A Sad Day for Metro East...

This weekend was a sad one for my church family at Metro East. One of our associate pastors, Doug Holt, died in a motorcycle accident on Saturday afternoon. I hurt so deeply for his family. They've already endured so much hardship in their lives, and they've already had such a hard year with their youngest daughter Ashlea being diagnosed with POTS, a disease that causes her constant, intense pain. For them to now lose their husband and father is just heartbreaking.

The church service yesterday could not have been sadder---not everyone had even heard the news. Everywhere you looked were tears. People were hugging and crying and dabbing at their eyes with kleenexes. It was heartbreaking, yet I am so thankful that we could all just come and grieve together. He was well loved.

If you knew Doug, then you know that the world lost a wonderful man, but you also know that heaven gained one. Doug never, ever failed to make me smile. He was a complete goofball, a prankster, and utterly joyful. He always went out of his way to make people feel loved and appreciated. He loved Jesus and he loved people, and he loved them deeply. It never failed to amaze me how easily he could relate to anyone in any stage of life. Adults, teens, children, the rich, the poor, the joyful, the heartbroken. No matter who they were, he always met them at their level. You should have seen him working with the kids in Chicago. They LOVED him, and they knew that he loved them right back. They only knew him for a week, and yet they too would be heartbroken to hear the news.

A lot of times you read something like this after someone has died, and you think, "I wonder what that person was really like," because people only talk about the good things when someone is gone. But this was truly Doug. I could just as easily say these things about him were he still alive today, were he standing right in front of me. He was genuine, so genuine that he would not hesitate to speak of his own failings to you, were it only to show you that he was a sinner saved by grace, and with the hope that you too would know that same grace. He preached the Gospel. He shared the Gospel. And he lived the Gospel. And a lot of people are missing him today.

We miss you, Dougie Fresh!


Please pray for the Holt family: Gayla and their daughters (as pictured) Ashlea, Lynsie, and Kaley. Pray...

1. That they will be comforted.
2. That they will turn towards God rather than away, a temptation that is always hard to fight when you've lost someone so dear to you.
3. That God will reveal to them the many ways in which He is undoubtedly working for good through this, even though it's hard for any of us to see right now.
4. That they will allow themselves to be weak, vulnerable, and to grieve, and that their family and friends will help lovingly carry them in their times of weakness.
5. That they will not be bombarded by people trying to help, but instead spend this time with the family and friends they are closest to.
6. That God will provide the expenses that are needed at this time.
7. That God will be glorified in this.