In a “special message” preached to the North Coast Church, Pastor Larry Osborne told the attendees about the death of Paige Hilke, the wife of one of the teaching pastors in the church, Christopher Hilken.
Rev. Osborne told the congregation that Paige had taken her life after suffering from mental health troubles. His message centered around understanding mental illness in Christians.
Anonymous sources said that a letter was sent through email to all the congregation informing them of the death of Paige.
In the message, Rev. Osborne said that she was taken over by an overwhelming sense of fear and compulsiveness before she was admitted to one of the top facilities that deal with mental health diseases. “But sadly, it was not enough,” Rev. Osborne said.
Paige had just given birth to their fifth child.
They set up a GoFundMe campaign to help the widowed pastor Hilken and his family. In the campaign, it said:
Paige Hilken received a catastrophic medical diagnosis in April that led to PTSD and other co-occurring mental health issues. Tragically, Paige lost her battle with her mental health diagnoses; taking her life while in a world class mental health facility in Arizona.
The Hilken’s have had such an amazing impact on so many lives from North Coast Church to Hume Lake to Paige’s hometown of Fort Jones and nationally through their teaching and counseling ministries. With the news of the unexpected passing of Paige Hilken, we have had so many people reach out and ask how they can help. One of those ways is to help ease the financial burden that Christopher will now take on to raise 5 babies as a single parent including final expenses for Paige and the loss of income from Paige’s businesses.
The GoFundMe campaign has now reached about $400,000, well over the $25,000 goal. The collected funds will go to aiding the Hilken family.