Doug Repp of rural Perry hosted a reception Saturday afternoon to thank his many friends and well wishers for their support and encouragement — their thoughts and prayers — over the last seven months of his recovery and rehabilitation.
Repp was injured May 29, 2017, Memorial Day, when he took a spill on the dirt bike he was riding at River Farm Recreation, a maze of multiple motocross tracks and courses lying five miles west of Jefferson and run by the Flack family.
Repp was Lifeflighted to Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines with a serious spinal cord injury. He transferred in June to QLI Rehabilitation in Omaha, Neb., and returned to his Perry home in time for Christmas. He continues a rigorous physical therapy regime at Younker Rehabilitation in Des Moines and with Tom Lowe at Champion Strength and Performance in Waukee.
Through the course of his painful eight-month transition, Repp, a 1983 PHS grad, has enjoyed the unwavering love and support of his wife, Tracy, his son and daughter, Marshall and Molly, his mother, sister and brothers, with many other family members and innumerable Perry-area friends.
Life changes in the blink of an eye and leaves us shocked and asking why. We raise a perennial lament — Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the wicked prosper? — a cry perhaps as old as life itself. We look for justice in this world and do not find it. Some conclude darkly, like the character in the Conrad novel, that “life doesn’t stand much looking into.”
But the Apostle Paul said that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” and “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The faith of the Repps has been their comfort and stay, as described by the poet:
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
For Christmas this year, Molly Repp gave her parents a bound album of all the Caring Bridge comments made by Doug’s family and friends since May. They make a testament.
“I read Doug all of the posts and comments,” Tracy Repp said in a journal entry. “Doug was brought to tears countless times just realizing all the prayers and love coming his direction all these months. God’s faithfulness, love and perfect timing are so evident in those posts. We have no idea why God chose this particular journey for our family, so we will continue to look to Him, rely on Him and hopefully deepen our relationship with Him in 2018. This journey has been and continues to be difficult, but we trust in God’s perfect plan and look forward to what He has in store for us.”
