My Testimony

I thought that I would just add this little bit of info on myself, though most of you know about it already...

A few years ago, the summer of 2002, I was baptized at Bethel Gospel Camp during our churches Family Camp's. Being raised in a Christian home, I had no major problems, I hung out with my Christian friends, some of which are still really good friends with me, and there has been new additions along the way (not all of them Christian). I enjoyed going to Sunday school and I still do, and I have been going to camp since Teddy Bear (six or seven years old). Though I have slipped now and then in my faith, like many others, I have always had someone there that I could look to for help, to answer my many questions and to give me guidance, sometimes just by watching them practice their faith in everyday life. The past three years, since I was baptized, have been hard but I have been sticking with my faith by the help of all the people here and others from the church family.
Two summers after I was baptized I decided that I wanted to work here at camp with kids, so I took the CIT (Counsellors In Training) course (now called LITE (Leaders In Training and Evangelism)), and went hiking through the bush for three days with no accessories for cleaning. It was an amazing experience and continued to be so last year, when I was a Junior Counselor or JC.
Those of you who CITed with me will know that I had this problem with worrying, I worried a lot about someone in my family dying of cancer. When I was twelve my dad had gotten a form of cancer, the doctors had caught it in time though and in just a few months he was back home going in for scheduled check-ups for many years. I was worried and afraid that either the cancer would come back either, to dad or anyone else in my family, and that the doctors wouldn't catch it in time. One night while I was walking around outside thinking about this I went to Lindsay (my sister, second oldest) and told her my worries and fears. She just said these few words " Stop worrying, and start trusting that God will protect us, and if you start to worry again I want you to say this verse over and over again; 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you." That helped me every time I started to worry about anything I would say it over and over again until I stopped worrying (I still do that).
After a few years past I had hardly ever thought about cancer coming back until this past spring when my dad once again fell victim to it, this time it was acute leukemia, one of the worst kinds, the doctors caught it in time but said it would take heavy chemo to cure dad. He went through his week of treatments, just fine nothing went horribly wrong until the last day of the treatment, Saturday morning; when he started to cough up blood from his lungs, they took him down to ICU to clear out the blood, this all went well, but they kept him down there because he was starting to run a high fever. While this was all happening Aaron (my bro), mom and I were at Youth Quake for the weekend and getting these details about dad over the phone, we were a little worried about dad and wanted to go see him, but the doctors said that we shouldn't worry and that everything would be fine. During the night dad had a major stroke on his left side and he wasn't doing very good; we were all glad that we would be heading back to Saskatoon Sunday afternoon.
Mom had phoned Hilary (oldest sister) and Lindsay at school to tell them what was happening and that they should drive to Saskatoon right away. The next day my grandparents, Opa andthat's(thats Dutch for grandpa and grandma), arrived by plane and Aunt Tina and Uncle Keith picked them up from the airport. Pretty soon the whole family had arrived; we sat, prayed and waited and worried, talked with the doctors and knew that whatever happened next they could not prevent it, they could no longer help my father. We waited, prayed and talked amongst ourselves more. Some of my best friends came to help support and comfort; also to say goodbye to someone who had made such an impact on their lives as well. They all impacted me too, even though I haven't really realized it until now, but they have. Everyone could have saved themselves from the pain of seeing my father slowly decaying from the inside, they could have, but they decided that they wanted to be there, they wanted to say goodbye, even if he couldn't respond back.
I will always remember my dad as a strong man, in spirit, emotion, physique, and humour; definitely the humour. He was the joker of the family, the one who made as all laugh together, and unfortunately all cry together too. That Tuesday, March 2, 2005, at the age of fifty-one, my dad went to be with God. For some time I was angry with God for taking away someone who was so important in my life, someone that I still need so much. I wanted him to be there when I graduated or to walk me down the aisle when I had found that special someone, but this was never to happen, God's plans had changed all of that and it hurt me, it still does.
A few weeks after the funeral it hit me that even if dad died he was still here watching me making sure I did what was right or what I was supposed to do. I also realized that I still had a heavenly father too and that He would never leave me alone by myself, my fathers death was for a reason, for some great purpose and plan that God has in someone's life that really needed it, it my have been me, someone else in the family, or maybe a close friend, but it was not meaningless. Nothing is meaningless especially our love for God and my dad loved Him, even if it didn't show all the time even if he got mad occasion occassion, he loved him with everything he had, he served his whole life doing what God wanted him to do.
He loved God's creation which is probably why he loved farming so much, he was alone with Him, out in the open watching deer run across the fields, the growth of his crop, always amazed of how He always looked after him and his family (us). Everyday I drive by the fields when I'm driving alone into town to visit my friends and I can't help but wonder why dad loved what he did so much, but I have figured that out now, iamazementace, amazment, and his passion to serve the Lord the best way he could, he respected natures creations, and I'm sure he always felt bad when some unfortunate little animal dashed across the road in front of him.
Another passion he had were bees; he used to own a small bee yard just down the road where he would collect the honey and nectar, then bring to my uncle's honey farm, where he took a pail of honey home every two weeks. He loved the bees until he found he didn't have the time for them provide money to provid for our needs, so he sold them to my cousin who is working for my uncle and will soon be taking over the family business.
Then he got a new passion, trucking; he did this until the week he went into the hospital (which was amazing considering the condition his body was in). While he worked he met many new people, one was Kelly, his boss. They became good friends over the six or seven years that dad worked for him and when he was gone Kelly couldn't really believe it, they had become such good friends, dad would talk to him about God, but he really hadn't come to faith.
I believe that my dad died for a purpose and Kelly was one of them, he visited my dad and was amazed that he wasn't mad that he was sick, and when he saw us when dad was in IUC, he could see that we were worried and maybe some of us were mad, but yet we didn't blame it on God, instead we blamed it on the sin in the world for sin is the cause of death, but God's love and our faith and belief in Him is our life our eternal life, for we are not of this world. Kelly was impacted by our faith and he still carries that little seed that will one day flourish in his life, filling his soul will the love of Jesus and he will realize that this is what he was missing in his life, this is what he saw in each of us that day, God's love shining in us and our love for Him too.
Life is going on and only the thought that dad is face to face this his Saviour right now is what takes us through everyday with happiness and love, it is what keeps our faith, knowing that dad is no longer suffering in this world and is happy, pain free and probably talking with his father (grandpa, died of cancer when I was six) and his brother (Uncle Gordon, whom I never met, he died of leukemia when he was sixteen) and my cousin (Quenton, died from a farming accident when he was in grade nine), and they are all happy, living in a paradise that is beyond our wonders and imagination.
I pray everyday that dad would be my guardian angel, always watching over me and smile at all the good things that I do, frowning when I do something wrong and know it, laughing when I make a fool of myself, and crying with me when I'm sad, to comfort me when I need it most.