Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant: Gene Duerksen is With Jesus!

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Update from Lynn:

We invite you to celebrate Eugene Duerksen’s life with us:

LABOR DAY WEEKEND:
Thursday, August 29 – pm Visitation.
Friday, August 30 – am Celebration Service. ????

More details to come.
LaCanne Family Funeral Services; Windom, MN.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

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My Tribute to Enagelist Gene Duersken:
Early this morning I got word from Heather Duerksen that Gene Duerksen entered the gates of Heaven. Gene and his lovely wife Margaret are pictured above with all the grand kids!
There is a great void in the world now….But we rejoice that Evangelist Gene is with Jesus! Amen! Gene was ready to go home! Heaven is a prepared place, are you prepared for Heaven?
Gene lived his life to one day enter Heaven. I do not have the words to share how much I loved this man of God. He is one of my heroes of faith!
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:23
Gene is one of the best role models the world has ever seen on how to live for Jesus, how to preach Jesus, in truth and love, and how to do family in a Godly way! Amen!! God Bless the memory of Gene!!! We love you Margaret and your whole family!
Join us in praying for the family during this time. We love you all!
This morning Dr. Jim Denison posted the following and right away I though of Gene on how he would always put a smile on my face, make me laugh and encourage me in Jesus:

How to “put a smile on God’s face”

God deserves our best. Our broken world needs our best. The greater our commitment to excellence, the greater our service to God’s kingdom and the common good.

Author James Clear asks: “How long will you put off what you are capable of doing just to continue what you are comfortable doing?” Max Lucado notes: “When you do the most what you do the best, you put a smile on God’s face.”

Will you “do the most what you do the best” today?

Gene did is best for God and family everyday! Let us do the same.

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Update Monday at 5:14am: There is a great void in the world now….But we rejoice that Gene is with Jesus! Amen! Gene was ready to go home! Heaven is a prepared place, are you prepared for Heaven?
Gene lived his life to one day enter Heaven. I do not have the words to share how much I loved this man of God. He is one of my heroes of faith!
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:23
Gene is one of the best role models the world has ever seen on how to live for Jesus, how to preach Jesus, in truth and love, and how to do family in a Godly way! Amen!! God Bless the memory of Gene!!! We love you Margaret and your whole family!
Join us in praying for the family during this time. We love you all!
This morning Dr. Jim Denison posted the following and right away I though of Gene on how he would always put a smile on my face, make me laugh and encourage me in Jesus:

How to “put a smile on God’s face”

God deserves our best. Our broken world needs our best. The greater our commitment to excellence, the greater our service to God’s kingdom and the common good.

Author James Clear asks: “How long will you put off what you are capable of doing just to continue what you are comfortable doing?” Max Lucado notes: “When you do the most what you do the best, you put a smile on God’s face.”

Will you “do the most what you do the best” today?

Gene did is best for God and family everyday! Let us do the same.

HE MADE IT!!!
Daddy Gene made it!
And Heaven rejoices! ????????

Just before midnight, he passed.
Mom was putting cold wash clothes on his forehead.
She said it was a very peaceful time.

The nurse scolded him because she slipped out of the room for 1 minute, and he took his last breath.
She came back and said, “Oh you! I always time this right! You sneaked past me.”
Mom said, “Yeah – he’s been pulling that on us for years.” ????

Please, friends.
Yes, there will be tears.
We miss Gene already.
But please –
Rejoice with us!
He SO deserves this promotion!

Well done, good and faithful dad.
I Love you Forever. ❤️

Our prayers are with the Gene Duerksen family……….We love them all so very much……..
Updated at 5:55pm Saturday From Lynn:
Today, Gene made it known several times that he is ready to go to Heaven. We as his family fully support his wishes. After conversations with his nurses, doctors, and specialists, it is evident that his kidney has been damaged and it will most likely not regain the function. So…because he has been alert enough to express his wishes, we have asked that his lines be unplugged and he be kept comfortable – whatever that looks like. Dad was able to talk to each one of his children, children-in-Love, grandchildren, and his wife, one more time. He told each grandchild what he loved about them and sang with them. He opened his eyes to see each one. We ended our family time singing songs that he had taught the grandkids while swinging them on the swing set for the past 10 years. Thank you for your thoughts, kind words, and prayers. Thank you for walking this journey alongside of us. Thank you for loving us – however that has looked. We are Blessed beyond anything we deserve. Gene is in Comfort Care in Sioux Falls until he passes. God has already gone before to prepare this pasture. We fully trust in His timing. The Gene + Margaret Duerksen Family.
UPDATED SATURDAY MORNING FROM LYNN:

Yesterday our dad Gene was diagnosed with Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA). He’s very sick. Treatment was started through an insulin IV drip to help regulate his insulin better. He’s wearing a c-pap machine to give him oxygen; his breathing is labored. We are not certain if any damage has occurred to his heart or kidney yet; that will be evaluated throughout the next few days.

Last night he rested well.
Margaret also had a good night of rest.
We are all grateful for your prayers, phone calls, texts, and encouragement.

#Grateful to be in relation w/ the Almighty Healer today, trusting dad’s Life to be in His hands. We are reminded each day of how God has a plan; He has prepared our pasture already for us.
Oh how sweet – to Trust in Jesus. ❤️

From all of the Duerksen Family.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_ketoacidosis

UPDATED at 6:36am Friday: Lynn and Margaret just called me and shared that Gene has been airlifted to a Sioux Falls Hospital this morning. Please keep Gene, Margaret and family in your prayers. I will keep you updated as I hear from Lynn.
Yesterday I talked with my Brother in Christ Gene Duerksen of Delft, Minnesota. I became friends with this awesome man of God a few years back. I was introduced to Gene through the writings of Dave Fjeld of the Cottonwood County Citizen newspaper in Windom, Minnesota. I will always be thankful to my Brother Dave for his tremendous writing of Gene’s story of faith in Jesus. Gene and I had such a wonderful talk and a very special time of prayer yesterday. Please pray with me and Sharon for Gene and Margaret and the entire family please. Below I have posted a prayer and then a wonderful, loving post from Gene’s daughter Lynn Stoneking. Gene and Margaret are pictured above with the grand kids!!!
Oh Lord! We thank you for our Dear Brother Gene Duerksen, we love him so very much. Gene and his lovely bride Margaret have been such a blessing to so very many, they have been such a testimony of faith to us all. Lord, we pray for healing, for sleep, for peace and comfort for brother Gene and rest and peace for Sister Margaret. Lord, we love you and thank you for Gene and Margaret and the entire family, in Jesus name we pray, Amen!
I have to add that Gene knows the power of prayer, I asked him if we could all pray for him and he said, “Oh yes…” and we prayed together and then even thou he was not feeling good he prayed for me and Sharon. That is the type of man of God Gene is, always thinking and praying for others. We were blessed to have Gene speak at the Windom Revival one year and what he modeled for me was bringing forth the truth of Jesus with love and humor! I had not laughed that hard in years, as I did that night with the Godly humor Gene poured out in his message! I remember turning to look at the late Pat Fisher, and she was about falling off her chair laughing! Gene reinforced to me that night to always preach the TRUTH in LOVE, but PREACH THE GOSPEL TRUTH. Stand firm in love.
Gene is one of my HEROES OF FAITH

Our friend Dewey Moede was kind to share that Gene is struggling with his health again, asking for your prayers.

I haven’t said much because we were expecting him to bounce-back more quickly than he has.
3 weeks ago dad was diagnosed with Shingles, which is painful in the nerves of the region it hits you. For him, it was his amputated leg – so he had a lot of pain in the nerve endings of that leg, until he was able to get some pain meds from his doctor.

Healing was looking better the beginning of last week, but progressively got worse through the week as he developed pain and cramping in his stomach, nausea, the-other-end-of-things, uncontrollable hiccups, and he became very weak. This week has been up-and-down.

We are in touch daily with his doctors.
NO – HE COULD NOT receive the ‘Shingles Vaccine’ because of potential damage to his Kidney Transplant.
(I’ve already been asked many times, so clearing that up right away.)

Thank You for praying for Gene. Pray that he will have a peace-filled night of sleep and rest; that the new medicine will help the hiccups.

Please PRAISE for Margaret!
She has stayed healthy! And God knew exactly who dad would need by his side, through this Life! ????
#OnceANurseAlwaysANurse

*Photo – this weekend, my dad’s brother David and wife Mary are here from KS for the local Threshing Bee celebration (Old-time Festival). They stopped in tonight to say Hi. There’s nothing like 2 brothers praying over one another – especially when they’ve both endured life-threatening moments. (Missing you Rich Duerksen!)

And yet…they both personally know the Greatest Healer. ❤️

Here is a post from Feb. of 2019:

This post is so very inspiring in many ways! The good news of JESUS CHRIST shines through this post by Gene Duerksen’s daughter Lynn Stoneking of Delft, Minnesota. I am so very blessed to know the Duerksen and Stoneking family! They shine the light of JESUS to all! Here is a post from Lynn and then I added my post from Feb. of 2017. Pictured is Gene and his lovely wife Margaret and the grand kids! So blessed to have the Duerksen and Stoneking family take part in the Windom Revival in 2017.

Happy Transplant Day dad!
(Now why can’t I find an emoji of a kidney?….)

I took him to the U of MN for his 6mo Diabetic check-up. He thinks the world of his current Doc – Dr. Seaquist. And she handles him well. ????

Dad also had an appointment at the Transplant office. This is a newer Doctor for him.
As we sat in the waiting room, I glanced at the screen and thought I recognized the name of one of his old docs from years ago.
So I inquired with the receptionist.

And before we left, Dr. Manske stopped in the room and gave dad a big hug – 28 years later.
She was the Kidney Disease specialist who walked our parents through the dialysis + transplant process. ❤️

It was a day of Gifts to him.
And 27 years ago today was the truest physical gift he could have ever received while living on this Earth.

Praising God for 27 more years of Life for our daddy. Each day is a gift. ????

(p.s… His favorite line is, “Well – if you don’t want me around anymore, quit praying for me.”) 

My post from Feb. 25th, 2017…………..

This article is from my my Dear Friend Dave Fjeld of the Cottonwood County Citizen in my hometown, Windom, Minnesota. Cottonwood County Citizen The Citizen is one of the best newspapers in America, the staff there is always winning awards for excellence in journalism! Dave writes about Gene Duerkson, who I have become friends with. Gene and his wife Margaret founded Maranatha Ministries years ago from their home in Delft, Minnesota. They used to have a ministry program on KYSM radio in Mankato, Minnesota and on KUNJ radio in New Ulm, Minnesota. They also made appearances on KEYC TV in Mankato. I went to school with Gene’s brother, Richard in Windom, class of 1974. Richard is now the Pastor of Grace Bible Church in McPherson, Kansas. This family is clearly sold out for God. In getting to know Gene, since Dave Fjeld wrote an article about him in 2014 that I read, I have come to know Gene’s heart, inside and out, a walking testimony of our great God. When I talk with Gene, his light for Jesus Christ shines through the phone. I was on the phone with folks from Windom yesterday, many have asked us to come back and hold another Revival, God has told me YES! So we are planning to, and Gene and Margaret, Maranatha Ministries, will be taking part! God will give me the dates to come. We will keep you posted. Sharon and I are so very thankful for the love of the Windom area, you folks bless us so very much!  PTL!!!Thank you to Dave Fjeld and the Citizen for allowing me to share this update on Gene:

25 years later, Duerksen thankful for kidney, pushes for more donors
Gene Duerksen continues to live with kidney he received a quarter century ago.
By Dave Fjeld
No one needs to remind Gene Duerksen of Delft how important being an organ and tissue donor can be.
Twenty-five years ago, Feb. 20, 1992, Duerksen was given new life when he received a kidney and islet cell transplant. (Islet cells produce insulin.) The organ and pancreatic islets were donated by Shawn Silkey, a 26-year-old Minnesota woman who died in a car accident less than a day earlier.
Although Shawn never had the organ donor note checked on her driver’s license, she had told a friend that she would like to be a donor in the event of her untimely death. The friend told Shawn’s family of her wishes and they agreed that it was something that Shawn would want.
Gene, meanwhile, had spent the previous year on home dialysis. A severe diabetic since age 17, his condition was not good at 42 years old in 1992 and his eyesight was rapidly deteriorating.
However, Shawn’s kidney and islet cells were a near perfect match.
“There are about five things that they go by and I had four of them for that kidney,” Gene says.
Gene remembers Feb. 19, 1992, well.
“As we went for the transplant, I got so sick,” he says. “We got to Mankato and called to see if we should cancel, and they said, ‘No, keep coming.’ They watched me closely and then I came out of it and they did the transplant right away.
“I think I was excited.”
Surgeons got a quick indication that the transplant was successful.
“I was reading one of the articles I saved and it said that when they put the new kidney in, it immediately turned pick, which meant it started working,” he says, now 25 years later.
He weathered one rejection episode and then his body began producing insulin from the islet cell transplant.
At the time, kidney transplants were nothing new, however, the islet transplant was revolutionary. In fact, at the time, Gene was one of just three people “in the history of the world,” as his doctor put it, to have a successful islet transplant.
The islet cell transplant prevented Gene from having to have insulin injections for between six months and a year. Due to rejection drugs he was taking, he lost some of the islet cells and needed to resume taking insulin injections. However, his doctor believes that the islet cells are still there and working because he needs lower doses of insulin.
In any case, he continues to live on that signal life-saving kidney.
“Everything has worked out so well,” Duerksen maintains with a smile.
Duerksen’s kidney and islet transplant is more than remarkable. He says a kidney received from a living donor lasts about 15.5 years, which is twice as long as a kidney received from someone who has died. Yet, 25 years later, the kidney
continues to give Duerksen life.
“I think it’s God who’s done it. I tell people, ‘If you don’t want me around any more, quit praying,’  ” Duerksen says with a laugh. “The only reason I’m here is because they keep praying.”
On that day 25 years ago, Shawn’s organ and tissue donations resulted in changed lives for at least five people.
But the organ donation ultimately involved more than a giver and a receiver. About four years after the transplant — through LifeSource, the intermediary between donor or donor’s family and recipient — Gene was able to meet Shawn’s family. The moment was captured on the KARE 11 evening news in August of 1996.
Admittedly, Duerksen’s transplant experience is not typical. In fact, Duerksen says that a very small percentage of donors or donor families meet the recipient. In some cases, there’s only an exchange of Christmas cards or an occasional letter. In other cases, the donor/recipient bond ends at surgery.
Duerksen considers himself one of the fortunate ones.
“They were excited and I was excited,” Gene says of their opportunity to meet one another.
Duerksen was eager to remind people of the gift he received for several reasons. First, it was the milestone 25th anniversary of the transplant and at 67 years old, Gene admits that he isn’t sure he’ll be fortunate enough to celebrate a 50th anniversary.
Secondly, the story comes on the eve of March, which is National Kidney Month, with National Donate Life Month just around the corner in April.
And lastly, but most importantly, Duerksen wants to promote and encourage others to become organ and tissue donors.
“A deceased donor can touch as many as 50 people,” he emphasizes.
“The ideal (way) to be a transplant donor is to have it on your driver’s license. Shawn didn’t have it on her driver’s license, but she had made a comment to a friend that she would like to give.”
Duerksen adds that people who are considering being a donor should take one other step.
“Make sure it’s OK with the family,” Duerksen says.
Today, there are very few healthy organs that cannot be transplanted. It was 1954 that the first successful kidney transplant occurred and 14 years later, the first heart transplant happened.
Another milestone in transplant history came in 1983 when cyclosporine, the first of a new group of successful anti-rejection drugs, was approved for commercial use.
Meanwhile, 2001 marked the first time that the annual total of living donors exceeded deceased donors.
And, just last week, surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester shared the story of a man, who received an amazing face transplant.
According to United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 29,000 men, women and children receive life-saving organ transplants each year.
UNOS also points out on its website, www.unos.org, that presently 118,531 people need a lifesaving organ transplant (total waiting list of candidates) and of those, 75,980 people are active waiting list candidates. Since the first of the year,
2,801 transplants have been performed this year thanks to the life-saving gift of 1,323 donors.
Unfortunately, Duerksen says that an average of 22 people per day die because of a lack of donor organs and tissue, which is an increase of 14 people per day since Duerksen had his kidney transplant 25 years ago.
For more information about becoming a donor, visit the United Network for Organ Sharing at www.unos.org, or visit LifeSource at www.lifesource.org.
Here is a write up Dave Fjeld did on Gene at Thanksgiving in 2014…….

This article is posted here at FGGAM with permission from the Cottonwood County Citizen Newspaper in Windom, Minnesota. What a BLESSING!

HE’S our thanksgiving

If ever there is a better walking, talking – and singing – billboard for Thanksgiving, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone more qualified than Gene Duerksen of Delft.

Over the past three decades, the longtime Delft resident has battled one medical issue after another, much of which has stemmed from the diabetes with which he was diagnosed in 1967, after graduating from Windom High School. Indeed, Duerksen, 65, has dealt with eye problems since 1982 (he is considered legally blind today), a kidney transplant 10 years later and, since 2000, a heart attack, West Nile Disease that took him within a whisper of death, a leg amputation, prostate survery and, just this year, skin cancer which is a result of the anti-rejection drugs he takes for his kidney transplant.

And through it all, Duerksen continues to be thankful, for the fact that he is still here today, that he can be an example of God’s power when one places his trust in Him – and even for his circumstances, as sometimes painful or challenging as they can be.

“I feel God has allowed this to happen so that we can show other people how great He is,” Gene says.

“I just want to be a testimony to the Lord of how thankful everyone should be for their circumstances and how God will take them through, if people would just be willing to trust Him.”

Duerksen turns to Philippians 1:29 to support his testimony: For to you has been given the privilege not only of trusting Him but also of suffering for Him.

“When suffering comes, we can either get bitter or better,” Duerksen maintains.

“Despite facing one health battle after another, I haven’t gone through depression,” Duerksen says. “I get a little discouraged, but I’m not depressed by that.”

His daughter, Lynn Stoneking, was driving Gene to St. James one day this summer when he shared with her that he was feeling his life was not as valued, now that he couldn’t do many of the things he used to do for his family. A hard-working laborer, Gene’s health issues have caused him to rely on help from his family and others.

And then Lynn reminded him that his worth shouldn’t be measured in only one type of manual labor. His responsibilities to his family have now changed. The things he once did for his family can now be done by his children, and where his value now lies is in being a grandfather to five grandchildren. Indeed, there are many days when “grandpa” can push the youngsters in the swing or simply cuddle with them and teach them songs while his children and their spouses tackle other chores around the farm.

She also reminded him that his value is in the prayer journal he has kept for almost two years. After diabetes took his lower left leg, Gene decided his ministry was done, until God told him to start praying.

And pray, he has.

He started a list of people and entities that need daily prayer. Everyone from his own family to the church to President Obama and even to the evil ISIS terrorist group.
The list numbers over 200 for whom he prays daily.

“And I don’t pray for just the sick one, I pray for the family,” Gene says. “That has been my ministry. Some days I think, ‘Why do I repeat it?’ But God says, ‘Come to me because I care (1 Peter 5:7)!’  ”

Every three months, he creates a new list, including many of the same people, issues and situations that need prayer while adding others. He keeps it all in a three-ring binder.
“And I’ll also call people on the telephone and pray for them over the phone because I can’t go see them like I used to,” Gene says.

And despite his setbacks, he and his wife, Margaret, of 42 years continue to be part of the ministry effort they started 40 years ago, Maranatha Ministries. While the ministry is now largely handled by their daughter, Lynn, and her husband, Thomas, Gene and Margaret still sing and share their testimony with Lynn from time to time locally and, of course, continue to pray for the ministry.

Lynn is one of the Duerksens’ four children. Their oldest daughter, Joanna (Bruce) Miller, lives in St. Cloud; Josh (fiancée Heather) lives in Windom; Lynn and Thomas live in a separate wing on the Duerksen farm and Phil (Candice) Duerksen live west of Delft. Gene and Margaret also enjoy being grandparents to five grandchildren.

Ask him what he’s most thankful for and he’s quick to point to his caregiver – his wife, Margaret.

“Margaret and I had three young children in elementary school,” Gene says of the time when his problems began.
“The support we received from teachers, the school, churches and the community – that’s what it’s all about. I’m so thankful for prayer.”

Gene says Lynn, in an August Facebook post, recalling her dad’s battle with West Nile a decade earlier, perhaps said it best about Gene’s and Margaret’s marriage.

“I can say that God didn’t randomly choose our mom to marry our dad and be his helpmate,” Lynn wrote. “Holding her masters degree in public health nursing, she has worked just as full-time and overtime caring for her husband and his needs as any nurse out there. It’s just part of her everyday life . . . their ‘new normal.’ I believe God knew exactly who dad would need to survive his life.”

And survive, he has.

For more on Duerksen’s journey, see the story on the front page of the Nov. 26 issue of the Cottonwood County Citizen of Windom, Minnesota on newsstands in the Windom area. FGGAMThanksgiving

Here at FGGAM we are so thankful for newspaper’s like the Cottonwood County Citizen that shine the light of Jesus and their community!

I am blessed that this is my hometown newspaper and further blessed that I write a devotional column in the Citizen! PRAISE GOD!

When I asked Dave Fjeld of the Citizen if I could post this at FGGAM, he said sure and he wanted the Citizens to get full credit, but I also think Dave wrote the article and what a great work he has done capturing this Godly story! Dave is such a Godly man.

God Bless the Cottonwood County Citizen and staff!

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