Double Jeopardy

This is special posting to report a tragic death. A lot of this posting is pasted in from emails that I have sent over the past 24 hours.

It seems it never rains it pours. Linda is the oldest of 10 children and has a large number of nieces & nephews and they in turn have kids so it is a large family.

Until September of this year all of this family (except for her Dad) was living. In September her niece's 6 month old daughter died of SIDS. (See my September 10 post called "A roller coaster week" (Click HERE) for details of that tragedy.)

They say lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place but we are feeling like it is close to that -- and close to home. -- like double jepoardy--

Tonight (Tuesday December 6) we got word that another nieces's 13 year old son Stephen had died. It was one of those stupid things that never should have happened but did --he was playing this "choking" game and it went too far.

(See http://www.stop-the-choking-game.com/en/home.asp if you are not familiar with thisdanger. We had one of these deaths at alocal high school last spring)

If you have children, grandchildren, friend's children who might be at risk -- be sure they are informed about how deadly this so-called game is)

I can't comprehend what moves a child to take such a foolish risk but it is what it is. Linda's brother Terry (Stephen's grandfather) and his wife June are devastated - Stephen lived in the Guelph area and this makes it more difficult to support Terry, June & Pam (Stephen's mother) during this period.

Linda is in near shock having this added to her ongoing concerns about Kayla -- Please keep Stephen's family in your prayers that they might seek God's comfort

I copied the death notice from the funeral home website.

URRY, Steven, of Guelph, passed away suddenly, Tuesday, December 5, 2006, age 13 years. Beloved son of Mike and Pam Urry. Loved brother of Tasha. Loving grandson of Helen and Donald Urry and Terry and June Goodmurphy and great grandson of Martha Goodmurphy and Willis Beilhartz. Dear nephew of Travis and Tracy Reid. Friends will be received at the WALL-CUSTANCE FUNERAL HOME & CHAPEL, 206 Norfolk St., Guelph, Friday (2-4 & 7-9 p.m.). Funeral service will be held, in the funeral home chapel, Saturday, December 9, 2006, at 11 a.m. Memorial contributions to the Martin Kruze Memorial Fund, Unit 9, 1151 Gorham St., Newmarket, ON L3Y 8Y1 would be appreciated.

A tree will be planted in memory of Steven Urry in the Wall-Custance Memorial Forest, University of Guelph, Arboretum. Dedication service Sunday, September 23, 2007, at 2:30 p.m..

Condolences for the family may be left at (http://www.wallcustance.com/) - - see the Death notices section and clickon Stephen's name.

I want to thank the many friends and family who have already sent emails or made phone calls of condolences to Linda and to her family. Knowing people are praying always helps in times when there doesn't seem to be anything we can do but go on in faith trusting in God to carry us through.

Our friend Roger sent this devotional as something to think about in these situations


Date: December 6, 2006 8:39:08 AM EST (CA)
Subject: December 6, 2006 - God's-eye view - Daily Devotional

December 6, 2006

God's-eye view by John Fischer

“For now we see through a glass, darkly …” (1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV)

I had a mentor once who loved to teach about faith from a 20-foot long timeline of Bible history that he used as a powerful visual effect. He would roll out this room-sized diagram with a long line from Adam and Eve to the present day. On it, at appropriate spots, he would place little figures representing some of the well-known characters of the Bible such as Abraham, Moses, David, Ezekiel, and Paul. Then, he would walk over to where, say, Moses was, turn him toward the future, and place a dark pane of glass right in front of his nose.
“This is how much Moses could see when he looked this way,” he would say, and because we had the perspective of the rest of the timeline, we could understand Moses’ dilemma, but also gain strength from what we knew lay ahead of him that he couldn’t see. In other words, in relation to Moses, we had more of a God’s-eye view of things.

Though Moses could not see into the future, there were two directions he could look, both of which were useful to his faith and in turn are useful to ours. He could look back and see how God had been faithful in his own life up until then, and, most importantly, he could look up to God and put his trust in the one who sees all.

The obvious lesson here is that we are in a similar place. We can only look back to the past and up to God, and remember there is a God’s-eye view of this; we just can’t see it right now. He knows what he’s doing and how the events of our lives fit into his overall purposes for us and those around us. He sees reasons we have no access to. He sees a plan that looks at best murky from our point of view. But the future, and God’s purposes for us, and the reliability of his promises are no less reliable than they were to Moses. In fact, we have the huge benefit of much more history than Moses ever had – the fulfillment of things he could only dream about.
So just remember, whatever you are going through today or wondering about in relation to tomorrow, there is a God’s-eye view of this. Look up.

While I am posting here are updates on the other situations that I had asked readers to pray about.

Jack King -seems to be starting to recover. They upped his anitbiotic Monday . He is now starting to eat a little. Hopefully he has "turned the corner". I talked to him on the phone this afternoon and he is at least able to be out of bed andisfeeling alittle stronger each day.Heexpects alongrecovery timebefore he is back tofull strength.

Kayla - remains in hospital. (Tracy called a couple of times in the past 2 days. They did more surgery on the knee to "flush out" the infected area and put inantibitics. According to Tracy the Dr. said the knee was worse than before and he thought they would likely need to do the procedure again. Kayla was having a bonescan today see if it has spread. Definitely going to be a long haul -- very tough for a 5 year old.

Morris Whitehead had his hip replacement and is recovering. Everything seems to have gone well and if recovery continues as expected he will be out on Friday.

We are planning to leave Friday for the funeral. I have made arrangements for someone else to proctor my exams Friday a.m. and Lloyd will fill in for my class and sermon that was scheduled for Sunday.

Keep us in mind as we travel. We hope to go to see Len & Tracy while we are in the area.

God Bless
Charlie