Karen Alexander Doyel’s life suddenly changed Dec. 30, 2009, when her husband of 28 years, Doug Alexander, accidentally scooted his three-legged stool off a cliff and fell 200 feet to his death into the water below just past midnight on an annual outing with their three sons in the Bluff Point area of Knoxville.
Doyel stayed at home that day because it was cold, and she knew her family members would be returning about 2-3 a.m. Alexander had been a pastor at First Baptist Church of Lenoir City for five years at the time of the accident and was involved in ministry his entire life.
Doyel recalled one of her sons calling and asking her to pray for Alexander.
“You know Dad will be OK and that he uses everything he goes through as some type of sermon illustration,” Doyel said, remembering a conversation. Her son went on to say something was wrong and she needed to pray.
Doyel said she sensed the Holy Spirit telling her to pray for her three sons, not knowing that two of her sons had jumped off the cliff trying to locate their father, while the other son had stayed back to call his mother. A tree on the side of the cliff caught both of her sons, and to this day, neither one of them can remember how they walked back up the cliff to safety.
“At that point in time, God called me to a new journey,” Doyel said.
While visiting Gatlinburg with her mother the August after the tragedy, Doyel said her breath was suddenly knocked out of her after seeing a Thomas Kinkade painting that looked all too familiar. The painting depicted the spot where her husband had fallen at Bluff Point in Knoxville.
She asked how much the painting cost and was told $700. She then asked if anything else in the store had that picture on it and was directed to some cards, which she proceeded to buy. Doyel took the cards home to show to her three sons.
Her sons convinced her to write a letter to Thomas Kinkade explaining the significance of the painting.
According to Doyel’s account, Kinkade awoke Dec. 1 with a picture of the cliff in his mind, and he completed the painting Dec. 31, noting that God had painted the picture.
Kinkade sent Doyel an autographed and framed copy of the painting, which hangs over the fireplace near the entrance of her home. Throughout the years, Kinkade has sent her brochures with the same picture on the front to give out to her speaking engagements throughout the world, including Russia.
“God’s call on my life became a calling on God’s people to know him like never before,” Doyel said.
In 2005, Doyel’s middle son, Stephen, discovered he had a tumor in his parotid gland. Even though the doctor told Stephen the tumor would be malignant, it was not, and last week marked 10 years since he was first diagnosed. Today, Stephen is involved in the worship ministry at his local church.
Doyel learned she had cancer a year later and had to tell her sons, to which her oldest son, Mark said, “God must love us to trust us with this.”
Doyel currently has two, stage four cancers although she stopped receiving treatment in 2008. She continues to travel, even with numerous doctor appointments in any given week.
“She is one of my very favorite, favorite, favorite young women,” Ann Rice, who lives in Arkansas where Doyel and her first husband ministered before moving to Lenoir City, said. “The great thing about her speaking is that she has actually experienced what she’s talking about, and it’s not something she read out of a book. When she talks about her family, she has truly learned to count it all joy. It has just been an absolute joy to watch her as she has matured. She has such a fabulous heart for ministry, and she particularly loves to disciple and mentor women.”
Today, Doyel works for Lifeway where she does pre-conferences and trains women to lead others. She currently has Lifeway ministry speaking engagements scheduled for Cincinnati at the end of June and in South Carolina during July.
“One of the things that I most admire about Karen is her service and devotion to God,” Judy Williams, one of Doyel’s friends, said. “She continually teaches and shares her belief with others while overcoming her devastation of losing Doug and dealing with her own battle of cancer. She is my friend, confidante and walking buddy.”
Doyel has since remarried and continues to be involved in speaking and teaching women, noting that she enjoys women’s retreats the most.
“Karen Alexander Doyel has spoken to our women’s groups many times, blessing us with her deep love for God’s word and her unique ability to teach it,” Rhonda Sallas, director of women’s ministry at First Baptist Concord in Knoxville, said. “She is candid and open. She doesn’t mind sharing the hard times the Lord has brought her way and the great things he has done through them.
“Karen is tremendously encouraging, very witty and a joy to hear,” Sallas said. “She is right at home whether the group is 50 or 5,000. We love her and can’t wait to have her on our platform again.”
