Written by The Mary A. Rackham Institute |
Friday, July 7, 2023
Due to Jeff’s stroke and aphasia, he now is more expressive and smiles a lot more than he used to. His happiness and joy are very infectious to others, including strangers. People will ask Mariah, “How is he in such a good mood, even when he can’t talk?” Jeff attributes strength to his family, friends, and faith.
Read Chapter 1
Chapter 2Homecoming: The Church Community Steps In to Help
Nearly six weeks after the stroke, Jeff Windt was able to come home on July 28, much to the excitement of his family and friends. During the time he was in rehab, the family leaned on the support of their church family especially to help with taking care of the boys. They would watch the boys during the day, taking them on adventures and outings to provide Mariah time to be with Jeff and take care of errands and help the boys relax for a bit.
Jeff underwent intensive therapy sessions at home throughout August and September. During this time, his communication challenges became even more clear to the family. The boys especially struggled with no longer being able to easily communicate with their dad, when less than a few months before, they could hold a full conversation with him. He was not able to play catch or chase them around the house anymore because of physical limitations.
It all had changed so much in such a short time.
In early fall, time was running out on the number of therapy sessions that insurance would cover. Then, the limit was hit in September. Mariah shared this news with their community and asked for any support they could provide — whether it be financial or just saying a prayer. Through a Facebook fundraiser, they were able to raise $15,355 for additional therapy sessions. The donations carried them through the end of 2020 and into 2021. However, even in the new year, the Windt family would continue to be tested.
Like many who have suffered a stroke, Jeff had a seizure. In February of 2021, Mariah was awakened when Jeff was having the seizure and called 911 for an ambulance.
Mariah explained, “Because of the damage in Jeff’s brain from the stroke, the cells that send electrical signals to the nerves in his body can have a sudden burst of electrical activity, which can cause the signals to the nerves to be disrupted, causing a seizure.”

A Year Makes All The Difference
One year to the day, on June 19, 2021, Mariah posted on Facebook:
“Hello Everyone!Today marks a year since Jeff had his stroke that would completely alter our lives as we knew it.
I miss our life before his stroke on so many levels.I miss staying up with him after the kids go to bed at night talking about this, that, and the other.I miss watching him play catch with Jonah.I miss him carrying Jude on his shoulders.I miss watching him read books.I miss him getting ready for church on Sunday’s and heading off to do what he was born to do in preaching God’s word.
I am also grateful for the Lord’s blessings he has bestowed on us.I am grateful that Jeff and I can still communicate with each other even if it’s not in the way we used to.I am grateful that he can watch Jonah and Elijah play catch together.I am grateful for the close bond that Jeff and Jude have made through Jeff being at home during the day.I am grateful that there is an app on his phone that he can use to have things read back to him in a way that he can understand.I am grateful that Jeff is able to go to church on Sundays, walk into the Lord’s house, be comforted by the congregation he once preached to, and sit under the preaching of God’s word.”
A Beacon of Hope: U-M Aphasia Program
As they adjusted to the new reality a year out, Mariah began looking for aphasia therapy programs for Jeff.
“One night I looked up University Aphasia Programs,” she said. “When this aphasia program at U of M was the first one that popped up, I fell out of my chair!“
Jeff grew up in Bay City, Michigan, and has been a lifelong fan of the University of Michigan (U-M), especially the football program. His connection with U-M football stretched back to grade school. In 1986, Jim Harbaugh was a quarterback for U-M, and Jeff enjoyed following Harbaugh’s game statistics. He had no idea that this passion would lead to a personal encouraging message from Harbaugh someday.
Jeff has been a vocal U-M fan ever since, even after moving to South Carolina, and not meeting many other fans. His love of the university was widely shared with friends and family, especially since Jeff has a habit of only wearing U-M gear everywhere.
When Jeff exited inpatient therapy at their local rehab center in Greenville, Mariah received a phone call. The secretary asked them to come back, as there was a letter from the University of Michigan there addressed to Jeff.
When Mariah picked it up and opened it, she realized it was a personal card, written and signed by Jim Harbaugh, sent to Jeff.
Understanding the significance this would hold for her husband, Mariah planned a special event for Jeff to open the card. The card brought tears to Jeff’s eyes. It’s still one of his most prized possessions. However, the family had no idea how Jim had learned of Jeff, his situation, and his completing aphasia therapy in South Carolina. And it would remain a mystery for a while longer.
Chapter 3: Heading Home to MichiganAfter Mariah discovered the U-M aphasia Program, she learned that the program is unique and that people from all over the world come to work on their aphasia recovery. She learned that “there’s nothing like it anywhere,” and that people come from across the world to take advantage of the specialized, intensive approach.
“After looking at all of the data outcomes and reading personal testimonials from individuals that have Jeff’s same degree of aphasia, I realized that there is no way he would walk out of this program without having made some sort of improvement,” she said. “Any improvement at all, no matter how small, is going to improve his quality of life. It seemed too good to be true though. The logistics of it all made it seem like an impossibility.“
Mariah shared her discovery with Rick Phillips, the senior pastor of their church and a good friend of Jeff’s, who also happens to be a U-M graduate. However, she was worried about the cost and logistics of caring for their children while they were away. Rick was adamant that Jeff should go, and that “God would take care of the way to get us there,” Mariah recalled.
Their good friend Melton Duncan started a GoFundMe to help raise money for Jeff and Mariah to attend the U-M Aphasia Program (UMAP). Within just three weeks, they had raised enough money to cover the costs for the intensive, comprehensive aphasia program, travel, etc.
They attended in November 2021. The in-person session had Jeff working on speech and communication therapy daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with experienced speech-language pathologists who knew aphasia and how to approach his specific situation.
On November 8, Mariah shared this update via Facebook:
“Jeff had assessments done where a series of tests were used to evaluate where he is at in regards to Verbal and Written Expression, Naming/Word Finding, Sentence Formulation, and Auditory and Reading Comprehension.
He was then given a treatment plan based on those results. His treatment plan is very personalized in that they tailor it to his specific needs and personal goals.
Some goals:

Being able to say the boys’ names.??
Reading (without assistance from an app to read it back to him).
Formulating a prayer. (As I have stated in previous [Facebook] posts, aphasia affects his word-finding ability whether or not he is trying to say, write, type, or even formulate a coherent thought in his own mind).
Writing a complete sentence.

It was clearly evident that we were in the right place for Jeff’s treatment from the first day here at UMAP. To say that the therapists are amazing is an understatement. Each and every one of them has so much compassion for Jeff and shows a drive and enthusiasm to do anything they can to help him improve.
Thank you all for the prayers and contributions that have allowed Jeff to take advantage of this wonderful program.”
Hard Work and Homework
Jeff completed one session of the intensive, individual program at the U-M Aphasia Program, and he and Mariah returned home in late November.
On November 23, Mariah shared this update on Facebook: 
“While we’re so thankful to be home, Jeff and I left Ann Arbor with heavy hearts having to say goodbye to the very special group of therapists that worked with Jeff the 3 weeks we were there. Each of them went above and beyond any expectations that we might have had and I attribute Jeff’s improvements to their expertise and encouragement.
I also can’t forget to mention Jeff’s hard work and determination. His therapists would commend him for his positive attitude and perseverance. A lot of times when he couldn’t do something he would just laugh as if to say “What are you gonna do?”
Chapter 4: Mystery Solved!
Read More
Related Posts:

Beginning on the very day of Livingstone’s death, the British naval patrol was instructed to prevent the export of slaves from the eastern coastal ports. Just five weeks after his death the great slave market at Zanzibar was permanently closed. Less than two years later “all conveyance of slaves by land under any conditions” was also outlawed, dealing a final death blow to the East Africa slave trade.

David Livingstone is best known as a renowned nineteenth century missionary and explorer in Africa. Another vital aspect of his ministry career was the crucial role he played in exposing and helping bring about the abolition of the slave trade in southcentral and southeastern Africa in the latter half of the 1800s. To follow is a summation of his important part in that epic accomplishment.
Throughout his first eleven years of missionary service in Africa (1841-1852) Livingstone heard of and witnessed instances of Boers oppressing and even enslaving Africans beyond the borders of Cape Colony in southern Africa. The Boers were Dutch farm families who had emigrated by the thousands in the 1830s and 1840s, resettling north of Cape Colony in order to avoid being under British rule there. Eventually a Boer militia attacked a group of tribes to whom Livingstone had been ministering and ransacked his residence at Kolobeng, destroying his personal property valued at more than 300 British pounds (then equaling over 1,500 American dollars, likely worth at least thirty or forty times that amount today).
In 1851 Livingstone came in contact with and began ministering to the Makololo, a powerful marauding tribe that had settled in the area between the Chobe River and the upper reaches of the Zambesi River. The Makololo had subjected a number of other tribes living in that same region, which was several hundred miles further north than Livingstone had previously ministered. Those tribal groups, including the Makololo, had a long history of attacking neighboring tribes and carrying off livestock and people as slaves. In addition, Portuguese traders from Angola to the west, assisted by African Mambari tribesmen, entered that region and carried away scores or hundreds of slaves each year.
Livingstone spent two and a half years seeking to determine if a river transportation route could be established from either the west or east coast of Africa, to effectively and affordably transport missionaries and supplies to the inner area of the continent. In doing so he became the first European ever to make a transcontinental journey across Africa. As he approached and stayed for a time at both coasts, Portuguese officials were uniformly supportive of and helpful to him. But he noted that a number of those officials were themselves involved in slave trading to help supplement their income.
While back in Britain during 1857-1858, Livingstone wrote his first book, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. In it he exposed and condemned the different types of slavery he had seen practiced by the Boers, various tribes and the Portugues. In his many well-attended speeches given throughout Britain he put forth a plan to bring Christianity and legitimate commerce to inner Africa, which would in time destroy the slave trade there. He accepted the British Government’s invitation to head the Zambesi Expedition in exploring the Zambesi and its tributaries. The expedition’s further objectives, which were clearly and repeatedly stated in official documents, correspondence and public speeches, were to promote commerce and Christianity to the tribes of that region, with the intention that doing so would help Africans in various ways—economically, spiritually and by putting a stop to the slave trade.
The Zambesi Expedition explored: the lower portion of the Zambesi; the Shire River region and Lake Nyassa (modern Lake Malawi) north and northeast of that part of the Zambesi; the Rovuma River east of Lake Nyassa. Portuguese slave traders, operating with the knowledge and approval of their regional Governors, were found to be active in the Zambesi and Shire regions while Arab slavers prosecuted their trade at Nyassa. Not a few tribes in those areas eagerly participated in the slave trade, selling into slavery people they had captured from other villages or sometimes even the undesirables of their own clans.
Read More
Related Posts:

The last days began in the first century and ended with the end of Jerusalem and her temple. That isn’t to claim that the Bible contains nothing in our future; it does. But when we consider this text and the ones that have come before, we can conclusively conclude that these events have already happened.

Swing and A Miss
When Christians hear the phrase “The Last Days” or “The End Times,” what images come to mind? For some, a clandestine government laboratory where a pseudo-scientist whose name rhymes with Dr. Ouchie is busily brewing the next super woo-flu that will kill a quarter of the population is well in view. For others, it could be a one-world cryptocurrency, planes falling from the sky, a maniacal and blood-lusting monarch, or the Romish pope (if you’re really old school). Whatever the case, for the vast majority of evangelicalism, we have utterly missed it.
Now, when I say we have missed it, I don’t mean a booming foul ball ovah tha Green Monstah, kid! No. We missed it like an undersized middle schooler trying to make contact against a Randy Johnson slider. It wasn’t even close.
Instead of the final fleeting moments at a cataclysmic end to human history, when the Bible talks about the “Last Days,” it means the last days of the old covenant era. It refers to the winding down of that redemptive epoch where priests mediated between God and us, temples were where you traveled to meet with God, and animal blood sacrifices stood between you and the almighty. The “Last Days” picture the close of that significant era and the dawning of the final chapter of human history, where the world will know God through His one and only Son.
We are not waiting for that great eon to materialize in the uncertain future. The old covenant has been closed already, the new and final covenant era is fully here, and the events we will look at today, from Acts 2:17-21, will overwhelmingly confirm this.
The Text
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.Acts 2:17-21 KJV
Ten Proofs the “Last Days” Are Past
A Bit of Background
Whenever one of the three great pilgrimage feasts prescribed in the Law occurred, Jerusalem’s population would swell from a couple hundred thousand to well over a million. This is because all Jewish males were required by the Law of God to attend these three festivals every year. And, since most Jewish males were also married with sizable families, the city would balloon up rather quickly.
Intriguingly, history reveals that numerous Jewish pilgrims embarked on journeys from the farthest reaches of the known world to partake in these festivals. While some hailed from nearby Judea and Galilee, a significant contingent had settled in the distant corners of pagan cities, towns, and nations across the vast reaches of the Roman empire. This widely scattered group bore the title of “diaspora Jews,” they arrived in Jerusalem, each carrying the rich history and traditions of their native people and the languages from their far-flung homelands.
Now, on the morning of Pentecost, downtown Jerusalem would have been packed with no shortage of extra bodies. Once-quiet city blocks, home to only a handful of families, now teemed with hundreds, even thousands, of individuals pressed tightly together. According to the account of Luke, as the Spirit descended, a deafening crescendo of sound erupted, undoubtedly piquing the curiosity of neighbors, onlookers, and the naturally inquisitive.
They found a group of very ordinary, a run-of-the-mill assortment of blue-collar Galileans. But, with one extraordinary twist. Instead of those Galileans praising God in Aramaic, the common tongue of the Jews, everyone present heard them praise God in their native tongue. For instance, picture those from Rome hearing hymns sung in Latin or Greek while those from Egypt listened to Peter’s preaching in the elegant flow of Coptic. Even pilgrims journeying from as far as Seluecia, modern-day Iraq, were met with the disciples speaking fluently in their Parthian tongue. They all collectively saw the ancient curse of Babel being miraculously reversed before their very eyes. Well… Not all of them.
Among them stood a few who remained untouched by the Holy Spirit’s power, hearing only an incomprehensible babel crescendoing from a cacophony of gibberish. Instead of recognizing the nature of this event as a fulfillment of eschatological prophecies, they hurled derision and ridicule upon the disciples, accusing them of inebriation.
For the one group, God had chosen to freely give them the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That outpouring caused them to praise Him, to hear His praises in their own dialects and languages, and to go on to serve Him for a lifetime. For the skeptical party, God intentionally chose to withhold His Spirit, leading them from skepticism to utter ruination, poignantly demonstrating His total sovereignty over election and regeneration.
To clear up any confusion between these two groups and let everyone in earshot know what was happening, Peter stood up and declared precisely what was happening from the prophet Joel. Within those very poignant words from Peter, we will see ten undeniable proofs that the end times have already come.
This week, we will look at the first five that Peter mentions, describing the situation for those who love Christ and receive Him. They are the ones who will experience the Holy Spirit’s power, inherit the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, and they are the ones who will endure to the end, and be saved in those last days.
Next week, we will look at the final five signs that Peter mentions from Joel’s prophecy, which concern those who hate Christ and reject Him. For them, incredible signs and wonders will demonstrate they are on the wrong side of the end-times debate. They will not make it alive into Jesus’ Kingdom; they will be buried in the ashes of Jerusalem, along with all of the other old covenant trappings and shadows.
With that, let us look at the first five proofs that the “last days” concern the events in the first century, focusing on how that applies to believers and Christians.
Read More
Related Posts: