Last Friday afternoon a personal friend and a friend of Mission Lazarus unexpectedly died of a heart attack. Darryl Jinkerson, 54, had just returned home from playing golf near his home in Abilene, TX when he collapsed on his bed. Before moving to Abilene to teach in the College of Business Darryl worked for Arthur Anderson in Chicago. My family became friends with the Jinkerson’s when my father was transferred to Chicago for two years when I was in 8th grade. Darryl was a charismatic young church leader in Chicago and taught my Sunday school class when we lived there. More recently, when I had this crazy idea to quit my consulting job in Houston to move to Honduras Darryl was the first person to get on board with my plans and subsequently his entire church, West Chicago Church of Christ, who was the first church to go along with my plans to move to Honduras. To this day this congregation is very involved in the work of Mission Lazarus.

After moving to Abilene to teach at ACU Darryl made two trips to Honduras to visit Mission Lazarus on behalf of the College of Business Administration. And, just 3 weeks ago I spent over two hours in Darryl’s office absorbing ideas and wisdom form this Godly man. Darryl showed a great deal of excitement about the recent COBA study abroad trip to Honduras and the future of the relationship. Darryl and his dear friend and fellow professor Phil Vardeman agreed to provide consulting for Mission Lazarus pro bono as we work to develop a more comprehensive HR system. I was very excited about having their participation on this new project that would have undoubtedly blessed Mission Lazarus.


Darryl is survived by his wife Cindy, and their three daughters Whitney, Rachael, and Amanda. Please keep this family in your prayers.