Kaisa Blake - Prom Queen

I'm very pleased to report happy news out of Ontonagon. Kurt's sister Kaisa was named Queen of the Prom in Ontonagon on Saturday night!

I have found my God through all of this.

Anna-

I have found my God through all of this. Before and during Kurt's passing, I did not believe. Thanks to you and the amazing faith Kurt had, I love my God for each and every moment in my life. I will live my life for my God, For our God.
Thank you for helping me without even knowing it Anna.

Your are an amazing woman.

Anonymous

Danny Byykkonen passed away...

 Dear friends,

 I'm sorry to have not kept you all better informed about my
 father-in-law.   I went on Sunday to be with Eric and the family in Marquette,
 and had limited e-mail addresses with me.   So many of you have sent
 e-mails and called with words of encouragement and prayers.  Thank you so
 much for the love you have shown our family.   We came home this
 afternoon to Eric's family home in Traprock, to a kitchen full of food, and
 flowers.  His mom said it was like getting a huge hug from lots of
 friends.

 Danny passed away yesterday evening.  We are all very sad about the
 outcome, and would have loved  for God to have shown himself through a
 miraculous healing, however, we are trusting that God is sovereign, and
 has a divine purpose in all that he does, and all he allows, even if we
 never understand it while we are on this earth.    Before we left the
 hospital room, Eric wrote on the message board of Danny's room,  "God
 gives, God takes, may the Lord's name be ever blessed." Job 1:21

 We are so thankful for the many blessings we have - big and small.
 Eric's parents had been on vacation and we hadn't seen them in a couple
 of weeks.  One little blessing we received was last Friday evening
 Danny and Ashley (Eric's sister) came up to watch the hockey game with us.

 She is crazy over the Pitsburg Penguins and couldn't get the game
 down in the valley, so she begged her Dad to bring her up to our place to
 watch the game.  :)  Danny always loved watching a good hockey game,
 and we are so thankful for the time we had with him.

 The visitation is Sunday 3-8pm, April 20,
at Erickson-Crowley funeral home in Calumet.  
The funeral is Monday April 21 at 11am at St.
 Joseph's Church in Lake-Linden.

 Thank you again for all the prayers and support for our family.

 With love,

 Susie Byykkonen

I really never dreamed I could miss a person so much that it hurts

I'm not sure why I woke up so early this morning. But, I was glad to read the email from my friend Paula, who sent it to me at 1:39 A.M. What was she thinking????

We got a card from Dr. Koehn ("Cane"), the neurologist,and I just thought I would share what she wrote to us...She had been gone for the weekend with her FIVE kids when Kurt died.

"I was so sorry to return & learn of Kurtis' passing over the weekend. He was a beautiful boy. It was a pleasure to work withyou all. You are a wonderful family and Kurt was very fortunate to have been blessed by your love. May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand, comfort you and give you His everlasting peace until you meet again one day."

I was so touched by the fact that she took the time to send a card and then to find such a nice note in itwas extra nice.

I don't know if all of you knew that the hospital sent us a plaster cast of Kurt's hand. The initial shock of opening itand finding it rather creepy has finally worn off. It is kind of nice to have. But yesterday, a friend sent us some pictures of Kurt from last summer at Gitche. In one of them, she is trying to get him to smile. He is standing out the back of a big van and you mostly see his face from the nose up, but his hands are reaching over the back of the seatso they are in the forefront of the picture.

When I looked at it, all I could think of was the plaster hand we had gotten, then thought of holding his hand in the hospital and I just broke down and cried. I just miss him so much. I really never dreamed I could miss a person so much that it hurts. I had good moments yesterday too. But that was a tough one.

Well, I'm off to get my second cup of coffee. Talk to you later.
Love, anna

Prayer request from Anna

For those of you who attended Kurt's funeral, the man who spoke that day is Eric Byykkonen. This morning, Eric's Dad, Danny, fell nine feet, and has a terrible head injury. He is in surgery right now to have a blood clot removed to release the pressure on his brain. This is exactly what we had to go through with Kurt. Please Please pray for wisdom for the Drs. and for Gods healing hand to be upon him. We are trusting him into the mighty hands of Jesus.

Thank you. anna

4/26 update on the "Bleachers for Kurt" Memorial at Gitchee Gumee Bible Camp - less that $300 to go...

As posted earlier, we are raising money to build bleachers for the baseball diamond area at Gitche Gumee Bible Camp.

We are looking at 4 rows and maybe twelve to fourteen feet long.
Our goal is $1,500
Total as of 4/26: $1,220

Donations will be accepted throughout the summer.

Donations will be tax deductible.

If you would like to contribute, please send checks with “Kurt Blake Memorial” in the memo to:

Gitche Gumee Bible Camp
5189 Garden City Rd
Eagle River, MI 49950

If you have any questions please e-mail me at lieffers@hotmail.com with Kurt Blake in the subject.
I will continue to update on our support raised!
Thank you in advance!

Erin Robinson

Hi everyone, (from Anna)

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure how many people continue to check this blog, but I thought I would add something.

I had a rough afternoon of missing Kurt today. But tonight I spent alot of time reading entries on this blog. Many of them I read for the first time, even ones that were written before Kurt died. I've shed many tears tonight, some for the pain I've felt in sorrow and grief, and some simply because I was so touched by so many, many people.

Some of the tears have been shed, because I'm ashamed of myself. I look back at some of the entries and realize how I've allowed my focus to shift from my loving Heavenly Father, to MY pain, MY loss, MY sorrow, and MY hurt. I know that Kurt's life and death are bringing glory to God and reading tonight reminded me of that fact.

I am so thankful for all the people who have taken the time to write to us, to pray for us and to share Bible verses with us. The verses that Alex Saari shared really touched me tonight, "Dear Brothers and Sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." James 1:2-4 I'm not sure what version this is, I'll have to find out, but I've never heard it read "consider it an OPPORTUNITY FOR GREAT JOY" and "your endurance has a chance to grow. SO LET IT GROW."

Why wouldn't I want my endurance to grow? I need to realize that through the pain of losing Kurt, God is giving me a chance to grow in HIM. That's no reason to be sad, that's reason to rejoice. Praise God that "All things work together for good to those who love God, who've been called according to HIS purpose." Kurt was called home to heaven for God's purpose, just as I have been left here to grow in HIM for HIS purpose. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how much God trusts me, when I know that in myself, I am truly a wimp.

I just thought of the Thumbelina song we used to sing when we were kids, "...what's the difference if you're very small? When your heart is full of joy, you're nine feet tall." As I've said to many people, I'm not strong at all, God's just got his hands in my armpits and everytime I feel like my knees are turning to jell-o, I look to Him and feel His strong arms holding me up. I want to thank each and every one of you who've helped us (and continue to help us) through this difficult time in our lives.

I am so encouraged by the people who've shared that they are turning back to God after all that has happened. Even more encouraging, will be the moment someone says that they have come to know Jesus as a result of Kurt's death. The devil hates when things don't go his way. And what satan intends for evil, God can use for HIS good. Hallelujah. anna

Can do: Young skier’s death felt beyond Ontonagon

By DAN SCHNEIDER, DMG Writer
The Daily Mining Gazette, Houghton

ONTONAGON — The death of a youth from Ontonagon after a ski accident was felt well beyond his hometown.

Kurt Blake died March 17 in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. at the age of 13 from injuries sustained in a skiing accident March 8 at the Porcupine Mountains ski area.

Blake was a multi-sport athlete who was well-liked by those who knew him and played with him.

Even his competitors on the basketball court travelled to pay their respects March 20.

“The whole eighth grade basketball team from Calumet came to the visitation to present him with a basketball,” Jerry Blake, Kurt’s father, said.

The Calumet team and Kurt Blake’s team from Ontonagon had played to multiple overtimes in the final game of a tournament in L’Anse.

“Ontonagon ended up beating them in four overtimes,” Blake said.

He said it was not unusual for his son to socialize with members of the other team after a game, whichever way the score went.

“He was a strong, strong competitor but he was one that would always show great sportsmanship, too,” Blake said. “Even though he’d give 110 percent, afterward in the bleachers they’d be having a ball, too.”

Kurt Blake had made a lot of friends playing sports.“A lot of kids knew Kurt from everywhere. A lot of it was through athletics but it was other ways, too,” Blake said.

Trevor Ongie knew Kurt Blake because they went to summer camp together.

“He knew him from Gitchee Gumee Bible Camp,” Trevor Ongie’s mother, Gail Ongie said. “In the summers, he camped out there with him probably for the last four years.”

Trevor Ongie contributed to a pop can drive in Ontonagon that collected money for Kurt Blake’s family while the youth was in the hospital.

Youth in Ontonagon collected more than $2,300 in returnable deposits to help the Blake family pay for medical and other expenses.

“I was up there one day for an hour and a half and I couldn’t believe how hard they were working,” Jerry Blake said. “The day they did it, they went from 11 (a.m.) to 8:30 (p.m.) and on that day itself they put 23,000 cans through that machine.”

He said the collection helped his son’s peers cope with the loss.

“For the kids, when I first heard of the can drive I said ‘kids, you don’t have to do that,’ but that was a way of them feeling like they could do something,” Jerry Blake said.

Trevor Ongie, who lives in Dollar Bay, collected $682 worth of returnables and other donations to add to what was collected in Ontonagon.

“I just basically went to people I knew and asked them if they had any pop cans they were willing to donate for a good cause and some people didn’t have any pop cans so they just donated money,” Trevor Ongie said.

He also spent his share of time feeding cans and bottles into return machines.

“For each of three or four nights we went up there to return them it took us an hour and a half almost every day to do them all,” he said.

Jerry Blake said the support has been vital to his family following his son’s death.

“We’re just overwhelmed by the community support and all this and the prayers and everything else that the community’s put up has been wonderful and that’s what’s helped us through, our faith and the community that’s behind us,” he said.

Dan Schneider can be reached at dschneider@mininggazette.com

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http://mininggazette.com/stories/articles.asp?articleID=11292