Nr.123 ended with: “After having spent time with her I returned to the kitchen and Robert, with eyes wide open asked me, “Well, did she tell you…….?”(See richardandmarina.net).

“Tell me what?” I asked. “That I got born again last night” he answered, “I accepted Jesus in my heart, but, I’m not leaving the Church.” “That’s o.k.” I said “you just do what the Lord tells you.” Only one week later he told me that he had left the Church. I was really surprised and asked what had caused him to do that. He told me that he had invited the priest to come over and he had asked the priest why he had never told him all these years that he had been a faithful churchgoer, the good news of the gospel. The priest didn’t know what to say, it made Robert so upset that he decided not to go back to that Church. Imagine going to the “true” Church all these years and never hearing the “true” gospel.

Miriam was a tremendous testimony. People from all over came to visit and comfort her, but she did the comforting. The priest came to see her, but instead of him praying with her, she prayed with him, unbelievable! One day when I was with her she told me that she wanted to plan her whole funeral with me. She gave me an envelope, I asked what it was and she answered that it contained enough money for an airplane ticket for me in case she died before we returned from Canada. “I want you to lead my funeral and preach the gospel and tell the people that I am in heaven with Jesus.” We looked at each other with tears in our eyes and were very quiet for a few moments as we both realized that when I would leave for Canada, we would probably not see each other on earth anymore. It was a real emotional moment for both of us.

So we started planning her funeral, the songs to be sung, the scriptures to be read, and she had already started writing her testimony to be given out as her obituary. She would ask one of the men of our church, who was a carpenter, to make her a very simple wooden coffin which was to be carried by men from our church, from her house to the graveyard. The service would be held in her house with about 100 people in the living room and the rest standing in the garden, with loudspeakers outside. As we talked about this, we were both quite moved and excited and I said to her, “Oh Miriam, this is really going to be something, I wish you could be there.” She laughed out loud………! (Go to Musings).