Remembering Lindsay...

I apologize for not posting this sooner. I tried looking for Lindsay's obituary earlier without any luck but I just found it a couple of days ago. This, like Jason's obituary, was very beautifully and eloquently written:

Lindsay Christine Cutshall, 22
Obituary

FRESNO -- Around Sunday, Aug. l5, 2004, Lindsay Christine Cutshall of Fresno, along with her fiance, Jason Scott Allen of Zeeland, Mich., was called home to live eternally with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Lindsay was born Sept. 9, 1981, in Coshocton.

She was a member of Fresno Bible Church, where her father has been the pastor for 18 years. She attended Fresno Elementary and graduated high school as a home school student in 2000.

In 2003, she was a graduate of Appalachian Bible College in Bradley, W.Va., obtaining an Associates Degree in Bible. While at ABC Lindsay became involved in outdoor adventure sports like backpacking, rock climbing, rappelling and white water rafting. She was a Class V River Guide. Lindsay and Jason worked this past summer as camp staff at Rock-N-Water, a Christian adventure camp in California.

Lindsay felt God's call early in life to be in full-time ministry, and while at college that call moved more specifically to an adventure camping ministry where she could work with children and youth using her love for the Lord to help them find hope and peace in this life.

Lindsay had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Savior at a young age. She grew in her love for Him and was very committed to her relationship with Him. She was a woman of high moral and spiritual character and had a heart for serving the Lord by serving others. She was known by her fellow staff members at Rock-N-Water as a great encourager who would stay up long into the night ministering God's healing grace to hurting campers. She lived her life with a passion to please and glorify her Lord. Her parents could not be more pleased with her.

Lindsay and Jason were to be married Sept. 11, 2004 in Fresno. They were known as a couple who were "made for each other." They shared a love for the Lord, for the church, for people and for Christian ministry and the Lord chose to allow them to enter heaven together.

Lindsay is survived by her parents, Chris and Kathy (Knisely) Cutshall of Fresno; sister and brother-in-law, Kerry and Ben Croghan of Fresno; maternal grandparents, Russell and Jo Ellen Knisely of West Lafayette; and paternal grandmother, Roberta Cutshall of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Her paternal grandfather is the late Sam Cutshall of Chattanooga, Tenn.

A joint memorial service for Lindsay and Jason will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 4, 2004, at the First Church of the Nazarene, 1058 Orange St. in Coshocton. This will be a public worship celebration of their godly lives on earth and their glorious entrance into heaven.

In lieu of flowers, the Cutshall family requests that donations be made to Fresno Bible Church, P.O. Box 67, Fresno, OH 43824. Envelopes will be available at the Coshocton Nazarene Church or Free Funeral Home in Coshocton, who is handling local arrangements.

Transcript of Memorial Service...

I just came across this last night. On Jason and Lindsay's memorial ministry site, Kids in Creation, there is a copy of the transcript (in PDF format) of the message given by Chris Cutshall, Lindsay's father. There is also an audio clip available (21.1 MB). I printed off the 7-page transcript and read it last night. I was moved to tears... not just by the fact that I feel such a loss in my heart that Jason and Lindsay were taken from us at such a young age... but moreso by the fact that I suddenly realized God's Hand in all that happens in every aspect of life. God knew that Jason and Lindsay were ready to come home and that it was their time to go. It made me realize how much I need to get my own spiritual life back in order. I have spent so much time... wasted so much time... worrying about things that do not matter. I have let Satan lead me astray in some ways that have damaged my heart and my walk with God. But that all ends now. Jason and Lindsay left a legacy and I am going to learn from how they lived their lives. It's time for me to renew my faith and to get things straight. I have always had faith and I have understood the reality of God and what He offers us... but I have also allowed myself occasionally to be tempted and manipulated by Satan who will do anything to cut us off from God. All that does is bring pain and suffering. God's Way is the only way to live a life with peace in your heart. Truthfully, I am SO much looking forward to the day that it is my turn to go home to see Jesus. I don't like how damaged and abused this world has become. It just breaks my heart! This world started out as a perfect Creation from God. It started out perfect and our (humanity's) choices have completely destroyed it. And yet God uses what He can... what we have left here... to show us what He's all about. He used the horror and tragedy of the murder of Jason and Lindsay to show us how to live by their example.

Please take the time to either read this transcript or listen to it. I promise it'll change your life. God knows what He's doing. Please learn from this that a Godly life is the only one worth living. We only have one chance to live on this earth... and how we live here determines where we end up for ETERNITY. Don't let worldly things and "values" to drive who you are and what you want. You can't take "things" with you when you die. The only way to live that is worth anything is to live for God and to let others know too.

Note: If you read the transcript, there are parts where things are in parentheses like (Baby Lindsay) or (Young Jason). I haven't confirmed this but I think those were descriptions of the photos that were being shown at the moment that Pastor Cutshall was reading that portion of the message. Just a "heads up." :)