With his feet, faith and a friendly wave, Gary Haga shared his belief in salvation through Jesus Christ. He walked miles through Marysville wearing a sandwich-board sign. He did it every day for as long as he was able.
Haga’s earthly journey is over.
The sidewalk evangelist died at his Marysville home Saturday. His wife of 41 years, Paula Haga, was with him at the end.
It was Oct. 23 when Haga, 64, was featured in this column. Although he suffered from pancreatic cancer and was receiving hospice care, in October he was still walking eight miles each day carrying his sign.
Word of Haga’s passing was shared on the Marysville Church of the Nazarene’s Facebook page, “Marysville Naz Church.”
“It is with great sadness for those left behind that we must tell you Gary Haga has gone to be with Jesus,” the church announced Tuesday on Facebook. “While his suffering is over and he is no doubt raising his hands in praise to God, please pray for his wife and family.”
Pastor Craig Laughlin, who leads the Marysville church, said hundreds of comments have been shared on Facebook since the announcement, showing that people appreciated both Haga’s message and the neighborly way he delivered it.
“His message was a love of people and a love of God. He was saying people need to have a relationship with Jesus, but it really wasn’t judgmental,” Laughlin said Thursday. “He is so clearly loved in our community.”
One man recalled on Facebook the time he met Haga while out walking on Grove Street. “I stopped him and asked for prayers. He prayed with me right then and there. Thank you, my friend,” the comment said.
The Marysville Police Department spokesman, Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux, described Haga as a “very inspiring man” and said on Facebook, “Will miss his smile and wave very much!”
Lamoureux said Thursday that it will be one of his life’s regrets that as many times as he saw Haga, he never stopped to talk.
“I saw him and I waved to him, and thought, ‘One of these days I’m going to stop’,” Lamoureux said. He said he’ll miss seeing Haga with the sign that read, “Jesus Is The Only Way To Heaven” and “Jesus 4Gives When Asked 2.”
Laughlin said Haga had attended his church for several years. He was carrying signs before he arrived.
“I had been exposed to people who did things like that in kind of a mean-spirited way,” Laughlin said.
When the pastor took Haga out for coffee, he soon saw that this new member of his church took an approach that wasn’t “pounding you on the head with a 40-pound Bible.”
Originally from Darrington, Haga is survived by his wife, Paula, daughters, Tiffany Clark and Jennifer Bowers, and three grandchildren.
He often took his 5-year-old grandson, Christian Steinberg, to church. “He sat in the front row,” Laughlin said. The pastor said a funeral service has yet to be scheduled.
“What he was doing took a lot of courage,” said David Lathrop, a bishop of Freedom Covenant Global Ministries in Marysville. “I only spoke to him a couple times. He was trying to tell about Christ the best way he could.”
Clark, who lives in her parents’ Marysville home, said her father kept walking until about a month before he died.
“Toward the end, he only made it halfway. He would call my mom to come and get him,” she said.
It wasn’t the recent rain or wind that kept him home.
“That would never have stopped him — believe me,” Clark said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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