Great Commission Churches

March 2005

Dear Sisters,

"Whatever it takes, Lord!" has been the prayer of our writer this month, Vicki Nurre of Seattle. She has prayed for many, many years that God would be able to give His best to herself, her family, and to all those she loves. This prayer demonstrates a faith in God's loving power and plans for those who belong to Him.

Vicki shares with us how the Lord has built her faith as He has done "what it takes" to bring His gospel to her family. Painful lessons came through the recent death of her sister, Debby. How wonderful to recognize His goodness and grace even in trials and troubles! Her story reminds me of Proverbs 22:19:

"So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have taught you today, even you."

In His loving grace,

Sandy

Unfathomable Boundaries

by Vicki Nurre, The Expedition, Seattle, Washington

It is a bright pink. I haven't worn this bright a color since, oh, maybe junior high. But it is a good shirt to exercise in. And several ask me about it when I get to the gym.

"It says, ‘I smile because you are my sister. I laugh because there is nothing you can do about it!'" And I manage a half-smile.

"Oh, is that from a family reunion?"

And then I tell briefly about my sister and her death just two months before. That's when I know that I have turned the corner. The anger, the hurt, the disappointments, the memories of all those are still very real. But I am no longer crying at the mere mention of her name. Her name is Debby, and her death has taught me lessons I did not expect.

Acts 17:26-27 says, "and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." I have always read this as an explanation for why I live in the twentieth (and twenty-first) centuries, and am not a prairie woman. And why I live in the U.S., and not Scotland. But I see these verses now as encompassing the very situations that so form our lives. The Lord loves us so much, that He wants to, and will use, every opportunity to reach into our lives to draw us to Him. And in this respect, death can become our ally. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."

My sister became ill almost two years ago. This was preceded by twenty-five years of longing to be involved in her life. And those years took a toll on me and my two other sisters, which for me included anger and bitterness. And although a very difficult time for my family as we watched Debby begin her physical struggle, it afforded me and my sisters a chance to be with Debby and serve her as we had never been able to. But for all the renewed involvement in her life, we simply could not halt the monster that lived inside her brain.

The call came that she was dying. Debby's boundaries were now undeniably set, and the Lord was drawing her to Himself. The only task that remained for us was the one the Lord had laid before us. We were not at all sure that Debby understood and had embraced eternal life from Him. And now Debby could not speak, could hardly move, and was blind.

But the Lord was very gracious to us, as He answered very particular prayers. Every possible opportunity I could personally have had to share with her, I received, as did my sisters. In what was likely the worst presentation of the gospel I have ever given (as I was uncontrollably weeping as I tried to talk!), I shared with my sister while one of my other sisters held her good hand, waiting for the squeezes that would tell us that she heard and understood. And we prayed. We sang old hymns and read the stories that went with them. We read scripture. And as a family, we did things together that we had never done. And we knew that Debby heard us, for at one point we saw a tear roll down her cheek.
Oh, and we laughed! We told all the stories that made us giggle about Debby, and would have convulsed her. She had a very unique way of falling apart when she got tickled. I imagine that she really was giggling while we did this, only she could not let us in on her secret!

And as we did these things, my parents and Debby's husband stood close by, sometimes participating, sometimes just listening. Always listening. And they heard over and over again the hope that is ours. And the changes began to happen, so slowly.

My parents were devastated as they watched their daughter leave too soon. They watched as those who have no hope. But they, too, began to respond to the grace that was being poured out as friends prayed for and with us. Not too long after Debby's death, one of my mother's brothers died, and my parents went to their church and had a service for him that they created. Nobody else there, just them. A short time ago, this would have been unimaginable for my parents to do. But by themselves, they prayed and sang. Old hymns of their childhood...bringing back the memories, I am sure, of Christian lessons taught so long ago by ones who cared so much for them: their parents, their brothers and sisters, friends, church Sunday school teachers...reaching far beyond time to help them remember truth so long rejected or buried. Again, boundaries - constructing their times, that they might find Him.

And my brother-in-law began to talk to us about all kinds of things. He is a very quiet man, very private. His openness was completely new to us. And he began to talk more openly about religion, talking about a God who is there.

Boundaries. My anger and bitterness melted away as I began to discern that the Lord had been at work for many long years helping to craft a way for many in my family to hear and possibly respond to the gospel. I had often prayed, "Whatever it takes, Lord." And as He crafted the boundaries, the living were watching and listening. We live and move and breathe in these boundaries, in the hope that what we do might help others find Him. "O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?...For from Him and to Him and Through him are all things, to Him be the glory forever! Amen. Rom 12:33-36