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April / May 2008
Dearly Beloved,
“God goes before you today and His presence is with you. He has a life
for you to live, a plan for you to follow, and a purpose for you to
fulfill. He has allowed you to be here, at this time in history, to be
His watchman to this generation.” (Roy Lessin, co-founder of DaySpring
Cards).
Thank God for this truth. Hang on to it, no matter how great the storms
of life may be!
March was the month my parents feared the most back in Saskatchewan,
where I grew up on the farm. Dad said it was unpredictable. One never
knew what could happen. “If it came in like a lamb it went out like a
lion,” and “if it came in like a lion it would probably go out like a
lamb” was what the old folks all quoted every year. With spring just
around the corner, there still was no sign of it. Only the high snow
banks, the piercing cold, the angry winds. We feared going to school. A
sudden snowstorm could become a killer of kids, and I had two and a half
miles to go in my little sleigh, with faithful Fanny, my horse, pulling
me there and back. What a loyal, good girl she was! She would get us
there and back, if anyone could!
I am not living in Canada now. But the month of March has not been very
kind to me recently. Last year it was on March 5 that my beloved
husband, Jim left me to go to his Heavenly Mansion. I was looking
forward to his “jahr-zeit” (Yiddish for the first anniversary of one’s
death), so that we all could honour him at his resting place here in
Engeltal on that day.
But on that same day, I was neither in this world, nor in the world to
come, i.e. Heaven. I don’t know where I was. I only remember Sister
Sharon praying for me to live, and being taken to the car. I do recall
some moments of great pain in the hospital when I thought they (the
nurses) were trying to kill me, later the doctors told me they saved my
life. For three or four days I was out of this world.
I didn’t feel sick, had no fever, didn’t cough, nothing like that. I
only felt sleepy. Oh, if they would only let me sleep! But my
handmaidens, and son Tommy “dragged” me to the hospital, where I did NOT
want to go, and where my life was saved. The doctors said that had they
waited any longer they would have lost me. They discovered
I had “large
pneumonia, and influenza."
All the while, the world was praying. It was your prayers that brought
me back. They literally “resurrected” me. When I finally “woke up” I
couldn’t believe I had been “asleep” for three or more days. They moved
me out of intensive care, and the flowers started arriving—your flowers,
and your emails. I received 160 emails in the hospital alone. Soon the
whole hospital was buzzing, “Who IS that woman? "
Nurses wanted to come
and talk with me.
After I “woke up” and started recovering, I began coughing. This brought
on terrible pains. They took all kinds of X-rays, and CT scans, and
blood tests. And they even gave me blood transfusions. Five or more
doctors tried to figure out what had happened to me. No one had the
answer. But when the pain left, my doctor released me from the
hospital. I came home after nine days, without a medical answer as to
why I still was in pain. All I know is that I had an appointment with
death, but you all prayed me back. Daily I am feeling better and gaining
strength.
I will never be the same. I am not the same woman who left this house to
go to the hospital. I have learned how easy it is to “go home.” I wasn’t
afraid to die then, and now I am less afraid. It is just “falling asleep
in Jesus.” It is certainly easier than living!
One prophet called from California to tell me he saw the “death angel”
in the intensive care, as he prayed for my life. When your prayers
stopped him from escorting me home, he went up to Bella Vista, Arkansas
and took my dearest friend, and very first End-Time Handmaiden, Dorothy
Buss, to her Heavenly Home. I briefly saw Papa Jim, all dressed in his
Sunday-best, and I believe he had to go to the Eastern Gate to welcome
her, though at first, I thought it might be me. But Heaven knows best!
During this month we have lost God’s faithful Servant, Denis Cooper,
from Zimbabwe, and Bill Trees, the husband of our End-Time Handmaiden
Geri Trees. In the natural there have been storms and tornadoes,
and many broken hearts and lives.
Yes, it has been a hard month. But it was also the month of Purim, when
we remember how one woman, Esther, had come to the kingdom for such a
time as this; and had saved her people from being slaughtered by their
enemy.
And it is the month when we humbly remember the suffering and death of
our Lord, and the triumph of the Resurrection.
Do you realize that the first thing Jesus did when he had risen from the
dead, even before He ascended to the Father, was that He appeared to
Mary Magdalene and commissioned her to “go and tell My Brethren.” It is
because of the Resurrection, we women have a Life! It is this same power
that authorizes us and enables us to preach his Gospel to all the world
(not just the children in a Sunday School class). Don’t let anyone rob
you of your call through old traditions handed down from generation to
generation. Remember! “He has a life for you to live, a plan for you to
follow, and a purpose for you to fulfill. He has allowed you to be here
at this time in history, to be His watchman to this generation.” Fulfill
your destiny!
Thank you for your prayers, your gifts, cards, letters, everything! I am
overwhelmed.
Sister Gwen
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