2011 in February we had probably the most difficult thing that's ever happened in the life of our church to happen.

Our senior pastor at that time, Ken Deem, was a wonderful leader, a good man, a good friend,

and had led our church through some amazing times where we really started to understand

who we were as Christ's followers. He helped us see that really

our mission was simple and should just be to be the hands and feet of Christ and And that seems like a simple thing to teach,

but it really caught on, and he empowered people

to go with their God-given calls to ministry

and act on those. And so a lot of amazing things were happening.

The community of Great Vine United Methodist Church was in turmoil.

Their beloved pastor had fallen ill and the members were in a state of shock and grief.

Cindy Ryan, the associate pastor at that time, began to help put the pieces back together

for her flock. Little did she know that she was

about to face another traumatic event that would have her fighting for her own life

as well. We were working on Sunday morning projects and getting ready for worship. We ended our work week on a

Thursday like we always did and then on Friday night I got a call that Ken was in the hospital and that he had a brain bleed.

It was one of the healthiest people I ever knew and so it was so shocking.

By that Saturday night he died and the suddenness of it the shock of it the impact on our

congregation was just huge and devastating A therapist told me later it might as well have been like a bomb

went off in our church for the ripple effect, the way in which it touched children and

youth and adults and it touched our faith and it

touched our community.

And so it was a really difficult time.

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