This is a story of hope in the midst of the most devastating experience a parent can ever face - a missing child. We share our thoughts, feelings, prayers and experiences in the hopes that it will bring many into deeper understanding of God and intimacy with Him through His Son.
Our son, John Reece, left on Thanksgiving Day 1999 on a hike across the Kohala Mountains on the northern tip of the Big Island. But he did not return in time for work on Monday morning. He had gone to Hawaii as a field biology intern with the US Geological Survey 2 months before.
John's boss called on Monday evening to let us know he had not returned. By the end of the week we were in Hawaii helping with the search. Our book tells the story of our search, as well as our spiritual journey as we faced the most devastating experience a parent can imagine.
The aloha of the Hawaiian people led us to eventually title our book Aloha is Forever. We came away from this experience with a deeper understanding of eternity and we hope to share that with many who may decide to read our book.
We also share hope. No matter what difficult circumstance or trial you may be facing, God offers hope through His eternal promises. Our book is an attempt to share that hope, encouragement and faith with you and help you through your trials.
Excerpt
On November 29, 1999, the Monday after Thanksgiving, my wife, Sharon and I arrived in Dallas after having spent the holidays with her family in Wisconsin. We were preparing to return to our home in Brazil. That evening we received a phone call which was to change our destiny forever. On the other end of the line was Paul Banko, our son John’s boss at the US Geological Survey research station in Hawaii.
“I am calling you because John didn’t show up for work today, and usually he has shown such integrity in things like this that I felt I should call,” Paul said. “He was going to attempt a hike across the north end of the island in the Kohala District in 4 days, which most of the guys who know anything about that area say is quite a chunk to bite off in four days.
“I don’t think you need to worry just yet because your son seems to be a very capable and responsible young man. He might have just taken longer on the trail than he expected. I’ll call you as soon as we hear anything.”
Our first reaction was fear, then faith as we realized that John was indeed a very capable young man. We immediately got on our knees and started praying for John’s safety and protection. Our prayer was this; “Father God, we know you are fully able to rescue our son from any danger and any situation in which he finds himself and you know that is the desire of our hearts. We ask you to grant us that desire. But if you have another plan and if we never again see our son here on earth, we are asking you right now to turn our loss into many, many lives saved from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God’s glorious light (Col. 1:13).”
Looking back, we recognize that our prayer was birthed and voiced by the Holy Spirit interceding through us. We were expectant based on the hope that God would answer the first part of our prayer....
I have written a chapter called I Am That, I Am in this inspirational compilation book by best-selling authors and wonderful people from all walks of life xox :-D (Its sister book is called Adventures In Manifesting - Success and Spirituality)
