Roads To Success 4.10

New Growth

After her husband's conversion to a life in Christ, Fonda Huizenga found herself in unfamiliar territory.  Wayne, Jr. had turned away from drinking; he was more patient, more focused, and more loving.  Unquestionably all these changes were positive but Fonda wasn't sure she knew this new man.  It would not be long before a series of critical challenges would illustrate to Fonda that the changes in her husband were both authentic and lasting.

Very shortly following Wayne, Jr.’s conversion his mother, Joyce Huizenga, became seriously ill.  At first doctors were unsure what the malady might be but they eventually diagnosed cancer.  Joyce grew weaker and soon moved in with her son and his family.

In his I Am Second video interview Wayne, Jr. said, “I began taking her to the doctor. We began praying together.  And I was blessed to be able to love on my mom like she loved on me all of those years.  I had a new strength the old Junior - on the plane, on the boat, and in the bottle – didn’t have.  The new Junior wanted to be with mom over those nine months, when she lived and died in our house.  I wanted to be strong for my children as they watched their grandmother die.”

“I saw him living a life that was more settled, happier, even though our conditions at that time did not warrant that,” Fonda remembered.  “He focused on his children; he focused on his relationship with them and with his mother.”

“It was an incredible time to care for someone who cared for me and only because of this new found relationship with Christ,” Wayne, Jr. summed up the experience.

Wayne, Jr., focused on his mother for so many months, did not anticipate yet another loss.  “A month later I lost my grandfather,” Wayne, Jr. related.  “He was also instrumental in raising me as a child.  So, losing him right after losing mom was really devastating in my life.”

Through all of the challenges, the heartbreak and loss, Fonda observed her husband closely.  “He focused on me,” Fonda remembered.  “He encouraged me even in times when I knew I had let him down.”

“My faith gave me the ability to be strong for my wife, for my children who had seen their beloved grandparents pass away, for my dad who had just lost his father, and for my brother who had lost his mother and grandfather,” Wayne, Jr. explained.

“I saw things in his life that I wanted so desperately in mine; a sense of peace, a sense of joy, and a sense of contentment,” Fonda told the Secrets Of Success camera.  “And I got closer and closer to him in ways I never had before trying to find out, ‘What is this and how do I get it?’  How do I appropriate that in my life?”

Fonda eventually found the answers she was searching for and joined her husband's life of faith.  "When I then made a confession of faith and started moving forward, it was the same thing as being in a canoe together and now you're both paddling together," she illustrated.

© 2012 Philip Kassel