Last week our brother Anyauw was admitted to the hospital. When we visited him, he was still in good spirits and able to chat freely; in fact, that evening he and I still talked over the phone. The following day he was admitted to the ICU where he remained till the day he moved to his heavenly home last Tuesday. Along with Apostle Paul, he could say, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Well-done, well-lived, Nyauw.

For five years Anyauw embattled a rare case of breast cancer. We wouldn’t know if he didn’t tell us because he looked so healthy. It’s all by the grace of God that he could live relatively healthy. It’s also by the grace of God that he could attend his daughter’s wedding and welcome the birth of his grandson. And it’s by the grace of God that his son finished his medical residency just days before his time of departure. Along the way he kept trusting the Lord for each day he lived, giving thanks for His goodness that’s “running after” him, as the song Goodness of God says. Never once did he complain nor express disappointment in God for the sickness he suffered. He was secure in the providence of God, immovable by cancer. Not only did he keep the faith, but he also kept the joy of living till the very end.

Oswald Chambers died at the age of forty-three of complications following an emergency appendectomy while serving as a chaplain to British soldiers in Egypt during World War I. After his death, his wife, Biddy, compiled his sermons and lectures that she took verbatim shorthand notes into a devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest. Here’s something profound from Chambers that perfectly illustrates the life of Anyauw, “We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.” Wherever means wherever! Sickness is included, poverty is included, loss of our loved ones is included, loss of material possessions is included. In all we learn to abide in Christ. Pastor Paul