Many of you have already heard that our dad died yesterday, Friday 3/29 around 8:20am.  He had been having increasingly intense pain in his left leg for over a year.  He was admitted to the hospital on 2/24 here in St. Louis and after a transfer to another area hospital and finally a transfer to an amazing Hospice House he never made it home to 6044 McPherson.  While in the hospital he was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic angiosarcoma which was in and around his abdominal aorta and had already spread to 3 other places as well, including his left hip, thigh, and lung.  All three of us were with him when he died and it was a peaceful death which we are so thankful for after he had been in so much pain for so long.  We are so glad he is now with Jesus and our mom and is no longer in pain, and we are simultaneously deeply sad having lost someone who we were both loved by and who we loved so much.

 

We are so thankful for his life and work and most importantly for the people who he crossed paths with in life, including all of you.  Thank you for your prayers for dad and for us, they have been sustaining us throughout the last month.

 

We wanted to pass along some details about funeral arrangements and such.  We in no way expect that each of you will be able to come, but wanted to get the word out so that if you do plan to come, you can make those arrangements.

 

On a related note, if you are coming from out of town and need a place to stay, or you are local and have a room(s) to offer for people coming in from out of town (some of you have already offered this to us), please contact Rebecca Groves and let her know either by phone/text or email:

 

 

 

 

Grace & Peace Fellowship

 

*Directly Following Funeral Service*

Bellefontaine Cemetery

 

*Directly Following Burial* 

Grace & Peace Fellowship - Fellowship Hall

 

In lieu of flowers, we would love for you to consider donating to one of the following two organizations, both of whose work dad believed in strongly and whose support he was personally involved in.

 

Serge - Christ School Bundibugyo: Serge is an interdenominational mission sending agency committed to seeing God’s grace transform the brokenness of our lives and the world.  The Serge team on the ground in Bundibugyo, Uganda operates Christ School Bundibugyo, a co-ed secondary boarding school in a rural part of Uganda which has been hit hard by drought in recent years leading to parents struggling to pay their students’ tuition, putting the school in a difficult position financially.  In 2009, while Heidi was on the team in Bundibugyo and mom and dad made a visit, Dad really enjoyed the interaction he had with the Christ School teachers and staff while doing some teaching with them on the subject of peace making.  Gifts to support Christ School in dad’s honor can be made through the following link with dad’s name put in the “Dedication" portion towards the bottom of the page.

 

 

ALS Association - St. Louis Regional Chapter:  After mom’s death at the hands of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), dad remained VERY committed to supporting the ALS Association and their work in the St. Louis area, especially through the ALS walk that happened every June in Forest Park.  He loved mom dearly, and hated ALS with just as much passion.  The ALS association in recent years has made excellent use of the money raised on their behalf, especially through the Ice Bucket Challenges, and great advances have been made in ALS research as a result.  Gifts to support the ALS Association in dad’s honor can be made through the following link:

 

 

 

Come quickly Lord Jesus,

 

Heidi, Jeff and Carrie