I was privileged to be raised in a Christian home. Our parents were married for 26 years before our dad passed away in August of 1990. Dad and Mom took us on family vacations each year during the summer. We went to the lake on Saturdays. Dad played football or baseball in the front yard with my brother. He taught us how to ride our bikes and threw snowballs with us when we had snow. He treated our mom like a queen and taught us how to treat our spouses. We were fortunate enough to see our dad show affection to our mom and in turn show affection to each of his children. Our dad was saved while serving our country in the Air Force while attending chapel services. A few years after dad was discharged from the military, he went to work at Tinker Air Force Base. Our dad worked full time while he attended Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College in the evenings. He was an associate pastor for several years. He taught Sunday school, Bible studies in our small groups at home, and on breaks at work. Our dad would get up early on Sunday mornings to get ready for his Sunday school class and would start singing gospel songs to wake us up (we didn’t always appreciate his singing in the mornings!). Dad witnessed to our neighbors and invited folks to church on a regular basis. He and mom picked up our friends for church if their parents didn’t attend. He prayed and fasted for his siblings that were not serving God during his lunch breaks at work for years! He never stopped inviting his siblings to church although they would sometimes get frustrated with him. I remember one time that one of the siblings asked him if he would stop with the invitations? Dad simply replied, “No, not until I see your heart right with the Lord and you attending church.”
Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma just before he turned 46 years old. To say the least, we were all in shock! He took chemotherapy and radiation treatments, he fought and went into remission for a while. I remember one day dad was over at my house and he told me that he would have dreams that he had little soldiers in his body (his immune system) fighting the enemy (the cancer). He would wake up in a cold sweat because some days the soldiers would win and some days the enemy would win. He knew that God was working in his body to heal him and he never stopped believing in God’s healing power! But, he asked me to let our family and friends know that he never gave up and that he was growing tired. I guess I knew that day that God was choosing to take our daddy home to heaven. The last week Dad was in the hospital will forever be engraved in my memory. Our family held vigil at the hospital. We took turns sleeping and only went home to take a quick shower and head back up to the hospital. Our mom was exhausted from taking care of dad for the two and a half years he was ill. Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and other family came by and prayed for him. That last night, a couple of our cousins sat in the room with dad and me and sang some of his favorite gospel songs to him. I had the opportunity to tell dad that it was ok to let go and go home to be with the Lord and our other family members that had gone home before. As we stood in the room those last few moments of his life, we noticed his fingertips were turning blue as his respirations began to slow down. Our Aunt Lola is a nurse and she grabbed a stethoscope from one of the nurses there at the hospital: Dad’s heartbeat was very slow. We called the other family members in that were in the hallway resting or had gone home and told them that it was time. As we stood there, I watched my daddy take his last breath and then go home to be with his Lord and Savior. It was the most beautiful yet saddest thing I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve told this story to tell you all this: our dad was human. Sometimes he sinned; sometimes he said things or did things he regretted later. But, he never stopped loving his family and he never stopped having faith in our precious Lord. Because of him, I’m the person I am today. Yes, he was a preacher but he wasn’t perfect, he was human.
Daddy, I’m thinking of you as your birthday and Father’s Day are approaching and I will always love you. I cannot wait until I see you one day in heaven and we have the opportunity to worship the Father together! Thank you Daddy for all that you did and everything you sacrificed for your children: Debbie, Daniel, Denise and I.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 (NIV) I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
-Dana Bateman
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