Friends From Afar – Part 4

Nicki

 

 

 

Nicki – dearest girl, when I first met you, there was no smile on your face as is seen in your photograph. I saw this exhausted, heartbroken and shattered young woman. You were studying (distance learning) at UNISA, but what a tragedy you were enduring. Your Mother, your beloved Mother, aged 45 years, was dying of Cancer.

Mom was no ordinary Mother, on the contrary she was extraordinary! She was one of the most loving woman I had ever met. She was a Mother who was denied a Mother’s love, a Mother who never loved her. I’m sure that she showered that craving to be loved, on her beautiful children. What a tragedy that such a person should leave this earth so young! What a tragedy for you, a hole in your heart that will never ever heal. You loved her so much.

Nix, I am so proud of you. Despite your broken-heartedness, you excelled at university, you studied further in your field; you extended your wings in other areas. Hardship and heartaches pursue you wherever you go, which tells me that God has something very special lined up for you in your life. Before we can really be of great benefit to others, we have to suffer ourselves. I once heard someone say, “Suffering is the price that you have to pay in order to be able to sympathize with others”.

You have a passion for children, and for many years have taught children in their homes. You have practically reared these children, whose parents were too busy. Every time you are knocked down, despite being battered and bruised, you rise up again and shine.

You Mom died on 29 January 2003. I had the privilege of holding you and your brother in my arms as your heart was rent in pieces when Mom went to be with Jesus. You and I have a very close bond, and are inseparable, and until my dying day, I will be at your side – although at a great distance. You are such a unique and precious girl. You a friend? – No Nicki you are my treasure! Our relationship is too deep to be called “friendship”. I adore you, my sweet and beautiful daughter.

 

Tracy

Tracy - Are you precious to me, my blond girl? Yes, but far more than that - you are “ultra-precious”. You were badly “bruised” from the time that you were a baby, which in turn “bruises” me rather severely. Not only that, but you were never ever discovered for who you really are. Despite the most awful experiences that you have had in your 30-plus years, no one has succeeded in wiping that beautiful smile from your face – no one has been able to destroy that most beautiful person inside of you! The treasure inside of you, my little baby girl, is what God created in you, and then He came along, dwelt in your life and you glow! You remind me of an opal – there is “fire” in an opal. No one will conquer you, my little jewel, because Jesus is in you.

Sweet child, thank you for the times that you showered your love on me while in my ministry. Working with crying and dying people, is not a joyful experience, rewarding yes, beyond anything else that I could imagine, but in that somber atmosphere, whenever you came around, you brought that warm “fire” within you, the glow and the gleam that drew you right into my heart. And that is where you will always remain.

You, too, have left South Africa, and are now living in a far away country – the UK – the best move that God could have organized for you. You have blossomed into the most stunning woman, and my heart swells with love for you. I treasure your emails, hearing of every happy event in your life and I will continue nagging you until you send me update photographs of yourself. My heart is bursting with pure pleasure, to think that that once “crushed petal” has become the rarest of perfumes. And she is my girl!!!!

Are you my friend? You’ve got to be kidding! If that is the case, I will change my email address and I won’t tell you what it is. You are my very own little Opal, which I adore!

Tracy Jane . . . . . I adore you, girl! Thank you for being my ….. (friend)?

 

Craig

Craig - what a guy! He originally came for South Africa, and emigrated to the UK many years ago. I heard about this fabulous young man, through the lips of a dying woman – your Gran who adored you. Your Gran, Craig, was an absolute lady! She was dignified! She was stunning! She treasured you, and you treasured her. That is love – mutual love!

Gran deteriorated by the day, and you were far away! It was I, who had to break the awful news to her that she would not be returning to the UK, because of her disease. I felt like a batterer, but God helped me to tell her in tender love. I see her now, sitting up, holding onto the side rails of her bed. She was absolutely silent, and even her tears rolled in silence. She composed herself and said to me, “I am not crying for myself, I am crying for my family” I wiped her tears away. She looked at me and said, “I am alright now”, and I gently lowered her onto her pillow. From that moment onward, she began to deteriorate rapidly. It was as if God allowed her to drift into a coma and so soothe her deep sorrow.

In the meantime, you planned to visit your beloved Gran before she passed away. During her lucid moments I did not tell her, in case it would make her anxious. I wanted her to relax. When you arrived, she was in a deep coma. You gathered her up in your arms, and she opened her eyes. You told her who you were, and she said, “No, you are not! You are not Craig”. I silently prayed, and all of a sudden, she saw the face of the man that she loved, her grandson, Craig!

God’s timing was great and He came and took Gran to be with Him. During your brief stay, and because of God’s timing, you were able to conduct that precious lady’s funeral in our unfinished chapel.

Craig, you were an answer to my prayers on a number of occasions. I was in deep financial trouble, with severe consequences facing me. I happened to be in my office, when the telephone rang. It was you, calling me all the way from the UK. You asked me for my banking details, and just in time, God used you, to secure the Cancer Center for further use for dying people. On two other occasions, when I was in similar situations, without you knowing, and God sent you to South Africa, to meet the mission’s needs.

I have lost contact with you, but I am praying that God will somehow let you find this post, to once again say to you, “Thank you, precious man, for your sacrifices and your obedience. You, too, have been that vital link in the salvation of many dying and lost souls. God has showers of blessing waiting to pour down upon you, in His most perfect time. Further, I am so grateful that the lady standing beside your Gran in the photograph, was your dear Mother, who has also gone to be with the Lord. Another case of Cancer, that destroys everything in its pathway, except that it does one of the greatest things, it enables those who love the Lord Jesus, to enter into their eternal rest in Heaven!”

 

Trevor and Heather

Trevor and Heather - meet my “Twin Treasures”

When I look at you both, how I wish you were really sitting and smiling at me – not just a photograph. How very special both of you are to me!

Heather, my dearly beloved sister-in-the Lord. For a few seconds you were my friend, but the next thing I knew is that we are family – family in the Lord. You have such a special heart. You were the one that approached me to help me with my patients in any way possible. Your love and encouragement kept me going. Your absolute sincerity and passion that your patient knew the Lord before she died. I recall how you stood at her bedside for hours while she was dying. Dear Heather, thank you for the time that you were there for me. Your heart was too tender, and one such heart-breaking experience was enough for you, but you were always available for me when I needed you.

How well I remember when in my second year o ministry, I felt as though I was about to crash with the bank hounding me for money which I did not have. At my lowest point you called me early one morning, and over the telephone you read a Scripture to me that has remained in my mind all these years – Ecclesiastes 11:1-6. How the Lord spoke to me that morning – (1) I was to keep casting my bread upon the waters (my service for the Lord); (2) give a serving to as many patients as I can; (3) the clouds that I was experiencing were only clouds containing blessings, despite hardships; (4) I was the tree that fell into my Cancer Ministry, and at all costs that is where I had to stay; (5) don’t worry about the winds of trouble and hardship – just keep sowing. If I fail to do so, then there will not be a harvest of people who accept Christ at the last minute of their lives; (6) I must do the work that God gave me to do, because He knew which people would accept Jesus while they were dying, and (7) work through days and nights, anytime, because at anytime during that time, people would be accepting His Son, and leaving for Heaven.

Heather and Hunk – those were names of great affection for your lovely husband and wife team. Thank you so much for your love. Thank you for your wonderful Christmas food hamper that you gave me each year – without that, there would have been none, and thank you too, for your loving and godly Mother, Aunty Connie who always contributed towards your gift to me.

At this point, I need to digress for a moment, and thank Aunty Connie for being our musician for each of the funeral services held in the incomplete chapel. “Aunty Connie, you were my role model spurring me on to serve the Lord well into old age, if that was His will”.

Back to Hunk Trevor. Thank you for allowing Heather to spend time with me, and for the times when you favored me, and accompanied her. Thank you to both of you for your readiness quite late one evening to move our few belongings from the Cancer Center when our transport failed to pitch. You mean so much to me, my “Treasured Twins”.

 

Let’s Look at Love – your Love

I may be wearing sunglasses so that you cannot see the tears of joy that you, my “friends” have brought to me throughout my 17 years of service at the “Rest-a-While” Cancer Ministries.

Let’s see how we can apply Dr Curt’s Scribblings to you and your loving deeds that you did for me and for “Rest-a-While” Cancer Ministries. You never once threw a “plum-grenade” at me. You have left a stain of love on me that can never be removed. You ran with the gams of Dr Curt’s greyhound, with your love-gifts for God’s work and for me; you bore “genuine spiritual fruit to benefit those whose lives (you touched) “– every one was a “tasty trait” that God delighted in. I saw the genuine love in your “huge brown eyes”; you ran at a “top speed” with you unstinting gifts for God and for the dying. My beloved “friends” yours was “self-sacrificing love that (gave) freely without asking anything in return”. Dr Curt’s prayer was your prayer – “His love (flowed) through (your) life to bless others around (you)”. God gave me His choicest “friends”.

Dawn – eternally grateful!