10/19/2024
Another one of our precious grandmothers just finished her race, graduating into her eternal reward. She was a widow for decades, resolute, determined, and… blind.
Yet, Mrs. Katya mined strength from the Lord, providing unspeakable love in the most modest of houses. She was a home for her neices & nephews, the rock they needed to survive.
When I met her, she was blind as a bat, had nubs for teeth, and because of your generosity, a simple surgery gave her sight and some trips to the dentist gave her a brighter smile & the ability to eat meat again.
I was there the moment she saw colors and animals for the first time in years; it was glorious. When her dentures were in, we had the pleasure of taking her to what was likely her first and only 5 star restaurant experience. What a joy!
She couldn’t hold back childlike joy, laughter, and gratitude.
The same joy, laughter, and grace she showed me every single time she saw me walking down the ole dusty road to visit.
The last time I saw Mrs Katya alive was a couple months ago, and by divine “coincidence” was her birthday. On her last birthday on this earth, she baked the most delicious, flavorful, farm-fresh Moldovan treats for my team and I, even out of her lack.
For a decade, YOU partnered with me and my AMAZING team to provide Katya with food, firewood, surgeries, medicine, and lots of fellowship, prayer, and friendship.
We promised to care for her for the rest of her life, and we kept that promise. Because of God’s goodness and your generosity.
I honor Mrs Katya today, and I challenge everyone reading this to remember not just your widowed, divorced, or never married parents & grandparents… but also your aging aunts & uncles. The alone ones who may or may not appear to have it all together. The ones without kids, and the ones whose kids rarely show up.
My life is RICH… though I don’t have extra cash, I’m rich because Ive chosen to be REAL friends, to love like Jesus, the elderly first in my own family, and then those in my mission field.
Please, find those in your family and then discover others, and FILL your life helping, listening, praying, encouraging the alone and the elderly. It’s one of the many things it’s all about.
“Lord, help me to see them the way YOU see them. Help me to love them the way YOU love them. Fill me and use me as an agent of your grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”