Story written by Kevin Miller, story told by Eddie Kennison, #87-Wide Receiver, Kansas City Chiefs

My wife was rushed to the hospital on a Thursday night. She had started experiencing some strange symptoms the previous evening. Now she was unconscious. Things were getting serious fast.

One day passed, and then another. The doctors ran all sorts of tests, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. We began to worry. She was pregnant with our second child. How would this illness affect the baby?

In the midst of this crisis, I was trying to prepare for a Sunday game. On Saturday night though, my wife was still in the hospital, and my son didn’t want me to leave. I didn’t know what to do. Should I play or not?

I knew this was an important moment, a life-defining decision. What would I choose: my family or football? It wasn’t easy, but deep inside; I heard a clear voice telling me exactly what to do.

The media really beat me up for missing that game. They thought I had quit on my teammates. It hurt me to hear that, because I knew I hadn’t quit. But the most important thing was, I hadn’t quit on my family.

Eventually, my wife was diagnosed with Lupus, a chronic, debilitating disease. Dealing with it has been a struggle. But as long as we keep focused on God and each other, I know we can make it.

Do you want to know God like Eddie does?  You can join God’s team today by praying the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

For the first time in my life, I encountered people who followed completely different belief systems – Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, you name it. That called my own beliefs into question. Sure, I believed in God, but why? Was Christianity merely something I was born into, or was it really true?

Taking a class in world religions helped. A confrontation between my brother and some of my Muslim friends also added a few more pieces to the puzzle. Seeing him answer every one of their questions gave me even more confidence in my beliefs. However, the clincher came a couple of years later during what I can only describe as a supernatural encounter with God. Once again, my world exploded, but this time in the best possible way.

That encounter didn’t answer all of my questions, but now my faith is stronger than ever. I know God is real not because someone convinced me of that fact through argument, but because I have experienced Him for myself. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to take them to God. But be prepared for Him to answer in ways you’d least expect!

Do you want to know God like Jason? God can handle any of your questions.  We encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

That’s pretty much what happened to me last spring when I was drafted into the NFL.

You may think having that much freedom is a good thing. After all, playing football for a living seems like a dream job, and in many ways, it is. But remove all of the normal restraints from your life—things like account-ability or lack of time and money—and you would be surprised at what comes out. Suddenly, you are confronted with the “real” you, and often, it isn’t pretty.

Thankfully, I have always had family and friends to hold me in check. That’s something I learned from reading the Bible—to surround myself with the right people. Jesus did that with his disciples. So did Paul and the other early Church leaders. Like the disciples, I still slip up from time to time, but God always uses the people in my life to keep me from going over the edge.

How about you? Have you surrounded yourself with the right people? You may not play in the NFL, but you still face temptations every day. So make sure the people in your life are those who can help you make it through such situations, not make them worse.

Do you need some checks in your life? Why not ask Jesus for help? A relationship with Him is the best relationship of all and He can help you build healthy relationships with others.  We encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina – a town named by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the 30 best cities for small business in America – Bobby Dobson seemed destined for business success. Sure enough, he eventually rose to the top of his game as a tax lawyer. But Bobby’s achievements came at tremendous cost for both him and his family, eventually leading him to walk away from business for good as he discovered an entirely new way to define success.

Positioned well – in high demand

Choosing the unique career path of acquiring both a law degree and a CPA certificate, Bobby had positioned himself well from the start. “There were very few people around in those days who were both CPAs and attorneys, and I was in high demand,” Bobby says.

As Bobby’s business expanded, so did his family. But Bobby didn’t allow his six children to slow him down one bit. He often worked 18 – 19 hours per day, causing his family to brand him a workaholic. Says Bobby’s third son, Michael, “If I or any of my brothers wanted to meet up with him, we would call his secretary and make an appointment. He was just money, money, money.”

Involved in fraud

This situation seemed destined for failure, and fail it did. It started in 1980 when Bobby’s marriage fell apart. This personal crisis was followed by a major setback in Bobby’s professional life.

At the time, tax shelters were all the rage, and Bobby was helping a number of his clients take advantage of them. But when he accidentally got involved in a tax shelter that turned out to be fraudulent, one of his clients filed a grievance against Bobby’s firm that was to haunt him for the next several years.

What else, God?!

By 1991, this situation was still not resolved. But then came the big blow: Bobby received news that his adopted daughter had been killed in a car accident. Bobby finally broke. “I was a wreck,” he says.

The night of her funeral, Bobby lay in bed literally burning with anger and disappointment. In his anguish, he asked God to help him. “When I said that prayer, I felt a cool water pouring over my head, like all the anger and all of the bad feelings just washed out of me, and I instantly went to sleep.” The next morning, Bobby awoke a changed man.

After coming to Christ, Bobby wanted his second wife, Beth, to share his experience, so he prayed for her and tried to live his own life as an example, hoping she would notice the change. She did, and soon she also became a Christian. But Bobby wasn’t out of the woods yet.

A sign from God

In 1993, the verdict finally came in on the grievance filed nearly a decade earlier. Bobby was found guilty, and his law licence was suspended for two years. But rather than lament the fact, Bobby took it as a sign from God that he should do something different with his life.

The natural place for him to turn was a ministry started by his own father fifteen years earlier. It involved distributing audio Bibles and tape players free of charge to seniors’ homes so they could have better access to Scripture. “I decided to devote my life to making it bigger, to touching and reaching more people,” says Bobby.

Bobby threw himself into this new venture with all the gusto he had given his business. Today, funded entirely by the Dobson family, Dobson Ministries provides a wide variety of spiritual materials to thousands of elderly people in nursing homes and to 1,500 children per year in children’s care homes.

Instead of making money, Bobby is now giving it away. And he has never felt so good.

Has financial success taken on too much importance in your life? If so, perhaps it’s time you asked Jesus to reveal your true calling. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

Ruth and Paul Lindholm could not have met under less ostentatious circumstances.

“Paul and I used to feed the pigs behind the barn at night,” says Ruth. “That was our dating at first.”

Getting “her college man”

Nevertheless, when it came time for Ruth to go off to college in Kentucky, she decided that perhaps the young farm boy was not her ideal man. As Ruth puts it, she wanted one of those “fancy college men.” But she came to her senses after Paul continued to pursue her, and she and Paul were engaged and married following her first year of school.

It turns out Ruth got her college man after all, because shortly after they were married, Paul started to study business. After earning a four-year degree in two years, he landed his first banking job in a town of less than 2,000 people. Ruth laughs as she recalls Paul sharing the news, because he had taken the job without even telling her. He had also received job offers from several large companies, but he did not want to live in a big city.

Paul started out as a teller. Within two years, he was hired to manage another larger bank. Paul worked at the second bank for seventeen years. During that time, he developed a close relationship with the bank’s owner, so close that the old man promised Paul he could buy the bank after the owner died. However, when the old man’s will was read, it mentioned nothing of their agreement.

It’s only money…

This was a tremendously difficult time for the Lindholms. They knew they had to move on, but by doing so, they would lose a large sum of money invested in the bank. As was their practice, Ruth and Paul wasted no time looking to God for direction. Oddly enough, they got the distinct impression that they should not worry about the loss. A particular Bible verse that hit home to Ruth was 2 Chronicles 25:9. It describes a situation similar to the Lindholms’ where King Amaziah had to choose between losing a lot of money he had spent on mercenaries or following God. When he questioned the prophet who delivered the message to him, he was assured, “The Lord can give you much more than that.” That settled Paul and Ruth’s minds. They knew God would look out for them as well, so they left town in search of their next step.

Moving on

At the time, two independently owned banks were for sale in Minnesota. One bank, located in the town of Clarkfield, Minnesota, was owned by a man who had inherited it from his father-in-law. He did not like banking, so he was all too happy to sell it to Paul.

Even though the Lindholms did not have a decent place to live for the first three years (they lived in a small schoolhouse at first), Paul’s bank flourished.

“This was in the midst of the farm crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and banks were going down all around, but God showed Paul how to handle it,” Ruth says.

In time, the community also came to accept them.

God provided

The Lindholms live in Fergus Falls now, where they own a bank. Most of their family is also involved in the banking business. Looking back on her life, Ruth can point to many instances where God provided for her and Paul or bailed them out of situations when all seemed lost.

“We have had our tough times, but that has been good for us,” says Ruth. “I came from a poor background. We didn’t have anything, and I guess that was helpful in some ways. I realized that material things just don’t count. Being in God’s will is most important. Regardless of what you do, just follow God’s will.”

Surprising words coming from someone whose family’s life has revolved around managing money for the last fifty years. But perhaps that simply means we should heed them all the more.

Do you believe God can provide for your needs as well? If not, let Jesus show you how. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be.

Profile on: Norm Miller, Chairman, Interstate Battery System of America, Inc. 200,000 Dealers Nationwide

“College! Hell, I just hope I can keep him out of jail and get him out of high school!” Not exactly a prophecy for success, but those were the words uttered by Norm Miller’s mother when Norm, owner of Interstate Batteries, was in his final year of high school. Needless to say, a lot has changed in Norm’s life since then.

Back then, Norm was known as many things: petty thief, bootlegger, budding alcoholic, and also by his nickname, “Bubba.” By his own admission, Norm was rebellious, ignorant, and rude—not exactly the type of kid you would pick to eventually become one of America’s best and brightest entrepreneurs.

And yet, apart from his wild ways, there was another side to Norm as well, that of aspiring businessman. Born a gifted salesman, as early as age ten, Norm began to show signs of following in his father’s footsteps.

“I used to get my dad to bring home soft drinks from his service station. Then I would put them on ice, load them in my wagon, and sell them at construction sites,” says Norm.

“There was a great profit, because I never paid Dad back for the drinks!”

Norm continued to peddle drinks when he entered college, but by then, he was hawking harder stuff, smuggling alcohol into the dry county of Denton, TX and selling it undercover.

“We rationalized we were keeping these young people off the road drinking,” says Norm.

Meanwhile, Norm began sampling more of his own product than he should. Once again, he was following in his father’s footsteps. Despite his business success, his father had always been a hard drinker as well. So far, Norm had been able to keep his drinking in check, but things wouldn’t stay that way forever.

Not long after graduation, Norm’s father invited him to get involved in a fledgling company called Interstate Batteries. The owner, John Searcy, was looking for people to open up distributorships. Norm took to the business immediately, and soon he was driving all over the place peddling batteries out of the back of his Studebaker truck. It was hard going, but just over two years later, Norm had become so successful that he was offered a job at Interstate’s headquarters. Together with his younger brother Tommy, whom Searcy had also hired, Norm started flying across the country helping other distributors improve their business. Norm’s natural affinity for sales and his penchant for hard work served him well during this time. It wasn’t long before Searcy made him second in command, complete with an option for Norm to buy out Searcy’s share of the company once Searcy retired. It seemed like Norm’s career couldn’t be going better, but his success did not come without a price.

Up to this point, Norm had managed to work his way up the corporate ladder without giving up his party lifestyle.

“We never came home,” Norm says of his days out on the road with Tommy. “We stayed out and partied. We were pretty self-centered, both of us…. And if it was convenient, we’d worry about our wives.”

Needless to say, it wasn’t long before Norm’s wife began to entertain thoughts of leaving him. Norm’s life reached an even lower point when he was stopped by the police early one morning in 1974 after he had been out drinking. He managed to talk his way out of the conviction—which would have been his third—but as he lay in bed that morning, it dawned on him: He was an alcoholic, just like his father.

“That just shattered me,” says Norm. “I blurted out in a half-yell, ‘God help me, I can’t handle it!’”

Norm started attending Alcoholics Anonymous. During that time, a friend also encouraged him to read the Bible. Norm was skeptical at first, but after studying the Bible and historical and archaeological evidence that supported its claims, Norm decided to become a Christian. He noticed changes in himself immediately. For one thing, he was able to quit drinking. He also no longer struggled with a fear of failure. And he developed a sense of love and caring for others that was in stark contrast to his earlier, self-centered lifestyle.

At the same time as Norm was undergoing his transformation, Interstate was changing, too. In 1978, Searcy retired and sold his share of the company to Norm. Suddenly, Norm found himself president and chairman of a multi-million dollar company. Norm wasn’t sure if he could do the job at first. But Searcy assured him everything would be okay. This encouragement, combined with the fact that Tommy and another top leader at Interstate had also become believers convinced Norm that God would definitely see them through.

One of Norm’s first initiatives as president was to make his faith a primary component of the business. He initiated daily prayer times, and he made sure he and his staff applied Christian principles to everything they did. Norm even hired a company chaplain to care for his staff and to oversee Interstate’s involvement in the community. Today, Interstate and its employees support all sorts of charitable projects all around the world.

Norm’s soul isn’t the only thing that has prospered over the years. His business has prospered as well. When Norm joined Interstate in 1965, it was a five-man operation with approximately 35 distributorships. Now it boasts 315 distributorships, which employ roughly 1,000 people, making Interstate the largest distributor of batteries in the world.

So what does this former bootlegger, petty thief, and former alcoholic think about his success?

“To me, success is having an abundant life. That does not necessarily mean lots of money. To me, an abundant life is one that is rich, full, meaningful, significant, and adventuresome.”

There is no question; Norm’s life has been all of these things and more.

Would you like to have an abundant life? If so, let Jesus show you how to obtain it. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

During the early part of their careers, Mike and Brian McCoy, owners of McCoy’s Building Supplies, applied a simple formula for success: hard work followed by more hard work. This, along with an innovative approach to selling building supplies, allowed the Galveston-based business to become one of the largest building supply companies in America.

Facing challenge

However, their dogged approach to business eventually came up against an enormous challenge in the form of competitors like Home Depot and Lowe’s, who offered a deeper product line and more specialized services to their customers. But even more devastating was the sudden death of their brother Dennis, who had been a partner in the business. After Dennis’s death, Brian and Mike tried to continue doing business as usual. But their grief sapped their motivation, forcing them to ask questions about life that they had never before considered.

“We were raised to accept what happened and just move on, or fix it and move on,” says Mike. “But this was something we couldn’t fix.”

Aura of peace

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While Mike and his family struggled with their grief, he noticed his wife Myra had an aura of peace that Mike just couldn’t figure out. Then he remembered the Bibles she kept in the home. Perhaps that was her secret. One night, Mike decided to see for himself.

“Being the macho Texan that I am, I tucked it under my arm and snuck it out of this dark room where she’s sound asleep,” Mike says.

Mike took the Bible with him on his next business trip, only six days after his brother’s death. While reading it, he paused to pray.

“I said, ‘Okay, I don’t believe you’re real. But I’ll tell you what I’ll do, God. I’ll make a deal with you.’ You see, I was good at making deals, so I thought I’d just make a great deal with God.”

[See post to watch Flash video]

The terms of the deal were simple: Mike vowed to read the entire Bible. Once finished, he would either accept or reject God forever. It took Mike about nine months. But when that time was up, he made good on his end of the bargain, and became a Christian.

Making family a priority
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Meanwhile, Brian was having a similar struggle. One area in particular that troubled him was his family, especially after his wife pointed out that his dedication to the business was causing him to miss out on his son’s life.

“All of a sudden I realized I had no clue how to enter a fifth grader’s life,” says Brian. “I was around. I went to soccer games. But to really enter his life and add value to whom he was going to become. I didn’t have a clue.”

Like Mike, Brian was finally able to gain insight into this relationship by coming to faith in God, the ultimate Father.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Unique business niche

Now that the brothers had gained some perspective on life, they were still faced with the problem of McCoy’s shrinking market share. Realizing there was no way they could go toe-to-toe with their competition, Brian and Mike decided to invest in their employees and improve the quality of the products and services they did offer. Thus, Brian and Mike managed to create a unique market niche for McCoy’s that has allowed them to thrive despite their competition. Today, McCoy’s has 100 stores in six states, nearly 2,000 employees, and annual sales of over $500 million.

“I think the secret to our success is to continually be growing for the benefit of helping others grow,” says Mike.

People often kid Mike about this, asking him if he thinks his business is God’s gift to humankind. When they do, he looks them right in the eye and says, “I hope so.”

Have you ever considered how your business might serve others? Let Jesus show you how. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

It’s no secret that starting your own company can be tough, sucking up all of your time, energy and attention and causing you to neglect other things, such as family and friends. That’s exactly what happened to Jim Blankemeyer, Chairman of the Metokote Corporation. Thankfully, he realized what was happening early on, and he took some dramatic steps to ensure his business didn’t succeed at the expense of his family.

Within two years of starting his metal coating business in a rented garage in Lima, Ohio using refurbished, second-hand equipment, Jim and his brothers were already winning contracts with some of the biggest corporations in the country, including 3M and Ford. But the pressures of maintaining their growth curve were taking a heavy toll on Jim’s family life, and he realized it was time to make a change. “I said, ‘You know, I’m the problem, and I know I’ve got to fix something.’”

As a result, Jim and his wife decided to host a Bible study in their home. Several weeks later, Jim made a decision. “I told my wife, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to ask God to forgive me and come into my life.’” But Jim didn’t stop there. Not only did he offer God his life, he also gave God his marriage and his business. In fact, if God wanted Jim to sell the company and become a missionary, Jim was ready to go, and so was his wife.

Despite Jim’s dramatic change of heart, nothing extraordinary happened right away. However, people – especially his family – began to notice little changes. Personally, over the next two weeks, Jim came to realize he had been living his life in rebellion against God, acting as if God didn’t exist and doing things on his own terms. Although Jim had experienced a reasonable amount of success despite this negative attitude, he knew God was calling him to something more. It wasn’t long before some significant changes began to occur.

“I think in terms of our business, I began to relax,” Jim says. “It wasn’t me trying to be successful anymore. It was me going to God and saying, ‘God, use the resources that you’ve placed in my life for your honor and your glory.’ And I think it was in relaxing that I became better at my job.”

Oddly enough, the minute Jim turned control of his company over to God, Metokote began to experience phenomenal growth. Through a combination of innovation, a reputation for excellence and integrity, and solid customer service, over the next few years Metokote grew into an international company with 30 facilities in five countries and over 3,000 employees.

As proof of his changed heart, Jim has not used his company’s success to accumulate a lot of personal wealth. Instead, he has formed a charitable foundation that supports a variety of ministries.

“In Matthew 6:33, God tells us to seek first his kingdom and then all these other things will be given to us as well,” Jim says. “And I believe that principle really has been the basic reason why we’re successful.”

Would you like to experience success on God’s terms? Let Jesus show you how. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be.

If you heard a story about a guy who was selling Bibles door-to-door only to become a Christian once one of his customers finally explained what the Good Book was about, you’d probably think somebody made it up, that it came from a movie or somewhere. Well, in the case of Doug Hesse, founder of Hesse Financial Advisors, you’d be wrong, because that’s exactly what happened to him back in 1972.

Restless spirit

At the time Doug started selling Bibles, he wasn’t searching for the meaning of life. All he wanted was a job. Prior to that, he’d been fired from his position as a disc jockey when he refused to play country music and had flirted with alcoholism when he started sampling too much of the stock that he carried in his liquor store. So perhaps Doug was searching for something, but it had more to do with finding his niche in the business world than anything else. He was constantly restless, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit that was yearning to be unleashed.

Thus, to Doug, the Bibles he was peddling were merely another product to be sold, a means to an end. He had no idea what the book was about. As his wife Roselyn puts it, “He was selling Bibles on tape and telling people it was the original cast.” Thus, when Doug appeared on Pastor Jack Abacha’s doorstep, it didn’t take long for Jack to realize the earnest young salesman had no idea what he was talking about. After Jack explained the gospel, however, it resonated instantly with Doug, and he became a Christian right on the spot. The salesman had been sold.

A life-changing decision

Roselyn was amazed at the sudden transformation in Doug. “He was ready to become a minister – the same guy who only recently owned a liquor store. So this was definitely a whole different guy.” It wasn’t long before Roselyn followed in Jack’s footsteps and became a Christian herself. The two were married shortly thereafter and settled down in Denver.

Around this time, Doug got a job at the Denver Institute of Technology. The pay was good, but it didn’t take long before he grew restless once again. He longed to try his hand at business, and when he received a financial gift from his grandfather, he finally had the opportunity he was looking for.

Although Roselyn wanted to invest the money in a home, Doug – showing no sign of the financial acumen that would be his key to success later in life – thought real estate was a bad investment, so he bought an ice cream parlour instead. Concurrently, he was promoted at work, so he suddenly didn’t have time to run the shop. That job fell to Roselyn until they sold the business 15 months later. “Then we bought a house, and it doubled in value, proving me right and Doug wrong,” says Roselyn, chuckling.

Doug finally finds his niche

Eventually, Doug decided it was finally time to get a “real” career. He started taking classes at Denver’s College of Financial Planning. By 1980, he became one of the first certified financial planners (CFP) in the country.

Things weren’t easy starting out, because no one really knew what Doug was selling. “Financial planning in 1980 was almost non existent,” says Doug; however, word slowly spread, and within a couple of years, Doug had built one of the largest financial planning practices in Denver.

Things went smoothly for the Hesses until Denver’s cold winters started to play havoc with the after effects of Doug’s childhood polio. So the Hesses decided to move to Roswell, Georgia, hoping their success in Denver would open doors for them in Georgia. Such was not the case. After pounding the pavement in search of work, Doug managed to earn just enough money to scrape by that first year. But Doug continued to work hard and within a few years, Hesse Financial Advisors was among the top 25 financial planning firms in Atlanta. He hasn’t looked back since.

Keys to success

Apart from a sharp mind for how to handle money, the key to Doug’s success has been his ability to offer something larger firms can’t: Focused attention on his clients. Today, Hesse Financial Advisors manages $150 million for approximately 150 clients, and they meet with each and every one of these clients every quarter. “We are very focused on helping our clients meet their needs, meet their goals. We work hard for their trust,” says Doug. Doug’s faith plays a key role in both earning and maintaining this trust. “I believe that God has guided my steps in everything I’ve done…. I think my business has been very successful because I care about my clients and help them in every way I can.”

After years of helping clients plan for retirement, Doug finally put a plan in motion that would allow for his own retirement. He merged his company with Centurion, a larger financial planning firm, and continued working for them on a contract basis. Eventually, Centurion was bought out by an even larger company, so Doug, who still retained some ownership in Hesse Financial Advisors, profited once again. Today, Doug and Roselyn spend most of their time using this money to help others. “He’s made a lot of money, but the money’s really not important,” says Roselyn. “In fact, now it’s kind of like, how much can we give away?”

Have you ever considered how faith might help your business? Why don’t you ask Jesus about it? If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Saviour and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

Patricia Fong was enjoying a typical workday

Patricia is in shock

Nearly three hours away in Rockford, Illinois, Patricia was in shock. But she managed to collect her wits long enough to contact her husband and two sons, and the entire family went to be with Megan immediately.

The next day, Megan was transported by ambulance to Children’s Memorial Hospital, where she spent several months in treatment. When none of these treatments seemed to work, Megan and her family pinned their hopes on a bone marrow transplant. A search was conducted and three matches were found. To the surprise of Megan’s family, one of the matches was from Megan herself! It turns out she had volunteered to be a bone marrow donor the previous fall while in school. This was merely the first of many surprise discoveries Patricia made about her daughter during the course of her illness.

For example, even though Patricia and her husband had raised their children to be Christians, Patricia says when they went away to school, she had no way of knowing if they were still pursuing the faith. To Patricia’s delight, she discovered that Megan was deeply involved in a campus Christian fellowship, and she and her roommate were planning a major evangelism campaign during their second year of school. One of Megan’s biggest regrets about being sick was not being able to pursue this.

Secondary infection

After the bone marrow transplant though, it looked like everything was going to be okay after all. Patricia and her family relaxed somewhat, and Megan began making plans for when she could return to school. But as she lay there recovering, Megan developed a secondary infection of the brain that her weakened immune system was not able to fight. Before her family even had time to process this turn of events, Megan had passed away.

Devastated, the Fongs stumbled through the grieving process over the next several months, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Two years later, it continues to be a daily struggle for all of them.

“Sometimes, it is very, very hard, because we miss her so much,” says Patricia. “But I know God is good. When I feel low, through prayer and reading God’s Word, my strength is renewed and I am able to get back up and go on. It is a daily thing, but it just shows that we need God each day of our lives. When we depend on ourselves, it is just not going to happen.”

Making life count

For Patricia, Megan’s death has also led to something else: a renewed sense of urgency about making her own life count.

“We know our days are numbered. So what can we do with the time we have to make a difference, even for one person?”

Patricia’s answer to this question is not much different from her daughter’s. All she cares about now is making sure others know about God, so when their time comes, they will be ready to face eternity.

“If I am going to see my daughter in heaven, and I know I will, I would also like to see all of the other people that I love and care about,” says Patricia.

To this end, Patricia has created a tract that tells Megan’s story and explains how to find salvation through Jesus Christ. So far, 10,000 tracts have been printed and are being distributed in the United States and China. We also encourage you to pray the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be.