Thank you for allowing me to speak this morning about my sister, Darcy Anne Quick. Many of you have heard stories about her in the media, how a young woman was missing after she didn't return from a hike in Longmire, Washington. And how her body was found after three days of searching at the base of Comet Falls. But many of you know little about who she was, so I would like to share with you some things about her life.
She was always kind of a goofy person, she loved to laugh and smile. She trusted people and had a heart for serving others. She never had a close friend outside of family, but everyone knew who Darcy was, and she just enjoyed being around people.
This past year my sister had a lot of spiritual changes in her life. She was part of a prayer group at Hope College that was really on fire for God. In the fall, she was baptized in Lake Michigan. She also experienced a physical healing from a gluten allergy as well as an emotional healing. She started reading the Bible all the time and became a leader. She just couldn't get enough of God. She finally became at peace with God and herself for the first time in her life.
As my dad said at her burial service on Thursday (June 22, 2006), "The hardest part for me is not seeing what she would have become." We don't question whether or not she is with God because we know that she is, but we wish we could have gotten to know the new person she was becoming.
I thank God for the media because our family was able to share about her faith in Christ. But the media also made many people, including myself, come to God through prayer, and I think this is what Darcy would have wanted. Some people may have even prayed for her that have never prayed before. We know that there will be many stories from those who knew her and maybe someone will come to know Christ for the first time through her death.
I would like to leave you with this image:
My sister was 22 when she had her funeral service, I was 22 when I got married. I like to think about her service like her wedding. She wore pink and yellow and was carried down the aisle by uncles and cousins in a white casket. My dad kept saying her best friend was Jesus, and I like to think she was headed down the aisle to meet with her best friend. She was headed down the aisle with pink and yellow flowers surrounding her, the most flowers she has ever received, to meet her Savior, Jesus. We can celebrate with her and rejoice knowing she is where she wants to be, in a Heavenly place, communing with her Saviour forever.
Being the big sister, she always looked up to me, but now I look up to her and use her as an example. I only hope that I might come to know God the way she did the last part of her life.