Ridgell's Originals

 This is the remarkable story of my friend Donna and how she came back home.

She was baptized/born again years ago at Hillcrest by Bill Luttrell.  Active enough to even help in the Children's ministry.  But, as sometimes happens in church, someone said something hurtful and Donna stopped going.  She will tell you now it doesn't matter what was said or who it was.  But it mattered when it happened.

Over time she just lost focus.  Months away turned into years.

Jenny, the Children's minister at Hillcrest lives next door to Donna and they became friends.  When Jenny lost her husband, Donna was right there to see Jenny's grief journey up close.

Then Donna was diagnosed with a serious illness, a life threatening illness.  And it made her think.  Not about herself yet, but about her brother, Scott.  She and Scott were close and she worried that since Scott had no other family, that when she passed he would not have a circle of friends.

So as she and Jenny talked about church and Jesus, they convinced Scott to come to our Wednesday journey class.  He did and enjoyed it.  Started meeting people.  He had (and still has) lots of questions about Jesus and the Jesus journey.  But Donna was not interested in talking about her own spiritual journey.

Then Donna's husband got sick.  Really sick.  Jenny was right there with her.  Lots of us were praying for Donna and for her husband.  I went up a few times to hospice to visit Donna and her kids while her husband was dying.  Jenny was with her right thru her husband's passing.  Scott kept our Journey class up to date on everything.  Jenny and I showed up at the funeral.

That's when Donna decided to take Scott up on his invitation and come to class with him.  Sunday mornings were hard to attend because of her illness but she managed Wednesday nights.  I asked her several times if she wanted to visit about her spiritual journey.  One night she said yes and Marsha and I got to start talking with her. 

We learned of her journey.  We talked about her baptism and what happened.  Talked about her illness and prognosis.  Talked about her husband.  And talked about what she wanted out of life.  

We heard her let go of past hurts.  And heard her talk about coming back to her faith.  Talked about forgiveness.  Talked about others in our class who returned to faith as they were dying.  Talked about Jesus who came after the one lost sheep.

She agreed to let us tell the church that she was coming home.  That she had been a believer and lost her focus.  That she wanted, and needed, her church family.

It has been a remarkable return to faith.  

Our sister Donna is home.  She has help on her grief journey and on her sickness journey. 

And she is helping us.  Inspiring others to pursue Jesus.  Helping others renew their faith.  

And Scott is still asking the hard questions.  Talking about what his faith journey could look like.  

Jesus, Jenny, illness, grief, and lost sheep coming home.   

# posted by Steve @ 5:00 AM