life...

this is a picture of my friends stuart and mike. this past week, mike died from complications that he incurred when he was hit by a car as he was crossing the street in his wheelchair last week.  this last saturday, i went to his funeral.  it was strange to think that i was going to a funeral of one of my friends.  i've never really done that before.  last september i lost my first grandparent and i've lost a few other family members and such, but never a friend that was younger than me.  

mike and i weren't super close but i'm glad i went.  mike had recently joined staff with intervarsity and was also raising support, so it was good perspective to hear why he had decided to go into full-time ministry and hear stories of how he had impacted others.  it was also fun to hear stories that people shared of him.  i had forgotten about the time he and lauren dyed matt's service dog max blue!  :)

it was also good to reconnect with old friends.  i finally was able to give stuart & carrie their wedding present, was surprised by ryan fitzsimmons, sympathized with david nicolai who has to work with stuart on a daily basis :), congratulated josh bilhorn on his new baby son!, realized anne schuh and i will be living close to one another when i move to oshkosh, got a hug from mark burnette, spent some quality time with jen mac, and so much more.  hard to believe some times its been 2 years since college.  

i'm sad mike is gone.  but i know he's with Jesus and that is way better than here.  strange to think that he had dealt with so much with his muscular dystrophy, but it was a car accident that ended his earthly life.  strange how life works.  something you can do is you can pray for the students at whitewater.  the ones that knew him will be missing him and the ones that didn't know him probably would have at some point when he tried to share what Jesus meant to him, and they still need to hear that.