By Jim Hargis

Kelly was introduced to us by his father, who delivered supplies to our workers in the Seattle area. Kelly was a likeable guy and he needed a job. Upon the recommendation of his father, we decided to give Kelly a chance. Linda, my wife and business partner, and I never anticipated the hiring of Kelly would lead us to a major event in our lives in just a few short years.

For several years God had been showing Linda and I how powerful business could be to reach the unsaved and be “salt and light” for the Lord Jesus Christ in the marketplace. Over the years we had many instances of being used of the Lord to touch employees lives, but this experience with Kelly was the most profound and impacted our perspective on ministering where God has placed us.

For a couple of months Kelly was eager to learn, asked a lot of questions, and initially it appeared Kelly might work out well with our company. Having now been in business for over thirty five years, I have learned not to prejudge. Soon Kelly began to have sporadic attendance, and often, he showed up late for work. After just a few months his supervisor had to terminate Kelly’s employment with us for unacceptable performance. Kelly left our employment with a positive attitude toward our company and Linda and I as owners. He knew we were fair and he was wrong.

About a year passed and Kelly contacted us for another chance. He said “he had gotten his life together and really wanted to work for us again.” We always try to show “grace” when dealing with employees, over the years we have given many employees “second chances”. Some have worked out the second time, some not. Kelly was one that didn’t. After just a couple of months back in our employ, Kelly’s supervisor had to terminate him again, this time, for drug use. Before this final termination, Linda and I had opportunities to speak with Kelly about his spiritual life, and it seemed at times, the Holy Spirit was drawing him. On one occasion as we gently confronted him in our office parking lot, and encouraged him to “get right with God,” he had tears in his eyes as he acknowledged he needed to, but not just yet. We were able to get his two young boys to the Fourth of July celebration that summer, but Kelly wouldn’t come.

A little over a year passed since Kelly’s second employment with our company and his father retired and moved out of state. It started out to be a typical “normal” business day but the day would finish anything but normal. Linda and I settled down that evening to watch the local and national news, when we heard a Channel Two News reporter announce that a local Vancouver man had been arrested for killing his girl friend and attempting to flee the area. We were shocked when we heard the reporter announce Kelly’s name as the killer.

Kelly was arrested after a high speed chase in Vancouver and was taken to the local jail for booking and incarceration. We found out later that while being escorted to his jail cell on a second story balcony, Kelly attempted to commit suicide by jumping over the railing and landing on his head, instantly paralyzing him from the neck down. I immediately had one of our secretaries try to locate where Kelly being held. Our search was unsuccessful.

We assumed he was taken to Southwest Washington Hospital, but the police and hospital staff would not tell us. We even had a one of our secretaries, who used to work for the Prosecuting Attorneys office, try to find out where Kelly was being held. No one would release any information.

It wasn’t until about a month later that we read in the local paper that the Prosecuting Attorney was dropping all charges against Kelly because he was in a coma and could not defend himself, plus since he was paralyzed from the neck down, he would not be a threat to society any longer. The Prosecuting office said “they had never had a case like this before.” For over a year we tried to locate Kelly.

Eventually Kelly’s father contacted us because he had somehow heard that we were trying to locate Kelly. Kelly’s father had some “good news” and some “bad news.” The “good news” was that Kelly had been out of his coma for several months, but the “bad news” was that Kelly had petitioned the courts to have his respirator turned off and be permitted to die. Apparently news that the doctors needed to amputate both of his legs for poor circulation was the news that Kelly could not handle. Kelly felt he would not have any quality of life. They were to disconnect his respirator any day.

I immediately phoned the rehabilitation facility in Seattle and spoke with a nurse on Kelly’s floor. I asked her to ask Kelly if he would wait to have his respirator unplugged until Linda and I could come up and see him? He said he would, he would like to see us. It was early December as I remember seeing the Christmas lights and beautiful decorations of downtown Seattle as we drove to where Kelly was. Who would ever think that we would be on “a mission” to visit one of our former employees one last time before he passed into eternity.

As we entered his room and we gazed upon Kelly for the first time in over two years, we hardly recognized the once young vibrant man that we knew. It was difficult to keep our composure as we noticed his body was nearly twice its normal size from lack of circulation. His head was cocked and tipped to a forty five degree angle and he had a respirator tube inserted in his trachea. Using short gasps of air he welcomed us in a hushed voice. Tears welled in our eyes as we told him how happy we were to see him and how we had searched for him for over a year. This was no co-insistence that we would learn where he was just a few days before he was to pass into eternity.

We asked Kelly if he ever “got right with God” and would he know where he would be once he passed from this earth. As soon as he gave his response we knew why we where there. In short gasps, Kelly said, “his father told him he was baptized when he was a baby, but he (Kelly) was not so sure that was enough.” We asked him if he would like to know absolutely for sure accordingly to the Bible? With as big a smile as he could display through his twisted face he said a loud “yes.” As I took Kelly through the plan of salvation, pausing at each step to make sure he understood, we could see Kelly try to smile as he began to understand that he was going to be in heaven very soon with Jesus and this life and pain would be over for him. He smiled as he answered yes to each one of my simple but profound questions. When we were through, we knew he truly had a “death-bed conversion.”

We prayed with him, read a few more scriptures, even laughed a little, and after an hour or so, with tears in our eyes it was time to say good by. As we left his bedside and reached for the door, in a hushed and strained voice we hear Kelly say, “see you in heaven.”

Kelly went to be with his new found Savior a few days later. Thank you God for ministry in the marketplace.

Who would ever think that we would be on “a mission” to visit one of our
former employees one last time
before he passed into eternity.