One of the joys was on our very
last day; Paul officiated at the wedding of Ronnie and Aling’s son Rhonnie Jhon
as he married Christian, his beautiful, young bride. We’ve watched both of
these kids grow up in the church at Lapoc and it was wonderful to be a part of
their special day – one of the many blessings God gave us during our time
there. God answered prayer and Aling was able to see her son married to his
beautiful girl, although she was too weak to go to the actual wedding. Immediately
after the wedding ceremony we went to their house to say goodbye as we had to leave
for town to catch our flight back to Australia and this was one of the most
painful moments of our whole visit.
Aling has been confined to her
bed since last month and is failing a little bit more every day. Ronnie told us
that he doesn’t think she can last much longer. In the last two weeks, Aling’s
mind has started to drift a bit, she has high fevers that come and go. Painful
lumps keep forming in her body which eventually break her skin and drain. The
only relief from the agonizing and continual pain is the morphine which the
Lord provides through a dear Doctor friend in Cagayan and we are so, so
thankful for the gift of relief that God gives her and also that she can still
smile and praise God with her lips and with her smile.
Aling and I had a few minutes
alone to say goodbye and I will never forget those precious moments that I lay
my cheek against hers and both of us cried knowing that those would be our last
minutes together on this earth. She told me that not a morning or an afternoon
doesn’t pass by that they don’t think about us and miss us and I told her that
I didn’t want to say goodbye to her yet and that I will miss her so much and
that I love her. We talked about how we will see each other again when Jesus
comes to take us all home. She is ready to go home to our Lord Jesus and it
won’t be long now.
The last day of our trip started
with the wedding and then our goodbyes to Aling, but backtracking to the first
week, we had a very wonderful four day conference with church elders, pastors, evangelists
and missionaries from all of the churches which have been planted – 70 men in
all, including six men from the fruit company who trained in Lapoc. Paul taught
them through the whole book of 1 Timothy which has just been translated and we
were able to give them the finished books of Colossians, 1 & 2
Thessalonians and 1 & 2 Timothy. Thank you so much for your prayers!!!
The trip was full of awesome
family times. The beautiful and teary
young lady who Jubab and I are cuddling is our very own Charly-Joy, Jubab’s
beloved niece and our oldest grandchild. We couldn’t believe how much she has
grown up. This was a very sad moment, hugging her goodbye last Thursday at the
end of Youth Camp as she was going back home with the Cauyunan Youth Group. How
we wish we could hold onto her forever. We
live in a world of goodbyes...so heart wrenching…but the goodbyes are only for
a short time and then our Lord will return.
