Dear Becky,

2 Cor. 3:4-6 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God: Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

I know that this tribute of thanks to you will trouble you for fear that it give you praise due only to God.  Knowing this helps me to remind myself that it is God who has blessed you so wonderfully, and us by your spiritual service toward us in Christ.  You have been used by Him so often to be a simple conduit of hope and expectation of His promises and help.  When first meeting you, I was so relieved to discover that your educational training was a servant to Christian discipleship.

The sincerity by which you have pursued and presented Christ as your personal companion in serving family needs has drawn you close to my heart as a trustworthy fellow-laborer these many years.  Most people could never imagine a relationship of this duration never having even one moment of tension or difficulty.  You have been blessed by God with pure, untainted motives.  This has been such a blessing to me and all of the staff and families.  Satan loves to distract from God‚s central purpose, he does this so easily by adding to our motives personal issues.  I have been so blessed by God to see Him shining through you in every conversation, decision, and expression by you.

Christ can be freed to minister through the weakness of man.  I have been drawn to Him time an again as you have demonstrated time and again the open, honest expressions of your faults and besetting sins.  I feel like you constantly take me aside to warm me of the one really dangerous staff I have to watch out for ˆ you!  Of course, your eloquence convinces me of your faults, but it has never failed to stir me up to walk in honest humility of my own need and God‚s great and sufficient provision for that need.  A funny thing has happened over the years that I just marvel at, you are the last co-laborer that I ever fret over.  Since you are sincerely fretting before Christ all the time, I have never needed to.

It is a marvel to me that your honesty toward your faults has ministered the opposite from your faults in real life.  Furthermore, I have been so pleasantly coaxed into self-examination, and desire to walk humbly, because of the sweet heavenly presence it has brought me through you.  Christ has magnified Himself by shining out of your weaknesses and being seen as the real source of your power and not you.  Such humility has made you a true servant in the faith, and every time I think of you, I have an irresistible urge to glorify God, who has made you an able minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.  Through you, Becky, God has been able to give much life to others.  To God be the glory.

Many thanks to God, on your behalf!