This picture was taken on my birthday, January 27th. Linda left us six days later, Feb 02, 2015. We had over 300 people for her Celebration service on the following Sunday, Feb 08, 2015. It was held at our place in Cancun, Mexico.
What follows is the testimony that I shared with everyone about Linda. I did it in English out of respect for her family. Violet translated for me to Spanish.
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“I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us...” (Isa 63:7)
Her whole life, Linda suffered much physically, but she never gave up. She expressed in recent months that she was ready to go. The last few weeks, she felt even more that her time was short.
I was always afraid that I would come home and find her gone, that she would die alone. I am so thankful that in her final days and hours in the hospital, she was surrounded by people she loved and recognized. She was made as comfortable as possible. In the end, she went peacefully.
Everything about today is just as Linda wanted it. What I am going to say is what she wanted me to say. How do you describe a lifetime in just a few minutes? Impossible. Today, it is time to say something about Linda that will also say something about the grace of God.
Linda saw me before I saw her. I was dancing by myself in front of a stereo while the Beatles’ album, "Abbey Road" was playing. That would have been in the Fall of 1969. We were married on March 21, 1970 in River Falls, Wisconsin. Next month, we would have celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary.
A lot happened before Jeremy was two years old and before Rebekah was born: Linda gave her heart to Jesus, Greg followed about six weeks later, and four months after that, Linda’s Mom committed suicide.
I still remember when the pastor of the Lutheran church came to our farm house to baptize little Jeremy. He convinced her with, “but what if the child dies before he is baptized? He will go to Hell.” I was not impressed, but Linda took it seriously. Little Jeremy was baptized right there in the kitchen.
But as all true Christians know, baptizing a baby is absolutely meaningless. And Linda’s heart was as empty and fearful as before. The man that we bought our goats from was a believer and pastor of a mission church in a town about 15 miles (25 km) from us. One day, while I was at work, Linda asked the pastor and his wife to please come to the house. They talked to her about the salvation that God the Son came to offer us by His death on the cross, how that the blessing of forgiveness and eternal security do not come through rituals or sacraments, that if she would be willing to repent of her sin and give her heart to Jesus by faith, He would save her, be with her, and take her home to heaven when she died. No good works necessary.
Linda did that.
In the following days and weeks, Linda was at peace and began talking to me about what she had done. That is where my story begins, but today is not about me.
It was not long after that I was saved. We moved from Wisconsin to attend a Bible College. While there, during a Missions Conference in our church, a plea was made for a helper in the Lord’s work in El Salvador, Central America. As I struggled with what I felt in my heart about answering that call, Linda already had peace about it. From the very first, so different from other young mothers that we knew, when I approached her about the possibility of it, her response was, “I think the Lord wants us to do it.” We are here today in Mexico serving the Lord, 41 years later, partly because Linda never said no.
It would not be correct to talk about Linda without talking about the health issues that she dealt with. Linda was born with scoliosis and spina bifida occulta. Without surgery, she was destined for a life in a wheel chair. Before she was in kindergarten, she knew what physical pain was about. When she was 14 years old she had major surgery. She was in a body cast for six months.
But that is still only part of her story. Linda struggled with mental illness also. About four months after we came to Jesus, Linda’s Mom committed suicide. About five years later, just a few weeks into language school in Guadalajara, Mexico, we received word that her younger sister, Cheryl, had committed suicide as well. Linda never stopped missing them. At times, she would be angry with her Mom. In later years, she would just talk about how much she missed her. At times, she would talk about how she blamed herself for what happened to her sister. Linda escaped. But she always felt like she should have done more to rescue her sister... like it was her fault.
Linda was like many people who struggle just to feel normal. The internal battles raged at times.
Now let’s talk about the grace of God. Please listen to this passage in the book of Luke:
“And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare [him]. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father. And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God …” (Lu 9:41-43)
No, Linda did not have that kind of trouble with demons. But when I look at her life, her childhood, and her health problems, sometimes I say, “the devil threw her down”. The consequences of sin, inside and out, made her life difficult. But do you know what? I stand amazed today at the mighty power of God.
The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the believers in Rome:
“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” (Ro 5:20)
Linda never stopped loving Jesus. She never stopped wanting to tell others about Jesus. It is not that long ago when we invited people to help us hand out tracts and invitations to a special event. Among those that showed up, there was Linda, with her walker and her oldest grandson, going door to door on a nearby street. Even with the young woman who cared for her in her last months, Linda wanted so much that she would give her heart to Jesus.
You are going to think that I am making this up, but it happened just like this:
On our very last trip to the Mall together last month, the Christmas decorations were still up. We stopped by the big beautiful tree in the hallway by the new Liverpool store. She had to take my picture by the tree. I asked her, “why? Christmas is over”. She said with that big sweet smile of her last years, “because you make me so happy.”
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