A Hero Gone to Heaven

Our Pastor has finally gone to be with the Lord whom he loved and served for the past 30+ years. He's battled with a very rare, genetic disease that only handful of Doctors in America had ever even heard of before. In the past 2 1/2 years, he took a turn for the worse and several times they thought he was in his last hours. He was on and off dialysis, in and out of the hospital, saw over 30 different doctors, both traditional and natural. None of them could get his body to accept protein and he slowly lost weight and strength. In February of 2008, he moved to NM in hopes of recovering there. An amazing doctor took his case and a wonderful hospital and staff treated him like royalty, charging him nothing for the care he received. They were able to administer high doses of a special protein that wasn't available here. Basically they were keeping him alive.

For the past few months, we knew it would only be a matter of time. He decreased rapidly. He could no longer counsel over the phone. His bad days were far more than his good. His life that he loved--a fireball, energetic preacher--was over and he occupied two places: an easy chair or his bed. Several weeks ago he was placed in ICU, and a few weeks after that put in hospice for his last days or weeks alive. They took him off of dialysis and all other medication and he got worse even quicker, as you can imagine. This whole time his wife would not leave his side. He couldn't do anything for himself and she did it all. She has stuck by him all these years, reading new books and research on how she could possibly make his condition better. God had other plans.

Pastor's wish always was to die preaching in the pulpit on the Lords day. Physically, he had to stop preaching months ago, but I bet that in his dreams he was preaching for his last time on earth before he went to meet his Lord on his day. January 25th, 2009 at 7pm. He was 56 years old. What sorrow for his family and church and yet what rejoicing for him! No more pain! No more suffering! No more dialysis! Only an eternity of worshiping at the feet of Jesus in a perfect, brand new body!

Caleb, one of his sons in prison, was able to call and talk the day before his daddy died. Because he was incoherent, he was able to talk to his Mom. This sort of thing doesn't happen in the prison system, so Praise the Lord for working it out! Please pray for Josh and Caleb who had to sit in prison through all this. The last time they saw their dad they never knew it would be the last time. They never got to say goodbye, although I'm sure in letters they have.

Please continue to pray especially for Mrs. Thompson, their 7 children, spouses and their 16 grandchildren and our church family. This is a time of sorrow, but the rejoicing for him masks much of that grief. Mrs. T. will have a huge void in her life as she has lived for taking care of her husband tirelessly for the past several years.

Please pray for my father-in-law who has been his assistant for 30 years, following him faithfully like no man I have ever seen.

His oldest son Adam is now our Pastor and we are very excited to see what the Lord will do through him to bring our church to it's full potential.

Pastor, you will be missed. We love you and are so thankful for the impact you have had on hundreds of lives. We will see you soon!