by Clem Boyd, Communication Content Manager
Certain dates carry powerful significance. For Gerry Walquist, December 30, 2013, is one of those days, with a bullet point.
Nearly eight years ago on the eve of New Year’s Eve, Gerry’s world was turned upside down. An intruder, out of jail for just one month, broke into the vacation rental that Gerry, her husband, Brett, and their two children, Rachel and Thomas, enjoyed during a Christmas trip to Puerto Rico.
Gerry awoke after 1 a.m. and noticed Brett was not in bed. When she ventured out to the kitchen, she saw Brett and the man who had broken in.
Gerry jumped on the man, Rachel ran out of her bedroom screaming, and the man bolted through a kitchen window. But the unthinkable had already occurred: The man had stabbed Brett, who was lying on the kitchen floor and laboring to breathe. Crying out at first, “Lord, please save him,” Gerry realized quickly that Brett was spending his last moments on this side of eternity.
What happened in the days, months, and years that followed is a testimony to God’s faithfulness in the midst of life-shattering tragedy. Gerry’s faith, and the faith of her children, grew through their grief and trauma. Gerry has seen the Lord bless them all in ways she could not have expected after this devastating loss. Which includes forgiving Brett’s murderer.
“In the first several weeks afterward, I was so broken,” Gerry shares during the podcast. “People would ask me, ‘What can I do?’ and I’d say, ‘Just keep praying.’ The Lord brought people into my life who helped help me in times I just didn’t know how I was going to manage. But He was there for me, and He’s been there for me.”
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More to the Story
Gerry was recently hired at Cedarville as an administrative assistant in the human resources department, but prior to this she served as a preschool teacher at Legacy Christian Academy in Xenia, Ohio.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,550 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.