John Reece's Birthday Tribute

Today, June 24th, John would have been 36 years old. Every once in awhile I let my mind wander and imagine what he might be doing today if he were still alive.

Would he have a wife and children? No doubt he would have a very good and prestigious job. Perhaps he would be on the mission field fulfilling his dream of being a "tentmaker" missionary.

But whatever he might have been doing, it all pales in comparison to being in the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have no doubt that he would echo the Apostle Paul's sentiments that he expressed in Philippinas 1:21-23.

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better."

From our limited perspective here on earth, we can barely comprehend what Paul was talking about. We place so much value on earthly things and most of us value them highly! But the Bible continually exhorts and encourages us to set our minds on things above, not on things here on this earth. All of them are subject to corruption and the only things that really last are the incorruptible where Christ is preparing a place for all who love Him and are looking forward to His return!

As you can imagine, I write this to remind myself as much as to remind you who are reading this that our priorities need to be on what is above. That is certainly what John would want me to be doing. It is my birthday gift to him today.

Want to read more about John? Check it out at Aloha is Forever.

S is for Searches

My next posts for the A to Z Challenge will mainly be related to something about our son John.

Searches, searches, searches. When our son failed to return from a hike he had taken across the Kohala over the 1999 Thanksgiving weekend, the county sent out helicopters, mobilized searchers, advised everyone in the vicinity and one of the most extensive searches for a missing person on the Big Island was launched.

Searches continued that whole week involving hundreds of man hours and flight hours. Finally we arrived in Hawaii on the following Sunday - 10 days after John left on his hike. Our arrival gave added impetus to the searches. The authorities had already given up searching, doubting that he had even arrived at the trail head since he had hitchhiked to the area. But the searches continued, spearheaded by the department of the USGS (United States Geological Survey) for which John had been working. We met and strategized and of course their counsel was fundamental to the searches since we knew nothing about the island. We flew to Honolulu for TV interviews in an attempt to find the people or person who had given him the last ride up to the trail head.

Teams were sent out all that next week, distributing flyers, knocking on doors, questioning everyone who was available. We participated to the extent that we could but we were sedentary middle aged parents in no condition to hike the rough terrain where our son had gone. But teams of other young people hiked the trails and were as dedicated to the search as we were.

But it was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

You must understand that the area in which he was hiking was full of deep valleys, lesser valleys, waterfalls that plummeted down the sheer cliffs and precipices that were almost vertical. The vegetation was thick and it was impossible to see the valley floor from helicopters and impossible to search in many areas. Before we arrived in Hawaii, John's boss told us of a bomber that had crashed in that area at the end of World War II. The crew had hiked out across the mountain to safety but it took about 10 years for anyone to find the plane. It had settled under the canopy of the forest in one of the valleys and was "invisible."

 Rick Reece photo - all rights reserved

We were finally able to hire a private helicopter to help with the search. By that time we had already held a memorial service for John but we weren't ready to abandon the search until we had turned over every stone that was within our reach. So on the last couple of days of December 1999, Rick and several experienced men who knew the area well, flew into the remotest valleys and hiked up the valley floors until they could go no further. But they found not a trace.

Later as I contemplated the extent of the searches, the loss of our son, all of the generous helping hands and feet of those who had helped, I was reminded of the parable Jesus told in Luke 15:8 and 9.

"Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'"

In the same way that we searched diligently with all the resources we had available to us, so our heavenly Father searches and longs for each one of his creatures. Jesus continues in Luke 15:10 saying:

"Likewise, I say this to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (New King James version)

Even though our searches for John turned up empty, we are certain that the greatest desire of his heart would be to know that many repented and came into God's Kingdom as a result of hearing his story. That is why we tell it.

John Reece

"J" is for John Cameron Reece born in 1977 in Grand Prairie, Texas, the only one of our three children not born in Brazil. He disappeared in the Kohala Mountains on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1999 after leaving to go on a hike on Thanksgiving Day.

John in the lab at Wheaton College

  Rick Reece photo (all rights reserved)

What can I say about John? He was a young man of integrity, self-discipline, uprightness. He was kind and thoughtful and passionately loyal to his friends. But the characteristic that stands out most was his passionate love for the Lord Jesus Christ and his burning desire to share that relationship and hope and love with those around him.

He was an avid reader but avoided "junk" books. He read mainly the kind of books you would find on a list of recommended reading for college bound students. And he read his Bible - probably the only book he took with him on his fateful hike.

Orchids and tropical fish were his primary hobbies. Wherever he went he would set up an aquarium. In Brazil, he and his father built a huge aquarium and he stocked it with tropical fish from the stream just down the road from where we lived. Even in college he had an aquarium in his room. His love for orchids began when he was 10 years old. He read the whole Time Life book on Orchids from cover to cover and then proceeded to become an orchid collector and expert.

Here is an entry from his journal written in Hawaii about orchids:

"There is a particular orchid that grows everywhere around here. There are apparently only 3 native Hawaiian orchids, and 4 non-native species that have gone wild. The one I’ve been seeing is terrestrial, has white flowers with purple lip, and grows about 1 m. high. I think it is an introduced species."

John loved everything about God's creation. Here is another excerpt from his journal about what he observed in Hawaii:

"Yesterday I rode around Crater Rim Drive right nearby here. Some of the craters are huge, and there are a lot of steam vents and the smell of sulphur and everything. The road goes over several recent lava flows, the most recent being 1982 if I remember correctly. It’s amazingly desolate riding over a lava flow, where all you can see is sharp black rock everywhere.

"From what I’ve seen so far, this has to be the most amazing place I’ve ever lived. There’s rainforest, mesa and dry forest all within biking distance, craters with recent lava flows and steam vents nearby, mountains in the distance on clear days, and a perfect sky on clear nights."

The most amazing gift John gave us was his journal, written from 1995 to 1999, the last entry written just 6 days before his hike. It gave us something tangible, something that revealed what he was thinking and how he processed the circumstances and events around him. We have edited it and call it John's Legacy. We plan to make it available as an e-book on Kindle - we'll let you know when.

John's legacy to us was the privilege and honor of being parents to a deep, thoughtful and creative thinker. Although he was generally quiet, he wasn't afraid to express what he truly thought. We always asked his opinion before making a decision and he always asked ours. He was not only our son, but our friend. We may be slightly biased, but he was a godly example to us in so many ways. You can read more about John and about our search for him in our book, Aloha is Forever.

Do you know any young people who are an example to you?

Book Update

Aloha is Forever; Finding Hope in the Midst of Despair is finally back from the printer. And the website is ready to take orders. It has been a long time coming, but we're happy to announce that we'll be able to ship our book out in time for Christmas.

So if you have a friend who has lost a loved one during this past year or if you know someone who is still grieving their loss, give them a gift of encouragement. Although our book tells our story of our search for our 22 year old son, we also deal with some of the deeper issues of life, grieving, faith, hope and eternity. Our book may help someone you know get over that "hump" by giving them a new perspective.

Destiny

We watched a movie last night, Prince of Persia, that made me start thinking about "destiny." Is destiny up to fate or God or is it up to us?

I've been wrestling with that question today. And when our son was lost in Hawaii we also struggled with it.

There are some things, I believe, that are "destiny," especially for a child of God. The scriptures are full of declarations of our destiny. Ephesians 1 says:

"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

Romans 8 says:

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son."

The Bible is full of declarations of destiny. In fact, at the memorial service for John, we sang a song by Michael Jernigan titled, "This is My Destiny." In his song, Michael pulls in many declarations of destiny pulled from throughout scripture such as: servant, warrior, redeemed, chosen, bride-to-be, cleansed, a new creation, overcomer, victorious, crowned and many, many more.

So on the one hand, while there is a sense of destiny that includes eternity for each and every person who makes Jesus his or her savior and Lord, I wonder how our choices affect the destiny we live out here on this earth. We know for certain that our son's choices enabled him to live a life of integrity while pointing others to the eternal hope and eternal destiny that awaits us.

What do you think? Is our destiny beyond our control or do we make our own?

Update on Aloha is Forever book

We decided about a year ago that we would get a professional editor to do the final editing of our book before publishing it. So we put it on hold, found an editor, got the estimate and haven't been able to come up with the funds to pay her.

So we were talking and praying the other day and decided that we would print a run of about 100 books in the current version and then maybe do some more editing before publishing again. In this wonderful day of "print-on-demand" printing, we can do that.

Now to carve out the time to do one last read through ourselves before we send it off to the printer.

We'll keep you posted.

10 Years Ago

On Thanksgiving Day 10 years ago our son John set off on a great adventure. On November 19, 1999 he wrote this in his journal.

Next week is Thanksgiving week; there will be another big party on Thursday. I won't be there, just as I haven't been to any of their parties. I feel like a kill-joy, and I don't know how to tell people that I really do enjoy having a good time, just without alcohol, pot, sex, and gossip. For one of the two holidays that might actually have some meaning for me, I will be isolated again out of a need for self-preservation.

Instead of sticking around for the "party," John decided to hike across the valleys of the Kohala on the northern end of the Big Island. He meticulously studied the route and knew that he would not have a clear trail across the whole area. He was prepared to bushwack across the portion that had no trail. He had actually visited the area a few weeks before with some of his colleagues and he found it intriguing. I'm sure it reminded him of his beloved jungles of Brazil where he grew up. There were guava in abundance and he had eaten his fill and reveled in the beauty of the place.

So it was a good choice for a "get-away" and he anticipated he could do the arduous hike in the long 4 day Thanksgiving holiday. He packed his backpack with the essentials. As far as we know he took food for the 4 days, sleeping gear, a machete, miscellaneous camping and cooking gear, his Bible and perhaps some other reading material. He also carried a bamboo pole in which he carried maps. He did not anticipate the heavy rains he was to encounter. He was simply looking for a profitable and enjoyable way to spend the long weekend - an option to preserve his integrity by removing himself from the party scene.

He had written us an e-mail telling of his plans - an e-mail we didn't have access to until after his boss called us Monday evening to tell us John had not returned from his hike.

We often wonder what life would be like if John had not disappeared. I'm sure everyone who has had a loved one go missing can identify. But every Thanksgiving we thank our heavenly Father for the incredible gift that was John and for the 22 wonderful years he was with us.

You can read more of John's story in our e-book Aloha is Forever.

What do you do with an "OOPS?"

What do you do with an "OOPS" when it involves another person? We just received an email from someone our son mentioned in his journal which is on our website as "John's Legacy." We thought we were being so careful to change every name he mentioned - or at least most of the names and there was one name we forgot to change that just so happened to be critical that we do so. Yikes! How did we let that one slip by? I guess that just highlights the importance of a really good editor!

All we can do now is send a sincere apology and change it as quickly as possible! And hope we don't make the same or a similar mistake again.

Maybe you have an "OOPS" you'd like to share. If so, please feel free!

35 Years Ago

Today is the anniversary of the day we went to Brazil exactly 35 years ago. Anticipation and excitement along with a healthy dose of fear joined us on that first trip. We were young - yes, we really were quite a long time ago. We naively believed we were going to Brazil, never to return to the USA to live. So we packed up all of our earthly possessions and shipped them all in big metal drums and packing crates. If we had realized there was no house there waiting for us we might not have been so enthusiastic. Most of those possessions remained stored in the barrels for many, many years before we had a place to call home and to unpack them all.

Our son John was one of the main reasons we finally purchased a home. Moving into any and every available home and packing up everything each time we traveled into one of the Indian villages was definitely getting old. And John seemed to be the one who felt it the most. When we finally purchased a home and moved into it, we could see an almost immediate impact on him in a positive way.

The house was small, but the backyard was surrounded on three sides by virgin jungle. It was wonderful. We were frequently visited by monkeys and exotic birds. The strip of jungle around all the houses became the boys' paradise. John and his buddies built tree houses high up in the canopy. (Fortunately we parents never saw them and didn't even know about them until much, much later.)

Brazil became our home and even though John was actually born in the USA, he claimed Brazil as his home...until God called him to his forever home. Read about it in Aloha is Forever.

The Value of One Life

This evening I was listening to comments on "For Faith and Family" by Dr. Richard Land as I drove home. Dr. Land was our Sunday School teacher here in Dallas a long time ago. I was impressed with his lessons and his wisdom then; even more so now. Among other things he was discussing the health plan provisions that were slipped into the economic stimulus bill unbeknownst to almost everyone. As he talked, I began to ponder the value of a life.

How do we place value on a life? How are we to say that one person's life is more valuable than that of another? Apparently one of the objectives of the new health plan provisions calls for evaluating medical procedures based on the age of the patient. If those procedures are not economically advantageous depending on the age and perceived potential contribution of the patient to society, they would be denied. The next step could be euthanasia. Why not? We have as a society already approved taking the lives of the unborn.

But that's not the point. The point is that any life is valuable. The Bible says in Genesis 1:27,

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

The reason it is valuable is that each and every individual is stamped with God's image. Granted, that image has been perverted and distorted by sin. In fact in Genesis 5:1-3, we read this:

"When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them 'man.' When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth."

By the time Seth came on the scene, he had lost the perfect image of God and was born in Adam's likeness - complete with a sin nature. Without going into a long and involved treatise on the fall of man, and his subsequent redemption, I hasten to say that even man full of sin nature inherited from Adam is valuable in God's eyes. So valuable in fact, that God chose to give his only son to pay the penalty for each and every man's sin through his death on the cross.

When our son John Reece disappeared in Hawaii in 1999 we spared no expense to try to find him. Even though we had no funds to get to Hawaii, God opened the doors and through the generosity of acquaintances, we were able to fly to Hawaii and spend almost all of December there helping with the searches. Our total expenses were nothing short of astronomical (close to $20,000) but by the time we left Hawaii every single bill had been paid in full.

Many people have noted that never before had so many resources been mobilized and such an intense search made for someone who was lost in Hawaii. (People getting lost is not an uncommon occurrence there.) We would have given much more to find our son - he was our son and infinitely valuable to us.

In much the same way, God values each and every one of us. He is our Father and He seeks for us diligently, spares no expense, gives His all. Each one of us is infinitely valuable for we are his beloved sons and daughters.

Missing Child - John Reece

Missing child...that news would strike terror in the heart of any parent or grandparent. Like this morning. I left my grandson in the fenced backyard to play and when I went to check on him he wasn't there. My first reaction was panic. Where could he have gone? When I checked in the front yard I didn't see him either. But when I called, he appeared from beneath the porch where he was busily gathering up broken bricks and piling them in his wheelbarrow. My sigh of relief was audible!

When our son John Reece was reported missing in Hawaii, we did not panic, nor did terror strike our hearts. We had great peace even though he had gone hiking in one of the most treacherous and dangerous areas one could imagine. In fact, when we looked at photos of the area on the internet, our hearts stopped for a second. The 3000 foot cliffs were almost vertical. How could one even hike in an area like that?

But we didn't panic. After all, he was from a long line of adventurers. His father had taken a trip down the Trinity River all alone when he was 17. After a week, he made the headlines instead of JFK on the anniversary of the JFK assasination. They were dredging the river for him and he was completely oblivious to the fact that anyone might even be missing him.

At least John had told us where he was going and what his plans were. And we had no reason to think that things would not turn out just fine and dandy for him just as they had for his father.

For the whole story, see Aloha is Forever (as an e-book).

I welcome your comments - what would your reaction be if you got the news that your child or grandchild was missing.

Aloha is Forever - Hope #2

Shortly after we arrived in Hawaii to help search for our son, John Reece, my husband began talking about how we did not despair because we had two kinds of hope. You can read the whole story in our book, Aloha is Forever.

I described Hope #1 in my last post although there was one thing I left out. I forgot to mention that John was tenacious. He never gave up on anything so we knew that if there was any way he could get out of the Kohala Mountains, he would. We envisioned him dragging himself up the side of one of the steep cliffs inch by inch. We knew he would never give up and that fueled our hope.

As the month of December progressed and it became more and more apparent that we would not find John, Hope #2 began to take priority in our minds and hearts.

Those of you who claim not to believe in God will have to give me some leeway here. We do believe in God and in His ability to fulfill the promises He made in His Word, the Bible. And that was where our Hope #2 was anchored. We knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that if we didn't see our son again here on this earth, we would see him again and be with him in our Heavenly Father's presence for all eternity.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18 sums up this hope better than I could:

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep (died), lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

So even though the prospect of never seeing John again here in this life was inconceivable, terrible, horrific, devastating and whatever other feelings you can imagine, we were comforted and sustained by our Father's promises.

We knew that John's relationship with God was solid. There was not even a shadow of a doubt about that. He had recognized he was a sinner when he was only 4 years old and he had asked Jesus to forgive him and live in him and through him at that early age and had confirmed his faith in Jesus over the course of his life.

So even though our faith was tested in the fiery furnace, our hope never wavered. That is the power of Hope #2.

Aloha is Forever - Hope #1

Aloha is Forever was originally titled "Where There is Hope." Shortly after our search for our son John Reece ended, we realized from the feedback we were getting from our emails that many people, even fellow Christians, didn't understand "hope."

In the midst of the most devastating situation we had ever faced, we always had hope. My husband liked to call it Hope #1 and Hope #2. I'll talk about Hope #1 in this post and Hope #2 in my next post.

Our son left on Thanksgiving Day 1999 to cross the Kohala Mountains on the northern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii. He calculated that he could do it in 4 days. However, he didn't return in time for work on Monday following the 4-day holiday.

Our Hope #1 that he would finish the hike successfully was based on his natural ability, his training, his good physical condition and his solid faith in Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior.

John had abundant natural ability. He was an outdoorsman, and a rugged, lover of adventure. He had grown up in the Amazon. When he was small we had taken him with us to Indian villages, on adventurous trips, on hikes and on river and camping expeditions. He had all the gear and much outdoor savvy.

While in college, he had taken a survival course. Admittedly the course was in winter survival, but the principles were still the same. He knew survival strategies and techniques.

He was in excellent physical condition. He had gone to Hawaii as a field biology intern with the USGS. After two months of hiking up on Mona Kea counting vegetation, he was as physically fit as he could be. He had also been taking every opportunity to hike around the island and to bike around it with his new mountain bike.

His faith in God was unwavering and had been since childhood. He had grown up believing that God cared about him, had a plan for his life and that he could impact the world as he lived his faith. He'd made a point of spending time reading and studying his Bible daily and meditating and communing in prayer with his Heavenly Father.

All of these factors contributed to our Hope #1 that John would come through his ordeal wiser and better prepared to face life.

But as the month of December progressed, Hope #1 began to diminish and Hope #2 began to replace it. To be continued...