I was laying in the dark room at Lutheran Hospital in the middle of the night in pain and unable to sleep.  
A couple of hours before a young doctor told me that I was very fortunate, I could have died. It seemed as though I was in a “valley of the shadow of death” in that bed with everything hooked up to me. Blood clots had gone to my lungs and I was very weak and my spirit was low too.
Finally I began to see the first light of day hit the shades in the window and then one of my nurses, David, came into the room singing, “All the glory to You, my love, my breath, the center of my life, everything that I am, today, dear Lord, it’s all because of you …”
I raised my head toward him and he asked, “Do you want me to stop?” “Oh no, David, please keep singing,” I replied as tears ran down my face.
Hope overcame fear as this wonderful brother in Christ who grew up in Kenya ministered to me. I was reminded that in that shadowed valley the Lord is with me and eventually I was sent home to recover.
2 Corinthians 5:1 says, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
The Lord has granted me more time to “camp” in this world but this “tent” is only temporary. We are all just passing through this life. But through Jesus, my sins are forgiven, and there is a place prepared for me in heaven! He can do the same for you! I want to thank everyone for their prayers, visits and for the great care I received through Lutheran at Kosciusko and Fort Wayne hospitals.
To my wife and family, I love you. I am glad to be here but know that I also could have been in the presence of my Savior. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. It’s all because of You!
Ken Locke is corps administrator of The Salvation Army in Warsaw and director of the Greater Warsaw Ministerial Association. Have ideas for this column? Go to www.gwma.info.