Farewell To Brother Ken Gade

This was a sad week for Leyte Christian College. One of our original students, a fine young man named Ken Gade, passed away after an unexplained illness of some five months. Ken was loved by all the students, and a day never passed when they did not pray for their friend during daily chapel at LCC. Ken was an outstanding young Christian man, 19 years old. He was a hard worker for the local church in his hometown of Borongan, island of Samar, according to Edwin Inso, the preacher there. Ken was one of the first enrollees in LCC in June of this year, excited to be here. But within just a few weeks, it was obvious to the staff this young man had problems. He began having hallucinations and behaving strangely. After consultations with doctors it was believed Ken had simply had an overdose of cough syrup. But the symptoms persisted and Ken returned to Borongan in July. In September it got worse. Dark splotches appeared all over his body, resembling a kind of rash. Doctors found some kind of virus in his body. His thinking was even more affected as the virus spread to his brain. Doctors then changed their diagnosis to lupus, but soon this was disproved. He visited more specialists and was admitted to the hospital in November, but still no answers. Eventually Ken's organs began to fail, and he quickly passed from this life on Sun. morning, Dec. 7. Our campus was stunned to learn of his rapid passing, but all are comforted that Ken is now with the Father. We ask your prayers as the LCC family deals with this tragedy which is so heavy on our hearts and minds, but especially for the family of this young man as they deal with this loss. Project Philippines contributed many ways toward Ken's medical bills, as well as the Tacloban City Church of Christ. Although this congregation is small and does not have much, like the Macedonian churches Paul wrote about they gave their all. Last Sunday, it was agreed the ENTIRE amount of the contribution go toward Ken's needs. We were also uplifted to learn that Ken was instrumental in converting his younger brother (15 years old) to Christ some few weeks before his passing. See Ken's picture at the top of this blog.