Does God Exist? Suffers Another Loss

Gerry Miller The year 2001 has been a tough year for this outreach. In April, we lost Ward Sullivan, one of our strongest supporters. On November 4, Gerry Miller, our artist, passed from this life after a battle with cancer. Those of you who are familiar with our 11 children's books are familiar with Gerry's great talent. She had the unique ability to take an idea and express it in artistic form in such a way that the intended message got through to people of all ages. Gerry not only illustrated our children's books, but also made drawings for our filmstrip series in the early 1980s, our video series, and many of our lectureship slides and drawings. In recent years, she had expanded her talent into beautiful pictures of mountains, rivers, animals, and birds, and participated in art shows.

Gerry was part of our team for 30 years. She leaves a son Scott and a husband Ed. Gerry and Ed had moved to Powell, Wyoming, five years ago to get closer to the mountains she loved. They continued to work with us, and they worked hard for the Lord with the Powell Church of Christ. Many years ago when we were working together on a book for kids titled "Climbing Higher," trying to help them deal with death and dying, Gerry and I were struggling with how to address the subject to kids. She made a statement which is a part of that book. It radiates her hope and positive feelings about God and His closeness to her. I feel it is a tribute to her quiet, Christian spirit.

"Giving up a loved one is very, very difficult. We know we can't have that one with us any more here on earth. But if we believe death is a passageway from this life to eternal life, it helps. We know that in heaven there will be no more 'good-byes.' God always gives us someone to love us and care for us. Someone will come along and care enough to cheer us up and make the empty place in the heart not so empty. Death is part of living. God planned death just as He planned life. It can be a stepping stone to climbing higher. Nothing that happens can keep you down unless you let it."

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