Pray for the Wray Family

Yesterday, we said goodbye to one of the sweetest, most humble men I have ever had the privilege of knowing, Brother Arnold Wray.

Brother Johnny said it best at the funeral when he said that we had lost a spiritual giant. I don't know of a more sincere, quiet, and praying man. As a matter of fact, it is said by family and friends that he spent hours a day in prayer. And when he died, he was praying, asking God to help his family, asking God to help his wife, and to bless his church.

Brother Arnold had been on dialysis for a while and had been told for months that he only had a few days left, but God allowed our church to watch him, week after week, come in and take a seat near the back of the church with his oxygen tank, as he could no longer sit on the platform. Which was his seat for nearly sixty years as our choir director. He lived for the next church services. Knowing how weak he was would send me into tears as he would stand up with both hands raised in the air during church services. I remember coming in many times before church and I would see him in the back with his hands together, rocking back and forth in prayer.

The day before his funeral, his wife was brought up to the church to see him. She, herself, in a nursing home. She patted his arm and told him she loved him. That he was a sweet husband and she would see him in Heaven. Little did she, or the family, know that just four hours after his funeral, she would make her crossing and she did see him again.

I wonder as Brother Arnold stepped onto the shores of Glory, if the Lord told him to wait, that Mrs. Louise was coming. I wonder if he stood there, patiently, as was his way, and waited to take her by the hand as they both stepped onto streets of gold together. Breathing in celestial air, taking in the beauty and splendor of Heaven, and looking into the face of the One that they gave their hearts to many years ago. What a precious thought!

We will miss Brother Arnold and Mrs. Lousie. We have more to go to Heaven for, than we had yesterday.

Please remember the Wray family in your prayers.

Heaven Is Now A Little Sweeter

Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to one of our church people. He will be missed so much. He was on vacation with his family, in Georgia, when his heart stopped. They did all they could do for him for several days. When his son flew in from Afghanistan, the Lord took this dear man Home.
Part of my heart is rejoicing with them. They know that their father was saved. They know that he is in Heaven with their mama. The other part of my heart is weeping with them. Because I know the pain they are feeling. I know that tonight his children will have bitter rest. I know that tomorrow will almost seem to fly by, yet take every bit of strength they have to get through that long and difficult day.
And that's when God's grace will step in. They will not function on their own strength, but by the strength of the Lord. For He is their strong tower, strength in their weakest hour. And they can trust Him.

Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with
them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep."

Building Update

I haven't posted an update on our new church building addtion lately. The missionary workers have finished their part and moved on a couple of weeks ago. I've overheard some talk about the doors and such so it's getting close!! Can't wait to see how everything looks when it's completed. We hope to have it finished by Christmas. It would be nice to have our Churchwide Christmas fellowship in our banquet room.

I hope to get some more pictures soon.

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Our church said farewell to another Saint today. Hannah and I helped serve food for the family before the funeral. We're sure going to miss her smiles and infectious laughter.

WOW! What a Funeral!

We were privileged to attend the homegoing service of Mrs. Shirley Walker yesterday.  And WOW!  What a funeral!!

I told Bruce on our way there that it just doesn't make sense to be going to this.  He said, "It doesn't make sense to us, but it does to God.  There's no telling what He's going to do through this."

Mrs. Shirley and her husband had not been married long.  During the service, Brother Ron stood up and said, "I bless the day she became my wife, I bless the three and a half years God gave me with her, and I bless the day He took her home."  It takes a great faith in God and trust in God to be able to stand up and say that during your spouse's homegoing service. 

Something else one of her children said during the service was, "This is not a day of punishment for us, but a day of reward for her."  How precious! 

Services at our church are not normal for your average Baptist church...ever.  And yesterday's homegoing service was no different.  Meetin' broke out and hearts were touched.  The best thing that happened was three people came to know the Lord!!  One of which was Mrs. Shirley's brother.  Praise the Lord!  I know that she was rejoicing in Heaven over that.  She prayed for her family every day.

We were glad we were able to make it.  Not just to support her family, whom we love dearly, but to witness the mercy and greatness of God through her death.

Are All The Children In?

We were so privileged to attend the Memorial and Home-going service for Mrs. Barbara Weathers tonight. It was very different. Like one I've never attended.

Mrs. Weathers had a double lung transplant about four years ago. Her body rejected those lungs, but God kept her here for four more years. During those four years, she worked endlessly in our bus ministry and where ever else she might be needed.

She began to develop cancer and, on more than one occasion, came into church with patches on her face and around her eyes where they had cut out cancer. Like our Pastor said tonight, sometimes it was so bad, that most women would be more apt to stay at home and not want to come out in public. But she just had to be at bus ministry or sitting on the front pew of the church. She loved the Lord so much and just couldn't get enough of Him, His WORD, and the fellowship of His people.

The music was just like what we always sing in church. The preaching was just like what we always hear. And the Spirit of God moved in. At the close of the service, Pastor gave an invitation, as requested by Mrs. Weathers, and her oldest son gave his heart to Christ. There were shouts of praise ringing out across the church between our tears and as I looked at Mrs. Weather's four children sitting on the same pew their mother was so faithful to be in, I realized that a mother's prayer for her children was answered and all her children were in.

I have walked and knelt in every room of the house; I have fondled the
old Book, sat quietly at the kitchen table and been hurled around the world to
follow a boy who went to war. I have sought through hospitals and army
camps and battlefields. I have dogged the steps of sons and daughters in
college and university, in the big city looking for a job. I have been in
strange places, for I have even gone down into honky-tonks and dens of sin, into
nightclubs and saloons and back alleys and along dark streets. I have
ridden in automobiles and planes and ships seeking and sheltering and guiding
and reminding and tugging and pulling toward home and Heaven.

I have filled pantries with provision when the earthly provider was
gone. I have sung songs in the night when there was nothing to sing about
but the faithfulness of God. I have been pressed so close to the promises
of the WORD that the imprint of their truth is fragrant about me. I have
lingered on the lips of the dying like a trembling melody echoed from
Heaven.

I am not unanswered, although Mother may be gone, although the home may
be dissolved into dust, although the little marker in the graveyard grows
dim. I am still here: and as long as God is God, and truth is truth, and
the promises of God are 'yea and amen,' I will continue to woo and win and
strive and plead with boys and girls whose mothers are in Glory, but whose
ambassador I have been appointed by the King Emmanuel. For I am.........a
mother's prayer.