Dear Friends,

On Friday, November 27th, a dearly loved husband, father, church elder, and police officer, Garrett Swasey, was killed in the line of duty in Colorado Springs, CO.

Garrett was a homeschool dad and some of you probably saw him and his wife Rachel walking the halls of CHEC’s Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference the last several years.

I was speaking this morning to a close friend of the Swasey family, and I asked them how CHEC and the homeschool community can get behind and support Rachel Swasey and her children during this time.

As you might suspect, the biggest request is for prayer. This is how they asked that you pray:

• Pray for comfort for Rachel and the children. Both children are very young and will need much comfort in the coming days.
• Pray that the planning for the memorial service will go smoothly. There are many people and agencies involved so pray for unity and clarity in the planning.
• Pray that the Gospel would be both clearly proclaimed and beautifully represented through these events. Pray that many will hear a clear Gospel message and that Hope Chapel (Garrett’s church) will represent Christ well.
• Pray that enemies to the work of Christ will not be able to make their presence known at the funeral or in the media.

For those of you who wish to support the Swasey family financial, you may do so here.

From a human perspective, no time is a “good” time to lose your husband and father … but especially not during this season of celebration and rejoicing. And yet, Garrett’s sacrifice points to and accentuates the reason that we as Christians celebrate at all. We celebrate God’s Son, Jesus, who was born to bring us life through dying. As Christians, this is the ultimate expression of love.

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1 John 4:7-11

This was Garrett’s motivation and this will be his legacy. He wanted to be like his Savior who loved to the death.

During this season, may Garrett’s example serve as a vivid reminder of the sacrificial love of our Savior and may we be challenged to show it to our families, churches, and the lost world around us, right down to our last breath.

Sincerely,

Steve Craig, CHEC Executive Director