Christian Jordan Michalski

It is with little to no strength that we announce the death of our 16-year old son, Christian Jordan Michalski. He tragically took his life after a long battle with mental illness. But many of us knew Christian prior to his illness and can testify of his love for Jesus. He asked us to baptize him at a very young age yet fully understanding of what he was doing. Some of you witnessed that beautiful day, when he made public his faith as dad baptize him.

Those of us who knew him, will remember him for his compassion heart, his kindness and caring spirit, his words of encouragement, his intelligence, his energy and his vivid engagement with life. He grew up from a curious child wanting to learn how to cook, how to build things, how to negotiate buying and selling to dreaming about going to UT one day, playing basketball....while still negotiating, and dreaming of moving somewhere with tall trees, mountains and cool breezes.

Our hope of meeting him in Heaven keeps us going, we are as hopeful as he was that we will all meet there one day...he is already in the arms of Jesus where the breeze couldn't be cooler nor the mountain prettier, where the tears are no more and the pain is forever gone. But until that day when we all meet there, we will keep on living, fighting the enemy whose mission is to kill, deceive and destroy. The rest of us left here will carry the torch of light in a dark world, shoulder to shoulder with our precious community, the literal hands and feed of Christ. We couldn't go through any of this without each and every one of you by our side. We miss him so much already, and it's only been a week...there is a long road ahead for us left here. But we will choose to live with hope, because Jesus has already conquered death.