George Eugene Wood

George E. Wood, 69, of Waterville, IA, died Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at Gunderson Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, WI. Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 13th at 11:00 am at Waterville Lutheran Church in Waterville, IA, with Pastor Laura Gentry officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends may call from 4:00 to 8:00 pm Friday at Martin Funeral Home in Waukon.

George Eugene Wood was born in rural Lansing, IA, on March 23, 1937, the son of Eugene Aaron and Martina Lillian (Peterson) Wood. He was baptized and confirmed at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Lansing. George attended Center Township #1 rural school and graduated from Lansing High School in 1955. His early work consisted of farming with his father and helping to install the steel floor on the Blackhawk Bridge at Lansing. On December 1, 1957 he married Sharon Jean Eddy. They started by farming on halves with Lester "Bill" Thomson near Elon for a few years. In 1962 they purchased a farm in Paint Creek Township near Waterville and began raising grain, hogs and beef cattle as well as operating a dairy herd. Their daughter Sheryl and her husband Steve joined the operation in 1989, although George continued to remain active on the farm.

George was a loyal member of Waterville Lutheran Church where he held numerous leadership positions over the years as well as served as youth sponsor. He was also a long-time member of the Waterville Volunteer Fire Department and a former FHA board member. His hobbies included raising horses on the farm, bowling in leagues in Lansing and Waukon and riding with the Allamakee Snowblazers snowmobiling club. In recent years he had become an accomplished woodworker and enjoyed making things for his family and friends. Family was important to George and he liked following the activities of his children and grandchildren. Throughout his life he maintained a love of the Mississippi River. He fished and boated there all his life and for more than 20 years, he and Sharon have enjoyed wonderful times with their family and special friends on the houseboats they kept in Lansing.

Survivors include his wife Sharon of Waterville; 4 daughters, Donna Jean Wood of Platteville, WI, Sheryl (Steve) Evanson and Sandra (Sean) Bresnahan, both of Waterville, and Carolyn (Jon) Halling of Eagan, MN; a nephew he raised as a son, Duane (Eileen Fahey) Wood of Waukon; 14 grandchildren; and 3 brothers, Kenneth (Vickie) of Cedar Rapids, John (Sharon) of Harpers Ferry and Walter (Carol) of Mineral Point, WI. He is preceded in death by his parents.

Honorary casketbearers are Maurice & Kay Mooney, Paul & Diane Sorenson, Martin & Joanne Odneal, Stewart Groves, Maureen & Steve Thode, Jim & Natalie Baugher, Dick & Donna Reed, George & Jean Huffey and Lloyd & Ruby Olson. Casketbearers are Doc Weymiller, Dave Wilson, Rudy Hesla, Roger Ellefson, Jim Christensen, Jim Christianson, Carl Thompson and Bart Hamm.

This is the manuscript of the sermon preached at the Funeral of George Wood on May 13, 2006 by Pastor Laura Gentry

Romans 8:31-35, 37-39
Mark 1:14-20

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There is a simple prayer for fishermen and it goes like this:
Dear God, be good to me;
The sea is so wide,
And my boat is so small.

As a fisherman, I am sure George could relate to this, though we could regionalize the prayer by saying say the "river is so wide and my boat is so small."

We cannot even imagine the emotional anguish that George went through. In the deep, dark abyss of depression, it must have looked to him like the river was impossibly wide—that just being alive was too heavy a burden to bear. So small his boat seemed on the rough waters of sadness and pain.

It wasn't always that way for George. He was a man of deep faith. Not only was he a fisherman, he was also a fisher of men. That's why his family chose the gospel lesson about Jesus calling the disciples. A former pastor of this congregation even used George in a sermon illustration of this passage. He was, indeed, a man who answered Jesus' call to discipleship. He was willing and able to do just about everything around here—always cheerfully offering his time, talents and treasures to his family, his church and his community. George humbly lived a life of service and compassion and was an inspiration to all of us.

And yet, in recent years, there were times in which he was not himself, when depression gripped him to the core, when the river felt so, so wide and his boat so very small. Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "What shall separate us from the Love of Christ?" What can keep God's love in Jesus Christ away from us? Paul asks, " Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, of famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword separate us from the love of Christ?"

Perhaps George asked similar questions like: "Shall suffering a stroke, or facing depression, or fear, or pain, or exhaustion separate me from the love of God?" His boat seemed so far from shore and he was so battered down that it truly must have looked to him like the love of God was out-of-reach. Hope gone. The healing balm of Christ's compassion vanished.

Shall these things separate us from the love of Christ? "No!" says Paul. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yes, we take God at his word and when he says that he will never forsake us, we believe it. God promised his irrevocable grace to George at his baptism. God promised to always love him, to always forgive him to always hold him in the palm of his hand no matter what choices he made. Even though George could not perceive it, depression could not separate him from the love of Christ. And not even death by his own hand could separate George from the love of Christ. God is so good.

That is the good news to be proclaimed today, my friends. Yes, even in this tragic situation, there is good news. Indeed, the river of pain seemed wide to George, but the wideness of God's mercy is wider—much wider. His boat felt so inadequately small, but God was in that boat with him all along. And now, when it would be easy to condemn George for making a decision that causes us all such pain and suffering, God's offers no condemnation but instead, covers George in the amazing grace he promised him and welcomes him into his eternal home where there will be no more tears and the river of life flows from the throne of God (and I hear the fishing's pretty good in that river).

Yes, we will miss George who is husband, father, grandfather, uncle, neighbor, and dear friend. We will miss him more than we can express. Our minds will inevitably question why this had to happen and what we might have done to prevent it. But those questions have no answers, no comfort, no grace. Instead, we must run to where the grace is, my friends. There is no other way to walk through this valley and make it to the other side where there will be joy for us again. God will carry us through this time. Our good God is in our boat—loving us, guiding us through and offering us the peace that passes all understanding.

To close, I'd like to share with you a fisherman's poem by Thomas Keats.

When far from land on the stormy sea
There are times when my boat seems frail to me
Where the rising wind and the monstrous waves
Have sent many souls to their watery graves
When the fog shuts down and blacks out the shore
And the heavy seas on the rocks do roar
Where the hidden shoal and the tricky tide
Could mean my doom without a guide
In times like this our hearts sometime fail
And we fear we'll be lost in the stormy gale
Our thoughts go back to our friends on shore
And loved ones whom we'll probably see no more
But then at last there is a light
Shining through the gloom like a beacon bright
It is our faith in Our Lord we see
Who rules the raging of the sea
Our thoughts go back to the story true
Of Our Lord who protects His disciples crew
Who were fishermen just like me
And we follow their tradition of the sea
So now all fishermen be of good cheer
And always remember Your Lord is near
The word of a hymn which can give courage to thee
Are "Jesus Saviour, Pilot Me".