Nabeel Qureshi

Two days ago, I got the news that Nabeel Qureshi had passed away.  He had a year-long battle with stage four stomach cancer.  He never gave up though, he fought until the very end.  Not once did he point the finger at God and say "YOU did this to me!  This is YOUR fault!"  Not once did he renounce his faith in Jesus Christ.  People know him most as a Muslim who converted to Christianity and from his book "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus."  He was doctor turned apologist (someone who defends the faith).  He was a very close friend of my parents, and he was my friend too.

I've known him since I was in sixth grade - 14 years.  My dad (who's also an apologist) had this team who'd meet at our house called the "Dream Team."  He was one of the people who came over for the Dream Team.  That's how I first knew him, well, I guess met him.  I wasn't really involved in my dad's Dream Team and quite honestly, I didn't care about apologetics, lol.  Anyway, after we moved to another state, I didn't really see him until high school when he came to visit my parents.

I remember this one particular time, I had just gotten done with a horseback riding lesson (I think 10th grade).  He and my dad came to pick me up.  We were around 10-20 miles away from the house I think (though to be honest, I really have no idea, lol).  My dad knew how much I couldn't stand puns.  So guess what happened from the drive between the barn and the house?  Between Nabeel and my dad, it was pun after pun after pun.  I was so mad about it; though now, I laugh when I think back to that memory.

There was another memory I'm fond of too.  Right after graduating high school (about two months after), I had my first suicide attempt.  I was put on an anti-psychotic (Risperdal).  I did't know it was for temporary use, the doctor never told me!  Anyway, it caused nasty tremors in my hands.  It made it difficult to type on the computer, and especially eating with a spoon or fork.  I went to an apologetics conference in Charlotte, NC with my dad - to see my boyfriend (now husband, who once again, is an apologist) at the time.  My dad was going to let me do the PowerPoint for him in one of his sessions, but the tremors were so bad, he had to have someone else do them for me.  I saw Nabeel there and asked him (since he had been a doctor) what could be causing them.  He told me it was my medication and that the kind I was on was meant for temporary use.  He was right!  We went to my dr and told him what was happening and he took me off that medication.  It took a while, but the tremors did eventually stop.

For years I've wanted to do missions work (I did some in middle and high school and really enjoyed helping people, while also spreading the Gospel at the same time).  I've wanted to do that in Japan, but I also had a time where I thought about doing that in the Middle East too (I think only he and my husband knew that though).  I talked to him some about that through Facebook.  I talked to his wife Michelle on Facebook some too about being in the military and exercise I think (honestly it can be difficult for me to remember things after my first suicide attempt).

These are the main memories I have.  I'm sure I have some other ones, but I do have memory issues.  Some days my memory seems to be getting better, other days it seems to be getting worse.  Lately it's been the latter.

His death has been difficult for me to process.  I keep thinking "He's going to come out with another vlog and he's going to say how God healed him!"  But he's not.  There will be no more vlogs.  There will be no more updates.  There will be no miraculous healing, or will there?  He's not healed like how we all pleaded with God to be; BUT he IS healed.  He is no longer sick.  He is no longer in pain.  He is no longer suffering.  He is in the very presence of Christ!  We are sad that we no longer get to experience him alive in this life, but we are not like those who have no hope.



And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died, so you will not grieve like those with no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14



We have hope - hope that we will see Nabeel again.  He will have a joy that we can't even imagine right now - no, he HAS joy that we can't even imagine right now!  We miss him now, but one day we will see him again.  We mourn for our loss of him, but one day we will be reunited with him.  In the words of Jesus:



"I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying."

John 11:25