The Here and Hereafter - Windham Community Gathers Softly and Tenderly

WINDHAM - If it was only about heaven and waiting to see him again there, the passing of little Levi Dempsey might seem much less a wanton thing.

But “passing” isn’t a word people envision needing to grasp, in particular a parent, if it means a 12-year-old child.

So the here and now - and somehow embracing God’s will - were what got softly and tenderly shared when services were held for Levi, last Saturday afternoon.

Four-hundred people gathered at the Mitchell Hollow Mission Church on the far outskirts of Windham, bursting the chapel at its seams and overflowing to a tent set up on the side lawn.

They wore more cowboy hats than you’d see anywhere except probably a rodeo, a family-requested homage to the boy, a wrangler at heart.

“This may be the first time you are ever wearing one of these,” said his father, Pastor Ryan Dempsey, one of several who spoke.

“It is probably the last time too,” the pastor smiled. “But we know Levi has handed God his hat and been told, ‘welcome home cowboy.’”

Tearfully fun stories were told about Levi: his passion for all things country; his rushing off to little league baseball practice in cowboy boots and his readiness to recite scripture, possessing a wisdom beyond his years.

“When your heart stopped, mine changed forever,” said Levi’s aunt Amy, his mother’s sister.

Pastor Dempsey is the shepherd for the Mitchell Hollow Mission Church, acquiescing to a family friend for the anguishing sermon.

Speaking as a father, Pastor Dempsey told how his family and members of the community have huddled around a bonfire outside their house in the hamlet of Maplecrest since Levi died, on July 31, in a UTV tip-over.

“Many of you have showed up at our home,” he said. “As a father I can say these moments just suck. There’s no other way I know how to put it.

“It comes in waves. We all feel it. As a grieving father, I believe in God and the Father. The Lord makes His light to shine upon you,” he continued.

“The Lord lifts His countenance upon you. I know these words to be true but they still hurt. I know we will see Levi again but it is a troubling time, missing him,” the pastor said.

It is no failing of faith that those in the here-and-now would be wrestling mightily with a troubled heart, preached Charlie Gockel.

Gockel ministers through the Huntersfield Christian Training Center and is close to the Dempsey family, delivering a wrenching sermon.

Drawing stalwartly upon the Good Book to bring surrender to the soul, Gockel said, “we come to a famous passage in John: 13 & 14…

”When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end;

“And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him”…the Bible said…

“He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he…and when Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit.”

Later, the Good Book speaks of the denials of Jesus by the apostle Peter, and Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.

“In my Father’s house, are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

And in John, the Good Book tells of the death and rising of Lazarus, and Jesus coming to where he was entombed…and Mary weeping… and:

“When Jesus saw her weeping…he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled…Jesus wept”….even knowing he is the Son of the Father.

Gockel, in his sermon to the congregated community and praying to the Savior said, “you were troubled…and telling us not to let our hearts be troubled. We are processing this thing. How do we do this?

“Was Jesus troubled over the death of Lazarus? I don’t think so. He was troubled over the pain, the hurt, the questions of a family that is going through this,” Gockel said. 

“We are troubled for a family that we love,” Gockel said. “What does it really mean to be troubled? It is a hurt you have no control over.

“With all of our brokenness, with all of our stuff, the heart of our Father is this…I want to be with you…with you…my peace I give to you…not as the world gives to you…I will come and make my home with you.”

Not only in the hereafter, the preacher said, but also the here and now.