Martin Smith, RIP

I wrote the following post earlier this week (Wednesday, December 4, 2019) on Facebook:

 

I received a call from a nurse at Vibra Hospital in Detroit this morning

just after 9:00 am alerting me that my brother, Martin Smith, passed away at

8:50 am on Wednesday, December 4, 2019. He had been hospitalized since late

August in intensive care at Harper then Vibra Hospital.

I am very grateful to all who have visited Martin (“Mark”) during this time.

I am especially thankful to those who have extended extra care and

assistance to help Mark and me during this time.

I believe Mark suffered from the consequences of his long battle with

prostate cancer. Mark was operated on for a neck tumor in early September.

After the operation, he had no use of his tongue so he could not swallow or

talk.

I know Mark is in a far better place now, for he had a very firm and

knowledgeable faith in the Bible and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been absolutely amazed at the number of individuals Mark’s life touched in Southwest Detroit where he lived. I will miss him for a short while, but I am thankful for his witness for Christ.

Shortly after I began teaching in Detroit, I moved to an apartment in Southwest Detroit. It was in walking distance from where I taught at Neinas Junior High School and then Amelia Earhart Middle School. It was not far from where I next taught at Cass Technical High School.

When Mark needed a place to live, I agreed to have him move in with me. By splitting the apartment rent, it made our housing expense very manageable–just $35 a month. That let me increase my book budget. I still have all the good Bible reference books (5000) and literature, history, mathematics, and electronics books (2000) from that time.

When Mark began having difficulties with his administrators (Mark was a teacher too) I wrote many letters in his defense. But eventually Mark had to leave public school teaching and took jobs in the electrical industry. He has had a very hard life, materially speaking. But spiritually speaking, he has always maintained a good witness for Christ. He last worked at the Salvation Army as a GED instructor. Mark was always good at helping students learn mathematics and science. I suspect that this skill was not at all appreciated by his public school administrators. I think the administrators at the Salvation Army very much appreciated what he was able to do for the adult education students he worked with there.

I understand that Mark was involved with helping students in a local home school group learn mathematics and other subjects and was much appreciated by both the students and the parents.

I am thankful to have had the opportunity to be an encouragement to my brother Mark in various ways, but most especially, spiritually.

 

This entry was posted in Justice and the Bible, Politics and the Bible and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with Facebook

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.