When you lose a friend - Keith Murphy

Well one week from now we will be doing our second ever funeral at MCC - The thing is, as we're not a run of the mill church, when we do a funeral its always someone very dear and close to us. Our dear friend Keith Murphy, who was dear to so many sadly took his own life on the 1st of October. It's been hard to grasp and still is. Hard to get my head around, and my thoughts have been racing ever since. We've been through all the whys, ifs and what-ifs and still I don't feel very far on with any answers. Only God knows why!! 

Keith came to us around 3 years ago and was homeless and on Methadone - I don't think he was still using then, he went to a drug and alcohol counsellor and we managed to find him a bedsit through the YMCA and week after week he came to IMPACT. Then when we bought the building last year in June he was one of the first ones to offer help. Since then we have built up a great relationship with Keith and got to know him really well - he was a very special person, he always had a smile and he was great encouragement to us all. He started to look after our dog when we went on holidays and he seemed to love that. He got stuck in on the building project and was a very skilled worker. We were also training him up to become a drug and alcohol counsellor via a distance learning course. Keith became a dear friend as we worked so closely with him - we managed to get him a nicer flat just out of town and we were in the process of helping him do it up. Keith was coming to church every Sunday and had many questions about the messages in church and said he felt drawn by God to come. He felt peace on a Sundays and started to pray. He even participated in a drama we did at church. In the last weeks of his life he had said that he felt depressed but he had Job Centre plus on his back trying to push him to do a course on Hotel Management, which he really didn't want to do, but was required to do to still get Job Seekers allowance. He didn't get a Community Care grant as they said he wasn't illegible even though we appealed and wrote to the IRS. Keith was known for his tricks and humour on the building project and once hid all Pauls tools as he accidentally left the door open, Paul thought they'd all been pinched and was panicking which Keith thought was very amusing. :) We loved Keith Irish charm and great accent. Oh to hear his voice again!! If only I could have one last conversation with him but it wasn't meant to be!!

Well we all miss him very much and he has left a big hole in all our of our lives - we continue to pray for all Keiths family, who didn't even see him in his last years, and are going through a heap of different emotions at this tragic time. We all continue to look to GOD who is the only one who understands in eternity. We do believe that Keith is with God now and in a much better place, no more pain, no more sadness or worry, only peace and joy!! We all loved Keith very much but we are not sure he knew how to receive that love but now he knows how much we all loved him as he too is in eternity. 

Love you and miss you Keith - I will try and post a picture of him on this blog when I can get it to work!!! We have him on camera too somewhere!! xxxx