A Friend Has Gone Home

     You know how sometimes in life, you get to know someone (although it may be brief) but they make a lasting impact.  Bill Becker is one of those people.  Our paths crossed at our church (Shore Fellowship) less than a year ago.  He had come off a bout of cancer and I was in the middle of mine.  We connected.  He shared with me that I was an encouragement to him as he read my blog during my journey through Leukemia.  Interestingly enough as the next several months unfolded, Bill became an encouragement to me.  His cancer returned.  Ups and downs. Uncertainty. Good news.  Not so good news.  Through it all, Bill praised his Creator.  If you haven't seen an interview I did with him over 3 months ago, you need to. 

     Bill passed peacefully to glory last evening.  My families thoughts and prayers are with his wife Kathy and his family. 

      Bill was and still is an inspiration to so many.  The apostle Paul reminds us in a letter to Timothy that it should be our goal as believers to be able to say with him, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Therefore there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."  Bill has done just that.

   You can say nothing greater of a person than that they were a "friend of God".  Bill was not only a friend to so many of us,  he was and is today "a friend of God".  Thanks for touching our lives Bill.  Thanks for crossing our paths.  We are all so much richer for having known you.