When It Seems God Isn't Listening...
About three weeks ago I asked for prayer at church and on a Facebook page of mine about prayer for a friend. She had been to the doctor because of some stomach pains. The doctor suggested it might be cancer, tests were scheduled and a date set for chemotherapy to start. Doctors spoke of the severity of the situation and alerted the family that chemo would only extend her life for more months. No one at that moment considered that she would only have a few more days. Friends all over the world began to pray for more time with family, for more months to organize things, and for the possibility of a cure.
55 days after that first doctor's visit, my friend passed away. Did God not hear my prayers?
Everything was so hard to understand. It all happened so quickly. She was the mother of three young adults, 2 girls and one young man. One of the daughters got married not too long ago. The other had just been recently engaged and bought her wedding dress. She and her husband both worked at a Christian university. They had spent several years on the mission field on the continent of Africa.
They went to the mission field the same year that my husband and I came to Brazil - 1994. I remember helping her pack up all their stuff before they left for language study and at the end of several furloughs. Seemed I was always helping her pack her bags and she was always leaving before me...
I met my friend on the very first day of classes at Piedmont Bible College. It was at a social mixer for freshman. Somehow we discovered we were both from the Roanoke Valley. We became fast friends.
After graduation life continued. I married my future missionary on route to Brazil and she married the love of her life on route to West Africa. We wrote letter between the two continents. Yes, paper and pen letters. I even tried to mail some boxes. Some arrived, some didn't. I learned how to communicate with the Brazilian post office workers who asked lots of questions about an American girl in Brazil mailing things to Africa.
Some of our furloughs matched up and some didn't. When they did, it was party time. I can still remember exactly how to get to the house where the family almost always stayed on furloughs in Statesville, NC. Sometimes we were together at missions conferences. It was like a vacation. We would sit and wish we could both speak the same language to share our secrets and commentaries about this and that without others listening in. I would turn to her and say something in Portuguese and she to me in French. It became our joke that I should really practice up on my rusty high school French so we could talk... "If only we both spoke French."
In our pre-field days we would always say, "One day I'll visit you in Africa and you'll visit me in Brazil." That day arrived in 2006 when the whole family came with a missions team from North Carolina to help build a new bathhouse on our island camp. Ten days on chit chat with no need for French!
My family never got the chance to repay the visit. Our friends had to leave the field before we had an opportunity to make the trip. One day I'd still like to go to Mali or Niger and walk some of the paths she must have trod...
As soon as I found out that she was sick, I began to pray. I'd always prayed for the family over the years. But this was different. I woke up and she was on my mind, I prayed. I prayed all during the day and whenever I woke up in the middle of the night. I prayed for more time with her family, for peace and calmness, and for just maybe, a small miracle. I wrote her name on my hand each day with a permanent marker to not forget to pray. When it disappearing during the course of the day from too much sweat and hand washing or washing dishes, I wrote it again and again.
During her last week after her husband posted that the promised months were going to only be a few more days, my prayers changed. I wrote the names of her children and husband on my hand and prayed for each one. I spoke with God in my prayers about all the good times and memories that she and I had together in gratitude and humbly asked the Lord to take good care of my friend upon her arrival in heaven where I was absolutely certain she was going. I prayed praising God for the day she got saved as a young girl who snuck off to church because her mother didn't want her going. I praised the Lord for her testimony and asked God to give her lucid, clear moments with each of her children and with her husband so she could say good-bye well. Her only cure now was one - heaven.
On December 17, 2019 the angels of heaven opened the large pearl gates and welcomed Sharon Elizabeth Willson Wing in. Oh, she did love pearls so. And yes, Willson has two L's
Perhaps it would seem and a few times I have to admit I wondered that my first prayers were just not being heard. So many people were praying. Did God just not hear? Why God? I don't know. But I can be sure that God used my friend's life and her death for His Great Glory.
I was walking through a small interior community this past week when I got the news. I was there with a group of young people on a missions trip. It was a strangely appropriate place to be. My friend had a heart for missions just like mine.
I used her story five times this week while sharing the Gospel on our trip. Once with two young girls aged 9 and 10. Another time with a lady in a white dress. Once with a passenger who sat beside me on a bus. Oh that God might be glorified and people brought to Christ because of her life and her death.
Prayer is not just waiting around the answers we want. It's so much more. It's getting closer to God. It's getting to know Our Creator more and more. When we FEEL our prayers just aren't being heard, it's so important to KNOW that God is listening and He knows what is best. He is in control and knows so much more than we.
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| Winston-Salem, 1998, first furloughs |
55 days after that first doctor's visit, my friend passed away. Did God not hear my prayers?
Everything was so hard to understand. It all happened so quickly. She was the mother of three young adults, 2 girls and one young man. One of the daughters got married not too long ago. The other had just been recently engaged and bought her wedding dress. She and her husband both worked at a Christian university. They had spent several years on the mission field on the continent of Africa.
They went to the mission field the same year that my husband and I came to Brazil - 1994. I remember helping her pack up all their stuff before they left for language study and at the end of several furloughs. Seemed I was always helping her pack her bags and she was always leaving before me...
I met my friend on the very first day of classes at Piedmont Bible College. It was at a social mixer for freshman. Somehow we discovered we were both from the Roanoke Valley. We became fast friends.
 |
| My graduation from PBC, 1988 |
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| My wedding in 1987. I was in hers later... |
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| Airport, Petrolina - PE, Brasil, 2006 |
My family never got the chance to repay the visit. Our friends had to leave the field before we had an opportunity to make the trip. One day I'd still like to go to Mali or Niger and walk some of the paths she must have trod...
As soon as I found out that she was sick, I began to pray. I'd always prayed for the family over the years. But this was different. I woke up and she was on my mind, I prayed. I prayed all during the day and whenever I woke up in the middle of the night. I prayed for more time with her family, for peace and calmness, and for just maybe, a small miracle. I wrote her name on my hand each day with a permanent marker to not forget to pray. When it disappearing during the course of the day from too much sweat and hand washing or washing dishes, I wrote it again and again.
During her last week after her husband posted that the promised months were going to only be a few more days, my prayers changed. I wrote the names of her children and husband on my hand and prayed for each one. I spoke with God in my prayers about all the good times and memories that she and I had together in gratitude and humbly asked the Lord to take good care of my friend upon her arrival in heaven where I was absolutely certain she was going. I prayed praising God for the day she got saved as a young girl who snuck off to church because her mother didn't want her going. I praised the Lord for her testimony and asked God to give her lucid, clear moments with each of her children and with her husband so she could say good-bye well. Her only cure now was one - heaven.
On December 17, 2019 the angels of heaven opened the large pearl gates and welcomed Sharon Elizabeth Willson Wing in. Oh, she did love pearls so. And yes, Willson has two L's
Perhaps it would seem and a few times I have to admit I wondered that my first prayers were just not being heard. So many people were praying. Did God just not hear? Why God? I don't know. But I can be sure that God used my friend's life and her death for His Great Glory.
I was walking through a small interior community this past week when I got the news. I was there with a group of young people on a missions trip. It was a strangely appropriate place to be. My friend had a heart for missions just like mine.
I used her story five times this week while sharing the Gospel on our trip. Once with two young girls aged 9 and 10. Another time with a lady in a white dress. Once with a passenger who sat beside me on a bus. Oh that God might be glorified and people brought to Christ because of her life and her death.
Prayer is not just waiting around the answers we want. It's so much more. It's getting closer to God. It's getting to know Our Creator more and more. When we FEEL our prayers just aren't being heard, it's so important to KNOW that God is listening and He knows what is best. He is in control and knows so much more than we.
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