A Word from Greg Laurie...


I wanted to thank all of you who have expressed your condolences to our family after the sudden departure of our oldest son, Christopher, to heaven on July 24, 2008.

Needless to say, we miss him so very much. There is a huge hole in our lives that will never really be filled.

This is not something that one "gets over," but rather gets through. And we are getting through it, day by day, sometimes moment by moment with God's strength.

I know my son is in heaven, not because he was my son, but because he was God's son through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "For as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become sons of God."

Christopher made a commitment to Christ as a very small boy, and always believed in Jesus, but he also had his struggles. Yet during the last three years of his life, he really committed himself to Christ, with a real hunger for God's Word that resulted in starting a Bible study in his home.

He also was serving the Lord with his considerable artistic talent as the head of the design department for Harvest Ministries.

The Lord blessed Christopher with a wonderful wife, Brittany, and a daughter, Stella, whom Christopher absolutely adored with, of course, another one on the way, little Lucy.

Christopher worked tirelessly and had poured himself into designing the graphics for our Harvest Crusades events this year.


The 2008 Harvest Crusades


During this Harvest Crusades season of 2008, the Lord greatly blessed our efforts to preach the gospel.

Every night when I stood on our platform, be it in Southern California, Philadelphia, or New York City, I was surrounded by Topher's (His nickname) designs in the stage, screens, and printed material.

Everywhere I looked, there were arrows pointing upward, a design element he added at the last minute to our crusade materials, but which also re inded me as I preached about where he was now . . . in heaven.


The impact of Christopher's testimony


Many told me that Topher's story had deeply moved them and caused them to respond to the gospel, so I know my son shares in the reward of all that the Lord did.

Perhaps he was even watching it all from heaven.

Though our sadness is so strong at times, the Lord has been with us each step of the way, and it is our desire as a family to glorify God though our weakness and point people to Him to the best of our abilities. I'm sure we will fall short and disappoint some, but we will try to honor the Lord as best we can.


The Lost Boy film


We have been working on a new version of Lost Boy: The Documentary, for obvious reasons. With the death of our son, our story has changed, and it too is now part of my story. Lost Boy was and is about redemption, and in the update, we will talk about that redemption work in Christopher's life as well.

Topher was very involved in this film project, and he helped me, along with Cathe and Jonathan, figure out what to leave in and leave out. He did all the graphics and titles for it and had been telling friends how excited he was about how the Lord was using this story.

Now it's his story too, and he will be major part of it, whenever the new film is shown. More on that later.

But in closing, I just want to thank you again for your prayers.

Greg Laurie

P.S. I posted some new photographs of and by Christopher on my personal Web site (which he designed for me). You will find them by clicking the camera icon and then under the photo that says "Christopher."