Run Very Fast
© 2006 Greg Scheelar
On Mother’s Day
weekend 2000, Karsten Arendt was diagnosed with
Myelodisplastic Syndrome (Smoldering Leukemia). He was two and a half years
old. Our church was actively praying for him and his family, but I never
actually had the opportunity to meet this little boy or his family. Regardless,
his story struck a deep chord in me as I became a father just a few months after
we heard about them. What follows is written by his parents, Daryl and Rowena.
"When Karsten was diagnosed with leukemia we looked for ways to explain this to him. After all, as adults it is difficult enough to understand about bone marrow. For a child this is incomprehensible. So we told Karsten that his bones were sick. So the prayer was that Jesus would heal his bones. When Karsten was sick he was not able to do the things that most kids can, things such as running or jumping. But he was convinced that once Jesus healed his bones he was going to run very fast. That was his thing - running very fast.
In February 2001 and after a series of treatments, Karsten received a bone marrow transplant. This transplant gave him a new lease on life. Summer of 2001 was FANTASTIC! Karsten was in good health. He did not walk—he ran everywhere. He did not simply live. He seized life and sucked the marrow out of it.
September 15, 2001 Karsten turned four.
September 21, 2001 Word came back from the doctor that the cancer was back. Karsten had relapsed.
October 1, 2001 Karsten was readmitted to hospital. It was back and forth to ICU several times.
October 30, 2001 Karsten died and went to be with Jesus.
When Karsten relapsed we told him that his bones were sick again. His faith was absolutely incredible. He informed us with the faith that Jesus talks about that "That's OK. Jesus has lots of bones." He had no doubt that Jesus could and would heal him.
October 30, 2001 and onward: Karsten is indeed running very fast!"
