Or the way he cocked one eyebrow when he was making faces at me. (click on the link to watch John and some of our friends eat "gutter noodles")
John's typical and mischievous brow
His face lit up when he was cooking dinner, when his guys on this team would crack silly jokes, and when he talked about the Lord.
He told me he wanted to live outside of the city and preferred the quiet country of Nagano to busy Tokyo life.
He told me he missed the ocean.
He loved to surf and skateboard.
He led by example.
He asked me the best questions about my life and took a genuine interest in me from the first time I met him.
He took my hand and helped me into a car and when I tried to thank him all I could do was weep because he had treated me like such a lady. I've never felt so honored as a sister and woman as the times John shared his life with the gals on this team.
He taught the guys here how to throw a football.
He taught Mark to serve and then bump, set, spike properly so that Mark could try to beat him in his best sport.
We nicknamed him John "amazing" Lee this summer because there wasn't a talent he didn't posess.
We talked about random things like when Mary said, "I wish I could learn Swedish." and then John burst out with the one or two phrases he knew in Swedish.
He had so many talents and the things he wasn't a a pro at, he was willing to learn. I was honored to help teach him how to swing dance and I was challenged in my own life by his delight in learning and stretching himself.
He loved teaching elementary kids and always humored me when I would ask him, "Can you tell me that story again, ya know, the one about the kid with the high pitch voice?"
He looked forward to the return of the Lord and talked about it often with us, saying we needed to encourage each other more.
He loved life and more importantly, loved the Lord.
All this is running through my mind as I try to find some sort of balance...
... John Lee is dead.
It's difficult to tell you but our summer team leader and a man I met only a month ago but who quickly proved to be the most aimable and admirable man I had ever met, John Lee, died while swimming with two of our staff and two of our BEST club students.
Mark, Cole (a summer team member, one of John's guys) and John were swimming together on Monday. When Mark and Cole reached the shore they noticed something was wrong, the two Japanese guys were on the shore motioning to where they saw John, who was not swimming at that time. Cole reached John first but he was unconcious, so he brought John into shore. An ambulance was called and they took John to the hospital. I ended up at the hospital with my national director, Kusudasan where John was later pronounced dead. This all happened the 31st of July while we were on Oshima Island, one of our BEST club trips.
He was an excellent swimmer and often talked about how much he missed the ocean. When we walked out together the first day to go swimming I commented how it had been since 2001 that I had swam in the ocean, John looked at me, shocked and said, "That is too long."
I feel as though this is some strange dream and it's been awkward for me to go to sleep because I just can't feel right now.
The last time I saw him alive was when Joni, Ojen, and I were walking back from the beach. He got really excited when we told him a monkey had run a few feet across our path. He was hoping to do some exploring of his own that day...
He was a great man and taught many other men to be great like Jesus was.
John, I am going to miss you. Thank you for sharing your life with me and thank you for pouring out Christ's love on the students.
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand
In Christ Alone
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
Isaiah 58:10-12
Joni Poon's song
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
2 Corinthians 5:1-11
5 comments:
oh jo- i remember some of those things about john too- i love you jo jo- death is so hard... in this life but trusting in a savior who has everyday ordained.. we have to rest in that- and knowing Job 42 that his plan cannot be thwarted- we HAVE to rest in that as well.
wish i could be there physically right now for you jo- love you girl
I second that desire...to be there with you physically.
Friend, it's beautiful to "go" through this with you - through our chats, through emails, through your blog. Thank you for being transparent and for your encouragement. Just reading about his life and seeing his face for some reason spur me on. I know how he encouraged you and so many others he knew, and it is inspirational.
God really knows what He is doing. His purpose behind this is a mystery, but I love that bits and pieces are/will be revealed as time passes.
Friend, I love you. Peace be with you Jo, that you may be able to sleep and to grieve and to heal.
Psalm 116:15
"We follow One who stood and wept at the grave of Lazarus - not, surely, because He was grieved that Mary and Martha wept, and sorrowed for their lack of faith (though some thus interpret) but because death, the punishment of sin, is even more horrible in His eyes than in ours. The nature which He had created as God, the nature which He had assumed as Man, lay there before Him in its ignominy; a foul smell, food for worms. Though He was to revive it a moment later, He wept at the shame....Of all men, we hope most of death; yet nothing will reconcile us to - well, its unnaturalness. We know that we were not made for it; we know how it crept into our destiny as an intruder; and we know Who has defeated it." (CSL, 'Some Thoughts')
Post a Comment