A letter from Mary Nebelsick in the U.S., on Interpretation Assignment from the Philippines
LATE summer 2014 - a visit to rich hill
Dear Friends,
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Rich Hill, MO store front
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Jeslyn Ernie and husband Mark McNay
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First Presbyterian Church Ponca City
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Jeslyn Ernie at her UTS Graduation
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Pastor Jeslyn Ernie
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Paul’s Great Grandfather’s Grave
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Rich Hill, MO Gravestone
Paul and I are happy to tell you that we are back home in Louisville, Kentucky, and are looking forward to seeing you all again. It has been a wonderful homecoming. We thank you, again, for your prayers and financial gifts that make our ministry in the Philippines possible. We are excited about visiting you to tell you about the work we do with the vibrant Christian churches in the Philippines and the theological educators of Southeast Asia. Your prayers and gifts to our work ensure that faithful Christian communities, such as those of the Philippines as well as of Myanmar, Korea, India, Indonesia and Malaysia survive and grow. Through you we have touched many lives and have strengthened the life of faith among our fellow Christian brothers and sisters all over Asia.
Our homecoming was made even more special because we were able to travel across the heartland of America to visit Paul’s grandparents’ hometown of Rich Hill, Missouri, soon after our arrival. Paul, Rachel Marie and I drove from Louisville across the beautiful Indiana cornfields and into blue-green hills of the Missouri Ozarks. In Missouri we experienced a poignant homecoming when we arrived in Rich Hill. The buildings in the old downtown area still testify to the glory days of Rich Hill when the town buzzed with life. Two beautiful parks frame the downtown, and the Methodist and Disciples of Christ churches continue to minister to the communities that farm the rich soil. Paul’s grandparents were founding members of the Disciples of Christ church in that town. It was great happiness to see that their Christian faith continues to bear fruit.
Our most poignant reunion, however, occurred at the cemetery. Paul’s relatives rested under beautiful trees serenaded by the singing of birds. It was a contented cemetery, where families who had lived, loved and prayed together were buried in family plots. The graves of mothers, fathers, little babies lost in infancy, soldiers who fought bravely in two World Wars, aunts, uncles, and cousins were set side by side. Many of the gravestones sported cameo pictures of the deceased. The photographs mounted behind glass ovals depicted men and women with dedicated eyes and a touch of humor around their mouths. One of these photographs was particularly poignant. It showed a young woman full of laughter and vigor. Next to her grave was the grave of her infant child. The death dates of mother and child were the same.
As I looked at this gravestone I remembered Pastor Jeslyn Ernie, who we affectionately called Len Len. Len Len was one of our most charismatic and devoted students. Her radiant smile lit up every room she entered and her marriage to a fellow pastor delighted the entire community. Her subsequent pregnancy was greeted with great joy. Tragedy struck in the midst of this great happiness. During Vacation Bible School Len Len began to hemorrhage. As she lay down on the church pew her parishioners gathered around her, prayed for her life and the life of her unborn child. By the time the ambulance arrived she had lost so much blood that she slipped into a coma. An emergency C-section was performed to try to save the baby. The baby was tiny, yet strong. Now both Len Len and her daughter were fighting for their lives in different parts of the hospital. While they were wrestling with the Angel of Death neither was alone. As fellow pastors, family, friends and members of her congregation we gathered around them daily and prayed. Money for Len Len’s and her daughter’s hospital care was collected daily from friends and family. Blood was donated on the spot for their transfusions and food was brought to the hospital to sustain their family. In spite of all of our best efforts, Len Len did not have enough strength to continue to fight for her life. In the end she reached out to grasp the hand of the Angel of Death and walked toward her heavenly home. At her funeral all her friends who loved her gathered around her coffin in white robes. She was as beloved by us in death as she had been in life. She was laid to rest in the Philippine soil with singing, and I pray that she was welcomed into the communion of saints in heaven with the same rejoicing. We, as a community of living saints, handed her over in gratitude to the saints of God who had joined their heavenly father before her. Fortunately, her little daughter Cassandra survived and is a happy, living witness to her mother’s love and life.
I remembered Len Len as I walked among the graves in Rich Hill. We left the cemetery as the sun dipped down below the cornfields and the singing of the birds gave way to the whirring of cicadas and chirping of crickets. I left the cemetery feeling the love that had been lived and the hope for a bright future that was at the heart of the lives of the citizens of Rich Hill.
This love is the same love that you show us through your prayers and support. I ask you to continue to pray for us and for the pastors in the Philippines as they live lives dedicated to the gospel in the midst of pain and suffering. Please pray that pastors in the Philippines will be able to reach the hospitals in time for emergency treatment and will be able to afford the necessary treatment once they get there.
We thank you for your financial support and ask you to continue to support us as we live out lives dedicated to the gospel in the Philippines and here in the United States.
In Christ,
Mary and Paul'
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 238
Read more about Paul Matheny and Mary Nebelsick's ministry
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