The shovel was green, with her name etched in bright red just above the blade. It was a gift for Meri Ocker from the neighbor, a sweet older man with no children of his own. But to Meri, it meant a lot more than that. It was, in her words, “a strong reminder that He has gone before me and prepared a way.”
The summer before, the Ockers had purchased their very first home, a rancher in Mechanicsburg in a quiet neighborhood, complete with yard space for their two boys to run around, and best of all: an in-home hair salon for Meri to run her dream business. So many aspects of this home echoed the faithfulness of God, but none as much as the neighbor across the street.
“I shared with him how Caleb’s hip broke, and I could see the hurt in his face,” Meri said. “We’re here,” he told them. “All we can say is, we’re here”.
“I go out into the yard to do yardwork, and I’m leaf-blowing, and all of a sudden I hear two other leaf blowers coming up behind me, and here they are,” Meri remembered.
Time and time again, the neighbor and his wife showed up for Caleb and Meri, assisting with tasks like yardwork and basement leaks. And after repeatedly borrowing their shovel so she could dig out their septic lid, they surprised her with a shovel of her own. It brought both laughter and gratitude. God had provided, in Meri’s words, “their village.”
“You can be in really hard days and seasons and still totally know that God is in control of the situation,” said Caleb. “You can have peace in the storm.”
The storm started brewing decades prior, when 11-year-old Caleb was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on his hip. Because the cancer ate away at his bone, he received a custom artificial hip, which supported him for the next two decades.
14 years later, Caleb was in his first year of teaching elementary music at Cumberland Valley School District. He and Meri, who he met at a young adult gathering at West Shore, had been married for almost two months.
On the way to the hospital for Caleb’s annual post-cancer checkup, Caleb told Meri some alarming news.
“I’ve been noticing something, and I have to tell you about it,” he said. “There’s like…something on my incision line.”
“What? Do you think it’s cancer again?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
After several tests, the doctors confirmed his observations: there was an infection in Caleb’s artificial hip, and it had risen to the surface level.
“They give you a scare – like, ‘Oh, this is not good. We’re going to have to amputate,’” Caleb said. “Well, it turns out they could suppress it with antibiotics. So I was on antibiotics for like ten years.”
Nearly a decade later, the Ockers were now a family of four, doing life together with their two little boys, Mateo and Miles. One night, on April 30, 2024, everything changed.
“We were just at home, hanging out. He was wrestling on the floor with the boys in our room,” Meri remembered. “I said, ‘Okay, time for bed.’ Caleb went to stand up. He took one step.”
Crunch. It sounded like a plastic bottle.
“Something’s not right,” said Caleb. “It happened…”
He tried taking a few more steps. As they heard the same horrible sound, fear filled the room.
“I definitely was panicked, but we also had the boys,” said Meri. “Mateo was standing in the doorway, big-eyed. He was four. Myles was nine months; I was still nursing him. We were all in shock.”
“I knew it would happen someday, and I didn’t know when, and I didn’t know how,” Caleb said. Questions flooded his brain – How am I going to provide? How will I find a house for my family? How am I going to play with my boys? How will insurance work?
Meri hurried upstairs to put the boys to bed, reassuring her oldest that his dad would be okay.
“We put acoustic worship music on for the boys before they go to bed. And the song playing was a version of ‘How Deep The Father’s Love For Us,’” Meri said. She began to pray for the Lord to sustain her family. “I just prayed for our marriage, and that it would behold the storm that was coming. That was my immediate prayer.”
The next few weeks were filled with unknowns. Caleb’s team of physicians at Hershey didn’t feel equipped to help his situation, so they sent him to a specialist – a kind and knowledgeable doctor with a private practice, Dr. Abraham.
In late May, Dr. Abraham met with Caleb and Meri and revealed his master plan: he would design a completely new artificial hip for Caleb, one that would extend his leg length, making his legs more even and removing the infection altogether. It seemed promising. But because of a long waitlist, the hip would likely take time to be designed and manufactured. The Ockers agreed to move forward, and Caleb received a temporary hip that summer.
“I thought, ‘I’ll get recovered over the summer and be back to work,’ and that thinking was so far off,” Caleb said. “I was trying to control. That’s always been a theme in my life – an issue I’ve had – just wanting to control things.”
The immediate changes to their daily routines were the hardest part. Caleb could no longer drive, and his mobility was limited. With Meri working full-time, managing everyday life with two little boys became challenging. She knew she would need some helping hands, and lots of them.
In a leap of faith, Meri set up a profile in Lotsa Helping Hands.
Similar to a Meal Train, this tool helped Meri organize and post various needs for the family, giving others the option to step in and help as needed. Every week, the website would send out current needs, prayer requests, and general updates to anyone who subscribed.
One by one, the needs were filled. Some friends would come and watch the boys while Meri worked into the evenings. Others would bring dinners or give rides when the needs arose. And prayer warriors prayed for them constantly. In a time of complete surrender, their village came through.
Months passed. As surgeons worked to make changes on his hip design, the Ockers endured a frustrating flow of delays and cancellation scares, forcing them to surrender to God’s timing again and again. It was during those times that the piano became an outlet for Caleb to endure the waiting. He eventually turned his worship arrangements into an EP, which is fittingly called “Sketches of 2024.”
“We were sitting at dinner, the night before the surgery. He got a phone call, and came in and he just said, ‘It’s cancelled’. And our jaws dropped,” Meri said.
“Caleb was in his room at his parents’ house, sobbing. His dad walked by and heard it. And that, for me, was so emotional. Because I hadn’t seen his dad be that broken before. He came down and said, ‘That’s my boy.’ It just took me back to ‘How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, How Vast Beyond All Measure’. How his dad felt for him, God aches for us, too.”
Caleb finally received an entirely new hip on April 10, 2025. And that summer, God proved his faithfulness time and time again. With therapy, Caleb even strengthened his hip enough to drive.
“In June, it was like my world opened up again. To go from not driving for a year, to driving again and having those kinds of responsibilities,” Caleb said.
In June, the Ockers closed on their very first home, which they began renovating with the help of their village. Family and friends showed up all summer long to help clean, move, organize, paint, and look after the boys.
“So we’re painting ceilings, painting bedroom walls, taking wallpaper down. I was excited to do physical labor,” Caleb said. Not long after, he received a concerning question. “When I went in October for my 6-month follow-up, the doctor just looked at me and said, ‘Are you feeling okay?’”
He explained to Caleb how a support stint had loosened from his bone. It got loose, caused tension on another screw, and that screw snapped in half. Just like that, they were back to square one: Caleb was no longer able to walk.
Today, he wears non-weight-bearing crutches and patiently awaits yet another surgery this coming summer as doctors work on his hip design.
As the story unfolds, the Ockers know that there is one thing they can do – hold fast to God’s faithfulness to see them through. The support of their village, the answered prayers, the house and salon, the green shovel – they all serve as reminders to release what they once held onto tightly and rely on God’s plan instead.
“The first time around, I was trying to control everything, worried about insurance and finances. And now, there’s even more unknowns with that,” said Caleb. “But you just got to let it go. I fought with those feelings and sat with them and wrestled with just wanting to control, to know that I can protect my family. But I can’t, and I think that’s the whole point.”
In a recent blog update for Lotsa Helping Hands, Caleb wrote:
“Last year, God chose to bless us with a house. With the salon. With the yard and playroom for our boys. With awesome new neighbors. With plenty of helpers to paint, fix up, and renovate Dove Hair Studio.
The help did not come from me, or Meri, it came from others — God’s people — and people that God is still calling into his kingdom.
Blessings on Blessings. I’m so thankful that I’m in the right mindset to see them now.
As I look back on the end of the year, I’m now realizing that the news affected me more than I want to believe. It was a tough season. A close friend of mine was also going through some insane health issues. During that period, I asked myself if I was angry at God. And I kept coming up with the answer, “No, I’m not.”
But I wasn’t the same husband, father, friend, or teacher. I lost my positive mindset and joy. I lost sight of the constant blessings being poured over me.
You know why?
I was not focused on God’s faithfulness.
How could I doubt after all this time?
He’s delivered me through so much. What that looks like next, I don’t know. But I know he will deliver me.
Place your Faith in Jesus Christ, obey His word, and let me know how you feel after a few weeks. If you don’t know how, feel free to talk to me any time about my relationship with Jesus.
To hear more updates from the Ockers, or support them in prayer, subscribe to their community at Lotsa Helping Hands.
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