Dr. David John Williams

My Grandpa Williams (my mom's dad) went to be with Jesus last night. It wasn't really unexpected, as he had been slowly deteriorating over the past few years from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. A few days ago we heard that he was near death.

Its weird to use the word death, because in reality that isn't what happened. My Grandpa left the earth and really began his true, eternal life with the Lord. This is the first death in my family in 17 years, needless to say when I was five I didn't really understand what was going on. But now, faced with the reality of my Grandpa's passing, I have a strange mixture of sadness, joy, and relief. Relief because now he isn't in pain, and he's not confused anymore. I can't imagine what it was like for him to emerge from sickness and old age into new life with Christ, like coming out of a dense, thick fog into a brilliant crisp, bright summer day. What a contrast!

A couple days before he passed, he told my grandma that he had seen Jesus. When she asked him if Jesus had said anything, my grandpa replied, "Glory". Now, in my grandpa's state, I don't know, but maybe Jesus really did show himself to Grandpa in preparation for his joining Him in Glory. Grandpa loved God so much, even through the loss of his memory and deterioration of his mind, he held on tight to Jesus.

David Williams, in this world, served in the Military in all branches except for the coast guard. He served as a Chaplain and was in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. In the US, he was a preacher. I can even remember going and hearing some of his sermons when I was younger.

He was always joking around, he had a really great, positive personality. He was always fun to be around. I'll miss him, but I am so excited for him as he really begins to live.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12

I'm back (to normal?)

I arrived at the Kansas City airport at 10 till 9pm last Friday night(May 29th). My whole family was there, plus Aunt Ramona and Uncle Paul, Kyle, and Jo. It was so cool to see all of them there! I was just smiling. It was an amazing conclusion to an absolutely hectic and frustrating 48 hours of travel.

I had gone to Paris with Sara, so I had to get a flight from Paris to Rome so that I could go to Orvieto to pick up some bags that I had left there. Then my flight back to the US was out of Rome the next day. The Paris metro got the better of me, and I ended up missing my flight to Rome by about 8 minutes. So I had to pay 50 euro and get on the flight later that day, 7 hours later.
I finally got to Rome, got a bus to the train station, got on a train for Orvieto. I finally arrived there at 11pm. 2 amazing ladies from the church I had attended were waiting for me at the train station. One of the ladies let me stay at her house that night. She made me dinner that night, and breakfast the next morning.
But I got to Rome and made my flight just fine. When we landed in Washington, DC, it immediately begin storming. They shut down the tarmac and nothing was operating. I finally got my bags and made it through customs. But by the time I made it through, my flight home to KC had already left. So I had missed 2 flights in about 30 hours. They put me on a flight a couple hours later, at no extra charge. (United was way nicer than EasyJet)

So, a kind of crazy ending to my travel. But it really wasn't completely bad. I had to stop and tell myself not to get frustrated, and to just talk to the Lord and be thankful for him for all of the blessings in my life, and not focus on the travel stuff.

But now that I'm back, it almost seems like the whole semester never happened. Its so strange, becuase I'm back here at home, doing normal home things like I was never gone. I'm not with anyone who was in Europe with me. I don't talk about things I did over there. I could probably convince myself that I never went. Its so strange.
Last semester should impact me and change me. I should be a slightly different (hopefully better) person. I guess time will tell if that happens. I know I learned a lot last semester, but I think I need to stop and think and refect and realize what it was that I learned.

The last stop on our trip was Ronchamp, France to visit the chapel by Le Corbusier. It was beautiful.