On December 28, 2012, Zachary Henzerling was killed in an explosion at Environmental Enterprises – less than three weeks before his 21st birthday.
Zachary was faithfully brought to church by his grandmother, Barb, and he accepted the Lord as a little boy. I had him in Children’s Church for a couple of years. He was a bundle of energy, unable to sit still for more than a minute. I knew Barb very well. She often took care of him and tried to control his hyper active behavior through his diet, rather than medicine. In middle school, he struggled with math. One summer day Barb called and asked if I would tutor him in math so when he returned to school in the fall, he wouldn’t be behind. His mom or dad brought him over to the house twice a week for a couple of hours, and I tutored him for about six weeks. By the third week, I found the problem. He didn’t know his multiplication tables, and that hindered him greatly. We started working on his times tables. I drilled him and drilled him, and Barb made him study them at home. A few months into the next school year, I asked Barb how he was doing in math. “Great. Thanks to you.”
Zach’s dad (Jimmy) was overcome with anger and grief, especially when he learned that the company negligence prevented his son from being properly trained to correctly do the job, and they provided him no safety equipment to prevent injury or burns.
A few weeks ago, I decided to make Jimmy a book for Zach with a collection of pictures through one of those online companies. I’ve made them before and they really turn out nice. Barb gave me some pictures of Zach. I scanned them into my computer and returned the prints. But to make a book that Jimmy would cherish, I really needed his involvement. He gave me some photo albums to sort through. He gave me an 8 x 10 of his most cherished photo that he’d like on the cover of the book. At this point, I have hours of my time invested in this project, and I’m almost done with it. I need a little information from Jimmy about some of the photos I’ve included so that I can label them in the book. And I would like to end the book with a comment such as “Zachary is now home with his Lord and Savior.” But since Jimmy is not a Christian, I shall ask him before I add that caption.
My hope and prayer is that God will use this book to draw Jimmy into His arms. Because you can probably guess Who else he blames for the death of his son. Please keep Jimmy in your prayers. He needs Christ.