Darrell Boone - He Made Us Better: A Story of Faith, Family, Friends (And Football)

No doubt about it, Peter Boones life definitely raised the wattage on Gods glorythis young man shined the Light of Jesus wherever he went, and with whomever he met. Our Joni and Friends Family Retreats just wont be quite the same without Peters participation. Just how significant was Peters life of service? Well, the remarkable book you hold in your hands tells all about it. So start turning the page, and get inspired!

Joni Eareckson Tada
Joni and Friends International Disability Center

The title, He Made Us Better , says it all. Peters life can inspire us all to appreciate the happiness that can be achieved through the love of sports and the joy of life.

Dick Vitale
TV Basketball Analyst

He Made Us Better is a terrific story. Peter Boone was a special person that I was fortunate to meet one evening after a speech I had given. Sharing that moment and later learning of all the obstacles he had overcome and the people he inspired along the way, truly touched my heart. Im thankful others will be able to read and learn of his perseverance and the impact he had on everyone he encountered. This story should inspire all of us to open our hearts, trust our faith and believe!

Brian Cardinal
Assistant Director, John Purdue Club

HE MADE US
BETTER

A Story of Faith, Family,
Friends (and Football)

DARRELL BOONE

Copyright 2017 Darrell Boone.

Photo courtesy of Wabash Plain Dealer

Artist Name for Cover Image Credit: Jake Preedin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7876-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7878-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7877-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017903855

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/07/2017

To Peters Vil lage

Its been said that It takes a village to raise a child. Peter had a villagea community of special people who God brought alongside him, his mother, me, and his brothers during our journey, with its many twists and turns, mountains and valleys. If you played a part in Peters or our liveswhether great or smallthis book is dedicated to you.

CONTENTS

For years, numerous people had told me that I should write a book about the amazing life of our middle son, Peter. Pete was born with a very serious birth defect that stacked the odds against him from day one. But almost from that day, he made sweet lemonade out of some pretty nasty lemons about as well as anyone Ive ever known.

There was a part of me that badly wanted to write the book. But there was another part that was hesitant and reluctant, for a variety of reasons.

Then one day I was re-reading a devotion I had written for The Upper Room a few years earlier, in which I quoted 1 Peter 4:10: Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received (NRSV). Then for the Thought for the Day, Id closed with, How am I helping others with what Ive been given?

Peter was born with many challenges, which in turn brought a truckload of additional challenges for my wife, Sandra, and me. But over the years, I truly came to appreciate Peter as a gift. And now I found myself convicted on two countsfirst by scripture, then by my own words. So I knew that the time to write the book had come.

My purpose in writing this book is to share Peter with you, the reader, in the hopes that you can come to know him, love him, and enjoy him as Sandra and I did, and as most all of those who knew him did. And that you could also be encouraged, inspired and challenged to play whatever hand youve been dealtno matter how difficultwith faith, joy, courage, perseverance, passion, thankfulness, fun, and laughter.

My other primary purpose was to celebrate Gods faithfulness through those many individuals who came alongside us to walk with us in our journey, somebut by no means allof whom are mentioned here. Without their help, we would never have survived. But besides that, they made the journey a lot more fun, and our lives are richer for their having walked with us.

As I contemplated the task before me, it seemed to me that the best way to tell Peters story was by simply telling some of the stories that made Peter well, Peter. So thats what I did. It was hard work, but it was also a labor of love. There were times I cried, times I laughed, and times I did both at the same time. I intentionally didnt try to tell all the stories, lest this turn out like four volumes of War and Peace. I also tried to tell the stories as concisely as possible, for the same reason.

Ive grouped the stories mostly by topic rather than strictly chronologically because, frankly, that seemed to me to be the best way to tell Peters overall story. But some of the chapters encompass decades. So if theres a little bouncing back and forth, or overlap, please bear with me.

Just a note: In case you wonder at some point, everything in this book is true, and it happened just like I described it. I couldnt begin to make some of this stuff up!

And finally, thanks for your investment of time and dollars in reading this book. While Ive been a freelance agricultural writer for years, this is my first venture as the author of a book. Its been quite a different process than writing magazine articles about corn, soybeans, and dairy cows. But Ive loved doing it. Im honored and humbled by your selecting it, and pray youll be blessed in your reading of it.

Sincerely,

Darrell Boone

A Shining Mo ment

It was a pretty spring evening, May 28, 1994. My wife, Sandra, and I were seated, along with family and friends, in the crowded Southwood High School gym near Wabash, Indiana. Our son Peter was on the stage for the graduation ceremonies that evening, and as the evening unfolded, my mind flashed back over the past eighteen-plus years.

Honestly, I never thought he would get to this moment. Peter, our second of three sons, had been born with an especially severe case of a birth defect known as spina bifida, or open spine. When he was born, his prognosis had been very poor. Then it got worse. Over the span of his life, he had endured more than eighty surgeriesmany of them big league caliberand had been near death more times than we could count. Seven years earlier, during one of those surgeries, he had experienced trauma to his brainstem and had lost his ability to speak, swallow, eat normally, or survive without the benefit of oxygen during the day and a ventilator at night.