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MANISTEE — The Rev. Patrick Pointer knows when he stands in front of his congregation at the 10:30 a.m. service this Sunday at the Manistee Assembly of Godit will most likely be a very emotional one for him.
After 20 years of faithfully serving the needs of the Manistee congregation, Pointer is stepping away from being their minister to focus his attention on his health issues. For the past two years he has been battling a series of health challenges that all began when he was diagnosed with bone cancer in June 2021, which he was able to overcome.
From that point, he has encountered a vast array of other health issues, the causes of which has puzzled even the University of Michigan Hospital doctors. That’s why Pointer said decided to tender his resignation to church officials on Jan. 2.
“The major decision was made because it was time to just step down and focus on my health,” said Pointer. “I am not actually retiring either, it’s just that I have to step down right now. We really do not know what the future holds at this time, and we have no plans to leave the community at this time.”
He said serving in Manistee for the past 20 years has been wonderful for him, his wife Joanie and their children. The bond he created with his congregation is second to none in his opinion.
“We love the community, the church and people we are serving now and over the past 20 years,” he said. “I have to say it has probably been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make.”
Pointer said the congregation and others in the community have been very supportive of his fight to improve his health.
“There is definitely a strong love connection we have and it is one of the things I have always appreciated about our church congregation over all the 20 years we have been here,” he said. “We have a congregation who has always loved people and made them feel very accepted.”
However, he said at this time it was in his best interests to step away from the ministry until he gets more definitive answers concerning his health. He hasn’t ruled out returning to the ministry in the future.
“I am an ordained minister in the Assembly of God and that is a lifetime commitment to ministry,” he said. “Even though what I going through right now I continue to minister to others.”
Pointer has accomplished that by creating an online presence documenting his medical journey that he hopes will inspire others who are facing serious medical challenges.
“I do it with a Facebook page called ‘Fight’n the Fight and Keep’n the Faith,’” he said. “It’s a page anyone is welcome to go on and look as it has tracked everything health wise since I was first diagnosed with the cancer and the healing of the cancer right on up to today.”
He said when he posts on that page, he asks for prayer in telling his story on what he is going through at this time. Another part of why he has the page is to encourage other people facing health challenges of their own.
“I have people from all over the world who are a part of that page,” Pointer said.
Pointer said he also misses doing something else he enjoys, which is making swords and scabbards for museums, archaeologists, historians and reenactors all over the world.
“I did that to supplement my income and haven’t been able to do that as well for the past 21 months,” he said. “My last two swords I did were for the Creation Museum down in Kentucky.”
Pointer said he hopes in the coming weeks and months he will find answers to his health problems. He said he has gone through countless tests as they continue to seek answers.
“My body has been attacked in so many different ways that I actually have seen 32 different medical teams over the past 22 months and the majority are at the University of Michigan,” said Pointer. “My case has everyone baffled as each team finds something in their department and then refers back to oncology.”
Pointer also had COVID-19 and is part of a long-term COVID study at the University of Michigan, but doctors don’t think his problems are attributed to that disease.
He and his family hope that by taking time to focus on his health issues, Pointer will find some answers to what he source along with treatment so he can return to a normal life.
Following the service at the church on Sunday, he will be honored with a dinner at the Bungalow Inn.
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