John Louk

"I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Genesis 12:2-3 A couple weeks ago I was the last one leaving the church after a meeting. I met an older couple walking through the parking lot, looking at our construction. I asked if they lived in the neighborhood and they said they did. In fact, they had been to Salem’s building. They had their condo association meeting in our facility, and they’d also come to one of the men’s dinners and voted at Salem. I asked if they were part of a church already and they said they were. I said they were always welcome to walk on our property and look at the construction and eat at our dinners and vote and anything else. They said they appreciated knowing that. It seemed they felt like they were trespassing a bit until I told them Salem is a place that’s meant for the community and they are welcome whether or not they are part of the church. I to...

She said, “It’s time.” My body tensed. I closed my eyes and thought, “ No .” In my head I knew it was coming at some point, but now that the time had arrived, I didn’t want to go through it. As I write this, today is the seven month anniversary of my open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve. They wheeled me in to the operating room at 7:00 am. They took me to the intensive care unit about 2:00 pm. Seven hours. I first remember my wife, Joy, patting me on the shoulder and saying, “It’s OK, you’re waking up, you’re in the ICU.” The rest of the details of that day are sketchy at best. I do remember trying to tell my family that they should leave so they could get some sleep. It had been a long day for everyone. When I was alone, I thought it was late at night. It was dark in my room and it felt like I’d been in the ICU for long time. I asked what time it was and the nurse said, “Oh, it’s just 8:30 pm.” I was disappointed. I knew getting through that night in the ICU was a...