Extended Horizon Reflections

Jeff Jackson

Jeff Jackson was fifteen the first time he laid eyes on a beautiful thirteen-year-old girl named Helen.  A few months later he asked Helen to “go steady” with him, and she said yes.  Neither of them could have known the incredible journey that initial commitment to one another would generate throughout the rest of their lives.

After becoming husband and wife while still teenagers, they relocated a few days after their wedding ceremony to the country where he was stationed as a member of the U.S. Army, and welcomed their first child a few months later.  Their son was born with health issues that would almost take his life and require them to go on a breath-taking journey that included stops at U.S. Air Force bases scattered throughout the Pacific.

The story of their transition back to civilian life, being transformed spiritually, voluntarily relocating to another country for more than five years, and Jeff’s own experience of being diagnosed with a terminal illness and the life-trajectory changes generated, is riveting reading.