Honoring my courageous friends

While we were visiting Arkansas, a very courageous friend of ours passed away after a long battle with neuropathy, pancreatitis, diabetes and in the end, cancer.  Mike was a man full of faith who endured an extreme amount of suffering over the last 10 years.  Yet through it all, he and his wife Kim, continued to praise God in spite of their trials and hardship.  It is through this hardship that they found the hope of the Kingdom of God and their lives are an example to so many of the attitudes we should keep even when we suffer.  


We were privileged to be able to attend his funeral during our visit and Cameron was honored to be one of his pallbearers.  It was such a blessing to be able to see his family and his newest grandson and to share in the remembrance of such a courageous man.   


As I was looking through some old correspondence, I came across this post that his wife Kim had written about him 5 years ago.  To me, it embodies their struggle that they continued to face, and how their first thoughts were always for their faith and hope in God.  


Saturday, August 20, 2005

"Home Health finally called late yesterday afternoon.  They are sending someone out on Monday to enroll Mike. We should find out at that time what services that Medicare will pay for him.  I am hoping that they will provide an aide.  That would help me a lot.

Mike is still having a lot of pain.  He did not sleep last night and finally asked me to help him up at two a.m.  About thirty minutes ago, He asked me to help him back to bed and he is sleeping now.

At the hospital, Mike did not have a private room and a man around his age was moved into the room on Monday morning.  There was a curtain between their beds.  The hospital was filled with people of all ages.  There were two teenagers that had been involved in car accidents.  One teen was left brain damaged and the other paralyzed.  Very sad..  Mike felt a lot of compassion towards the other people he met up there.  


The hospital encourages the patients to eat in the dining room.  They have aides that will come and wheel them to the dining room if a family member is not there to do that when it is meal time.  The doctor had left orders that Mike could eat in his room, because of how sick Mike was, but Mike would try to go to the dining room when he was able to go.  He met others and when I came to take him home, he had me wheel him around to tell them good bye.  It was heartbreaking seeing the condition of some of the patients.

When we got to the van, Mike and I began to talk of how God has blessed our lives.  God is so good to us!! And we have so much to be grateful for today.  I don't know how long Mike will live and I can see that he is not doing well.  However,I am grateful for the time I have with him now.  We were awake when the sun came up and began to shine so brightly this morning and I was thankful to see a new day and Mike was still here with me.

Mike has always made me feel that he cherishes me.  I hope that he can feel that I cherish him. We never dreamed 17 years ago when we were married that a day like today would happen. That Mike would be very ill and that I would be his caretaker.  We did make the vow to take care of one another,in sickness and in health.  But somehow, I did not see sickness for us until we were much older and even with that,I did not put much thought into it.  But here we are today...

We have learned through Mike's illness that life doesn't always take you on the path that you have made for yourself.  And how grateful we feel that our path in life did change.  Yes,we wish that Mike did not have to become so ill and suffer.  But it is through our suffering, for I suffer with him,that we found the truth of God's word.  We have hope today of life everlasting in the kingdom and we both want to share this with others.

Mike asked me before I helped him to bed if I would gather together some pamphlets and mail them to the man that he shared a room with in the rehab hospital.  I had already been thinking of doing that the next time I went into Ft Smith.  But Mike insisted that I gather them today and get them ready to mail to this man for Monday's mail.  So, I will do this in a moment."

The last time I visited Kim and Mike was before we left for South Africa.  It was a tough visit as  we were all sad to be saying goodbye.  As I looked into Mike's beautiful blue eyes that last time, it reminded me of the young and vibrant heart that was hidden inside under all of that pain.  I remember thinking how amazing it will be to see the rest of his body whole, healed and full of vigor when Christ returns to set up his kingdom.  As I wait patiently for that day that I may see him again, I pass on these words of encouragement to his family that remains.

Romans 8:17-39

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.   We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 


As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;  we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.