Easter can stir in people humble thanks and lives of joyful praise. Harry Betz certainly gives witness to that fact!
Growing up in Philadelphia, Harry looked forward to the Easter celebrations of spring. His parents, who so treasured the son given them through adoption, raised Harry in the Church to know he had been named God’s beloved child in baptism and joined forever to Christ’s Easter promises. As a young man, something changed for Harry when he decided to stay home from a spring break golf trip and attend all the Holy Week services. That worship left him gripped by Jesus’ immense love. On Easter morning, as hymns proclaimed Christ’s resurrection, Harry found himself flooded with indescribable joy and new life. Harry determined that Easter Sunday to make his life a “thank you” for all God’s blessings. He considered becoming a pastor but found God calling him instead to serve through his church, community, work, and family life.
In 2024 Harry and his wife Denise retired to Myrtle Beach. Knowing they’d need to be adopted into a new church family, Henry and Rita Lewis, friends from their former Pennsylvania parish, encouraged them to visit St. Philip. Harry planned to visit several congregations, but St. Philip’s warm welcome, uplifting worship, and neighborhood outreach immediately felt like home. They became members, and within months, Harry was assisting with worship, communion, and hunger meals.
He enjoyed giving what he could. Before long he’d also be receiving what he needed.
“We joined a good congregation. But I didn’t know then what a great congregation St. Philip is!” Harry said. In the past year, Denise suffered a major health crisis requiring organ transplants. Harry had to lean on his Risen Lord, while their new church family surrounded them with pastoral visits, prayers, cards, conversations, meals, and offers to help in any way. On Monday of Holy Week, 2026, Denise went into the hospital. Miraculously, suitable organs were found; and on the fifth day, a day Harry now calls “Great Friday,” Denise went into surgery. The transplants were successful! And Denise awakened to that life-changing Good News on—you guessed it—Easter Sunday!
St. Philip is made of Easter People like Harry, people who give thanks for God’s blessings, rely on the Promises of a Living Savior, and embody God’s love and present help for others. Sometimes we are the ones offering that love, and sometimes we are the ones who need to receive it. We are grateful for the gifts Harry and others share at and through St. Philip, trusting that every day is a new Easter celebration and that through us others can believe, Jesus lives!