“Why are you singing after your friend has just died?”
Dear Family and friends,
Until eternity, we may never fully know the full extent of the fruit born by the way we live our lives. Every January our family is drawn back to remember the very traumatic evening of January 11, 2005, the night my late husband, John Relyea, died in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Recently, my Pioneer Bible Translators co-worker, Jacque Harper, told me of something that happened that night, unbeknownst to me, as John slipped into eternity. I was so numb at the time; I had no idea that patients in the Madang hospital knew what was going on in the emergency room, or were impacted in any way. Jacque is a nurse, and was one of those who tried long and hard to save John that night, but to no avail. Below is Jacque’s account of what happened. (Oddly, there is an ongoing piece to this story which just happened in 2013!)
“As Becky (Overlin) and I stopped all attempts to revive John someone in our group started singing. It was one of my favorites, “Majesty,” that we began to sing as we stood around the emergency room trying to console John’s family and ourselves. Several of us realized that things needed to be done to take care of John’s body as we faced a time crunch if we wanted to be able to send John’s body back to the states. As Bob and I left the emergency room there were many people standing in the area who had been watching and listening to the past few minutes of activity. I was confronted by a young man named Gwendolyn. He had come in from a distant village for treatment at the Madang hospital and I had been visiting him frequently to try to make sure he was understanding his treatment and often provide food and cold water to him and his “watch person”. He asked simply, “Why are you singing after your friend has just died?” I told him that I was sorry, but I didn’t have time to explain right now, but that I would come back in the next day or two to talk with him.
In a couple of days I went back to the hospital to talk with Gwendolyn about his question, thinking that this could be an excellent opportunity to share more about Jesus with him and his friend. I took my Bible in the trade language that I was able to communicate in, and we found a quiet place to sit down together. It was a log under a tree outside the ward where he slept and was perfect for privacy. As we sat there together the words came easily to explain how we could sing joyfully after our friend died even though we hated for him to leave us. I told him that we knew that John’s spirit was now with God and that made us very happy. Knowing that the people on PNG who don’t know Jesus worry about their spirits and where they will be and what they will do I asked him if he was worried about his own spirit in case he would die during this illness. He replied he was scared. I read a few scriptures to him and his friend and asked his friend who spoke English pretty well if I was making it clear for them to understand. He said that they were both understanding what I was saying. The friend had been going to church and said that he had Jesus in his life but Gwendolyn did not. After restating the reason for our joy in our sorrow at John’s death I asked Gwendolyn if he would like to have Jesus in his life and be free from the fear of where his spirit would be. He replied that he would like that very much so I led him in talk from the trade language to ask Jesus to be his Savior and Lord. All three of us were very happy at this outcome. Gwendolyn was able to return to his village a few weeks later.
I made the mistake of letting them get back to the village without getting a contact person to encourage him in his new faith. PTL in 2013 Gwendolyn came to Madang and looked me up at our office. I was surprised to say the least and very happy to see him looking healthy. He told me that he has been active in the church in his village helping to teach and sing. I asked him if he needed anything, and he said no. He had just wanted to find me and give me that information. I was “blown away,” as we say! God is awesome!”
Life is fragile. The way we live matters! We had no clue that as we stood weeping and worshiping and singing “Majesty” that night in the emergency room, that this would have hidden ripple-effects down through eternity. God inhabits the praises of his people. Thank you SO much for partnering with us in this ministry.
Love in Christ,
Marsha Miles
(for Nathan, as well)
|
|
|
|
