A message from Garths wife - Cathy Steele:
Thank you to everyone for your kind words, memories of Garth, and prayers over the last few years. As I sort through paper work I came across Garth’s “farewell blog.” One last word from Garth below.....
My lungs were at 3% of normal capacity. I have been living through the use of breathing machines that push air into my lungs and it has worked well for over two years.
I have a bit of a respiratory illness that creates phlegm in my upper airways. This makes it harder to breathe and my emotions are anxious and frustrating. I have no options but to turn my life over to Jesus. I believe I will end up in Heaven, but Jesus will make that decision.
I have not received a healing miracle. I had a response to one of my blogs from a woman whose husband died and had ALS just like me.
Here is her response:
My husband just received his miracle of healing 2 weeks ago when Jesus freed him from his struggles with ALS. His body just couldn’t contain his spirit anymore and like a butterfly needing to emerge from its chrysalis he flew to his eternal place of healing. Thank you Jesus for making a way where there was no way and his resurrection power! 2 Corinthians 5 is so very comforting. God’s promises are timeless, my dear husband is healed, and I will see him again soon as promised. Blessings to all of you as you journey towards that eternal joy.
Her husband was not physically healed but went to heaven and received a new body.
I love the scripture she mentioned:
2 Corinthians 5: 1-10
We know that if the life we live here on earth is ever taken down like a tent, we still have a building from God. It is an eternal house in heaven that isn’t made by human hands. 2 In our present tent-like existence we sigh, since we long to put on the house we will have in heaven. 3 After we have put it on, we won’t be naked. 4 While we are in this tent, we sigh. We feel distressed because we don’t want to take off the tent, but we do want to put on the eternal house. Then ⌞eternal⌟ life will put an end to our mortal existence. 5 God has prepared us for this and has given us his Spirit to guarantee it. 6 So we are always confident. We know that as long as we are living in these bodies, we are living away from the Lord. 7 Indeed, our lives are guided by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident and prefer to live away from this body and to live with the Lord. 9 Whether we live in the body or move out of it, our goal is to be pleasing to him. 10 All of us must appear in front of Christ’s judgment seat. Then all people will receive what they deserve for the good or evil they have done while living in their bodies.
I love verse 2 where it says we sigh over our existing tent-like body, but look forward to the building-like body that will exist in Heaven. It’s kind of like how I love my home compared to homeless people who are living in tents that are so cold and miserable. And I like verse 8 where it says living with the Lord is better than living in this decrepit body on earth.
I still love each element of God’s Trinity. I love God the Father who sent his son, Jesus, to Earth. I love Jesus who has so much power and came to Earth to forgive our sins and to love us and unite us with God the Father despite the laws He gave to Moses many years before the virgin birth of Jesus. And I love the Holy Spirit who speaks to us what Jesus and God the Father wants to say to us. I was baptized as an infant and the Holy Spirit is supposed to enter into your body after that. I didn’t feel the Holy Spirit speaking to me until our new pastor in Manotick, Shawn Ketcheson, introduced us to a “personal relationship with Jesus“. I knew who Jesus was, but I hadn’t heard from him. Then I started to hear from Him when I was in my late 30’s. That continued on forever. I decided I should get water baptized where it was my decision instead of my parents. That happened in my early 60’s in the Rideau River in our backyard as part of our church service.
The goal of a Jesus follower is to love your neighbor and to introduce others to Jesus. The main way God had gifted me to do that was doing speeches. I have given a dozen sermons at church; I spoke twice at a men’s retreat called Souly Business; I spoke at Bells on Bank Street about the real reason for Christmas; I spoke once at the Civic Prayer Breakfast about loving your neighbor; I spoke several times at First Place Options about the Christian perspective on unplanned pregnancies. I ‘ve been writing this blog called Faith Over Fear for three years; I also taught Sunday School for eight years and I took my kids, Hannah and Deagan, on a Mission trip to Guatemala.
I love the song by Casting Crowns called Nobody. Here are some words from this song:
I'm just a nobody
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody
Who saved my soul
Ever since You rescued me
You gave my heart a song to sing
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
I am just a “nobody”. There is nothing special about me.
I love you all. My glorious wife Cathy. My siblings and their spouses: Shaun and Nancy, Kim and Pat, Bart and Marie, Jill, Kyle and Cindy. My children and their spouses: Hannah and Connor, Deagan and Brianne. My grandchildren Mason, Roman and Betty. My adopted granddaughter Skylar and her adopted twin brothers Able and Elijah and their parents Amanda and Emil. My nieces and nephews: John, Toni, Derek, Brett, Kurt, Dawson, Sydney, Riley, Mason, Marshall, Kashtin, Bronte, Tristan, Tyson, Cordell, Nakita. My brother-in-law Dave Ray and his wife Barb and their children Heather, John, Susan, Karen, Adam. My cousins, my neighbors, my coworkers at Welch and my clients. My University friends: Steve, Nigel, Rick, Jeff, Victor. My high school friends - especially my band friends Ron, Glen, Dave, Gail, Fred. My church families from Winchester United, Manotick United, Metropolitan Bible Church and Manotick Community Church. Any Board members or senior staff at charities I have volunteered for including The Ottawa Mission and First Place Options, including Peter, Jennifer, Rick, Terri, Marlene, Patrick and many more. My Angel Choir members who sing old hymns in my house once a month including the organ player Jeff Ritskes. My Triad group that reads the Bible and supports and prays for each other including Bruce, Phil, Jim and Paul.
I will miss you all but hope to see you all again in Heaven as long as you have accepted Jesus and have a relationship with God the Father through his Son.
I still have no fear but I have faith in God.
Bless you all.
Garth Eric Steele
As a footnote. Here is a picture of Garth’s Angel Choir that sang today in Garth’s home in memory of him.
To my husband:
Goodbye, my love. Though we part in this life, I find comfort in knowing that I loved and was loved by a man whohas touched so many hearts and accomplished so much. We shared a beautiful life together, filled with love, laughter, and precious moments. You will always be a part of me.
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