Faith

Looking back at this past week, we feel God answered our prayers and revealed to us the power of FAITH. We felt the need to share this.

Last Sunday, we learned that a very brave young man named Kellen Keiser lost his 16 month battle with cancer. We were first introduced to Kellen on November 13, 2009. This was when a local news channel did a story about Kellen who was using Skype to "attend" school while he was going through treatments for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We watched this news clip from Maddy's hospital room at St. V's the day after she was diagnosed with the same form of leukemia. From there, we were fortunate to get to know Kellen and his family a little bit. We would see them at the clinic or on the 6th floor of the hospital. We would get updates on Kellen from family who live in Archbold. We were able to walk the survivor lap with him at this year's Fulton County Relay for Life. Kellen and Maddy wore each other's bracelets... We can't claim to have known Kellen or his family well, but we felt as though we shared a bond brought on by unfortunate circumstances. When we learned that Kellen passed away, our hearts were broken for his family and all the fears that we had managed to put out of our minds, came rushing back in. We could feel our FAITH wavering.

When Russ and I went to Kellen's viewing on Wednesday, his dad said he did not know how anyone who did not have FAITH could do this and while it was unfortunate that Kellen had to lose his battle with cancer after 16 months of fighting, he took comfort in knowing that Kellen was able to touch so many lives along the way. We were glad that Kellen was no longer in pain and as we looked at him in his Ohio State jersey wearing Maddy's bracelet, Russ and I felt blessed to have known Kellen, and Tina and Kirk's FAITH gave us strength.

On Thursday, Maddy was a "Celebrity Scooper" at Cold Stone for their Make-A-Wish fundraiser. (Thank you to everyone who came to support this great cause!) At this event, Maddy was fortunate to meet three Defiance High School students who were asked to participate in this event. Anthony, Alexis, and Jacob spent three hours of their time passing out ice cream and making Maddy feel special. At the end of the night, they presented her with some Defiance t-shirts. (We joked that Maddy would have to be careful when she wore them.) Then, Anthony said he had a couple of other things he wanted to give Maddy. He gave Maddy a piece of net that he had cut down during a District Basketball Championship. He said it was to remind her that if you set your mind on something and work really hard, you can achieve great things. He also gave her a little wooden statue that he said he had in his car and wanted her to have. It had the word FAITH carved at the top and the following bible verse engraved at the bottom:

If you have FAITH as small as a Mustard Seed, nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:20)

We left the Cold Stone event again feeling our FAITH strengthened.

Finally, today at church, Russ and I listened to the gospel. In the gospel, the Apostles asked Jesus to increase their FAITH. Jesus said to the Apostles that if they have FAITH as small as a mustard seed, they would be able to uproot a tree and plant it again in the sea... (Russ and I just looked at each other.) Father Gary went on to say that people of great FAITH are dedicated to loving God and that love is so powerful that it moves their hearts to great acts of self-giving. People with great FAITH serve in ways beyond what is expected of them. When we ask Jesus to increase our FAITH, we see the results in our greater love for God and in our willingness to give of ourselves in service to the needs of others.

We left church this morning with our FAITH renewed and thankful for the FAITHFUL people God shared with us this past week.