Thanking a Community

I recently shared some of the details of Ken's journey from the diagnoses of PSC to surviving cancer to how he is doing now.  There have been many ups and downs in this journey but our perspective is that God is using these things to teach us life-lessons and to mold us for His purpose.  Sometimes we talk to our kids about these life-lessons and sometimes these life-lessons just hit us and leave us speechless.

A recent life-lesson is related to the role of community in our lives.  Think about these examples of community:  church, bowling league, Weight Watchers, the local bar, Facebook, your home town.  I firmly believe the communities that we participate in can have the power to destroy our lives or have the power to be a blessing in our lives.

The power of community was recently demonstrated on a huge level in our lives a couple of weeks ago and it was a blessing!   Our church decided to host a fish fry and traditional auction in honor of their pastor and as a way to help offset the travel and medical costs.  Their effort was joined by many from surrounding churches as well as the general community.  Many people attended which tells me a lot of people really like beer-battered fish or a lot of people really care.  I believe it is mostly the latter which was very humbling for our family.

We would like to personally thank everyone involved but I believe the outpouring of love from this community has gone beyond any list of names that we could have been given.  Please know that we truly appreciate all that was done! 

The care and compassion spoke volumes to Ken as he now knows we are not alone in this journey.  This was a huge blessing!  The care and compassion also spoke volumes to our children.  I know that because of THIS life-lesson they will duplicate the efforts ten-fold throughout their lives as they will seek to pay forward this example in the years to come!