The Mayer family is a super cool group of people. A mom, dad and 5 kids (three biological and 2 adopted from Africa). I think that it was the Fall of 2003 when I met the Mayer’s for the first time. We were new to our former church and they were in the midst of looking for a new pastor. I think we met two or three different candidates and eventually voted to extend the call to the Mayer’s.

The Mayer’s came to us from Ohio. Mark (dad) and some if not all the kids came early to Michigan so they could start school. Mom (Missy) and a couple of kids (I think) stayed in Ohio while they waited to sell their house. Once everyone, including several cats were settled into a new home in Michigan we realized what a great family these people were.

The whole family fit into our church nicely. They were a group of goofy people that like to have fun. Pastor Mark’s messages were always on target for things that were happening at the time. He liked using images, quotes, take aways, etc. to get his message across. He worked well with the churches design team and was very open to the needs of the his congregation.

Since I am talking in past tense you have probably figured out by now that the Mayer’s no longer are at our former church. It was in 2006 that the Mayer’s made the announcement that they were looking to serve at another church, not because of anything that was happening with our church but because of some serious health issues one of their daughters was having. Her doctor suggested a warmer climate. They began interviewing at churches in warm climates and accepted a call from a church in Florida called Oasis Church. By mid Summer 2006 we were packing up the Mayer’s and they headed off to Florida.

I haven’t personally had a lot of contact with them because the church we were at dissolved in January 2007 but I get updates here and there from other people and there is always Facebook. I have heard that Mark loves the warm weather, that it has done wonders for his Seasonal Effective Disorder, there daughters health issues have continued and they are still seeking treatment and that their oldest daughter that suffers from Crohn’s has still had problems but will soon be graduating from nursing school.

Well, you can imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I heard that Mark was having some serious health concerns. There are a few people at our new church that keep in touch with the Mayer’s and that is where the update came from. We began praying for updated test and procedures that Mark was going to be having. At first the doctors were thinking that Mark may be suffering from Crohn’s. Not great news but defiantly something this family knows a lot about.

Well, this past week the news came back that Mark has cancer. He has about a 5 inch tumor that has eaten through his kidney. There are lots of blood vessels involved and removal of the kidney is going to be very dangerous. He will be having more tests this next week to check and see if the cancer has spread.

As you can imagine the news is not great. This has shook the faith of people that are a part of their current church, of our old church and is just simply very scary for a family with 5 kids. I think of James 1:2-8 in this instance and try to make sense of how we or anyone is supposed to take joy in this testing of our faith. I guess I need to study that scripture more.

As for all the pictures with this blog. You can put your cursor over the picture and it will give you a description. The two different crosses are from one of our Christmas Eve Services that Pastor Mark lead. It was probably the most meaningful Christmas Eve service I have been a part of.