{"id":1127,"date":"2008-08-12T10:40:21","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T18:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2009-07-15T11:15:07","modified_gmt":"2009-07-15T19:15:07","slug":"a-lament-for-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2008\/08\/12\/a-lament-for-a-friend","title":{"rendered":"A Lament for a Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/web.mac.com\/zickajoe\/Zickafoose_Site\/Welcome.html\">Joe Zick\u00adafoose<\/a> <\/p>\n<div style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"http:\/\/artsinbushwick.org?the_court_jester\">down\u00adload the court jester movie<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thunderstruck.org\/?oliver_twist\">down\u00adload oliv\u00ader twist dvd<\/a> <\/p>\n<p style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/?lionheart\">down\u00adload lion\u00adheart dvd<\/a><\/p>\n<ul style=\"display:none\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chelonian.org?prophecy_the\">prophe\u00adcy the down\u00adload free<\/a>\n<ul style=\"display:none\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webdev.entheosweb.com?shark_tale\">watch shark tale in divx<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>  died last night. He had can\u00adcer, and in the process of treat\u00adment his immune sys\u00adtem became so weak that he was very vul\u00adner\u00ada\u00adble to infec\u00adtion, got pneu\u00admo\u00adnia, and died.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe this is nor\u00admal, but I don\u2019t feel over\u00adwhelmed by emo\u00adtion until I try to talk to some\u00adone about it. It\u2019s kind of weird. When I\u2019m on the phone with a mutu\u00adal friend of Joe\u2019s, I start to choke up. And I usu\u00adal\u00adly weep for a few moments after I hang up. After that, I\u2019m fine (albeit sad) until the next con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion. <\/p>\n<p>It would be hard to over\u00adstate Joe\u2019s influ\u00adence in my life. When I moved from Louisiana to Mis\u00adsouri to go to sem\u00adi\u00adnary, I began vol\u00adun\u00adteer\u00ading at the Chi Alpha min\u00adistry he led at Mis\u00adsouri State Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty. He soon asked me to join him on staff, and I seized the oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty to work with this amaz\u00ading man.<\/p>\n<p>I got to know Joe very well over the next few years. He was a real men\u00adtor. He told amaz\u00ading\u00adly fun\u00adny sto\u00adries. He was kind and car\u00ading. And wicked smart. Joe real\u00adly knew his stuff. He helped me under\u00adstand how the\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy relat\u00aded to prac\u00adti\u00adcal min\u00adistry in a way that is still stun\u00adning to me.<\/p>\n<p>I have so many vivid mem\u00ado\u00adries of Joe that it\u2019s hard to believe he\u2019s real\u00adly dead.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll nev\u00ader for\u00adget his boom\u00ading laugh echo\u00ading through the office. I remem\u00adber once I was giv\u00ading a stu\u00addent an expla\u00adna\u00adtion about escha\u00adtol\u00adogy (the end of the world), and after the stu\u00addent left Joe just start\u00aded laugh\u00ading uncon\u00adtrol\u00adlably. \u201cGlen, do you real\u00adize how many times I\u2019ve heard you give that exact same expla\u00adna\u00adtion using the exact same words to stu\u00addents?\u201d Maybe it would be fun\u00adnier if you heard my expla\u00adna\u00adtion and knew a lit\u00adtle more about my denom\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion, but this isn\u2019t real\u00adly the place for a the\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal trea\u00adtise on the return of Christ. <\/p>\n<p>Anoth\u00ader sto\u00adry that springs to mind is the time Joe decid\u00aded to buy a motor\u00adcy\u00adcle. He used to ride them as a kid, and he want\u00aded to return to the hal\u00adcy\u00adon days of his youth. So he did his research, bought the bike and all the acces\u00adsories. It was a months-long process, filled with days of Joe wax\u00ading elo\u00adquent about the joys of motor\u00adcy\u00adcle rid\u00ading. Joe could get pret\u00adty obses\u00adsive about his hob\u00adbies, and this was close to dis\u00adplac\u00ading music in his lev\u00adel of pas\u00adsion. He set out to ride and my phone rang about an hour lat\u00ader. It was Joe. \u201cGlen, I crashed my bike. Can you come pick me up?\u201d So I set out in my trust Isuzu pick\u00adup to retrieve the noble fall\u00aden Zick\u00adafoose. He sold the bike short\u00adly after\u00adward. It was one of the most heart\u00adbreak\u00ading and yet fun\u00adny events I can remem\u00adber. <\/p>\n<p>But my favorite sto\u00adry of Joe has to be his sal\u00adva\u00adtion sto\u00adry. I might have it a lit\u00adtle jum\u00adbled, but this is the essence of it. He spent his teenage years work\u00ading hard and sav\u00ading for col\u00adlege. How\u00adev\u00ader, when he arrived at Kent State he blew all the mon\u00adey he had spent years sav\u00ading in one term on a crazy drug binge. He had to drop out because he had deplet\u00aded all his funds. But before he did, he met Jesus. Here\u2019s how it hap\u00adpened.<\/p>\n<p>Joe and his drug bud\u00addies used to stay up late at night talk\u00ading about crazy stuff they had seen. Joe Zick\u00adafoose\u2019s room\u00admate, Joe Dal\u00adto\u00adrio (here\u00adafter referred to as Big Joe), had some of the best sto\u00adries about peo\u00adple he had seen healed at the Pen\u00adte\u00adcostal church he grew up in. Joe was skep\u00adti\u00adcal, but Big Joe swore up and down he had seen it with his own eyes.<\/p>\n<p>One night Joe was vis\u00adit\u00ading his sup\u00adpli\u00ader down the hall, and they made some sort of joke about Satan. As Joe tells it, at that moment they felt the tem\u00adper\u00ada\u00adture drop and an omi\u00adnous pres\u00adence filled the room. Joe fled back to his room where Big Joe hap\u00adpened to be. As Joe entered the room, he felt the exact oppo\u00adsite pres\u00adence. A sense of over\u00adwhelm\u00ading peace filled his dorm room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s hap\u00adpen\u00ading in here, but I want it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Big Joe looked at him and said, \u201cJoe, I\u2019m what you call a back\u00adslid\u00ader. I was turn\u00ading my back on what I knew to be true. I told you all those sto\u00adries about my church, but I nev\u00ader told you the most impor\u00adtant sto\u00adry of all. Jesus is God and he died for your sins. You can be for\u00adgiv\u00aden and have peace with God. I just fin\u00adished repent\u00ading and I\u2019m not going to be part of the drug scene any\u00admore. Do you want in?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joe said sure, and so Big Joe explained, \u201cThis is the way they do it at church. Would you please bow your head? With\u00adout look\u00ading around, if you want to receive Jesus Christ as your per\u00adson\u00adal lord and sav\u00adior, would you please raise your hand? Great. Please kneel and repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I know I\u2019m a sin\u00adner and I need your grace. I humbly repent and please for\u00adgive me of my sins and help me not to do them any\u00admore. With your help, I\u2019ll serve you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s how Joe became a Chris\u00adt\u00adian. His drug friends came over to his room and Joe decid\u00aded to put some music on to cel\u00ade\u00adbrate. He began dig\u00adging through his col\u00adlec\u00adtion until he found some\u00adthing that looked reli\u00adgious and put it on the record play\u00ader. He told his friends, \u201cSee, there\u2019s a quote by George Bernard Shaw about God on the cov\u00ader. It\u2019s spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His drug deal\u00ader friend start\u00aded laugh\u00ading. \u201cWhat does George Bernard Shaw know about God? He was an athe\u00adist!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joe\u2019s coun\u00adte\u00adnance changed; he stared at his record col\u00adlec\u00adtion. \u201cI\u2019ve been deceived,\u201d he said slow\u00adly. He took the record off the play\u00ader and threw it out his win\u00addow like a fris\u00adbee. It smashed into the next build\u00ading. His friends sat stunned. One by one he took all the records in his col\u00adlec\u00adtion and hurled them into obliv\u00adion, his friends scream\u00ading at him to stop and beg\u00adging him to give them the records instead. He bel\u00adlowed, \u201cNone shall have them!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I always used to crack up at that line. \u201cNone shall have them!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are so many sto\u00adries about Joe. He was tru\u00adly an amaz\u00ading indi\u00advid\u00adual. I\u2019ll miss him deeply. We had\u00adn\u2019t talked too much in the last few years because he was serv\u00ading over\u00adseas as a mis\u00adsion\u00adary to uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty stu\u00addents in Scot\u00adland, but I thought of him often.<\/p>\n<p>I can bare\u00adly imag\u00adine what his wife and teenage sons must be going through. I rejoice that Joe is in heav\u00aden expe\u00adri\u00adenc\u00ading his reward, but I weep for his fam\u00adi\u00adly who now must sol\u00addier on with\u00adout him. If you remem\u00adber, be sure to pray for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Zick\u00adafoose down\u00adload the court jester movie down\u00adload oliv\u00ader twist dvd down\u00adload lion\u00adheart dvd prophe\u00adcy the down\u00adload free watch shark tale in divx died last night. He had can\u00adcer, and in the process of treat\u00adment his immune sys\u00adtem became so weak that he was very vul\u00adner\u00ada\u00adble to infec\u00adtion, got pneu\u00admo\u00adnia, and died. Maybe this is \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2008\/08\/12\/a-lament-for-a-friend\" class=\"more-link\">Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cA Lament for a Friend\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chi-alpha-worldwide"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-ib","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1127"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2005,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions\/2005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}