Parental Rewards

News recently came of the passing of a dear friend and ministry supporter. Bill Wang loved the Lord, and he had a heart for missions, which influenced both of his daughters. He followed our ministry with prayer and, while he was in good health, regular financial support.

Bill outlived his dear wife, Helen, by several years. She too, was a godly servant of the Lord and a mother whose heart was an example of sacrificial devotion to the missionary outreach of the Kingdom. Bill’s passing fulfilled his desire to be with Jesus and his precious wife.

The news of his heavenly Homegoing brought to my mind the memory of two missions conferences where I spoke.

Some years ago, I brought a missions challenge at Chapel on the Hill in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. After the meeting, Helen came to me and asked whether I remembered another missions conference at the church where I had given a challenge to commit to full-time Christian service. I did indeed remember.

Throughout that earlier service, God was working in many lives, and some young people had publicly responded by walking to the front in dedication. Helen was the church organist and was playing appropriate missions-themed hymns in the background. When I asked if there were parents who were willing to yield their children to missionary service if the Lord should so lead, the music stopped. Helen ceased playing, left the organ bench and came to stand in the silence before me along with others who indicated full surrender.

After she reminded me of that meeting, Helen paused and said, "Dave, I want you to know that decision cost me both of my daughters." Yes, commitment to global missions can be costly. Both of Bill and Helen’s daughters entered foreign missionary service and went with Wycliffe Bible Translators to Papua New Guinea. One has been serving there for over two decades. I remember a time when she was about to return to the field after a furlough, and Bill said to me, "She is going back, and perhaps I’ll never see her again on earth." I asked Bill if he wished things were different, and he said, "No, Dave, I’d not want it any other way."

I had a part in Helen’s funeral several years ago. As I spoke to the family by the freshly dug grave, I shared these precious memories with the family, which by then included grandchildren. They had not known until then about the decision made when the music came to a stop or fully understood the sacrificial ways that family life had been crafted to encourage their foreign missionary service. It was a comfort to them in their earthly loss.

Bill is gone now, too, leaving on Oct. 8, 2009 to his heavenly reward. Or is it what Dwight L. Moody said when he was dying and someone suggested as much? "No, the records aren’t all in yet."

I am grateful to Helen and Bill. They enriched my life and gave me a special insight into parental missionary passion—especially when the music stopped and there were no regrets.

Their ministry lives on through their children and through our continuing ministry in Dedication Evangelism. The records aren’t all in yet, and their reward is still growing.

Dave Virkler