Jan and I heard a portion of a woman's journal read today. In it she said that people regularly asked her whether she was going to marry. Was she disappointed to still be single? Was she praying for a husband?
In her journal she simply wrote (paraphrasing from memory) that she simply wanted to be in the centre of God's will. Her first love and allegiance was to Christ. She did not know if God would give her a husband but for now she would serve Him with all her focus as a single woman.
The woman who wrote that was 38 years old. It was written in 1997. The following year she felt led by God to go to Vietnam and serve the Vietnamese people. Last month she died at age 53. She never married; never had a husband and never birthed a child. Her close friend read that journal entry to us today at her Memorial service.
Many in this country mourned her death. Many Vietnamese would call her their spiritual mother who loved them, served them, prayed for them and shared Christ with them. She was deeply involved in orphanage work here, among other things. God only knows if she would ever have come to Vietnam had she married. God only knows if she would have had a fruitful ministry had she married.
One thing was clear to all of us at the Memorial service today. She did not lose by choosing to make her love for Christ and obedience to Him the foundation of her life. And dozens, no hundreds of people here in Vietnam gained because she invested her life here for 14 years.
In her journal she simply wrote (paraphrasing from memory) that she simply wanted to be in the centre of God's will. Her first love and allegiance was to Christ. She did not know if God would give her a husband but for now she would serve Him with all her focus as a single woman.
The woman who wrote that was 38 years old. It was written in 1997. The following year she felt led by God to go to Vietnam and serve the Vietnamese people. Last month she died at age 53. She never married; never had a husband and never birthed a child. Her close friend read that journal entry to us today at her Memorial service.
Many in this country mourned her death. Many Vietnamese would call her their spiritual mother who loved them, served them, prayed for them and shared Christ with them. She was deeply involved in orphanage work here, among other things. God only knows if she would ever have come to Vietnam had she married. God only knows if she would have had a fruitful ministry had she married.
One thing was clear to all of us at the Memorial service today. She did not lose by choosing to make her love for Christ and obedience to Him the foundation of her life. And dozens, no hundreds of people here in Vietnam gained because she invested her life here for 14 years.
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