Dear Ambassador Family,
Words will not suffice to say how much I and my family appreciated your prayers and thoughtful notes, cards and emails during the past week as we said goodbye to my mother. When I went down last Sunday, I did not expect to be gone a whole week, but the Lord’s timing and ways are not always ours. As a result, it was much needed time with my siblings and dad to reminisce together and to bring to a sad, but joyful end, the long journey of the past few years of Mom’s declining health. I don’t think we realize the impact someone has on our lives until we have to say goodbye to that person. My mother was a loving, faithful, compassionate, strong woman whose life was defined by her faith in Christ and her love for others. Her testimony and witness in life as well as in death is one of enduring faith, and I know that God’s opening my own eyes of faith to the gospel is in large part due to her faithful prayers for me.
This past week also impressed upon me once again the vital ministry of the body of Christ to one another. Christ’s love and care for me and my family in a time of need have been evident in so many ways through you, His people. Specifically I want to thank the elders for encouraging me to go be with my family and for making a long, long trip to be with present with us at the funeral. I want to thank Dan Layman for stepping in on short notice and leading and preaching this past Sunday so that I could remain with family and particularly my dad for a couple of days. I want to thank many of you again for the calls, notes, facebook posts, emails, texts, food and flowers you sent to express your sympathy and let us know of your prayers. I truly felt them throughout the week. In particular, thank you for praying for me as I shared a testimony from Mom’s life and from the gospel to the hundreds of people who came to the funeral. It was perhaps the most difficult, but most special message I have preached, and God’s grace was amazingly sufficient in the process. Please continue to pray that many who were there that day will consider and find their hope in Christ alone.
This week was just another affirmation to me of the importance of family. I have been blessed with a wonderful family, not just in my wife, sons, parents and siblings, but in you my brothers and sisters in Christ. Your ministry to me, Cathy and the boys this past week is just a small example of the incredible love and grace of Christ that we are called to share with one another, and I pray that we will continue to share it with one another in both happy and hard times. Truthfully, even though it was good to be with my family in Beaufort, SC, it was difficult to be away from my family in Apex, NC. I’m thankful to be home again and look forward to continuing the journey of faith with each of you towards heaven, “where partings will be no more.”
Your faithful and thankful servant in the Lord,
Pastor Warren
