WHEN GOD CALLS

 

WHEN GOD CALLS

About twenty-five years ago my wife and I met John and Amy Lindström. I was serving at my first pastorate in New Brighton, Minnesota, and they were returning to Papua New Guinea, where they were serving as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Their youth and passion captured me. They sensed God’s call to serve and surrendered the comforts and friendships of the Upper Mid-Western States. They chose to make their home in Papua New Guinea, more than 8,000 miles away from Minnesota.

That decision to relocate to Oceania, to the north of Australia, was the outcome of their exposure to Christian missions. Following their wedding in 1982, John and Amy attended a session sponsored by Wycliffe Bible Translators. That session led to their call and training to become Bible translators. They were assigned to work in Papua New Guinea with the Malei people in 1991. For the next thirty years, they piloted the translation of the New Testament into the Malei language.  

Last August, John and Amy celebrated their 40^th Wedding Anniversary in grand style. They dined at the five-star Stanley Hotel in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. Neither of them realized that that memorable event would be their last anniversary.

Following the celebration, Amy developed pain in her lower abdomen and had difficulty going to the bathroom. A Papua New Guinea clinic examined her but could not diagnose the cause of the pain. On September 17 she returned to the United States for more intensive medical attention. After a CT scan, it was determined that she had ovarian cancer.

The one-hour appointment with her oncologist diagnosed an urgent need for chemotherapy. After attending that crucial appointment virtually, John decided to leave Papua New Guinea immediately. Speedy treatment was recommended. John arrived in time for Amy’s first and last chemo treatment. On October 08, Amy was called to meet her Saviour at the age of sixty-two.

When I got the news I remained silent in shock. For years we prayed for Amy and John as they served the Lord with their four children. She had done remarkable work on the mission field. Her diagnosis came toward the end of a scheduled workshop. Her team was reviewing translations on the Gospel of Luke and Psalms 72-150.

Since her passing, I wrote to John. That was the first time I could not say, “Dear John and Amy”. He lost a wife, a colleague, a friend and mother of their four adult children. Thankfully, we will see Amy again. Her eulogy said it best, “… for Amy, death is an event and not a destination”.

An event is defined as “a thing which arrives, occurs, happens or takes place on an occasion.” We prepare for and attend events throughout our lives. We go to church, political, school, and sporting events. One event ends and we attend another and then another. Events are a big part of our lives and take up a lot of time.

Death is the shortest event we will ever experience. It is that one last event in this life that brings us to the very first event in the next life. Death, because it is an event, is not a termination of life but a continuation of life. Death is that event that brings us to the portal where we leave behind our brief existence on earth to enter an existence that will be eternal.

For the Christian, death is that event in which we are absent from the body but present with the Lord in Heaven. This is why we can stand with John and agree with the Psalmist in saying, “… Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants…” (Psalm 116:15).