LAST LESSONS #176 — LAST LESSONS — REMEMBER 2

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered…….” 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

I love writing about my children. There are so many good things I could say. This week I will tell you about God’s wondrous work in my middle daughter, Kathy.

She was born in Bumbuli, Tanzania in 1958. Then we moved to Moshi so that Bob could establish a hospital on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but Kathy did not seem to thrive physically. When she was five years old, she weighed only 25 pounds. When she complained of pain in her lower abdomen, we took her to the missionary doctor in Machame. We were sure she had appendicitis. Surgery however, proved something different. She had mesenteric tuberculosis. By God’s grace we caught it in time and she was treated.

We came back to the US when Kathy was eight years old, and she did well in school. Art was her favorite subject. I remember her drawing postage stamp size pictures, and to this day she likes little things.

Kathy came to faith in Jesus Christ when she was a teenager, and it made a difference in her life. When she was ready to go to college she tested positive for tuberculosis again. So, instead of going away to college we sent her to Texas Lutheran College. It was close enough to San Antonio that Bob could treat her TB. God made that possible out of his love and care for his own. We all learned something of God’s wondrous works for his children.

Kathy met her husband at Texas Lutheran College, and they were married while DC was in medical school.

If I could use one word to describe Kathy, it would be “creative.” Not only is she a professional artist, but she learned to sew and made clothes without needing patterns. She even made a 4 ft X 5 ft playhouse out of cloth for her children. She was always making thing more beautiful—her house, her garden, her art studio, her church, herself. She is beautiful to this day.

Because Kathy loves the Lord, many of her paintings are religious in nature. Paintings of bread and wine, angels, Genesis 1:1, Noah looking out the window of the ark. Her goal is to glorify God with the talent he has given to her.

Kathy still loves Africa and is working toward taking her artist friends to Rafiki villages to give workshops to teachers and local artists. We are all excited about that!

I am grateful that Kathy daily seeks God’s strength and his presence. I want to do that too, don’t you?