Joey's Fight Has Ended - Prayers for the Kellers

At 9:35pm tonight, Joey's fight against cancer ended and he graduated to meet His Lord face-to-face.  Joey grew more, had more faith, and touched more people's life in his brief 9 years of life than most of will in 90 or more years.  His legacy and ministry will live on in many, many ways.

While we rejoice that his suffering has come to an end and for the unimaginable joy that is now his, we are still in shock ourselves and cannot begin to imagine what his parents are going through.  Your prayers are still very much needed for them for the days and months ahead as they begin an entirely new battle with grief and loss.

I've never seen a group of people come together - literally from all over the world - to rally around one person the way Team Joey has done for Joey Keller.  God has worked, and will continue to work through the many lives touched by Joey.

His father's posting on CaringBridge from a few minutes ago reads as follows:

"Joey finally met in person (face to face) the person he's loved, trusted, admired, talked to, talked about, and worshipped for years, Jesus, tonight, at 9:35p. Buddy, you loved that song, I'll fly away....you beat me there. Which is not the way it's supposed to be. I will be there soon. I never knew I could love someone like I loved you, son. My heart will be broken until I see you again. You are awesome. I told you often how much I loved you and thought of you. I can only hope to run a race as strong, and focused, and effective as you. In spiritual terms, I look up to you. I love you and am a fractured, torn up person without you. I'll never be right. But I will see you soon. One more time, "Dad thinks you are awesome! You make me happy! I am so proud of you." I'm coming buddy. Pray for me."

I'll try to write more in the near future - but we're all still reeling here. The first thing we did as a family was to thank God for having known Joey and the Kellers and for ending His suffering, and to bring comfort and peace and continued faith to the family.

You can visit their CaringBridge site here to leave a message for them:
        http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joeykeller

- Tim -