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by Michael Meyers

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Tested Faith Inspires
Stugo President

Last spring, thieves robbed Nurse Ellen Swope's house and stole her identity. Sitting next to me on the bus to Wildhorse, she said, "We're still having to cancel bogus checks -- six months after the burglary!" She looked at me candidly yet with smiling eyes.

Not knowing how to respond, I looked outside the bus window to the Columbia River and sighed.

"It has been a very hard year," she said, "but you know, the Lord has always been faithful. He always comes through.

"Honestly, Michael, my mom hasn't been well; we took her off of life support today."

Now, even more dumbfounded, I tried to imagine what I might feel if my mom was taken off of life support, and I felt perplexed, wondering why Mrs. Swope was on a three-hour bus ride with a mob of college students to Wildhorse Canyon while her mother was dying in Minnesota.

"The Lord is always faithful!" she said. "We don't know He can love us so much, but he does!"

She preferred the desert-hill sunset over the movie the bus was playing. She discussed job changes over the years and how life is unpredictable. I'm holding on to every word I can remember now, but I can't remember all of it. I wish I could.

Sunday night at Wildhorse, Dr. Friesen knocked on my bedroom door with news about Mrs. Swope's departure to the hospital. His composure confused me. I felt the same way I did when Mrs. Swope had told me of God's faithfulness: puzzled.

Sure, I know God is faithful. But this is so real; this stuff is more than a Bible story -- it's our lives! Does anyone else ever feel this way?

Back at home in The How, Dr. Friesen closed a time of prayer. He thanked the Lord for beating death by dying and rising again. To truly believe in a resurrection is an extraordinary thing. As he closed, I thought, Do I believe?

Mrs. Swope's words echo in my mind, "The Lord is always faithful!"

Blessed are those who believe without seeing.

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