Last night a dear friend of ours went home to Heaven. Clem was special to our family in so many ways. He was one of the very first people that we met when we first start attending Deerbrook, we sat in front of Clem and Ginny almost every week before having children. Clem was in one of the first small groups that I attended at Deerbrook and I was able to study Wild at Heart with him, it was with this group of men that I first shared the battle my mother was fighting with Cancer. Every week he prayed with me and DeAnna for God’s will to be done, not an easy prayer to pray.  Clem was one of the first people to see Joshua after he was born and brought him a blanket that he had knitted just for him, 2 weeks later my mom went home to be with Jesus.

Clem’s passion for prayer and for praying for others was contagious and he was a prayer warrior that understood where the war was raging and he was fighting every day. When we first were considering serving with Wycliffe I went to the prayer room where Clem was and shared with him the call that God was placing on our lives, he prayed with me and then he anointed me with oil. Clem and Ginny were the first partners that we had and have continued to be great encouragers and supporters every step of the way, when I was visiting Clem in the hospital before we left Ginny even shared with the nurse what we were getting ready to do.

Monday morning I was awakened early and I felt that I needed to pray for Clem and I picked up my Bible and the book under it was A Handbook of Basics for Christian Soldiers by Clem Birkmeyer, he gave me this shortly before we left the states and I finally finished reading it on Monday. There were many insights in this book, but I thought I would share one thought as a reminder to myself.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love – I Corinthians 6:13.

I guess it finally comes down to just one thing; every individual person, whether he is involved in the government, the church, or in his personal life, must decide in his own heart to give his first allegiance to his Lord Jesus Christ in preference to any other cause or party. When you look at the big picture, and realize that God Almighty is greater and more powerful than any other organization or purpose that mankind can imagine, the bottom line is that God is going to have the last word. He is going to win the final battle.

We will miss Clem and our prayers go out to the Birkmeyer family. Heaven has a new resident that truly understood the big picture and I’m thankful that I was blessed by him while he was with us.