By late 2022, Kevin’s cancer was progressing.
His condition was worsening, and he moved into Kris’s home so she could be closer to him and help care for him.
Family members and friends began coming to visit.
Everyone understood what those visits meant.
Time was running out.
Then the Road Dawgs came.
They gathered around Kevin, spent time together in Scripture, talked, prayed, and shared fellowship.
Kevin knew what was happening.
He knew he was going to die.
And he didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him.
He told them he was okay.
He was going to be with Jesus.
There was one more remarkable chapter in Kevin’s forgiveness story.
Ten days before Kevin died, Brian called him.
Brian was still struggling to forgive himself for what he had done.
Kevin could have used that conversation to express anger.
Instead, he encouraged Brian.
He quoted Scripture.
He talked about letting go.
He encouraged the man who had shot him to forgive himself.
That conversation captures the transformation that had taken place in Kevin.
The story had started with a bullet.
It ended with forgiveness.
Kevin quietly and peacefully passed away on the evening of December 14, 2022, with his family beside him.
For those left behind, faith does not eliminate grief.
We still miss him.
We still have moments when we wish we could call him, talk sports with him, hear his voice, or watch him do something he loved.
But grief and hope can exist together.
Kevin had spent twenty-eight years living in a body that had been dramatically changed by a bullet.
His final years included surgeries, infections, recovery, faith, friendship, forgiveness, and cancer.
Yet the final thing he wanted his friends to know was not that he was afraid.
It was that he was ready.
Kevin’s story didn’t end with his death.
His vision for Founded on Forgiveness continues.
His testimony continues.
His example continues.
And the lesson he left behind continues to challenge all of us:
What do we do with the things that hurt us?
Do we carry them?
Do we allow them to define us?
Or do we surrender them and allow God to use our story for something greater?
For our family, December 14 is a day of tremendous loss.
But because of Kevin’s faith, it is also a day of hope.
We believe Kevin didn’t simply lose his life that day.
We believe he met Jesus.
