Lon's Love Story August 21st, 2010

I was about 8 years old when I saw my first “girlie” magazine. It was at a friends’ house and his much older brother had them scattered all over their room. For the next 30 years pornographic magazines were part of my life. In 1998 I had a life altering event that made me start to search out the God I had learned about in church when a was growing up. I was first-on-scene, Chief-in-charge of a house fire that took the lives of two neighbor boys ages 8 & 12. I felt God knock at the door of my heart that day but I did not open it. While walking around the house that day I came across a pornographic magazine laying on the ground, having been blown out from the pressure of our water hoses while fighting the fire. I thought to myself “is this what is going to happen to me? Great tragedy while seeking my own selfish desires”. I knew then that I needed to change my ways. This fire happened Dec 21st, just 4 days before Christmas.

I started going to church more regularly with my family. I started looking for a different form of music than I had been listening to and stumbled across WDBA and christian music started to fill my life.

Fast forward to November 2006 and while at a Casting Crowns concert in Wilkes-Barre the band sits down on stools and ministers to the crowd. Leader singer Mark Hall leads all that who want to accept Christ in the sinners prayer and I found myself finally opening the door to Him who gives us life. I’m thankful for that day for I was able to leave my old life behind and seek my new life in Christ. It also gave me 2 years to prepare for a test of faith I was going to go through.

It says in Revelation 2:10 “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Last July 17th my brother, business partner and brother in Christ had a spontaneous bleed on the brain. He was flown to UPMC in Oakland, PA where emergency surgery was preformed to put a drain in his head. The following day, through diabetic complications, his kidney’s started to fail, he developed pneumonia from the fluid flush to clear the dka, got CHF, had a mild heart attack and developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). At this point and time Alan was near grave condition with an oxygen level near half of what the human body needs to survive.

July 21st, when Pastor Dan was with him in ICU, his O2 level was at 51 and he didn’t know how anyone as sick as he was could be alive. This was the first time that they asked Heather, his wife, what course of action she wanted them to take. They found a compression bed that he ended up staying in for the next 2 weeks to clear up the ARDS. Brain readings at this time also showed little to no brain activity (brain activity readings did come back around after Third Day was put in the cd player). I had just left our neighbors’ place to let them know Alans’ condition and was back in my truck praying that I’d hear a song that would help left me out of the dulldrums when across WDBA came Selah’s song “Rescue Me” (if you read the lyrics to this song you would know how it is God speaking to me through this song).

After my head to toe prayer on the night of the 24th the Lord said to me “do you want to see him sitting up in bed eating orange sherbet?” to which of course I said “YES!”. His reply was “in My time”.

We had many up and down days leading up to his 45th birthday on August 17. He was awake, alert while we read him his birthday cards, cards from all over the U.S as I had my Circle of Friends mass e-mail in full swing keeping family, friends, customers, vendors up to date and they responded by flooding cards in. On the 18th he got ARDS for the second time and also got MRSA on his lungs. By the 23rd they told Heather that Alan was no longer responsive even to painful stimuli and would need an answer on the 26th. On the 25th the story was the same, long term would be brain dead, on a ventilator, permanent dialysis, feeding tube and multiple organ failure until the time of his death or short term in the hospital. While people have survived 1 bout with ARDS no one was known up until that point to survive a 2nd bout of it. Heather made the tough decision to end his long suffering. Heather walked in on the night of the 25th and said the words no mother ever wants to hear “where do you want Alan buried as their giving us no hope”. That night they wrote his obituary. The following day she, Tim (oldest of 3 boys)and Pastor Dan headed down to say their good-byes only to told when they arrived that Alan was awake, alert and sitting in a chair. He had been off the ventilator and breathing on his own for 3 hours – PRAISE GOD. At some point during the 8 weeks he was in the coma Alan came into the “presence” of God who spoke him from behind a neighbor of ours (at the being of July we had a dear neighbor commit suicide and his parents had been worried about his soul). God told Alan that his place wasn’t ready and that it would be some time before he would call him home. He was sending home to be with his wife and boys, was to deliver our neighbors’ message to his parents and do His will. Another message he was to deliver was to our Pastor, that Jesus shed His blood as wine, not grape juice. Alan progressed fast after that and was finally moved to first UPMC – Montifore then onto DuBois. It was at this hospital that God’s question on the July 24th to me was shown – Alan was sitting up in bed eating ORANGE Jello! How amazing is that? Alan is still in therapy but has had an almost complete recovery.

At the beginning of this story I told of my addiction to porn. I know if I had still had this going on in my heart that I’d never would of been prepared for this, never would I have read the book 90 Minutes In Heaven to know that I needed to be specific in my prayers for Alan, never would of read Glory Revealed to know how to see God in everyday things, never would I have heard the word of God speak to me and let me know Alan would be alright “in His time”, never would I have found a great church family that I have in Mt Joy UMC, I would of never joined the all-men’s choir W. PA Men of Christ and sing praises to our Lord, never would I have seen the miracle that He performed, never would I have stepped out of my comfort zone to let you all know of the power of prayer, of the unending love of Jesus Christ who died on the cross and shed His blood not to make a good story for a book but to take our sin away & give us life ever-after. Know that if you are struggling with addictions or have burdens weighing you down that you can give it all to Him and He will carry them for you. He did for me.

Part 2 of my story:

James 1:2-7 states “2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord” and as you’ll find out I did receive.
I gave my life to Christ Nov 3, 2006 at a Casting Crowns concert in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The band took time during the concert to minister to the crowd and asked those who wanted to accept Christ into their life to recite the sinner’s prayer with them. I’m thankful I did as it gave me almost two years to grow in my Christian walk before I would face two trials, tests of my faith.
It was on September 14, 2009 that another trial, another test of faith would come into our life. It was on that day that my beautiful wife Cindy would go to her Dr appointment without me because she expected to hear that she has another kidney stone that needed to be surgically removed only to be diagnosed with cancer of the left kidney. I did the only thing I knew to do when I got her text on my phone. That was to pray, then take it to the body of Christ, you all; my prayer warriors, my Sheltering Trees because if I can’t bring my worries, my concerns to the church, the body of Christ, whom then could I bring it to. It had been only 2 weeks before that we had dropped off our oldest, Alyssa (who’d turned 19 on the 12th), at college (in Wyoming!). My little girls’ Mom and best friend was now in what could be the fight for her life and she was so far away. Cindy told our other 3 kids, Jeff (15), Collin(11) & Angelle(8) when she got home. The boys handled it the way boys do and of course Angelle cried. Her appointment with the urologist was to be Monday the 21st but the Dr had told Cindy that if she saw any changes in her pee that she needed to get to the emergency room. Last Tuesday, the 15th, Cindy awoke me at 2:30am because she was spotting blood and was fearful that the tumor in her kidney was going array. We headed to the hospital, got her checked in and we each fell back asleep around 5:30am or at least she closed her eyes making me believe she was sleeping. As I started to come back awake around 6:30 or so I went into my prayer mode for her, the same as I had done for Alan; to let this be nothing to be fearful of, to be with us as we go through this. At the end of it I got this dream style of vision of weeds being sprayed with weed killer and these weeds were all dying instantly but for this one beautiful flower, a flower like I had never seen before. And I wanted that flower. OH how I wanted that flower. It was so vibrant, so full of life. It was a single bright, glowing flower that had (my Mopar buds will know & love this) slender Plum-crazy purple colored petals with a Hemi-orange ovule (that’s the center seed part). I wondered briefly what it meant but then God gave it to me – “Lon, the color purple is the color for Feb birthstone Amethyst (Cindy’s birthday is Feb 4) and the orange color is the color for Nov birthstone Topaz ( my birthday is Nov 12). That is Me showing you; Purple and Orange, together as one, shining bright, standing strong”. Okay, I can handle that! I called and told the only person who wouldn’t think I’m off my rocker again, Mom. I would of called more of you but if I called you at that time of the morning you would of wondered what kind of weed I was on! (There I go again, not sharing something He has given me). She said if that is what we grab ahold of during this so be it. Of course Cindy has come through great and has for now been given a clean bill of health. It was caught so early that it was hard for them to classify it a cancer (stage 1) and that vision of the purple flower has been with me. I wondered if I would ever see the flower and since I’m not the best artist I didn’t attempt to draw it as I didn’t think I would do its’ beauty justice.
Then last Sunday, the 20th, I took the kids down to Dick & Maryne Eddinger’s for the start of the TGIF youth group and they had a treasure hunt for the kids to do before the kick-off cookout. I was going to just leave the kids and go to choir practice but He had better plans for me. For the treasure hunt it was the boys vs the girls and at the start the boys took off running. In under 10 minutes the boys were back but didn’t have all the correct items. Jeff said he was good with what they had but Collin went off to correct one of the wrong items. He came back only to find out that what he had was wrong again. In relentless pursuit he went off again to where Maryne told him the area to look for it. He came back with it and I couldn’t believe my eyes – a purple & orange flower, the one from my vision! God, in all His sovereignty, placed into Maryne’s mind the flower I so wanted to see, to touch and had her place it on the treasure hunt list. How AWESOME is that! For it to be delivered by one of my children was icing on the cake. I asked Maryne if she knew what kind of flower it was (half expecting some fancy name I was going to have a problem spelling) and she said it was just a weed. UGH, a weed! Why would you show me a ordinary weed? It wasn’t until this past Thursday that, during my morning devotion time, it came together – we all are just ordinary weeds, seeds blown by the wind, planted where ever He puts us, to grow and to do the best with what He’s given us. “Lon, you are that weed, blown by Me to bloom where are, to take what I’ve given you and tell others of My grace, love, mercy and faithfulness”. People have asked why this all has happened to my family. This is why, this what I’m doing right here right now is why.
Just as Collin went in relentless pursuit of the flower for the treasure hunt we need to know that God treasures us, loves us so much that He wants us to be in relentless pursuit of Him. As we run relentlessly to Him, confessing our sins, they will die off instantly just like the weeds in my vision and what we will see will be shining bright & and standing tall just like that Plum-crazy purple & Hemi-orange flower.