It is with sadness that we say good-bye to Jim Hill, a long-term friend and one of the most charismatic and enthusiastic singers of the gospel Christian music has ever known.  When we were writing our first songs, it was Jim Hill that infused them with his unique magic that made audiences hear the messages and made us believe that maybe there was a calling on our own lives to keep writing.  Jim was a salesman in the absolute best sense of that word.  If he believed in something, he could make you believe you should believe it too.  From shoes (he was the midwest’s most outstanding shoe salesman for the distributor for which he worked) to songs, Jim could scoop you in and make you go home with what he had in his repertoire.  This morning when we got the message that he had breathed his last, we said at first, “Well, Jim lost his battle last night.”  Then we looked at each other and said, “No!  Jim won his joy last night.”  It is we who have lost the best key-change-to-last-verse singer ever.  For him, this key change kicked him right over the gates of glory!  What a day this will be!

                                                                                              –Gloria and Bill Gaither