Today (June 5th) is our parent's wedding anniversary. Traci & I were blessed beyond measure to not just have great parents, but legendary parents!! Mom & Dad were the best of the best! Since they were human they weren't perfect of course, but they were exceptional. My Dad struggled for about 20 years with alcoholism, chain smoking, and some poor decisions. But he has one of the greatest comeback stories of all time. Even in the midst of his struggles he was the most amazing Dad... He served, loved, & gave like no one else I have ever met. And my Mom was a devoted wife & amazing mother who weathered the struggling years with a steadfast reliance on God. God used her long-suffering character & joyful fun-loving spirit to be the glue that held our family together during the hardest of times. Outside of Jesus there is no one I admire & respect more than my parents. My hierarchy of heroes is Jesus then Mom then Dad. We weren't perfect, but we genuinely loved each other more than I could ever express. We were all always there for each other through the thick and the thin. There was never any doubt that we were all greatly loved and cherished by each other. Even in our times of dysfunction I would wish our family dynamics upon everyone. Even in the worst of times it was full of potential for the best of times. In more recent years Mom & Dad had a hard and oftentimes painful grand finale of this thing called life. With a great supporting village of people around us Traci, Dave, Carson, Laurie, and I poured the past 5 years into caregiving of these incredible people. Mom had a 10+ year slow decline from Alzheimer's while Dad had problems with just about every major organ in his body. The journey for our parents was harsh, and caregiving was possibly just as harsh. I can honestly say it almost killed me. That isn't a commentary on the people we were caring for, but rather the process of caregiving. Its demands far outweighed our supply. And we had a fantastic group of friends & family that helped shoulder the load... and it still almost killed us. That blows my mind, especially since most caregivers are doing all the work by themselves. Did you know that most caregivers die before the person they are caring for dies?! The demands & personal neglect literally kill you. We know this from firsthand experience, and because of this we are going to make the adventures of caregiving part of our ministry's outreach. I'm happy to announce that a large portion of a grant GTD received from the great City of Pinellas Park (our Dad loved this great city!) will be used to create GTD's JAG (Jerry & Ann Garner) Caregiving Support Group to help aid, equip, encourage, comfort, & console those caring for loved ones. We greatly benefited from a Caregiving Support Group at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks, and we want to take all that we have learned and help prepare and support others on the caregiving journey. More and more of our staff, volunteers, participants, family, & friends are embarking on this journey and we can help supply vital information and assistance to help them survive what may lie ahead. Our hope is that many on this journey will have a wonderful experience, but we want to be ready to help those who have a harsh challenging journey ahead. I'm still recovering from the past 5 years. I'm nowhere close to being healthy. Like a boxer KO'd in the final round I'm slowly shaking the cobwebs out of my head, and sitting up on the boxing ring floor looking around trying to make sense of what just happened. And while making sense of it all I'm also filled with a desire to help others navigate the heavy weight opponent they are about to face in a boxing ring with potentially brutal outcomes. There are a hundred things I would do differently (or I should say, do better) if I could do it all over again. The beauty of surviving failures is that you can turn those failures into education, better future decisions, & helpful insights for others. That what I aim to do. The hope is to build the support group in 2025, and open it up sometime in 2026 (GTD's 30th anniversary). I'm asking for people to pray that God would build this support group and that it would honor our parents. I know there are many people who have already traveled this journey that may want to be a part of building this support group as well as contributing ideas to its content. I look forward to working with anyone that wants to be involved. God bless. And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY IN HEAVEN MOM & DAD!!!! I love you, and I miss you!!!! Thank you for everything you did for me!!!
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