Dear Linda

Our dear friend, Linda, seems to be nearing the end of her long battle with ovarian cancer. She has fought this battle with grace, strength, perseverance, and even joy that would be unimaginable without the sustaining, enabling power of God. Last night, I leafed through her copy of Mountain Breezes. Many pages were marked with blue post-it tabs. Many others were dog-eared. One page had been turned down twice, I think so that she could find it with ease. It had this poem on it:

CONSTANT VICTORY

Before the winds that blow do cease,
Teach me to dwell with Thy calm;
Before the pain has passed in peace,
Give me, my God, to sing a psalm.
Let me not lose the chance to prove
The fullness of enabling love.
O Love of God, do this for me:
Maintain a constant victory.

Before I leave the desert land
For meadows of immortal flowers,
Lead me where streams at Thy command
Flow by the borders of the hours,
That when the thirsty come, I may
Show them the fountains in the way.
O Love of God, do this for me:
Maintain a constant victory.

Linda's life has been the most amazing testimony I know of a woman whose greatest desire has been to love the Lord Jesus and show Him as most precious. Through pain and tears, trials and setbacks, grief and sadness, her's has been a victorious faith. I cannot begin to imagine the welcome she will have when she sees the Lord face to face.

Please pray with me for her, and for her dear husband, Court, sons Rick and Nathan, and soon to be daughter-in-love, Heather, as well as for the rest of her family and many, many loved ones and friends as they/we walk through this hard time.