Almost four hours to the minute after posting last Tuesday’s prayer letter, beloved Beverly Blumenfeld took her last breath here on this earth and transitioned right into God’s presence. 2 Corinthians 5:8 states for the believer, “That to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” It’s such a reassuring verse.
Most of you have read the Facebook tribute I paid to Beverly the next morning. I’ve never written anything that got so many responses. She was indeed loved by so many. Her son called her an angel. I never heard her say a bad word about anybody. Sweet and charming and tender-hearted, Beverly was a gift from God to me, the best sister-in-law imaginable.
And then there were the miracles. The cat showing up after missing a week. Those closest to her – husband Mark, son Daniel, Nikki and me right there with her at the end. Mark receiving a visitation from God the night before she passed, where he opened his heart to Christ, invited Him in and was born-again. He attended church on Sunday and shared his conversion with many. I know Bev prayed for Mark just about every day since she became a Christian in 1973. How amazing that God answered in practically the last hour.
Don’t give up on praying for someone you love. In the mystery of God and prayer, the answer may take a while to arrive. I’ve often said, “The longer the delay to our prayers, the greater the answer when it comes.” I’ve seen this to be true so many times.
Beverly holding her son Daniel at the Sawdust Festival in late summer 1979
Prayer Focus for This Week….
- Taffy Eagle, Denise de la Torre, and Dorrie Skadal have all had wonderful results from undergoing cancer treatment. Want to pay for full, complete and lasting healing for all three.
- My brother-in-law Mark Blumenfeld that he will increasingly understand his newfound faith and grow to know and love God; and adjust to the loss of Beverly
- Please pray against the spirit of suicide that has come against many of the teens and youth of Laguna.
- Healing – Rhona, Maggie, David
- Prodigals
Paddle-out at Picnic Beach last Sunday in honor of renown artist and Little Church member Ken Auster.
I thought this quote from Francis Schaeffer fit Ken well: “The Christian should be the person who is alive, whose imagination absolutely boils, which moves, which produces something a bit different from God’s world because God made us to be creative.”
And: “Christian art is the expression of the whole life of the whole person as a Christian. What a Christian portrays in his art is the totality of life. Art is not to be solely a vehicle for some sort of self-conscious evangelism.”
Truly appreciate all the love, messages and calls about Beverly. It has meant a lot to my family.
Jay