Saturday, 11 April 2009

• Good Friday?
  
  A blessed Good Friday to all of you!
  Why do we call it "Good" when such a bad thing hap pened,namely the death of Jesus?
  For that matter,how could it be a good thing that God in human form would die such a tragic death.
  We could apply the same question to tragedy in our own lives.
  Why did this happen?
  Could anything good ever come out of it?
  We call this 'Good Friday' because the greatest good imaginable resulted.
  The satisfying of the righteous demands of God almighty as Jesus died in our place.
  And God will in His time,"Bring good out of bad" in your life as well as you walk with and Glorify Him.
                                                                                  (Greg Laurie)
  
  I have not been on this blog for most of last year.  Those that follow my Facebook have heard all kinds of vague suggestions of the tragedy that hit our family.  I could not talk about it for over a year.  It devastated our family and made this year the hardest year of our lives.  Even though the economy was quite a blow, we did not even hardly notice it because of the events that struck our family this past year.  I completely agree with Pastor Greg Laurie on this subject and since it is good Friday I thought it would be a great time to start posting again since we are in the process of rebuilding our lives.
  
  It was Superbowl Sunday 2007.We were sitting in Church.  The sermon was about the consequences of sin in our lives. About half way through the sermon we got the call. Our son Michael had been out partying all night and ended up in the hot tub at his condo complex at about 5 in the morning with 3 other friends.  They had all been drinking a lot, had snorted cocaine and were in a 106 degree hot tub for over an hour.  This was a recept for disaster and one of the worst possible things happened. One of Michael's friends drowned.  Michael was accused of second degree manslaughter ( had some part in an accidental death).  We were devastated as we know that it would not be in Michael to hurt anyone.  The events over the next few days are too complicated to go into here but a "run away grand jury"  decided to up the charge to Murder with no evidence of intent.  There was no way in the world that Michael intended to kill anyone, especially a friend.  We had to pool together all of our financial resources and hire an attorney and spent a year preparing Michael's case.  He sat in a county jail for almost 14 months waiting the trial.  This all happened in Oregon where there are some of the harshest and craziest laws and each of them seemed to creep into Michaels case.  The trial lasted almost a month and in the end Michael was found innocent of Murder by a 12 to 0 vote by the jury.  He was convicted of manslaughter because of one of the very unjust Oregon laws.  He was sentenced to 10 years in Prison with no possibility of time off for no previous record or even for good behavior.  Another crazy Oregon law. We will be appealing his case  but in the mean time our son, who I went on mission trips to Mexico with, sits in an Oregon prison because of horse play gone terribly wrong and because of the stupid mutual participation in excess drinking and drugs.  It was a night that could have just as easily left either Michael dead, Fred in prison or both young men dead.
  
  This event paralyzed our family and made it hard to function.  For several weeks we were in serious shock.  One of the biggest evidences of the existence of God is the love and care that real friends, brothers and sisters in our faith, showed us in this time of tragedy. When we felt like we were down for the count they came along side and carried us.  It was like we were being carried on stretchers by so many people that chose to help us face this and that decided to go side by side with us every step of this long journey. I want to thank all who have been praying and supporting us through this.  Words can not express our thankfulness.  You know who you are and I believe you will all be rewarded greatly for all you have done.
  
  We are starting our lives over right now.  With all the legal expenses and now with a slowing (all most dead) tourism business and economy it is going to be a long road to financial recovery.  We have made the adjustments we can and I am so excited to get back to work and see what we can make of all of this.  When you go through a challenge of this scale you are a changed person.  It can ruin some but by the grace of God we have come out of this so much stronger.  Trees get their strength and stability by being stressed by wind.  The roots grow stronger and hold the tree in place to stand strong in future winds.  I have learned not to resist what I believe God brings my way.  I embrace it, whether good or a challenge, and trust God to do His work even when we think things are too much for us to handle. 
  
  Michael has rededicated his life to God.  You hear of jail house conversions but his faith and concern for Fred's family over the past year has made a big impression on me and those that come in contact with Michael.  God has used him in mighty ways in the lives of some of the most unlikely and unloved people in our world.  This past year Michael has been in what is ranked as one of the worst facilities in our country.  No windows and about 30 years old.  On his block there were only 28 prisoner, all maximum security.  The worst of the worst all waiting for trial.  There were two others there longer than Michael but the rest came and went with new cell mates all the time.  Although Michael could not give me all the details I got the over all picture of the situation and it would take a real faith is God to not only keep your faith but to share it and put it into action in that environment.  Michael has keep and shared his faith.  One of the most touching parts of his trial was to see the steady stream of ex-cell mates that showed up for Michaels trial to support him.  There were about 5 of them that all did their best to clean up and go to the place they most likely hate the most (the court house) to support Michael.  After talking to several of them they were there for one reason.  They felt Michael did not belong in this situation and because Michael had an impact on each of their spiritual lives in some way.  After about a week of being in the jail Michael started opening the door to his cell just before lock down at night.  He would pray and invited any one else that wanted to have Michael pray for them to join him.  After a few days a few men joined him. It started to grow to where they moved it from his cell to the main room.  At one time there were about 20 of the 28 men wanting prayer.  Michael judged no one.  He got along with almost all of them.  Lives are changed because of him.  Mostly Michael's life was changed, and the life of our family, but also those he was able to touch, even in some small way over this past year.  I am sure this will not change over the next several years while we still try to sort all of this out, but for now this chapter is coming to an end and we are back.  I wrote this long post to get this all out and as part of the healing process that you need to go though when you face major disasters.  Things are clearer now, I feel more creative than in years and we are ready to get back to life.  On Good Friday, the day we celebrate the death of Christ, it is appropriate to look at the good things that come from what our world would consider bad things.  That is what this year has been all about.  To the world this looks like one of the most tragic situations a family could face.  It was very hard but there is so much that most people do not see behind the scenes that show the good that can come from such dark times.  Thank God for the Good Friday's in our lives.
  
  

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