Jack Harper - Promotions and Outreach

My name is Jack D. Harper Jr. and my story isn’t much different than anyone else's except for a few twists and turns here and there.  I was born in 1970 on a cold January afternoon in the middle of a snowstorm.  First sign of trouble?  Don’t even bother with the math; I’m not that old yet!  I was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and have spent my entire life here.  I graduated high school with honors in 1988, ( wow 20 year reunion this year!)  I married my high school sweetheart in 1990 to the sound of thunder, I wonder now how I missed such an obvious sign as a sever thunderstorm during the wedding ceremony?  Sure enough, I was divorced in 2005 after 15 years and three children, (not by my choosing I must add).  I remain blissfully single, hurrah me!

As I stated I have three kids who spend most of their time with me, Alex is my son and is 12 years old, and I have two daughters, Holly, age 11 and Ryan Sue age, 9.  They are a pleasure, albeit a handful, and I am blessed that they have all three received Christ into their lives and have been baptized!  I’m hopeful this will give them the tools they need to avoid the mistakes I made in my youth since I did not find Christ until I was 35.  Well, to say I found Christ is not exactly accurate. The more accurate thing would be to say He found me...and shook things up a bit to get my attention to be sure!  I was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 34 and had surgery to remove it. Approximately six months later it had returned larger than before.  Off I went back under for another operation, only this time I had prayer on my side.  And how fortunate I was to have a church body (which I had little interest in at the time), to pray for me.  During the surgery an artery was cut and the surgeon could not locate where the bleeding was coming from.  I was quite literally gone and they were ready to sew me up and head of to the golf course most likely, when for reasons my doctor said he couldn’t explain (I can), he moved a small piece of brain matter to one side and found the problem.  Relieved he stopped the bleeding and just like that. I was back!  After I came around he related the whole story to me and told me how close I came. The funny thing to me was that he didn’t accept any credit for keeping me alive!  His only response was to say “Somebody up there must really like you!” That was, as I have come to believe, a gross understatement!  Unfortunately the tumor could not be removed by traditional surgery because of the proximity of it to a major artery, but God was not yet through with me I suppose because as it turned out, the surgeon had just been to a meeting regarding the  possible purchase of a new machine for the new Spine Hospital and he though this new technology might work for me. So I was put in contact with a doctor from Stanford University in San Francisco, who was the inventor of this machine, the Cyber Knife.  After reviewing my MRIs he called to tell me he could definitely get rid of the tumor but I would have to spend 8 days at Stanford to do so. 

This was all pretty scary for an Oklahoma farm boy but I thought the only alternative was unacceptable. So off I went. But before leaving I had time to heal the scar on my head enough to be immersed so I was baptized and immediately felt the anxiety of the upcoming trip fall away from me.  I spent my 8 days in California, not the most fun trip, but well worth it because there has been no trace of any tumor since then.  Since then, I have grown in my relationship with the Lord and have found myself in need of his comfort repeatedly since we first met on that O.R. table.  First there was learning to live being legally blind because the tumor took most of my eyesight with it.  I am totally blind in my left eye and have an 18 degree visual field in my right which is blurry...sometimes are worse than others.  I also now take pills each day and a shot every other week because my pituitary gland was destroyed along with the tumor! Because of my eyesight I lost my job, went on disability, and my wife found a boyfriend who could see to drive her places and was gainfully employed.  Of course when you think you hit rock bottom, you often find out it can still get worse and sure enough, when she left, I could no longer keep up with the house payments on just my disability check so I had to sell out and move into an apartment with 2 bedrooms instead of the 4 we had been accustomed to. But God saw us through and we have just moved again into a new 3 bedroom apartment that is very nice and now my girls have their own room again.  I am very anxious to see what the Lord has in store for us next! I certainly would never have believed I would be teaching Sunday School and working with a missions group just 5 years ago. Funny how fast God can grab our attention and point us in the right direction!

As far as my background goes, I have worn many different hats from mowing grass to having lunch appointments with multi millionaires.  Most notably I worked for Ikon Office Solutions as a major account rep for just over five years.  My area consisted of all government and education in Northeastern Oklahoma and mostly because noone else wanted to call on them, I also handled all of the churches in this same area so I gained experience in calling on churches which are unique in the business world and very different yet in many ways similar to my government accounts.  After leaving Ikon due to ethical disagreements I began working as a contractor through Handyman Connections.  I was able to deal directly with the public and go into their homes to make certain repairs and do remodeling, often I found myself working for elderly people and widows, single moms and so forth who could not afford the $65 an hour charge we imposed, so much of my day was spent doing work for free.  I soon was asked by the company owners to take a salaried position and run the Tulsa office.  I have done several trade shows for both companies as well as advertising for Handyman and even had a radio show that was a call in “ask the handyman “ kind of thing on a local radio station that we bought advertising from.  In short, I have worked with every kind of person imaginable from underpaid sheriffs to overpaid executives, from pastors to people who mow pastures.  I value all that I have learned from different people and respect them all.