This is another installment in a series on Ministry in Moments of Crisis. This week we’ll consider the crisis of Serious Illness. Through my almost 17 years in this role words like cancer, leukemia, lupus, diabetes and more have sent shock waves through teams, families and the souls of men and women. Suddenly the rules of life have changed for the players and coaches and a life threatening disease is the number one opponent for everyone. Thoughts of rivalries, practice plans, schemes and recruiting are immediately “back burner” items.
One such instance was in 2005 when our head football coach, Jerry Kill encountered grave illness, cancer and surgery beginning in an incident on the field during a painful, homecoming loss to Illinois State University. Below is an excerpt from my journal from that season.
The whole game was overshadowed by an event in the last 30 seconds of the game. Coach Kill collapsed to the turf and suffered a series of three grand maul seizures as I and others rushed to his side and tried to keep him from hurting himself or others. The ambulance on the scene was on our sideline within a minute and he was quickly taken to the Memorial Hospital emergency room.
After he was in the ambulance and the clock had run out, Coach Denver Johnson of Illinois State called all his players up to mid-field where our team met them on one knee. As Coach Johnson was watching the scene develop I asked him if he would like me to pray and he consented. We each took another’s hand and I prayed for Coach Kill’s safety, his recovery and freedom from long-term effects from this incident. After the moment of prayer we congratulated our opponents for their excellent play and retired to our locker room.
Once inside, Coach Tracy Claeys did a tremendous job of comforting our players about Coach Kill’s condition and directed them to stay in touch with their position coaches for updates. We all took a knee again, held the hands of the men near us and prayed the Lords’ Prayer together as is our custom.
We exited the locker room to a subdued crowd of fans, friends and family outside. Sharon had already left for the emergency room and I soon followed. When I arrived, Coach was already in an observation room and I was allowed access because the ER doctor wanted to know how the incident occurred. I told her the story with all the detail that I could. As the evening progressed Coach had a series of equally severe seizures in the hospital. The hospital staff continued to increase his medication in order to stop them, but they continued to happen and caused Rebecca and all of us great concern. Pastor Allen Speer and I were there throughout the evening, praying for Coach Kill and doing all we could to comfort the family, coaching staff and university personnel gathered to lend support.
Finally after midnight, the seizures had stopped and he had regained consciousness enough to talk with the doctors. He had a couple of CT scans done, but there was no apparent damage. Around 2:30 in the morning he was transferred to the Intensive Care department. Sharon and I accompanied Rebecca and the coach through the transfer and into his room.
The good news is that Coach Kill is doing well physically and after a strong run at SIU, he took the head coaching job at Northern Illinois University for the 2008-2010 seasons. After three strong seasons there the University of Minnesota offered him their head coaching job and he recently accepted it. He endured the cancer, surgery and has come out the other side stronger.
These moments of crisis, the emergency room visits, the nights of sleeping on hospital room floors, the prayers prior to surgery with the coach and his family were the defining moments of my ministry with him and they are the reason for our continuing ministry with the coach and his team even though they’re now hundreds of miles away.
A second instance which illustrates the importance of such moments to our ministries is Coach Lance Irvin’s battle with leukemia. As I was watching for ways to serve men’s basketball here at SIU, I became aware that Associate Head Coach Irvin was in Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO. I decided to make the two and a half hour drive to the hospital to visit with him. I found the coach in his room as he was in day 15 of what became 40 days in the hospital receiving treatment and recovering from it. I visited him twice during those days and we had tremendous times of conversation and prayer. I carried resources like books and magazines to read and to encourage his heart for the battle.
The trust won and the relationship developed were surely a part of the newly open doors to work with Coach Irvin’s team in the fall and winter. Being available and present in the moment of crisis gave me entrance for ministry with the coach, the other coaches and the players. I would encourage and even challenge you to walk confidently into hospital rooms and other places where we may encounter Serious Illness. It is more an opportunity to be embraced than an opponent to be avoided.
No comments:
Post a Comment