"Throughout nine months of enduring terminal cancer, Steve and Sharol hide nothing of their struggle, and yet withhold nothing of their bold faith. This is a rare gift, to be invited into a journey so utterly full and overflowing with both the depth of pain and loss and yet the anchor of hope. I will always count it as one of my greatest treasures to have known Steve in both life and death."
"Steve Hayner has been first a hero and then a friend since I met him many years ago. He was a people magnet and an idea machine and an energy force. To follow the journey that he and Sharol traveled together through the valley of the shadow of death was a privilege and a heartbreak and an education in hope. I'm grateful their searing, aching, honest, inspiring words are now permanently available. I cannot imagine a human being who would not benefit from it."
"With remarkable candor, Steve and Sharol Hayner teach us how to live in the face of dying. Over nine months of physical decline, they lay bare a wide range of emotions—faith and fear, grace and grief, poignancy and pain. The journey, though hellish at times, is punctuated by the Lord's presence, family love and proactive friends. Years ago, I followed Steve to InterVarsity. Someday, when my health fails, I will follow him to glory. When that happens, I want to emulate his journey of dignity, courage and joy."
"I first came to know Steve as a teacher when he was called to serve as professor of evangelism at Columbia Theological Seminary. . . . This book is an example of Steve as a teacher. It is real, honest and truthful. Like Steve, it inspires, challenges, encourages and changes us all as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. What Steve and Sharol Hayner both teach us through their amazing writing is how to trust, be vulnerable, grieve and, yes, be joyful even as one is dying. They teach us through their abiding faith, humility, sadness, frustration and candor."
"Seldom have I been as moved as in reading these epistles from Steve and Sharol Hayner—each ending 'Joyfully yours.' Through his life Steve helped so many to find life in all its fullness in Christ. Now, with his beloved Sharol, he guides us through the ending of life in fullness of hope. Thanks to InterVarsity Press for what I believe will become a classic."
"Joy in the Journey is a simple and yet profound testimony of a man of faith embracing life in death, and of a woman keeping faith and loving her husband all the way to the grave. It is a moving testimony of how it is that in the season of dying one comes to terms with what life is all about, the truths of the gospel and God's call today. It is amazing how it all becomes clearer in the darker seasons of life. In these pages we receive glimpses into that 'over all presence of God' that makes gratitude and joy possible all the time, even in suffering, grieving and dying!"
"Steve and Sharol Hayner spent their lives teaching everyone who knew them just what it means to truly live for Christ. Then during Steve's final months of life, they taught us how to truly die in Christ. They shared their experience with us through a series of remarkable journals chronicling how they found deep joy in Christ in the midst of acute suffering, dying and death. I had hoped that these beautiful and inspiring journals would be published so they could bless others who might be walking through their own valleys. This small book will now help countless others to find the still, small voice of God in the midst of their own tempest. He is risen indeed!"
