Glendale Church

1 Corinthians 12:12-26

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body. ²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ ²²On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, ²⁵that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.

Glendale Church was a huge part in Willies life. For the five years I had been 'walking' with him, he often came with me and Rheanna to a Sunday service. Church is not a building but a family, a body as in the above Biblical passage. When one part of the body is hurting then all the body hurts. Glendale were my rock along with God as they covered me in prayer when I was with Willie and his family. They were brilliant at SOS requests going via a telephone system, texting and calling if urgent prayer was required. Their prayers were invaluable and precious, and I believe a huge part of the journey and Willies increased faith. When you are on a 'mission' it is so important to have that solid back up. Without which we would be weary and useless as we have no time to remember to pray for energy and wisdom in intense situations. I shall be eternally grateful to the church I belonged to for 26 years. I could not have continued with this privileged position without them.

Glendale is a local evangelical alliance church started over 30 years ago by a collection of couples God had bought together. The Ethos of the Church was to adhere strictly to Biblical teachings and to 'love' everyone as Jesus first loved us. All these years later the congregation has grown from about 20 to an average of 150 people regularly attending the Sunday services. 2 of the original couples are still in service as Elders (with their beautiful wives) and even though there have been a couple of changes over the years, the eldership has been a strong foundation for the incredible church that exists today. One of the elders now in Heaven with His Saviour - encouraged many to join with his famous 'hug' for all that walked through the door, One of the wives' legendary flapjack got me Hooked!

Willie loved Glendale, Glendale loved Willie. At the time church was held in a local secondary school, Park House. Willie loved being greeted warmly by everyone, in particular he loved the guitar players and the band in general. He got to know many friendly faces including the lovely Janet Wills..crazy woman on fire for God..amongst many others. He did not like sitting still and listening to anyone speaking.

This meant once worship was over and the 'boring' bit kicked in..we wandered around the various children's groups saying hi, then outside to kick the fallen leaves, pick up stones or play in the sand of the long jump. In winter I have fond memories of us joining the teenagers led by Dave and Hayley Clarke having a snowball fight. Even though Wille was blind he knew the voices of the youngsters and adored Megan and Sarah Bullock amongst others..and even laughed when he was hit by a softly thrown snowball. That morning outside in the crisp snow was precious...the youngsters had time for him, he felt included and loved. Inspite of no vision he was able to be part of a group activity safely.

As Willie got progressively weaker in the latter few months I would push him in his pushchair to the front of church. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he laid back and listened to the choruses - beautiful melodies that filled you with joy and hope. The Holy Spirit often filling you with love overflowing. One Sunday Zoe was with us and saw Willies tears and asked me to take him out as she believed he was upset due to the loud music.

As Zoe was upset, I obediently pushed him out into the corridor away from the blare of the music. Once
outside in the quietness Willie spoke with a desperation in his small voice "I want to touch Jesus, please can I touch Jesus". He had been filled with the Holy Spirit, his tears had been genuine tears of joy. I bent down and held his hand . "Willie hold out your hands and Jesus will touch them, He will grasp your hands and never let them go, He will walk with you holding your hand every step of the way."

I was confident of this as my experience after losing our baby had taught me that's how it is. First I felt Jesus held me high above His shoulders then put me onto His shoulders, then on His hips until finally after a few months I knew He was about to put me down on the ground. I remember being afraid but I needn't have been because when that time came and He placed me back on Terra Firma He grasped my hand gently and today all these years later that's how we walk together daily, Jesus
walking with me holding my hand.

Willie calmed down and put out his hands, and smiled peacefully as he imagined Jesus taking them and holding them gently. This was so precious. Willie had such a real relationship with Our Lord - the evidence coming think and fast as the days passed and Willie got weaker. Praise Jesus that He was able to comfort Willie in the unspeakable and unknown depth of pain his tumour gave him.

Although Zoe did not share our faith, she did love being welcomed by the lovely people of Glendale, and felt relaxed and at home.They would chat to her and pray with her - or just be an ear to listen. I know that Zoe felt loved by many. Among Zoe's favourites were Jim Toothill and his dear wife Doreen the 'mum and dad' of the church at that time.

In all this time I never once heard Willie complain to Jesus, or to pray for recovery, to take the pain away - or to have his vision back. Willie only ever wanted to be with Jesus, to see Him face to face. He had an understanding that this life was temporary and there was a more beautiful existence to look forward to. This was incredible as it was only ever from within Willies heart, mind and soul -  not from another human being.

People often wondered or suggested that we should pray for a miracle for the brain tumour to vanish completely. I know that The Lord is capable of that if He wanted to do it. Ste, one of our congregation could testify to that as The Lord had miracuously healed his mum of a brain tumour,that astonished the medical team and it is duly noted as a 'Miracle with no explanation' on her medical records.

But I never felt prompted to pray for that, and if its in God's Will somebody would have stepped forward to pray especially for healing on this earth, as they were led. It was included in our prayers naturally that if it was in God's plan then please heal Willie completely, but Willie himself was leading the way forward with his desire to move on.

A neighbour of mine had died at the age of 39 on my 39th birthday. I pondered on this with Jesus. "Why Lord do some people live to 100, some only 5, some 39...why Lord?" In reply He gave me a vision. A beautiful blue sky, still blue ocean joining seamlessly in the sunshine. One small drop of water falling slowly, glistening in the sun - God spoke to my heart saying our lives are like one drop of water, eternity is all the drops of water in the ocean, unmeasurable and forever changing. if we on earth see that we only get a quarter of a drop or half a drop then life is cruel and unfair, yet what we gain in the zillion drops of eternity is far greater, but we cannot see that until we are there...forever. We only see what we do not get, not how much more we will enjoy. It was 'the bigger picture'. This does not take away the sadness and pain we feel when someone dies but hopefully fills us with a hope for a future beyond our comprehension and understanding. God say to me 'do not question but trust'.

Glendale continued to pray for the family. Willie and Rheanna were dedicated into the church in an emotional service, a couple of years before he died. Rheanna loved going to Sunday school and made many friends. She would bounce in, smiling and happy to church and would love to sing the worship songs. I loved standing with my arm around her, united in love and by The Grace of God. Circumstance  had joined us like surrogate mother and surrogate daughter, a special bond that remains, a special love like no other. I'm so proud of Rheanna and grateful to God that He continues to have His hand upon her. She is now taller than me so no more standing with my arm draped around her shoulder, more like her hips lol.

The support from Glendale was invaluable throughout and beyond. Pete and I received a generous voucher for a meal out together as they felt we were giving up a lot of our time together. Food was bought round in abundance when Willie and family moved in with us, especially the last few days when they knew |I didn't have time to cook, yummy South African treats from the Van Zyls and Botha's - delicious fruit cake and flapjack from the lovely Decima, and so much more..from so many of you.Through the church and other special friends we had so much support..God really did provide all that we needed, all of the time.

In his final weeks, many visited to pray and entertain, Micah often popped by on his way home to say hi and pray with Willie. He loved Micah's sense of humour and valued his prayers. Jason and his wife Jodie...well they were the stars of the show..more of their exciting input to come..

Together with Christian friends, family and the many teachers at St Marks school who shared our faith they combined into a family that supported us, prayed for us and loved us always - Thank you each and everyone one of you, I thank God for you all.

 I also Thank God for all those not of the same faith that were also invaluable on our journey, for your prayers and acts of true unselfish kindness. This blog is not to say anyone is anymore important whether they believe or not believe - but to give thanks and acknowledgement to our Church for all the support and love they provided for us all. I think I'm tying myself up in knots here but to all those that know me you will understand my take on this without offence...I hope!