Chapter
33

A couple of weeks after the accident, Waylon called Elna and me to meet him in his office. He wanted to check on us, but he also wanted to ask us a question. He said that since Jackson’s passing, there had been large donations coming into the church in honor of Jackson. He said that it wasn’t unusual for a small amount of donations to come in after someone has passed as an honor of the memory of that person. However, the amounts coming in honor of Jackson were exceptionally large. Waylon was asking for our discernment on how this money might best bless God and honor Jackson. We went home and prayed about it. When we returned to Waylon with an answer, we asked him if a fund could be set up to help spread the good news of Jesus around the world. Jackson was the product of two completely different cultures (A man from Cajun Country Opelousas and a woman from Gujarat, India). God had brought us together to make this amazing young man named Jackson Dease who knew and grew in his Faith in Jesus from an incredibly young age. We believed Jackson would be honored and God’s Kingdom would be blessed if the donations were used to start this mission fund. Shortly thereafter, FBC Covington established the Jackson Dease Memorial Mission Fund. Its purpose would be to share the Love of God throughout the world with an emphasis on sharing the good news of Jesus the Christ. The mission fund began to pay for 50% of the expenses of each mission team member going on mission trips with FBC Covington. It paid 100% of the expenses of the pastors traveling on the teams. It has also paid for special projects such as building churches, supplying medical outreach camps, providing education programs, and many more. It has sent missionaries to many countries around the globe including Guatemala, Brazil, Grenada, Colombia, Europe, Africa, Haiti, and India. I do believe that God has been blessed and Jackson has been honored by the establishment of the mission fund.

 

Two years after Jackson passed, I went on my first mission trip. I joined a large group that was headed to Brazil. There were over 200 people going on this trip. After boarding the plane, I realized that over half of them were going down to Brazil in honor of a young girl in their church that had passed away from a long fight with cancer. The girl’s pastor had shared with their congregation that the girl had said that she wanted to know that her life had an impact on God’s Kingdom. After he shared that with his congregation, his church rallied together to head to Brazil to build a church for God and to honor the young woman of about 12 years of age. As you can imagine, a mission trip crew of 200 people is a huge group of people. I only knew one person in the group before joining. The large group was split up into many smaller groups with distinct assignments. I was assigned to be a doctor leading a clinic at a medical camp. Our small group including our interpreters was about ten people. One of these 10 people was the mother of the young girl that had passed. Another team from the 200 people set out to build the church in honor of her daughter. On that team were the husband and son of the mom working in the medical camp with me. We all worked hard on this trip. The medical camp treated hundreds and hundreds of patients within the week that we were set up. The construction crew built a very nice church from the ground up within that same week’s timeframe. At the end of the construction, our entire mission team gathered at the newly built church for a time of service and to dedicate the new building. The building was packed to beyond capacity during that first service. I got up from my chair and walked just outside of the back of the church to allow someone else to sit. I could still see and hear the message being delivered inside, but I was standing out in the beautiful surrounding of God’s creation. The message being delivered inside was sometimes in English and sometimes in Portuguese. At one point there was mumbling between people in the chairs in the church. I then noticed that the mumbling was followed by people pointing outside a window in the newly built church. I was already outside but I hadn’t noticed what they had spotted from within the church. However, as I turned, there it was. It was a huge full rainbow in the sky. It was magnificent. It was vividly bright in color and had no obstruction in its full half circle. There were loud gasps coming from the people around me as we stared at the rainbow. The young man of about 18 years of age next to me said, “What’s everyone looking at?”

 

Out of the more than 200 plus people in our mission team, the young man asking me this question was the brother of the young girl who this church was built in honor of.

 

I took a deep breath, and I as I pointed to the sky I said, “Look over there at that incredible rainbow in the sky.”

 

He kind of gave me a smirk, and then he gave me a dismissive, “Oh”

 

I compassionately asked him, “Do you know what that rainbow means?”

 

He shrugged his shoulders with a bit of teenage sarcasm and said, “I guess it means there’s a pot of gold at the end of it?” He then laughed.

 

In a serious tone, I said, “No. It’s much more important than that.”

 

I said, “The Bible tells us that every time that God puts a rainbow in the sky that He is remembering His promises to us. God loves us and cares about every hurt that we experience. That rainbow isn’t there to mark a pot of gold. It’s there to mark his promise to you.”

 

May we never forget God’s promises. May we never let the world define for us the importance of a rainbow. It’s not a place to mark where a leprechaun has hidden his treasure. It’s to serve as a reminder of a contract between God and man. It’s a contract painted in Love.

 

Genesis 9 NIV

 

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”