Farewell to a Friend

Good morning, 

 Many of you know that we have a place in our house where we hang pictures of selected men and women. We call it our ‘Wall of Witnesses”, and it’s based on Paul’s mention of his Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 12:1, those who have gone before us and encourage us to run the race with perseverance. 

We started our wall many years ago and now have 9 couples who we believe to have helped make us who we are. Of course you’ll see our parents there, a loving and Godly grandmother, but the other people we’ve picked up along the way, all greatly impacting our lives. Unfortunately for us, only a few of these people remain with us today, and it certainly hurt (selfishly) to hear this morning that yet another one has gone to be with the Lord. 

But the good news is that he was ready. In his 90’s, now free of pain and rejoicing with his wife…… only having been separated from her for two years. His name was Howard Kroese, but he preferred to be called by his grandkids and younger associates as “Sir”. We met him and his wife in Japan when they came out in the 80’s, early retired, to help us missionaries where they could. Our friendship started when they found out I was struggling to homeschool our exuberant 5th grade son. Edith said, “I’m a retired teacher, let me have him!” Trevor fell in love with both of them, gave up his shenanigans and prospered. She always said Trevor was “Her best class”. Years flew by and our same Trevor was a teenager with leukemia. Our own grandparents were not as available as they could be for various reasons, and again Howard and Edith stepped up. Whereas my father would come to visit in the hospital and insist on discussing Trevor’s treatment options and different therapies and how they would relate (he was a scientist; this was his love language), Howard would sit down close to Trevor himself and rag on about sports or which cars were hot…….. 

Both of our boys loved these people, Nathan making sure to take his young bride to meet them. There are a few people who know just how to do the right thing at the right time. I remember Howard helping to a steer a difficult meeting that Tony was leading one time where he was clearly out of his league. Howard would whisper, just loud enough for Tony to hear, insightful suggestions like, “Ask the group how they plan on paying for the project” etc. Things that as young missionaries, we were tasked to do but really had little idea of how to do it. 

I wish that the world could have more people who really just know how to HELP. How to be real to a situation and be humble to do it in such a way so that the person they’re helping can maintain his dignity and move forward. I hope that Howard is enjoying being reunited with his wife Edith and a boy they loved so much, our son Trevor. 

 Let’s BE those people. 

 Marsha