Transformed by God's Love and Power

Day 40--When I (Lynn) first met Marti 39 years ago, she was sitting on the floor of a dark living room with her nine-month-old daughter on her lap, her waist-length hair cascading down her back. It was my first time attending a women's Bible study group from a small church in Hyde Park, the Boston neighborhood where we lived. 

A year earlier, I had left my teaching position at Lexington Christian Academy to be a stay-at-home mom to our son, Matthew. I was very lonely in Hyde Park and was desperate to meet other women, especially other moms. 

Most of the women in this Bible study were decades older than Marti and I were, so I naturally gravitated toward her. When we had tea together one morning, I learned that she had only recently married Ed, the father of her nine-month-old daughter, Sarah. Marti had dropped out of high school several years earlier when she had given birth to another daughter. She was a fairly new Christian, with a fierce passion to learn more about the Bible and Jesus.

In the months and years that followed, God knit us together into an unusual friendship. We both stayed with the Bible study group, she as one of the guitarists who led the worship time, me as one of the teaching leaders. 

Marti was often distressed because of the wild life her husband was leading. He spent many nights drinking with friends, and he grew marijuana in their backyard. He was even arrested for growing and using drugs. He had no interest or sympathy for Marti's newfound Christian faith. In fact, he was often hostile and obstructive.

When Marti and Ed gave birth to another daughter, Rebecca Lynn, Marti asked me if I would be Beca's godmother. Not having been raised in a church tradition that included godparents, I was a little hesitant at first. Marti explained that because Ed was not a Christian, she wanted to have someone who would help her raise Beca to love Jesus. 

Marti and I spent hours together, talking and praying about what it meant to love our husbands and nurture our children. She took seriously the instructions in 1 Peter 3:  

"Wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives. . . . Clothe yourselves . . . with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." 

She prayed that she would be that pure, reverent, gentle-spirited woman who would reflect the Lord to whom she had given her life. 

And God honored her desire and her prayers.

This past weekend Bas and I spent time with Marti, Ed, and their two adult daughters. It had been nearly 30 years since we had seen them. In that time, Marti finished high school and earned advanced nursing degrees. For many years she worked as an emergency-room nurse at a large hospital in the Boston area. Ed not only became a Christian, but he now serves as an elder in their church. Several years ago the entire family traveled to Haiti to serve with a mission organization for a number of months.

Ed and Marti bought land in Vermont and have built a self-sustaining farm, where they care for horses and raise many animals. They collect honey from their hives and press apples into cider every fall.

A few years ago Marti was diagnosed with lupus and has had to slow down her life because of the debilitation. She has found new strength in the quiet times she has with the Lord, and her experience has equipped her to encourage others who are struggling with debilitating situations.

Sarah (left) is now a mother of two adopted sons, and she currently is providing foster care for two little girls. I was struck by what a level-headed and godly woman she is. She lives near Ed and Marti and is a real blessing in their lives.

It was so good to spend "real time" with Rebecca (right). She was around six years old when our family moved from Boston to Wheaton, Illinois, so I have not spent much time with her as an adult. She is energetic, creative, a lover of people, and a lover of Jesus. 

She is the mother of three sons and serves as the executive director of a theatre company in her town. She also channels her creativity into her catering business.

Bas and I were deeply moved by how God has touched this family and transformed it in so many ways.

On Sunday, we joined Beca at her church and witnessed another powerful transformation. In 1974, when Bas and I moved to Hyde Park, it was a racially tense place. It was the year that Judge Arthur Garrity had ordered the desegregation of the Boston public schools, and the community was not happy. We lived next door to an elementary school, and for the first six weeks of school, National Guard troops lined our street to ensure the safety of the students.

But last Sunday, in this church, just a few miles away from where the troops stood with their guns forty years earlier, African-Americans, whites, and Latinos joyfully worshiped together. At the end of the service, groups of people gathered in the front of the sanctuary. This scene of two women of different races embracing as they prayed for each other moved me to tears as I thought about the transforming power of God's love and grace.