Will You Council Your Maker?

Mrs. Feistel was married to a man she loved, and they had spent years in Taiwan planting churches and winning souls to Christ. They were about to cut another church loose to local control and start on another new one, and Mr. Feistel died of cancer.

Mr. Burton was a preacher and had a wife he loved. She, too, died of cancer.

Mrs. Feistel was fortunate enough to become Mrs. Burton, and the new Burton family moved to Rittman, Ohio, for Mr. Burton to be a preacher in a city with around 6,000 inhabitants, at Calvary Baptist Church, . He says, "you have to be lost to find Rittman, Ohio" and he's only half-joking. In Rittman, there is a grand total of one Chinese restaurant.

Mrs. Burton spent several years telling strangers, in Chinese, about Jesus. If there is a Chinaman anywhere near, she will be ching-shung-chimmy-ching gong-chong telling them all about how to avoid hell and gain heaven.

The woman who runs the only Chinese restaurant in Rittman, is Chinese. You may be excused for your lack of surprise when I say that Mrs. Burton got this woman's ear and started talking, and now she's a new Christian, learning about how to be a good Christian, in Chinese.

Was it worth it for those two vintage Christians to die so that hell bound sinner could get saved?

Maybe that woman will touch someone else's life and that someone else will lead the nation on a path to revival and a renewed nationwide Christianity. Or maybe, just that one woman will be kept out of Hell. Was it worth it then?

It seems that God thought so, or at the least, it is an acceptable part of His design.

Both of the people who lost a spouse in this case struggled with the loss, and wondered what God might be doing. Eventually, they came around to the perspective God wants us all to have, and accepted that his way is best, even when his motives seem inscrutable. So help us all, O Lord, to accept what you have for us without murmuring or complaint.