Brothers and Sisters.....I know that some of you knew and loved Doug Blond and can not be with us today for his memorial.....here is a transcript of what I, at least, plan to share.....feel free to share this with others in Korea....
Bless you....      Kevin

Doug Blond
Memorial Service
Bakersfield, CA
January 14, 2007

Those of you here today who know me know that I do not usually use a written text for a message. But today is different.
First, I have no idea what my own emotions will do to me today, and I want to say the things God has put into my heart to say. Second, I want QUEST to have a record of these words. Third, I want to be able to leave these words for Doug’s family and friends.

To begin, I want to call our attention back to John 14:1-7 which was read earlier. These are such familiar words:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled…”
“In My Father’s house are many rooms…”
“I go to prepare a place for you…”
“I will come again and will take you to Myself…”
“You will be with Me where I am…”
“I am the way, the truth and the life…”

The wonderful thing is that these are not mere words of comfort, though we do find comfort in them. These are words from the lips of Jesus. These are words from One Who has BEEN there, DONE THAT, and says what He knows by experience.

This is a passage that speaks for itself and so I do not plan to add to it or expand upon it or explain it. Just as good jokes lose their impact when they are explained, so too I think the words of Jesus here deliver their full force with no added words from a preacher like me.

So what I offer here is my own heart. I regularly keep a journal and I want to simply share with you what I wrote in my journal day the after Doug’s death. I have edited almost nothing…these are the words as they came to me that morning.

January 11, 2007    Bakersfield

Yesterday we arrived back from Pakistan at 4 a.m. and got a few hours of sleep. By 9 a.m. my mother called to update us on Doug and by 10 a.m. Susan and I were at the hospital. Rachel and Sarah and Emma came down later. Together with Rose and Damien and others who were there we laughed and cried, remembered and said goodbye to this man Doug who had been our friend, and brother, and uncle.

This morning I sit here in my chair struggling with all the normal ranges of feelings: sadness, heaviness, guilt, remorse, joy, gratitude, fear, and anger at God. And I am full of all of the normal “why” questions.
For some reason yesterday afternoon I felt moved to play a CD by Emmy Lou Harris, called “Red Dirt Girl”. The very first song is called The Pearl and it speaks of life as an endless and apparently useless fight, and as the story of the “long loneliness of the world.” And yet every chorus she cries out “Hallelujah” in the face of it all. The final line culminates in her declaration of faith that in the end, all our sorrow and grief will be polished and reshaped “until the pain becomes a pearl”, and then again, Hallelujah!
The whole song struck me as deeply resonant with my own feelings in the face of Doug’s passing. Doug’s life, especially in the last six months has been a rich picture of the battle Harris describes. Doug and Rose, as a couple, have been a picture of snatching joy and love from the jaws of grief. And they have said over and over, “Hallelujah”.
In fact Doug’s entire life is a story of redemption: the long and gracious purpose of God in our lives to polish every pain into a pearl.
At one point I looked down at Doug’s body and I recall saying, “I am so grateful to be a Christian”. The Gospel shows us not a merely spiritual “new life”, or a vague and formless “nirvana”, or a re-incarnation into a new form, or even a mere resuscitation.
Of course, most of us at some level WANTED a resuscitation for Doug. We WANTED Doug to simply be brought back to us the way he WAS. But what the Gospel gives us is RESURRECTION: the final transformation into the spirit and soul and mind and body that we were originally designed to have and to be.
C.S. Lewis always described heaven as MORE real, not less, than the life and world we know now. So Doug is MORE real, MORE alive, MORE himself now than we have ever known him to be or could know him to be in this life. God has polished the pearl.
But the true and real Doug is not disconnected from the Doug we all knew. What he has been among us he still is, just MORE so:

Golf Doug: on his fifth sweaty cap and his loud excited voice echoing “yeah baby…” all over the course.
Softball Doug: with his golf shoes at first base and his all out, 100% full throttle competitiveness.
Cribbage Doug: where it really wasn’t the game that mattered but the fact that he was with his family (though he was just as determined to win!).
Quest Doug: his hugs, and tears, and the process of growth we all got to see in him as God peeled away Doug’s narrowness…polishing the pearl.
Mexico Doug: building houses for the poor, drenched in sweat with his goggles, his toilet paper in his back pocket, and his tool belt covering the slit in the back of his pants.
Friend Doug: Doug was always most alive around people, and we all felt it and knew it.
Dad Doug: everyone who had the joy of being with Doug when he was with Damien and Danielle, or had the joy of being there when he merely mentioned one of them by name, has seen a glimpse of the father heart that beat so strongly in this man…a heart he received ultimately from the heart of the Father of all Fathers.
Husband Doug: and here I can speak only from the sidelines of what was clearly a deep bond of well over thirty years. But one thing I saw, among many things, was a man confident enough to allow his wife to shine and lead and develop all the gifts God had given her without feeling threatened. Doug delighted in the accomplishments of Rosalee.

Finally….I don’t know a better way to say this…there was “All Out Doug”: Doug lived life flat-out, full throttle, and 100% “on his sleeve”. Rosalee said to Doug at one point that last morning: “Doug you did everything in a hurry…” Doug lived his life all out.

God, what is going on inside of me today?
Grief? Yes, of course.
Sympathy? Yes, but at many levels. I am “feeling with” Rosalee and DJ and Danielle…yes. I am imagining what it is like, what it WILL BE like for me to lose a parent, a spouse, a child, a brother or sister. And I am “feeling with” Doug too….putting myself in his place these last six months as God polished the pearl. Because someday I know that I will be there in a similar place….
But in the end, there is a deeper and truer and more real “sympathy”, or “withness”….Jesus said “I go to prepare a place for you and I will come back and take you to be WITH ME where I am…” And I know those words are for Doug, and for me, and for all believers.
Those are the words that enable us today to be here with hope, with joy, and in fact with celebration.

As we planned this service, one song that came to us was the song, “We Will Dance”. It seems very right to stand together and sing that now.

한국어 번역은 은하자매가 할예정입니다. 읽으시고 유가족과 퀘스트교회 식구들을 위해 기도바랍니다.