In the arms of a friend

Full  Circle 

As a child I would watch the Billy Graham Crusades on our small black and white television. That was a strong part of my childhood.  Never could I have ever imagined the great privilege that God would let be mine. 

Here, in the Philippines Sunday February 7 2016 , Jim was preaching at the Baptist Church  and so we took our grandson Noah who asked to come with us.    We arrived early and 

I suggested to Noah that we greet a few people. 

I noticed an elderly couple in the back so we went over and I extended  my hand to the old woman. She heartily shook my hand , and smiling, introduced the elderly man next to her as her husbands and ,told me ,  they  are the parents of the present Pastor of the Church.  I told her that, I  too was a Pastors wife, and before I realised the  Providence of our meeting, she implored me to take a seat beside her and began to pour forth her heart.  Her husband  was the Founding Pastor  and now suffers  with a debilitating  loss of language, dignity and memory. He  has  Alzheimer's   and she is  his caregiver which requires constant  supervision, as I witnessed that morning. Whispering, to me, how  difficult and emotional  it is, I just listened and hugged her. In    addition, their other adult son is special  needs  and lived  with them. I could see in  Her face the serenity of committed love but there too was agony of concern .  My  hand in hers  affirmed  how much she appreciated me being  with  her, putting her head on my shoulder.  

Confiding, only such things as one tells their  best friend, I was so humbled she took encouragement  from me. For how  often I have been bereft of  understanding  even the bitter struggle concerning my own circumstance. How then would I be able  to offer such solace? 

 It was a poignant moment in  suffering that it occurs again in  bold strokes of Divine Poetry, " comfort  one another in the same love you have been comforted with" .   She then quietly kissed me  and said "God sent you here to  me today, I needed encouragement  and you understand. " 

What is the full circle? 

This Pastor was Billy Graham s Interpreter, when Graham   preached in the Philippines in the 60s, the same years I watched  as a child. 

This day,   50 years later  I sat at her side, hand in hand  an Encourager    and  Confidant . 

 God, Jehovah  SHAMAH is near to the broken hearted. "a very present help in time of trouble"