There are some moments in life that we never forget… and some faces though they move away and be called to another place… we will never forget the impact that they had on us… because the impact was an eternal impact.
This coming Sunday I will say farewell to a couple that have been a pillar in my life as a believer… a couple whose eyes I would search for these last eleven years to see if the words I were saying and teaching were in line with Truth… because I knew if it wasn’t they would let me know… and they would do so with the Word not their personal opinion.
This coming Sunday I will say farewell to the woman whose story the Lord used to bring me to Himself…
“On December 9, 2001 Sue Fallin shared her testimony at Shiloh. She spoke of how God had healed her of four incurable diseases, but it was not the healing that caught my attention, it was the fact that she said she heard God say “I Am” and “I am faithful.” I knew then that I knew about God, but I did not know God. I knew that I had never experienced God in that way, but I wanted to. I couldn’t wait for the prayer of invitation to end before I was trying to get up to the altar. I knew I needed to be reconciled to God. I cried out to Him and He answered my cry, through faith in His beloved only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
I went to church that morning a broken woman, and I came home “a new creation in Christ Jesus” (2 Corin 5:17). I was forgiven. I was washed clean from the shame of my past, the sins of my youth (Psalm 25). Now the void within me was filled. Now I was complete.
I fell in love with Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. I had an overwhelming desire to tell my family, my friends, and the whole world about this amazing thing that had happened to me, about this amazing God-Man Jesus Christ!”
~ shared from my author page
This coming Sunday I will say farewell to the woman who spoke grace and love to me the evening my back stood straight and my attitude shot forth on the night she spoke about submission to our husbands… At the time I had never had a man other than my father truly love me, provide for me, and commit to me. As a new wife, in the back of my mind and heart, I expected my husband to eventually cheat on me and leave me stranded because that was what I knew the men of my generation to do and its not like I could stay young and in shape forever. So I was not planning on investing any submission to someone I expected to desert me. However, she taught me that submission to my husband was really submission to my God… and God I could trust… and God would never desert me. Through this submission to my God, I would learn also how to trust my husband.
This coming Sunday I will say farewell to the woman who was the first to ask me to pray out loud… in front of people… and I don’t know if she had a clue that I thought I would throw up the moment she asked. Yet, I survived and made it through the prayer without any vomit on the chapel carpet.
This coming Sunday I will say farewell to a couple who was not afraid to show that they loved God with all their heart and mind and soul and strength yet they were not perfect and they allowed me to see their imperfections because they taught with their life, not just their words.
This coming Sunday I will say farewell to a couple whose prayers I could always count on, whose words of wisdom I could always trust in, and whose faith I could always learn from. A couple whose support was unwavering and who has been there prodding me along in my faith by their prayers and their smiles and their words and their willingness to take a chance on me and the ministries that I believe the Lord has given me.
Whether it be comforting me after I call in a panic after sharing an experience before the new Pastor and our whole church, an experience that I know now I was still walking through the stages of grief in, because I feared I had spoken words that could be misunderstood and take away from the Gospel…
Whether it be reading my books and writing endorsements for them and even sitting through book signings with me because I asked her to join me because the thought of sitting their on display by myself terrified me…
Whether it be encouraging me as I took on the ministry of Children’s Ministry Director as I stepped once again into unknown territory as I attempted to live in obedience to my God…
Or whether it be encouraging me in just being a wife and a mother.
Knowing that when I walked in the door they would see what was in my eyes and I would not have to say a word… they would know to pray… or just to remind me that they were praying for me.
Durwood and Sue Fallin, thank you for sharing your faith and your life with me and my family. I hope that South Carolina understands what and who God is sending their way… because this Alabama girl most definitely knows what and who they are receiving.
You have both made an eternal impact on my life and I love you both dearly.
As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
John 17:18-23