally from Pickering, was traveling in South Carolina. Late Saturday night, while they were parking the bus, Warren Parker was hit and killed by a drunk driver. It sounds so cliche.... But it happened. Warren was standing on the road, guiding the driver, who was backing the bus in, when he was hit.
It has been a very disturbing incident, particularly to people in the gospel music field. I only had the chance to hear him twice in my life, once as the Parker Trio, and once when he played piano for the Sonshine City Quartet. But it's still spooky. I think, though, the thing that shook me up the most, was the WAY in which it happened. Having had the chance to travel the last 3 years with a part time group, one of the things that we did every weekend, was to stand in the road, and block traffic, while Dave backed the trailer in ..... It's SO common place, that it has been hard for me to imagine that Warren would lose his life this way..... I said to my mom this week : I've DONE THAT ... Stood out in front of cars, waved them down, while we backed in... yikes.....
And I've mulled it over in my mind... What if? What if the bus had arrived 2 minutes later, that drunk driver would have already driven past ... What if they'd chosen to drive the bus IN, rather than back it in.. What if they'd stopped at a truck stop until morning .. What if what if what ifffffffffffffffffffffff ..... And yet, over and over this week, there has been a calming sense of God's Sovereignty. Though God never orchestrates confusion or disaster, His Hand is sovereign, and I am convinced that God has allowed this to increase His Kingdom.

Warren will be buried today, in a funeral at Bayfair Baptist Church, in Pickering, surrounded by family, and likely most every Gospel Singer in Ontario .... I think we all, no matter how close we were to him, are feeling the loss.

www.parkertrio.com