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 hisI am reading a book about Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895-1960), an American pastor, preacher, and writer.  One of the things he was famous for was his penetrating insight to the Bible and his ability to apply it to our daily life.  Here is one of them: Some of you have just enough Christianity to be miserable in a nightclub, and not enough to be happy in a prayer meeting.  I agree with Dr. Barnhouse that it is true in most cases but somehow it is not true in our church.  I see that you have much Christianity to be happy in the prayer meeting.  You come to prayer meeting excited even though it runs quite long, more than a couple of hours.  Thanks to your prayers we, who are ill, can still live healthily; we, who have needs, can share what we have; and we, who’re tired, can be refreshed and refresh others.

Once I met somebody that I used to know but had lost contact with him for a long time.  We were in a gathering somewhere, and he sat next to me.  Out of the blue, he asked my permission to pray for me, which I, of course, gave.  He said he felt moved by the Spirit to pray for me because I was going through something.  So, he prayed.  And he was right; I was going through something and his prayer for me was God’s way of reassuring me that He knew what happened and that He heard my prayer.  Through his prayer, God spoke to me.

Prayer is not only talking to God, but it is also God’s talking to others through our prayer.  In God’s chamber, everything is laid bare; there is nothing hidden.  That’s why, what’s hidden in my soul was openly known and passed on to this man. We who pray abide in the Spirit’s realm; hence, can be used by God to carry His message to others.  It is also in God’s chamber, we, who pray, can ask Our Beloved Savior to touch and heal someone or to reach out and touch someone. It is there in God’s chamber, through and in prayer, we are all connected with each other.  In God’s chamber we become one body and spirit. 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