December 17, 2003

Is a day I will never forget... December 17, 2003 is the day that one of my Heroes died. My Grandpa Moen was an amazing man! He was a true West Coast boy! Though he never verbalized his faith it was all over his actions. He adopted 2 children and later on in life opened his home to anyone who needed it including my parents and my grandma's nieces. He wanted his grandchildren to know him, so he offered to pay our plane tickets out to go see him and my grandma Anne. I was lucky enough to see them almost every other year for my entire life! He always loved to go and do... if you went to a restaurant you better believe he was going to flirt with the waitress and make her feel like a million dollars! He was a worker. He came from a home of a retired Naval officer, who worked in the Post office to working his way up in Chevron until he became a Vice President. He was sharp, in intelligence and dress. He loved his family more than anything and tried to provide for them the best way he could.

He loved sports! We had a bond because we both received Varsity Letters our Freshmen years of High School. He was an Athlete and until the day he died if football was on the TV he was was watching it! He played baseball, so when I was learning how to pitch for softball him and my dad took me out in his front yard. The first pitch I NAILED him in leg, he shook it off and in true Moen fashion said "c'mon Kid is that all you got?!" The next pitch was perfect so he hit it over my head across the drive and into the neighbors yard. He then began to run the pine trees for bases laughing as he went because there was NO WAY I was going to get to that ball before he rounded third. So, he rounded third.... I got to the ball... I CHUCKED it to my dad playing catcher.... The ball was about half way there when he tagged home and started heckling me and thanking me for letting him hit his first home run in years! And in true Moen fashion again he wanted to end on a good note and went inside! This is the same man who wanted to start me out right at 6 months old by sending me a 49er jacket in the mail! Well Grandpa, I still have it and all of the other sizes in between (along with some of yours)! He would watch as many games as he could on multiple TV's, man what he could have done with NFL Sunday Ticket and the RedZone! He would have LOVED it! He would have hated the 9er game last night though... I can hear him cussing at the TV now about how crappy the team is playing and how bad the refs are and why can't we make a pass!

I want to tell you what happened on December 17, 2003 from my perspective because God truly does have a plan! I was a freshmen in college at North Greenville University. I felt God leading me into the ministry and at this time I had no idea what He wanted me to do, so I was leading towards missions. When I was washing my hair one day I felt God telling me I needed to go to the North West. In Chapel THAT day a guy stood up and said they were taking a Missions Trip to Whistler, BC! I called my dad right away and told him that God wanted me to go on this Missions Trip. I raised most of the money and was able to go during Christmas break. A day or two into my trip, my dad called and said my Grandpa had taken a turn for the worse and his Alzheimer's was getting the best of him and Hospice was called in. I was only about 2 1//2 hours away from my Grandparents so I told my dad to call back once he was in the NW. My dad called me on Dec. 17, 2003 and told me that he thought I needed to be there and since we were flying out the next day that he could come get me at that moment or at the airport the next day. I told him the next day was fine and then I had my quiet time for the day. God told me I needed to leave, so I called my dad right back and he drove up. While we were in the Condo the Missionary I was working with told my dad he felt like we needed to pray and in my dad's preacher fashion he asked if we could at the end. We talked for a short time and then the Missionary said we need to pray and we need to pray NOW! So we did. The Missionary prayed... Dad prayed... and then I prayed. I prayed that God would take my Grandpa. That my Grandpa had suffered enough... We said AMEN. Dad said that if we wanted to stay for the nightly service he needed to call down to the states and see how things were going. RIGHT THEN his phone rang... it was my aunt... my grandpa had just passed... while we were in prayer! God answered our prayers RIGHT THEN! That event has changed my life forever... not only because my Grandpa is gone, but because we saw an answer to prayer at that moment! I was able to say goodbye to his body later on that day when we got to my Grandpa's house, all I could do was pray... I sat on floor by his bed... knelt down and prayed.

I miss him everyday... but I thank God that I am able to say that I am a grandchild of Richard "Dick" Bernard Moen.