What I spoke about today at PWOC 02/16/2010

Good morning!

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Julie Biddle. My sweet husband of 13 years is Zane Biddle. He was the Youth Pastor with Club Beyond here on Fort Rucker from September 4, 2004 through January 27, 2010 when he passed away and went to be with Jesus in heaven.

I am a blessed woman! I had the AWESOME privilege and experience of being Zane’s wife and mother of our two children, Jackson who is 5 years old and Zoe who is 3 years old. Zane is my soul mate. He is “the one” who God had for me. He loved me like no other. He showed me in every way each day that we had together.

We met in Chattanooga, TN where I was born and raised. We had our first date on February 5th, 1996. We were married one year and 10 days later on February 15th, 1997. We are two people who are just CRAZY IN LOVE with each other!!! We had the same work schedules. We left out for work together each morning (Monday – Friday) and Zane got home about 30 minutes before I did each day. We spent every evening and every weekend together. We enjoyed each others company very much. We were very passionate for each other! We had many conversations about how our family and our friends would say to us “Don’t ya’ll get tired of spending all your time together?” We never did. We thought it was really sad that people would say that to us. We just enjoyed each other completely.

I tell you this about our lives so that you can see the beauty of God’s love. Five and a half years ago, we moved from Chattanooga, TN to Fort Rucker, AL so that Zane could start Club Beyond Military Youth Ministry here for 6th – 12th graders. Our son, Jackson, was five months old when we arrived here. It was a really hard transition for me, leaving my family, friends and home to come here to Fort Rucker. It was even harder trying to adjust to Zane’s new schedule. He was gone most nights and weekends. If he was home on weekends his time was still occupied by the kids in the youth group. It took me some time but after the first year of being here I finally saw it for what it was. This was Zane’s calling. It was not a job or a career by any means. This was Zane’s passion. This is what God had called him to do. Zane did it and he did it well. Zane has a love for Jesus like no other I have ever seen in my life. It was a beautiful thing to see each day.

God in His perfect love and His perfect timing was preparing me over the past 5 ½ years for January 27th, 2010 when He called Zane home. Each year I got more used to and more comfortable with Zane not being home a lot. This past year (2009) Zane went back to college for his master’s degree. He began in June of 2009. He was doing Liberty online and was a full-time student and a full-time and then some Youth Pastor. That left very little time, if any some days, for the kids and I. However, little did I know that that was God’s way of lovingly preparing me for Zane to no longer be here with us on earth.

I miss Zane so deeply. There are not words to describe the emptiness and the pain I feel without him each day. However, I rejoice that he is with our Lord and Savior! He is where he lived each and every day of his life to be. All he wanted was to reach people for Kingdom of God. Jesus really did shine through Zane Biddle. As much as I would love to hold him in my arms again, I would not wish him back here - for I am so happy that he is in heaven, rejoicing with our Heavenly Father!

Just as I now lean on Jesus to get me through each day – I challenge you to do the same. Wherever you are in your walk with Christ I challenge you to trust in Him ALWAYS – through the good times and the not so good times and to seek His will for your life. Most importantly to be a light for others so that they too can have a personal walk with Christ!

Thank you all for your time today.

God bless you all!