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Faith in Real Life

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In Faith in Real Life

Love & Support

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Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for all of the kind words that you have written and said.  I appreciate your cards and your meals.  Tiffany and I are so blessed to be supported by not only one church family, but three!  In our short 26 years of life, we have already served in Youth Ministry roles in 3 churches.  It was such a blessing to hear from friends from all three of those bodies!  We miss you, and we are thankful for your prayers as we both walk through this time.  It has been incredible to hear from people around the country and even around the world!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  

To our family here in Doylestown, words cannot describe how grateful we are for each of you.  I am so thankful to serve in a church that cares for me as a person not just for what I can bring to the table!  We love you!

Thank you,

~Peter

After seeing this outpouring of love, it made me wonder, When was the last time that someone showered you with care and concern?

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In Faith in Real Life

What a blur…

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So, I am sitting here thinking and trying to get ready for our fall retreat for our High School Ministry at FBC, and I am just drawing blanks.  I feel like I’m not firing on all cylinders.  I look back at the course of the last two weeks and realize that it is blurry.  There are a few moments that I remember with razor sharp accuracy.  However, the minutes and hours have all kind of fuzzed over into one big painful memory.  [For those of you who may be jumping in you can read about what I’m talking about, here, here, here, and here.  You can click here to see my dad’s testimony.]  

Today I got back the video from my dad’s memorial service, and I wanted to share this one video with you.  I promise that I won’t inundate you with video’s and other stuff, but this is to special not to share.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_86xX0mPzA]

After watching this over and over again I find it amazing to think about the way that my dad, even when unable to speak, continued to touch people’s lives.  So many people take for granted how much their actions speak; how much their lives speak.  

What is your life speaking right about now?

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Chuys- {Chew-ies}

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Today was the start of Mops International’s annual convention in Grapevine TX.  Tiffany and several other ladies are attending.  So today my mom and I brought Tiffany up there for the conference.  However, on the way there, we stopped in Dallas and went to one of my favorite restaurants in Texas.  CHUYS!  Chuys was a place that we would frequent anytime that I would fly into Dallas for a visit.  It was the last place that my Dad and I went to lunch at.  We would go to one of two places pretty much I guess.  It was either Chuy’s if we were in Dallas or Dickies Barbeque if we were around town.  So, today was bitter sweet.  It felt strange not having dad there, but at the same time, it was good to be with my wife, and my mom.  

These past few days have been so good to be together as a family.  I know that it has been stressful at the same time, yet I don’t think that I would want to be anywhere else right now.  I have really enjoyed being with my nieces and nephews.  As well as being with my siblings and their spouses.  It has been really good for me to have had this extended time to think and process things through with my wife.  What a blessing she has been.  

This has got me thinking…  What has been the hardest thing that you have ever had to deal with?

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In Faith in Real Life

Prayer

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Thank you for praying for us as a family.  We are really going through the thick of it right now.  Now that the funeral is done, the guests have left, things are going “back to normal”. It is difficult.  Emotions come up at unexpected times, and it truly just keeps bringing me back to my knees in prayer.  Thank you for meeting me there!

I am glad to be here with my family in Texas.  It has been good to be here for an extended period after the funeral.  We have had an opportunity to be together, reminisce together, laugh, and cry together.  I have been so impacted by the words that people have written about my dad over here at the caring bridge site.  It has been great to read about the ways that my dad has made a difference in people’s lives.  There are even some people who didn’t know him that well whose lives he has touched.  Like this one here.  

It is hard walking down this road.  I have come to hate the word “was”.  I hate using the word was.  I wish that I could still say is…  

Thank you for your continued prayer support.  We are so thankful for each of you!

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Well Done Dad… Well Done…

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The race is over.  He finished well.  “Well done my good and faithful servant.”  Those are the words that my dear dad heard as he entered into spending eternity with our God.  Today his fight with Lewy Bodies Disease is over.  Today his fight with this body, and the confines of it, are over.  Today he is set free!  

I wept thinking about how he will be able to walk again.  How he will be able to think again.  How he will be able to sing and pray again.  How he will be able to speak again!  I miss him terribly already.  

God gave me this scripture passage today while I was sitting in my office lost in thoughts and memories.

“But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.  I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain.  I lay down and slept;  I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.”  Psalm 3:3-5  

Thank you to each of you who have helped pray, and ask God to take my dad.  He has heard our cries!  Praise God.  

I have this song running through my head right now…

Blessed Be Your Name In the land that is plentiful,  Where Your streams of abundance flow Blessed be Your name Blessed Be Your name, When I’m found in the desert place, Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed Be Your name,

 Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name, Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be Your glorious name,  

Blessed be Your name When the sun’s shining down on me When the world’s ‘all as it should be’ Blessed be Your name Blessed be Your name On the road marked with suffering Though there’s pain in the offering Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name, Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be Your glorious name,  You give and take away, You give and take away, My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name…

Dad, I am proud of you.  I miss you.  I love you.  And I want to be just like you.

~Your Son

Services will be held at Waxahachie Bible Church:
Viewing – Thursday 5:00 – 7:00
Memorial – Thursday 7:00
Graveside – Friday 11:00 (City Cemetary)

“In lieu of flowers the family requests that you gift three missionary couples dear to Daddy’s heart. Checks can be made to Waxahachie Bible Church (memo Jeffrey Gowesky Memorial).”

Waxahachie Bible Church
621 Grand Ave.
Waxahachie, TX 75165

Boze Wayne Funeral Home
1826 US Hwy 287 Business West
Waxahachie, TX 75165
972-923-2700

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In Faith in Real Life

How have we gotten here?

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This morning I can’t stop the questions from rolling through my mind…  I am tired of all these questions…

How have we gotten here?

Did we really just make arrangements for my dad’s funeral?

Am I really flying to Texas with a suit?

Seriously am I preparing to talk at my Dad’s funeral?

How do I present the gospel and keep from crying?

Why now?

I can’t wait for him to be with Jesus… When God?

Can I truly sing “It is well with my soul”?

God make it well with my soul!?!  

How do I keep my patience with people when my fuse is so short?  

God please find me faithful as I walk through this valley of shadows.  

I write this with a lump in my throat and a pain in my chest.  Please keep praying for me and my family.  My mom’s name is Sarah, and I have three sisters, Heidi, Heather, and Marcy.  We covet your prayers in this time.  We know that our dad will spend eternity in heaven worshiping God the creator of heaven and earth, of all the seen and unseen.  Yet my heart is selfish.  I want my dad back.  I want to talk with him and see him.  I want to feel his arms embrace me in a hug.  One day in eternity we will meet again!  What a day that will be…

To keep updated on my dad and all that is going on, visit our caring bridge site.  

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

fuzzy blur

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It’s pretty much a fuzzy blur.  Right now, there aren’t a whole lot of words to say.  Daddy is still hanging on.  I know that my family is praying for my dad and his home going.  I also know that there is an extended family of men and women whose lives will never be the same because of my Dad who are also in ceaseless and fervent prayer for my dad.  I am amazed.  There is a man who is fasting and praying for God to call my dad home soon.  THank you to all of my extended family who have been continuing to spend time before the God of this universe on behalf of the entire Gowesky family.  

I think that it is a pretty safe bet that we are all hurting in different ways.  Phone calls, and text messages are filled with tears, joy, sorrow, sadness, honesty, love and pride.  I am so proud of my dad for the life that he has lived.  He is an incredible man of God.  Faithful to his family, faithful to his God, faithful to the church’s he has served.  Never in all of the years that I have had the privalage of being his son have I ever heard him talk negatively about God’s bride, the church.  In the midst of some painful situations He always remained positive.  One of the last sermons that he ever preached was in the dining room of my grandmothers house in NJ.  He read Psalm 16 and he shared with all of us around the table about how God has allowed the lines to fall in pleasant places for him.  He also reminded us that God is his inheritance.  I will never forget his ability to comfort us even when he was the one suffering.  What a man of God.  Praise God for my dad’s life.  

We continue to pray and cheer him on as He is going home to be with the Lord.  Please join me…  

Please visit our site for my dad with updates, pictures and such.  We truly cherish the messages that our friends and family have been leaving.  

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Break the silence

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For the last 4 years my dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.  I haven’t talked about this a whole lot here on this blog because it has always been hard for me to talk about.  Nothing has changed in that regard.  This has been one of the hardest experiences I have ever gone through in my life.  

  For the last several weeks my dad’s health has been going downhill significantly.  This has been the cause of my overall silence here at the saltlick.  I guess that I have been pretty clouded and pretty distracted from everything else.  

Here is a site that we have put up as a family to keep people posted on my dad’s health.  It is difficult and hard for me to begin to process.  I have been reading from Ecclesiastes and God has been working in my life.  I keep coming back to Ecclesiastes 3 vs 1 and 11.  Solomon writes that God has appointed a time for everything and everything is appropriate in its appointed time.  

This is a tough pill to swallow.  I am still choking on it as it goes down.  

I think that I need to leave it at this for today.  

I needed to tell you what is going on in my life, why I’ve been silent, and also and more importantly how you can pray for me and my family.  

You can pray for my dad that God would welcome him home soon…  Please pray for each one of us as we say goodbye and go through the roller coaster of saying goodbye to a father and husband.  I love my dad, and I miss him already.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Quiet…

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I’ve been quiet lately, and I will tell you just not right now.  I need more time to process it and think.  I think that I owe you an apology.  I can start with that.

          I was gone over the weekend speaking in Penn Argyl.  I had a great time there with my extended church family.  I had an opportunity to challenge the people, and also challenge their youth group.  Praise God that He spoke this past weekend.  I do believe that the Holy Spirit showed up in a big way.  So thank you to each one of you who were praying for me.  It was definately needed.  I’ll get back to you all soon.  I have been out of the office for what seems like a while and I need to get tons done today!  

~Peter

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