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 2nd
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 3rd 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
