Farewell to Bill Irwin

On March first this year, at 6:34am, our Executive Director Bill Irwin went home to be with Jesus. He fought a valiant battle with prostrate cancer. It can be said of him that he was not dying with cancer but living with cancer. Despite his pain, he continued to minister freedom right up until the end. We have lost a wonderful man and dynamic leader. In his memory, I want to leave you with three basic principles that he lived and taught as the basis for living free. First, focus on the fundamentals. The keys to freedom are extremely basic and must be practiced and repeated until they are mastered. Some of these basics include a disciplined thought life, accountability and gratitude. The next principle he taught was compassion. Bill taught his staff to be gentle, patient and compassionate. Most people who come to us are already beaten down. They know they need change, but just don’t know how to achieve it. Our job is to encourage, equip and exhort with hearts full of understanding. Lastly Bill taught that humility is the key to freedom. Humility is best seen in a life that becomes completely surrendered to Christ. It is the truth that our greatest weaknesses are to be embraced, given into the hands of the Potter that His Strength can be perfected, II Corinthians 12:9. Bill’s life embodied this truth being the only blind man to ever to through hike the Appalachian Trail in one season. It was a miraculous feat that could only have been accomplished by a very weak man completely surrendered and dependent on a very Great God. How does a blind man hike 2100 miles of the most rugged country in America? You do it one step at a time hand in hand with God. How does a life consumed by pornography addiction find freedom? You do it one step at a time, hand and hand with Jesus.