b'hanging up, Carolyn asks, Matthew, is that you? Ithave us do. We had thought when Carolyn sur-this you, Matthew? No answer. Matthew, if thisvived cancer and we experienced firsthand what is you, we love you, we miss you, and want you tothat does to a family, we might be called to work come home. Never an answer. Click. Was it everwith families experiencing similar trauma. Nope. him? Who knows? Yet we hold on to hope. Then, after a near-fatal accident put Carolyn in a We know that our real hope is only found inwheelchair (permanently, we thought), we experi-Jesus. But I am talking about a different kind ofenced personally and for the first time just how hope here: the kind that parents have for the fullchallenging life can be. Carolyn did walk again recovery for their seriously injured child. Or for thanks to God, great rehab, and the miracle of a missing child, hoping the child will be found.titanium. With that new sensitivity to lifes chal-The hope, bolstered by prayer, that everythinglenges, we wondered if God might be leading us will be OK. But with no answers on the immedi- to a great ministry like Joni and Friends. Nope. ate horizon, hope must hang on until there is some resolution. In our case, the hope is for someGods other plans closure to what Carolyn refers to as mourningN either of us ever imagined our son the living. Closure, even with bad news, allowswould drop out college, become a person to move on.homeless, and disappear. Never.Godas He is known to douses situationsMatthew is one of four children. A stellar stu-in our lives to ultimately reveal His glory anddent, he played high school football and decided sometimes, as in our case, to redirect our lives.on Virginia Tech for college, where we visited Such is our story. him often. In his third year, something went I directed a halfway house in Miami, Florida,awry. Matthew dropped out of school and came for 10 years, followed by 17 years of working withhome. But the son who came home was not the Prison Fellowship Ministries. It was in our finalson who had gone off to school. He eventually years there that it became clear change was in thedisappeared for what has now been 21 years. But with no answers on the immediate horizon, hope must hang on until there is some resolution. In our case, the hope is for some closure to what Carolyn refers to as mourning the living. Closure, even with bad news, allows a person to move on.wind, that Godas it reads in Numbers 9wasNo trace. A year after his disappearance, I received going to move our cloud. And so we prayed. Buta call from a search firm inquiring if I would after hearing no voices, seeing no donkey in theconsider an opportunity to become the next CEO middle of the road and no handwriting on a wall,for Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries (KARM). our ask of God was to show us what He wouldNope, I thought. But God had other plans, and \x02 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 9'