A few weeks ago I started an occasional series on “regular” people from my church who are serving God and ministering to people in their “regular” lives. This week’s interview is with Donald Hageman, a 67 year old man who has spent a lifetime in missions and missionary support and who now is battling the effects of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Don and Marge are absolute gems. Their faith and dependence on God in the midst of Don’s illness have ministered to me and many in our congregation.
Lou Gehrig was a hero to many, not least of all for his humility and strength through weakness (which is why I embedded his farewell speech below). Don is to hero to many who know him for the very same virtues, and most importantly, a deep love for Jesus Christ.
1. Where did you grow up and how did you become a Christian?
I was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey. My parents were believers and I attended church at an early age. As a 12 year old, I was attending a Christian camp in New York when the message convicted me. I was not sure that I was a believer. My camp counselor recognized my struggle. He suggested that I pray that if I had never before accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, I would do that now. This prayer gave me new found peace and began a life long process of learning more and more about my lovely Savior.
2. Tell us about your vocations and how you decided to do what you did.
I left home at age 18 for college. I studied sociology and psychology at Wheaton. Then I received my Masters in psychiatric social work from the University of Chicago. I worked as a social worker for the next 10 years, ending as director of a 60 bed state of Illinois emergency childcare center.
At that point, God worked on my heart to desire to use my training and experience in overseas mission work. My wife and I, with our two daughters, became members of SEND International. Our first assignment was Okinawa Japan where we worked at the Okinawa Christian School. After our first term, we were asked to return to the United States to become Director of our US mission office in Farmington, MI. Later I was asked to serve as the international personnel director which gave me opportunity to travel to 30 countries to invite other international believers to become cross-cultural missionaries with SEND International. I ended my 35 years of missionary work as a mobilization-recruiter on 15 Christian college campuses. All of this has been a wonderful ministry.
3. Tell us more about your vocation?
There are no halos on the heads of missionaries. All have warts and blemishes just like everyone else. Getting along with coworkers takes work and grace. Although I never used my professional training formally in missions, my social work training was helpful to me personally but also helpful to others as well.
Working with missionaries, nationals from other countries, and counseling young Americans to consider missionary work has been rewarding. Through the lives of others, I have seen the Church of Jesus Christ being built around the world. Encouraging non-North American believers to join our teams has been challenging. Multinational teams require more work and effort to understand one another and to work together in unity. The blessing is that the churches established by these teams are healthier and fit better with the host culture. Our mission outreach has grown because of this. SEND now serves in 20 countries.
4. What are some of your current challenges?
After 35 years of work with SEND, I retired when I received the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Lou Gehrig’s disease has no cure… average life span after diagnosis is 3-5 years. I’ve always just faced things head on. I have two married daughters and 8 grand children. They know “grandpa” as their ‘camping and recreation director” who has creatively engineered ‘back yard mechanic’ toys and machines for them to enjoy. Now they are beginning to see me in a different role, one that is increasing limited in activities and energy.
I continue to deal with ALS the same way—creatively trying to handle tasks that were easy before with mechanical solutions. I also try to “do my homework” and be an informed patient and participant in my own care team. All that said, being an older guy with ALS presents constant struggles for how to adjust to daily changes. I get tired and frustrated at times. I try to take each day as a gift from God. My faith in Jesus Christ sustains me through these difficult times, and I am constantly seeing God’s provision and care.
5. Share with us some of your current blessings.
I enjoy spring and summer best. Spring is a time when I wonder at creation and remember the blessings of new life. I am blessed to see the wonders of creation up close. Spring is a reminder that, although my outer man is decaying, my inner man is being renewed day by day. It reminds me that though I may be entering dormancy, I have the hope of new life. Since my diagnosis I have been particularly aware of the suffering that I see around me. I see the suffering of the afflicted and the handicapped in a whole new light and am reminded that no matter how hard we try, we are all deeply impoverished and in need of spiritual rebirth. Whether in good health or in poor, we are all stricken with the human condition. This disease has also awakened me to this profound message of my faith: God does not merely observe our suffering from afar as a disinterested spectator, but He stoops to our weakness and suffers along side of us. Then He offers hope.
I am so thankful for a good professional team in Lansing that provide help and encouragement as my neuro-muscle disease progresses. But what has really been amazing has been all of the compassion and help provided by members of University Reform Church. Some of the men help with outings on Saturdays. Others have helped with ramp construction and electrical problems. Some come to sit, talk, or read to me. Pastor Tom Stark comes weekly to read Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven. Sometimes I am frustrated that there is no concise, detailed single description of heaven. The author follows the many tiny references concerning heaven found throughout Scripture and builds a picture of intermediate heaven and the new heaven, new earth and new Jerusalem.
Death is a reality for all of us. With ALS, this reality has become a daily reality. I have assurance that death will not be the end, but truly the beginning, and I am anticipating the reunion with friends and family that have passed on before me. It will be such a joy to see them in their resurrected bodies, whole, healed, and giving thanks to Jesus. I am increasingly content to trust God’s promise that Jesus Christ is preparing a wonderful place for us… a place where we will be with God and his lovely Son, a place of peace and security where pain and suffering no longer reigns.
Bob Tobey [a member of our church] shared a song written for a little boy who was slipping away with terminal cancer… the Chorus goes like this: And the King still has one more move!
And we know His love will see us through,
We’ll believe in spite of our unbelief
And His Spirit will comfort and bring us relief,
And faith will reveal what we cannot see,
That the King still has one more move!
I am ready for that last move… only God knows the timing. PTL!
