Kit Mitchell
June 30, 1953 - November 10, 2003
I’ve often mentioned Kit on my blog before so today I thought I’d share a Kit story. After he died someone said I should sit down and write some of his stories when they were still fresh but I didn’t do it and now I wish I had.
Kit was a client of mine who became a friend. I was his Keyworker for 2 years and spent lots of time with Kit. He lived in the same group home for 27 years and he “ran the home”. He stole my heart the first time I met him. I thought of him more as a brother and in a way, his death prepared me for my own brother’s a year later.
Kit loved God with all of his heart. Because he couldn’t talk he made gestures and grunt like sounds. When you got to know him you could hear the different between happy grunts and mad frustrated grunts. When Kit prayed it was as if he commanded God to listen to him. He lifted his arms up to the air and looked into the heavens and almost shouted “Hey God what are you doing up there? I’m needing some help here”
The summer before he died Kit decided he wanted to get baptized. It had been mentioned at church and Kit took it upon himself to go and talk to the Pastor about being baptized. He pointed to the bulletin announcement and then to himself and then upwards to God, crossed his heart and hugged the Pastor. The Pastor got the message.
Kit’s Pastor came out to see him on an official Pastoral visit to make very sure that Kit knew what he was doing. After sharing a coffee with him he was certain Kit knew exactly what he was doing. The only thing was Kit was deathly afraid of water and didn’t like the idea of “full immersion”. So…we improvised.
Sunday arrived and Kit was excited. He was jumping up and down with joy. I gave him a ceramic cross with the Lord’s Prayer inscribed on it as a keepsake. He held that close to his heart and put it on his shelf.
My mom and brother came for the service and that was a blessing both to Kit and myself.
Kit sat on pins and needles the whole service and then the Pastor announced that all those getting baptized were going down to the river after the service.
(Church was held outside in the summer at a park as it normally met in a school.) Then the Pastor called Kit and myself up front.
He introduced us and asked me to give a little of Kit’s testimony. I shared how Kit gave the plan of salvation every time we drove past the little graveyard close to the group home where he lived. With his gestures and grunts Kit made it plain just how easy it was to accept Jesus in your heart. After I shared Kit took the Pastor’s Bible and opened it to a passage and grunted his way through it.
After that they put a towel across Kit’s shoulders and got a bowl full of water. The Pastor cupped his hands and scooped some water and let it flow over Kit’s hat (he wouldn’t remove it). The congregation clapped and Kit rejoiced. He hugged everyone and laughed. He’d done it.
The verse that I gave Kit when I became his key worker was: James 5:16 “the effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Six months later when Kit went to be with the Lord we used that verse on his Memorial bulletin.
Kit taught me to be who you are, don’t be defeated by what others think of you, reach out and care about people even if you get hurt and above all, love others as Christ loved us. So often our society lessens what people with disabilities can give us. I thank God for the opportunity of knowing Kit and seeing what a great big heart a little guy could have.
