Prayer Request for George Bejoes, Rest In Peace

This is from my wife, Teri. I sincerely share her feelings. See below...

 

Dear Prayer Warriors,

 

With great sadness I humbly ask you to please pray for the repose of the soul of my childhood friend, George Bejoes. We have been requesting prayers for him for some time now and his suffering is finally over. God is Good, though, and I had a chance to talk to him on the phone a few days ago and he knew who I was and he said, "I love you, Teri." With a mixture of joy and sorrow it is very hard for me to say goodbye. Now I have something I feel I have to say...

 

He passed away this morning from Lung Cancer as a direct result of smoking cigarettes. He, I, my cousin and other neighborhood kids started smoking around 11 - 12 years old. I was not a heavy smoker and completely stopped at around 30 years old but George actually continued to smoke up until a few weeks ago. I also want to share a conversation I had with him on one of our earlier visits in hopes that even if just one person could find a way to stop smoking after reading this that it would be a blessing. George sat on the edge of his bed coughing and struggling to breathe and said to me, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I asked him what? He told me that he thought that "anyone who continues to smoke these days is stupid and I am stupid and I have no one to blame for my condition but myself." It was terrible to see him take his oxygen off and then need to take a few puffs of a cigarette, cough until he almost passed out gasping for air and then put the oxygen back on and try to breathe. I asked him why he continued to smoke, even now. He just told me it didn't make any difference as it was way too late for him now but that he wanted people to know how bad it was and not to be stupid about it like he was. It was very difficult to watch him suffer with the pain, terrible coughing and the scariness of not being able to breathe. George is out of pain and suffering now and rests in the Arms of Our Lord Jesus. Please keep him, his family and friends in your prayers that they may find comfort and peace as they proceed in the upcoming days ahead. Please also keep in prayer those people who suffer and struggle with the addiction of smoking. It is not easy to stop smoking these days with all the chemicals and additives that are in the cigarettes and cigars, etc. May God give them all the strength and courage to quit!

 

Thank you so much for your prayers and much love to my sisters and brothers in Christ,

 

Teri

In Loving Memory
Almighty God, through the death of your Son on the cross, you have overcome death for us. Through his burial and resurrection from the dead you have made the grave a holy place and restored us to eternal life. We pray for those who died believing in Jesus and are buried with him in the hope of rising again. God of the living and the dead, may those who faithfully believed in you on earth praise you for ever in the joy of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Solace
May Christ support us all the day long, till the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over and our work is done. Then in his mercy may he give us a safe lodging, and holy rest and peace at the last. 

Amen.