Keep Praying for the Klicka Family

Most of you know about HSLDA's Chris Klicka, who died in October of last year after a 15-year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. Chris was a valiant fighter in the war for family freedoms, a popular author of home schooling books and a prominent speaker at home school conferences all across America. He was also my best friend, and I had the privilege of spending several of his last days with him and his family. I was one of three friends who called him each week to encourage and pray with him. The following is an email message I sent to him several years ago. I share it with you in hopes that it will remind you to pray for his wife, Tracy and their seven children.

Rick

Hey Chris,
Just wanted to let you know I was praying for you at 4:30 AM Wednesday morning....
I awoke with a splitting spinal headache and desperate symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Man, I felt bad. I wanted to wake up Marilyn and tell her to feel sorry for me. The experience reminded me of something I learned thru Josh’s suffering and have been often reminded of by your situation: Suffering can be very lonely.
I occasionally think of Josh and how he spent so many nights in UVA hospital, all alone except for the beeping of monitors and the whirring of pumps. I fight back tears sometimes as I imagine him, seventeen years old and staring at the ceiling, wondering whether he is going to live or die. Praise God, he suffered for seven months but he has been in the presence of the King for almost seven years and he has been paid back many times over.
But my buddy Chris is still fighting. I’ll bet there are some lonely nights for you when you wish you could do something as simple as roll over in bed to ease cramped muscles and restore circulation. Just as I wished I could quickly get rid of a pounding headache. But you don’t have the confidence, as I do, that the problem will be resolved in a few hours with a hot bath and some aspirin.
So, for what it’s worth, I wanted you to know that God used a short period of pain to remind me, as He often does, to pray for a friend who has it much rougher. I wonder how many hundreds and thousands of others He has awakened in the wee hours to pray for His mighty man of valor—maybe at an hour of particular struggle? It’s not hard to imagine dozens of strong angels streaking down from heaven in answer to sympathetic prayers while thousands of others lean over the ramparts following their progress and cheering themselves hoarse for them and for you, the hero in the arena.
If only you could see the brilliant warriors swinging their flaming swords all around you!
So fight on. Thousands of earnest and Godly people are praying for you. God is constantly watching as your heavenly treasure trove swells and spills over. It has not been granted to you to know how or when the battle will be concluded but all you need to know is that you are in the very center of your Father’s will. He has loved you with an everlasting love and nothing in the universe will stay His hand of blessing in your life. How good is God, who gave to this shabby world such a light as that which shines from the testimony of the Kickas.
I can almost hear the angels cheering.
Rick