In Memory of "Pap George"

Technically this blog is about my life as a church planter, and the story of our new church. But in this formative stage it's pretty wrapped up into my life.
Right now my life is pretty wrapped up in the death of my grandfather, George Sowolla. It was not a surprise, but still not easy. Thursday night I talked with my Gram at 7:30pm. Pap wasn't good. To be honest I expected another rally. As Gram often said of him in these last months, "He's a tough old bird." At 11pm my parents called to tell me the news.
There's so much I could tell. I could write a book about growing up with my Pap. What strikes me now is still the reaction my children had when I told them the next morning that Pap had died. Now my kids didn't know Pap well, and certainly not in the way I knew him as a strapping coal miner. But when we told them, they smiled. Eden and Karis got these big grins and said, "So Pap is in heaven right now!" They went on to ask all sorts of great questions- kid questions that are real and raw and honest and wonderful.
I have so much to process, more to write, and a funeral service to plan, but my kids have it right- Pap is in heaven right now!

Jesus said to her (Mary), "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die..." John 11:25-26

I've officiated numerous funerals. Even for relatives. But never for my Pap. And even now, as I go through this, I can't help but think ahead. I think about the faith that my grandfather helped pass on to me. I think about a faith community, a church, where the hope of life in Jesus Christ, now and for all eternity, is passed on to those who mourn, grieve, wonder and ask. I think about a community of people standing together in the hardest of times, even as my family stands together now. But most of all, I just keep thinking about my Pap.