stone of help

Ebenezer in Hebrew is translated as stone of help.  Taken from 1 Samuel 7, where the Israelites feared for their lives and asked Samuel to pray to God for His protection.  After the Lord caused the Philistines to lose and retreat during the battle, Samuel offers up an "ebenezer" or a stone.  It is  a monumental stone set up to signify the great Help our Lord was to Samuel.

In the course of the past month, especially, we have witnessed our Lord's great help. We have not physically set up a stone, but I'd like this post to be a bit of a stone in honor of our King.  He has brought us through a valley, a trial, a battle, if you will.  And, of course, I don't really mean the Henry family, I mean our church in Ram 2.  As news of Tang's diagnosis with cancer hit us all very hard, we each one, I think, began to adjust to it, to process what was happening to her body.  News from the field was sparse at times but we continued to hold up Tang, Mot, Peace and their families and the church family at New Community.  Then, in April, news started coming more and more regularly.  We never knew if the next morning we would have an update on her passing.  Then, on a Saturday afternoon in mid June, EST, that news came.  Tang had flown to be with her Jesus!  Were there tears?  You betcha.  Of course, our first reaction is thankfulness that her suffering has ended!  I was reading last night in 1 Corinthians about the resurrection of the dead in Christ and how our bodies will be different, spiritual bodies that will bear the image of the man of heaven!  So, we rejoice!   But, we also mourn.  We mourn for her husband, her daughter, her parents and family.  We mourn for ourselves, that we will miss this servant of the Lord SO much.  There is a huge hole in the family at the church in Ram 2.  I can't even fathom the ache they have. But, as they held funeral services for Tang that week and as the week progressed it was clear that Christ was glorified and proclaimed in a very dark place.  In a place where there is no hope or assurance in death, Tang's death and funeral services brought hope of a better way.  In her life and in her death Tang's desire was to bring glory to Christ.  I actually happened to find a Christmas card Tang gave our family several years ago and in it she had written out her testimony in English.  It's very powerful and perhaps one day I will share it here, but even then, all she wanted was to glorify Christ...until the day she died.  And, I think the Lord, in His great faithfulness to Tang has done just that.  He has been glorified, His name has been praised, His Word has gone forth and many have been faced with this man Who was raised from the dead to bring new life and in whom Tang had placed all her hope and trust.  Now, we wait for the Holy Spirit to do His perfect work, to convict and bring repentance and to bring new life in Christ.  It is clear that the Lord usually uses affliction to bring about His purposes.  Our prayer is that many would know Christ because of the opportunity Tang's life and death gave to share Him...and to live it out.  Christ loves His Bride, the Church.  He is glorified when His Bride serves and loves sacrificially as He does and it is my deepest conviction that when we are loving through His Spirit, people outside the church see it and wonder at that kind of love and concern.  The church in Ram 2 continues to need our prayers as they process and grieve this one whom they loved so dearly.  May the Lord continue to be their stone of help.

Top pic(left to right) Tang, Ying, P'Khiaw, Yu with baby Adele

Middle picture: Tang dressed up at a baby shower for a woman who cleaned the church in Ram 2

Last picture: Tang and Mot with baby Peace, December 2012

*I wrote this post just days after Tang passed into glory.  Just today, I was looking through some old photos and found a beautiful picture of Tang smiling, tears came welling up. Thank you for your prayers.