Omega Shamblin

Chick-fil-A made the term “second mile service” popular in the early 2000s, but Omega Shamblin practiced it long before that time. 

Omega Shamblin was an engineer with the Corps of Engineers based in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was not looking forward to retirement as he was a workaholic. 

When he absolutely had to retire, his family was concerned about what he would do to occupy himself. They were sincerely worried that he would just die if he could not work.

I was serving at First Baptist Church in Vicksburg, and not only was Mr. Shamblin a faithful member, but he was also a willing volunteer anytime we needed any help. Upon hearing of his retirement, I invited him to serve as an official volunteer at the church. We set up a small office for him, and he accepted every assignment we gave him. 

He loved working—whether it was ordering literature, helping out in the kitchen on Wednesday nights, or doing statistical studies of church attendance. 

Our family left First Baptist, Vicksburg, to serve as missionaries. After living in France and Côte d’Ivoire, we returned to the states and lived in Starkville, Mississippi for me to work on a Master’s degree in Agriculture at Mississippi State University. During 1980 we frequently visited our home church in Vicksburg and talked about the work we were preparing for in Upper Volta. At that time Mr. Shamblin still worked from his desk in that small office at the church. 

We had to return to the states in 1982 for the birth of Allison, and my ensuing bout with Hepatitis B led to an extended stay of over 4 months in the states. During that time we shared with our friends in Vicksburg a lot about life in “the bush” of West Africa. 

Once we returned to West Africa, Cheryl’s dad bought us a video player and camera. This was in 1983, and VHS tapes had been around a while, but VHS cameras were a novelty. The camera and player were sent to us in a footlocker as extra baggage with one of the many volunteers from Memphis. 

The equipment was huge! The camera was attached to the battery pack and player/recorder and was a cumbersome load to carry around, but it was a great way for us to make VHS tapes of our work and send it back to family and friends in the USA. It was also a great way to preserve special family memories. As a matter of fact, during this COVID season, I have been organizing all those VHS tapes we made over the years and getting them digitalized.

After Mr. Shamblin retired once again from his volunteer position at the church, he found out that we had the video rig, and he subscribed to the Disney channel so he could record movies and children’s programs on VHS tapes to send to our kids. Over a three-year period he averaged taping one VHS tape every two weeks. 

We only had electricity 2-3 hours a day produced by a generator at the volunteer camp. Thanks to Mr. Shamblin, our kids and some village kids were able to watch Disney Channel programs and movies in the bush of West Africa. 

Omega Shamblin was a true servant and an early adopter of Chick-fil-A’s famous “Second Mile Service.”