MANISTEE — The Rev. Patrick Poynter knows that when he stands before his congregation at the 10:30 a.m. service this Sunday at Manistee Assembly of God, it will likely be very emotional for him.
After 20 years of faithfully serving the needs of the Manistee congregation, Poynter is stepping down from their ministry to focus on his health issues. For the past two years, he has battled a series of health challenges that began when he was diagnosed with bone cancer in June 2021, which he was able to overcome.
From that point on, he faced a myriad of other health problems, the causes of which baffled even the doctors at the University of Michigan Hospital. That’s why Poynter said he decided to tender his resignation to church officials on Jan. 2.
“The main decision was made because it was time to just retire and focus on my health,” Poynter said. “I’m not retiring either, I just have to retire right now. We really don’t know what the future holds right now, and we have no plans to leave the community right now.”
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, he says.
“We love the community, the church and the people we serve now and for the past 20 years,” he said. “I have to say it was probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
Poynter said the congregation and others in the community have been very supportive of his fight to improve his health.
“There’s definitely a strong love relationship that we have, and that’s one of the things I’ve always appreciated about our church congregation in all the 20 years we’ve been here,” he said. “We have a congregation that has always loved people and made them feel very welcome.”
However, he said it was currently in his best interest to step down from the ministry until he had more definitive answers about his health. He has not ruled out returning to the ministry in the future.
“I’m an ordained minister in the Assembly of God, and it’s a lifelong commitment to ministry,” he said. “Despite what I am going through right now, I continue to serve others.”
Poynter accomplished this by creating an online presence documenting his medical journey, which he hopes will inspire others facing serious medical challenges.
“I do it with a Facebook page called ‘Fight the Fight and Keep the Faith,'” he said. “This is a page that everyone is welcome to go and look at as it tracks everything health related from when I was first diagnosed with cancer and the cancer cure to date.”
He said that when he posts on this page, he asks for prayer to tell his story of what he is going through at the moment. Another part of the reason he has the page is to encourage other people facing their own health challenges.
“I have people from all over the world who are part of this page,” Poynter said.
Poynter said he also misses doing something else he enjoys, which is making swords and scabbards for museums, archaeologists, historians and reenactors around the world.
“I did this to supplement my income and I haven’t been able to do it for the last 21 months,” he said. “My last two swords I made were for the Creation Museum in Kentucky.”
Poynter said he hopes to find answers to his health issues in the coming weeks and months. He said he has gone through countless tests as they continue to search for answers.
“My body has been attacked in so many different ways that I’ve actually seen 32 different medical teams in the last 22 months, and the majority of them are at the University of Michigan,” Poynter said. “My case puzzled everyone because each team finds something in their department and then goes back to oncology.”
Poynter 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 due to the disease.
He and his family hope that by taking time to focus on his health issues, Poynter will find some answers to what he’s dealing with, along with treatment, so he can return to a normal life.
After the church service on Sunday, he will be honored with a dinner at the Bungalow Inn.