1-11-11...a most significant day for our family.

Hi, everyone!  It’s Kevin.  I was asked by Keri to write about a really neat experience this week. 

On Tuesday night, Keri, Sofia and Selah were watching a funeral service that was streaming online for a boy who was only 12 years old.  The boy, Nathan, is the son of a married couple who are friends of Keri’s, whom she met in Turkey.  Nathan was an incredible little boy, who died from Burkitt’s Lymphoma after an eight month battle. 

As devastating as it is for a boy to die so young, Nathan’s funeral was really a celebration.  There was clear testimony that Nathan belonged to Jesus.  Although death is always terrible, the blessed hope of everlasting life, through faith in Jesus Christ, enables one to say, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”  “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54b-55). 

During the time that Keri and the girls were viewing the service, Sofia walked away and sat down on the stairsteps and began weeping.  Sofia was crying because, being the oldest child, she thinks she is going to die before Selah, and she does not want to be separated from Selah.  Those, of course, were really sweet words to hear.  Later, after a conversation with Keri, Sofia went to her room and was overheard praying and asking God to help her to be like Jesus.  Keri and I learned that Sofia’s desire “to be like Jesus” was really a desire to live obediently like Jesus.

When I came home, Keri said to me, “I think Sofia’s ready.”  Previously, we have had conversations with Sofia about the gospel and even prayed with her, but we were never really sure that Sofia’s heart was ready, even though all the right words were often present.  I sought to explain to Sofia that to “be like Jesus” is only possible if Jesus lives in and through us, and this can only happen if we trust in him alone for salvation.

Later, in my conversation with Sofia, she admitted her sin (Rom. 3:23), realized that death [separation from God] is sin’s penalty (Rom 6:23), that Christ paid the penalty (1 Pet 3:18) and salvation, which cannot be earned, is graciously given by God through faith (Eph 2:8-9), and saving faith leads from death to life (John 5:24).  I then asked Sofia if she was ready to receive the gift of life that Jesus offers (John 1:12) and she said yes.  So, together we prayed, and Sofia put her trust in Jesus to be her Savior!  Keri and I are well aware that salvation is the work of God, and we acknowledge that if Sofia’s faith is genuine it will produce in her the qualities (e.g. Gal. 5:22-23) that will truly make her like Jesus to others.

We give thanks and rejoice with many of you who have joined us in praying for Sofia’s salvation.  Please continue to join us in praying that Sofia will be “rooted and built up in [Jesus] and established in the faith” (Col. 2:7).

Sofia’s faith is only made possible because Jesus was willing to die on the cross for her, and for all those who God has graciously called to himself.  But we also know that God, whose ways are unsearchable and inscrutable, used the death of a special young boy named, Nathan, whose testimony will always live in our hearts, to soften Sofia’s heart to receive the absolutely best “good news” that anyone could possibly ever receive.

This picture was taken back in December one night after AWANA.  Daddy shared with Sofia the bridge illustration and helped answer some of Sofia's questions.

This picture was taken 1-11-11 after she prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her Savior.  What a smile!!!!