Illinois

One week ago today, we held a 2nd memorial service for Steven in IL. Everyone there was so very kind. Many old and dear friendships were renewed. It was a very meaningful service, including the following:

• Special music: God Is So Good - a song Steven chose to sing almost every night as part of several songs we would sing together nightly before bed. Another big favorite was I Am So Blessed.


• An audio of Steven singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness. (He could sing after he lost his ability to talk because a different area of the brain controls singing than talking.)


• Great congregational worship in song


• Our daughters and son sharing memories of "Dad"


• A slide show, including both before and after the brain injury, with Steven's journal entries included in the slide show (Jenny will be adding the slide show to this blogspot next week)


• A congregational sharing time of how God had used Steven in their lives


• A very inspiring message by Andy Pflederer, our pastor at the time of the collision, whom Steven worked with as an elder of the church (Andy subsequently went to Albania as a missionary but is now teaching at Moody Bible Institute)


• An audio of Steven (before the collision) at my daughter's wedding, speaking on Hebrews 12:1-4, the same verses he asked me to repeat every night for the past years

The service was held in Eureka, IL, a quaint, hilly town (full of lovely cottage gardens), where Ronald Regan went to college, so we saw part of the Berlin wall. My family and I toured all of our old homesteads in the area, so the grandchildren could see where their parents grew up and the spouses could get a better feel for who Steven was before the brain injury. We also spent quite a bit of time at the commercial property in Washington, IL that I still own and manage (sight-unseen for many years). We have been blessed with two wonderful tenants - Associates in Dentistry and Edward Jones - that have been with us ever since we bought the building 33 years ago. Purchasing the building to obtain a larger place for Steven's clinic in 1978 was undoubtedly part of God's preparation for us to go through these years of brain injury; it has been our means of support these past 17 1/2 years. Isn't it awesome how God had that all planned out? The space that used to be Steven's clinic is now taken up by a driving academy and also a great restaurant called "Maria's". We kept going back to try more of the gourmet, made-from-scratch entries. Our daughter-in-law from Africa was especially thankful for the gluten-free choices.

All-in-all, it was a somewhat painful but yet very good time, helping to bring closure to a life well-lived here. Knowing beyond a doubt that Steven is living such an awesome life now with the King of Kings brings such peace.

I'll leave you with Steven's special verses in Hebrews...
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverence the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it's shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."