LIFE, DEATH AND ANSWERED PRAYER

DANIEL KYLE 

26/09/1961 - 17/11/2013

Daniel came into our lives in the year 2007.  

We had often seen him before at church but never actually spoken to him.

We were at a church camp and Daniel was having a smoke break outside and Steve happened to be standing alongside him.  They started talking and during the course of the conversation Daniel told him that he was far lonelier in the church than he had ever been whilst living on the streets.  Yet, he would later acknowledge, how within the church body, God blessed him.  The church needed him and he needed the church.

Steve invited him to come have supper with us and to do a Bible study after supper.

The following Wednesday Daniel arrived and for the next 5 years (apart from school holidays or when we were away) Daniel came and had supper with us every 2^nd Wednesday of the month until he married Cheryl.

Daniel longed to have someone to love and to share his life with, so for five years we prayed for God to fulfill the desire of Daniel’s heart and God did.  He brought Cheryl into Daniel’s life.  One of the happiest days of our lives was when we witnessed the two of them getting married in our church.

Daniel became a part of our family.  He loved my mom and was very fond of my brother Paul.  They accepted him and treated him as a member of the family and this meant the world to Daniel.

At the supper table Daniel would tell us stories about his life and we and the girls would listen with fascination as he told us what it had been like growing up as an orphan in foster homes, Marsh Memorial Home and St Johns Home. He had spent many years living on the streets and moving from town to town and the sharing of his story of this time exposed us to a way of life that we knew nothing about. He once said to us that apart from a Christmas meal at our minister’s house, we were the first family he had ever eaten a meal with – a mother, father and children all sitting around a table together eating and talking. He was 46 years old.

He brought a new depth into our lives and we started to see the world from a different perspective.  He had compassion for those less fortunate than him and he was an incredibly generous person. I will never view beggars in the same light again after having a conversation with him one night.  I had shared how I did not know how to react to the beggars on the road especially the ones that swamped the car as soon as it stopped at a red traffic light.  We have always been told not to give food or money as this just enables folks to stay on the street and the money is often used for substances that are detrimental to them.  Daniel told me that the only thing I had to do was give them their dignity.  I had to acknowledge them as people, make eye contact, smile and ask them how they were doing.  I have found that about 85% of the folks I greet in this manner always respond positively and with great surprise. 

Daniel had a lovely sense of humor and the gift of being able to laugh at himself.  He challenged us to think about and accept people from his background and with his condition and struggles.

Daniel loved writing!  In fact he wrote copious notes.  He loved and worshiped and feared God.  He was not afraid to question God or get upset with Him and often felt deeply disappointed by God.  But through all his fears and doubts he knew that God did love him and care for him and on the 3^rd July this year, a few months before he died, he wrote the following in a piece entitled DO YOU KNOW YOUR GOD?

“Why trust in the gold and riches of today, while tomorrow it may be gone?  Why spend your time and wealth on food that does not satisfy the soul?  But rather feed on wisdom, that fills your appetite for truth and life into Eternity, where there is no death nor sorrow nor pain!  For life thrives on the unity of truth, grace, mercy and love for one to another.”

We will miss you Daniel.

"A friend loves at all times"       Proverbs 17:17