My friend Steve

On September 8, I wrote a blog about how great my friend Steve's blog is. At the end of the post, I said, "... if anyone could ride his bike to Jb, it would be him! So I've got to keep reading his blog to see when he's going to show up at our gate here..."

Last night, I got the news that Steve will never be showing up at our gate here. On September 26, Steve was hit by a car and killed as he fulfilled one of his dreams of biking around Africa. He loved Africa. He loved biking. He went to the gates of heaven doing what he loved.

His blog description says, "A journey into the unknown... . I don’t really know where or when I will end up, and it doesn’t really matter. It will be an adventure, an epic journey, a time of soul-searching and of praying, of exploring and learning and sharing – a time of drinking Life to the fullest."

And Steve lived life to the fullest. He was such an amazing example to me of how to really live, how to live the adventure that life becomes when you're living for the Lord. He was never afraid of just being who God created him to be. And in the years that I knew him, he helped me to not be afraid to just be who God created me to be. He helped me to just live, and to live openly and honestly, stinky feet and all. Friends like Steve don't come around every day.

The last time I saw Steve was in Ethiopia. He had had one of his usual crazy adventures in actually getting to Ethiopia. And we had a great time. What a refreshing time it was, hanging out with an old friend. He was with me when I got the news of my niece's death, as well, and was amazing in helping me to grieve as I was so far from my family at that time. Of course, I didn't know that would be the last I would see of him.Yesterday, when I heard the news, my housemates here were great. They just let me sit here on the couch, writing and reading various emails from people who knew and loved Steve... tears running down my cheeks. I'm still having a difficult time actually believing that he's gone.

But when I heard the news, I immediately got this picture in my mind, which I know is from the Lord, of Steve, with his big goofy grin on his face, riding around on smooth streets paved with gold. In all the emails I've gotten from him since he started his bike ride around West Africa, he was always talking about the potholes and thorns and dangers of the roads on which he was biking. But now, I can just see him cruising around as hard and as fast as he can ride, on the smoothest roads he's ever been on... with a few goats crossing his path, just to make him feel like he's still in Africa, his favourite place on earth. It was making me laugh to myself through my tears last night to think of him giving Jesus rides on the back of his boda!

Please pray for Steve's family, and for all of his friends spread around the world who are grieving today. And especially pray for his family, who have some difficult arrangements to make. We all loved Steve, but pray that these next days and weeks will be filled with celebration for the amazing life that he lived, and that we will be comforted by the knowledge that he is, today, with his saviour. One of my colleagues, who also knew Steve well wrote in an email to me today, "I can only imagine how thrilled he is to explore new spheres, get his questions answered, meet new friends, and bask in our Saviour's love". That's exactly what Steve is doing today.