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I assured him the whole service was appropriate for him. There was enough there to make us all look forward to meeting the Lord. God had other ways of preparing Sunil, too.

One thing I did when the opportunity came was to preach in our local church. I chose to speak lovingly on 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 about “the Christian hope of resurrection”.  I remember a month later driving with Sunil and singing, 

“Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace. I want to see my Saviour’s face! Heaven is a wonderful place.”

However, I am afraid that most of my Scripture readings with the family were to strengthen our faith for healing and living, rather than to prepare my son to die.  I remember an email from Ron Penny, who had lost a one-week-old granddaughter just weeks before. He wrote: “Don’t just look upward, look forward”, implying that we should look forward to the hope before us, to be with Christ.

About three weeks before Sunil passed away I was at my desk. Looking up, I saw on the bookshelf a book a friend had given me when Sunil was first diagnosed with cancer. It was entitled,  “Will God Heal Me?”  The book did not interest me then because the answer was obvious: God heals, which meant God will heal my son, God will hear me especially when I fast and persist in prayer. After all, I have seen so many answers to prayers. I had let the book remain there for two years. Now, however, I needed some hope. Flipping through its back pages, the title of a chapter called “I have come to help you die” caught my attention.

This chapter told the story of a young lady who had come to the end of her life. Reality was going the opposite direction of all prophecies and dreams and visions that various others had been given about her. Unlike my situation, visitors and prayers were diminishing as the once-enthusiastic prayer supporters saw her condition deteriorating.  Then a minister went to see her.

“Have you come to pray for my healing?” asked the young lady with great expectation. Maybe the moment for the fulfilment of all predictions had come.

“No”, came the pastor’s answer. “I have come to help you die”.   The minister then turned to the many Scripture passages that speak of the Christian’s hope of heaven, resurrection and eternal life. Thus she was prepared to meet the Lord, and soon afterwards she did.

I have received several hundred emails and many phone calls and visits since the Lord took Sunil to Himself. Many spoke of the fond memories they have of Sunil.  Though he died young, friends assured us that he had lived a full life and finished his mission. 400 people came to the funeral service because, as one later wrote, “he had touched their lives in some way”. His life did touch thousands of others in the over-40 nation he visited with us on OM ships. This was clear from the emails that were coming in.  The nine people who paid tributes at the service also made that very clear. No wonder that about 30 students and 17 teachers and staff from his school were at the service. Three of his nurses and several of our non-Christian neighbours were all present and heard the gospel through Peter Maiden and George Verwer.

Many wondered how such a young life could be wrenched away so prematurely. Peter Maiden in his words of welcome at the service of celebration for Sunil’s life said, “Christianity makes no great attempts to answer the philosophical issue of suffering. Instead, it offers to us the God of the Cross. In other words, God’s answer to our suffering is to share our pain; to suffer with us, and ultimately to take all our suffering upon Himself and leave us free; as free as Sunil is this Friday morning from all pain and all suffering; and he will be free for all eternity. That’s the promise of God: not immunity from suffering, not explanations for all our sufferings, but the invitation to come to Him with our pain knowing that He understands, and saying to us: ‘In My Son, Jesus, I have been there; I have been where you are; I fully understand’”.

A prayer by George Verwer  ministered to many who questioned even frustrated that God did not heal Sunil.  He prayed, “Father, we just want to have a time of thanksgiving to you and I just thank you for the life of Sunil. I would have never done it this way God but you know best. I don’t like the way you operate Living God if I’m honest but I worship you in mystery.

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