Wasting the Last Golden Chance to Accept the Lord Jesus Christ: Randy Pausch, 'Last Lecture' Professor
Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006, and found out it was incurable in August 2007 after it had spread to other organs. He was given 6 months to live. Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon computer-science professor with terminal cancer whose "Last Lecture" became a YouTube sensation in late 2007, died early Friday morning. If you had been in his position, would you also deny Christ to the point of death. Would you also waste the Golden chance to preach about the love of Jesus and the fact that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Randy Pausch Last Lecture on Oprah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVl8tj3Wf58&feature=related
Randy Pausch's; A Final Farewell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIysXLiA5s0&feature=related
Randy Pausch, 'Last Lecture' Professor Dies
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/randy-pausch-lecture-professor-dies/story?id=4614281#.Tyex8XoX5wE
By GEOFF MARTZ, SAMANTHA WENDER and CHRIS FRANCESCANI
July 25, 2008
Randy Pausch, the charismatic young college professor who chronicled his battle with pancreatic cancer in a remarkable speech widely-known as the "Last Lecture," has died at the age of 47. He was at home, surrounded by his wife, Jai, and his three children.
A dear friend to Diane Sawyer and "Good Morning America," Pausch's lecture and subsequent interview was one of the most powerful accounts of hope, grace and optimistism ABC News has ever featured, and drew a worldwide response.
"I'd like to thank the millions of people who have offered their love, prayers and support," Jai Pausch said in a statement. "Randy was so happy and proud that the lecture and book inspired parents to revisit their priorities, particularly their relationships with their children. The outpouring of cards and emails really sustained him."
It all began with one, age-old question: What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you?
That question had been posed to the annual speaker of a lecture series at Carnegie Mellon University, where Pausch was a computer sciences professor. For Pausch, though, the question wasn't hypothetical.
Pausch, a father of three small children with his wife Jai, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer -- and given six months to live.
Friends and colleagues flew in from all around the country to attend his last lecture. And -- almost as an afterthought -- the lecture was videotaped and put on the Internet for the few people who couldn't get there that day.
That was all it took.
Somehow amid the vast clamor of the Web and the bling-bling of million-dollar budgets, savvy marketing campaigns and millions of strange and bizarre videos, the voice of one earnest professor standing at a podium and talking about his childhood dreams cut through the noise.
The lecture was so uplifting, so funny, so inspirational that it went viral. So far, 10 million people have downloaded it.
And thousands have written in to say that his lecture changed their lives.
If you had only six months to live, what would you do? How would you live your life? And how can all of us take heart from Pausch's inspiring message to live each day to its fullest?
Pausch's answers to these questions, both in the lecture and in three separate interviews over a series of months with Diane Sawyer, are moving, funny, thought-provoking and extraordinary.
According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, an advocacy organization for the pancreatic cancer community, approximately 37,170 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2008 and 33,370 will die from it. The Pausch family has asked that donations on Randy's behalf be sent to the organization or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and unlike other cancers, during the last 30 years the medical community has seen very little advancement in prolonging the lives of pancreatic cancer patients.
