Don Sadler (1937-2013) with our daughter, Edith
February 10, 2013
This past Sunday evening (April 14, 2013), our church family held a memorial service for a dear friend and member of our family, Don Sadler. From November 2011 until March 22, 2013, he quickly became a cherished member of our church family. For those who didn’t know Don, he was just another old man fighting cancer with a set of peculiar habits. For Michelle, our daughter, and me, he became a part of our family.
In 2006, when I became serious about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I felt the strong desire to reach out to others in a manner that not only lifts them up, but where I can demonstrate and share the love that I feel from Christ in my own life. There have been many times in my life, even after coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior, where I have felt abandoned by my fellow Christian and felt I had no earthly friend to turn to. I decided then that if God ever blessed me with the means, I would do my very best to reach out to others; its an easy concept and one that our Lord and Savior calls us to do: Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me (Matthew 25:44-45).
Ever since Michelle and I started talking about getting married in 2007, we both expressed a desire to use our home and love of the Lord Jesus Christ as a means to minister to the needs of others. We never talked about specifics but knowing each other’s past – she is the daughter of two Salvation Army officers, Bruce and Vicki Stefanik, that are still active and when needed voluntarily serve as disaster assistance with the Salvation Army; and my past history of service in Scouting and as an interim pastor – we both possessed the ability and desire to serve others. As a side note, as I am preparing this entry to post, the widget that imports the daily King James Version verse is indicating that today’s verse is Romans 13:8: Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. I cannot think of a more fitting verse to describe the relationship shared by our family and Don.
When Don first began coming to our church, we knew he did not have any family in the area and decided that we would open our home for Don and invite him over for Thanksgiving dinner. Little did we know that the first Thanksgiving dinner we shared together would be the beginning of a relationship that not only taught us about ourselves, but taught us about ministering to the needs of others. Don was a man that had a strong need to feel wanted and soon he would get that from our church family and from us. As our pastor, Alan Ramsey, worked to make sure that Don had the means and transportation to attend church services and special events, Michelle and I had a much easier task – we simply opened our home and our time and allowed Don the opportunity to become a part of the family.
