Several years ago my friend Dave and I met a couple who welcomed us into their home. We began to visit them on a weekly basis. At one point we found out that Nancy was attending the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints. She attended Catholic school when she was young and her family was Pentecostal. So she had an awareness of some of the differing beliefs between different groups. She did not want to talk to us about doctrine, especially related to the Mormon faith. She only said that when she went to their worship service, she felt peace. She had several Mormons who would visit her on a regular basis. But she assured us that she wanted us to also continue visiting her.
Most of our visits were spent listening to Nancy as she shared about her struggles in life as she was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer. She always appreciated our listening ear. Although we tried to interject some scriptures, the time was usually taken up with conversation which eventually ended with prayer. Sometimes Dave and I would leave a visit wondering if all the time listening was a good use of our time.
At one point she said that she had had a falling out with the Mormon missionaries and that she wanted us to take over teaching her the Bible. As we continued meeting with her weekly, one evening she shared with us that she was planning to be baptized at a local church where her niece was in leadership. She was ready to put her faith in Christ. It was a blessing to be able to attend the worship service on the day of her baptism.
Although we prayed regularly for her healing, she eventually went on hospice. A few weeks after her baptism, she was taken to the emergency room. A short time after that, she died. But before she died she asked me if I would do my best to be at her funeral service so that I could tell her family about her faith.
As the family gathered, there was certainly a mixture of emotions. Nancy had been involved with heroin earlier in life and had had a rough life. But her oldest son expressed to me that he had received a level of emotional healing through the last few weeks leading up to her death. It was certainly sad to say goodbye to her, but certainly a joy to know of her decision to accept Christ and be baptized.
Matthew 20:9-12 NKJV
9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’