Amanda’s funeral was held yesterday. It was a wonderful and hopeful “celebration of life.”
It took place in Zion CRC, the church where she went as a child and a teenager. Full of praise and worship songs, emotional eulogies and a message about our longing to be at home with the Lord in our new spiritual bodies, the worship service pointed people to Jesus, just as she wanted.
When Amanda was younger, she wanted to be a missionary. During her battle with cancer, that’s exactly what she became.
She definitely witnessed to me during our regular Friday morning visits. We would chat about anything and everything, including the shows she liked to watch and how she missed driving her car. We always talked about her son, Jackson, the love of her life. But towards the end of each visit we would discuss whatever Bible passage I had selected. Her eyes would light up as her imagination was sparked by God’s promises of a beautiful future. On more than one occasion she asked, “I’ll miss everybody, but is it OK to be excited about what’s ahead?” I would laugh and say, “Of course,” and leave with a heightened sense of anticipation for the life that is to come.
I know that she also witnessed powerfully to all of us when she was interviewed in our church last fall. On November 16, 2014, she was strong enough to join us for both services and she showed us how to suffer with joy by leaning on the Lord. The video of that interview has been seen as far away as Australia where a questioning person said, “Maybe there’s something to this faith thing after all.”
Amanda showed us how to “live by faith, not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7). Inspired by her, I want to live and die the same way. Don’t you?
- Pastor Peter
It took place in Zion CRC, the church where she went as a child and a teenager. Full of praise and worship songs, emotional eulogies and a message about our longing to be at home with the Lord in our new spiritual bodies, the worship service pointed people to Jesus, just as she wanted.
When Amanda was younger, she wanted to be a missionary. During her battle with cancer, that’s exactly what she became.
She definitely witnessed to me during our regular Friday morning visits. We would chat about anything and everything, including the shows she liked to watch and how she missed driving her car. We always talked about her son, Jackson, the love of her life. But towards the end of each visit we would discuss whatever Bible passage I had selected. Her eyes would light up as her imagination was sparked by God’s promises of a beautiful future. On more than one occasion she asked, “I’ll miss everybody, but is it OK to be excited about what’s ahead?” I would laugh and say, “Of course,” and leave with a heightened sense of anticipation for the life that is to come.
I know that she also witnessed powerfully to all of us when she was interviewed in our church last fall. On November 16, 2014, she was strong enough to join us for both services and she showed us how to suffer with joy by leaning on the Lord. The video of that interview has been seen as far away as Australia where a questioning person said, “Maybe there’s something to this faith thing after all.”
Amanda showed us how to “live by faith, not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7). Inspired by her, I want to live and die the same way. Don’t you?
- Pastor Peter
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