The Baymans: Amma is in heaven.

Amma is in heaven. I am confident of this. At first I was worried that I would not be able to pray with her, then I realized, it's not up to my power, God is bigger than all this and He can do amazing things! He can change hearts, not I. And I may never know until the day Christ comes, or until I die, that Amma is living with Jesus in heaven.

Yesterday morning, my mom called me to tell me that Amma passed away just after midnight our time, or 12:25pm June 11, 2008, Taiwan time. She was peaceful, and now the pain is gone. My mom said she talked with Amma and asked if she's still holding on because she wants to be a Christian? and her sister kept taking the phone away from Amma saying to my mom, "speak Taiwanese, she can't understand you." My mom was trying, but she can't remember. It's been so many years since she spoke the Taiwanese dialect, so she was speaking Mandarin. My mom was trying to tell Amma thank you for letting her go to college. [My mom was the only person in her family to leave the Buddhist religion and go to a Christian college.] My mom was in tears as she was telling me this. And she thinks Amma heard her because she kept saying "uh." trying to respond because she tried to talk but had no voice. She could only shake her head and nod, but my mom heard her responses.

I said, "mom, we can assume that Amma is in heaven because she was holding on, not that she just wanted to talk to you, but because she had something in her mind. And she wanted to let you know that she accepted Jesus." My mom said Amma's pulse slowed down after talking with her and she was calm. I said, "wow! That's amazing, because her pulse was 120 for 2 days!" Then they washed her and changed her clothes, since they knew the time was coming soon, and her body changed to a beautiful pink color, and she looked like a doll. She had a smile on her face and she left smoothly and peacefully.

I'm in awe at the amazing work God did in our lives! I told my mom that it's amazing that she shared the gospel with Amma when she was in high school and Amma wanted to be a Christian, but there was cultural pressure. Then I learned two Bible verses in Mandarin about 10 yrs. ago and continued praying for Amma's salvation. Then we went to Taiwan as a family with our husbands and Amma's great-grandson Jonah, and shared these verses with her and prayed with her and loved her and showed the peace we have in Jesus in our family. Then I was praying constantly and all night when I heard that she was back in the hospital and something was on her mind that she's holding on, and they can't figure out what it is, but they hoped my mom would call her. I prayed that someone would tell her the prayer, be it my mom or someone in the hospital, or God would just speak directly to her heart so that she would know that He can save her from death if she believes in her heart that Jesus is Lord and she can live with Him forever in heaven.

I would have been happy waiting until That Day to know if Amma is in heaven, but I told my mom, how amazing that God wanted to let us know that Amma accepted Jesus before she died. She said she's going to write a letter and said I can write a letter too so my mom can take it and burn it with her body. I said, "okay, I'll write a letter. The letters are more for us, not for Amma, but I will be praising God in that letter, and we can pray directly to Jesus and he can hear our prayers and answer us. And Amma is smiling down on us from heaven."

My mom is now dealing with the stress of preparing to travel back for the funeral and with her siblings preparing for the funeral. She was worried about dishonesty that could happen, and I told her to just pray that the person would not be dishonest and would do things the way Amma would have wanted, with integrity and honesty. I said, "Mom, we have to pray for our family because they have no hope. You could see the look on their faces. We have to continue praying because their hope is only in this life and how much money and material things they can have. Obviously, you can't take any of that with you."

I'm SO amazed at God's amazing works! The way He works things out for our good and His glory! The more people I tell, the more I hear that we were obedient and shared the gospel with her, but the more I know that God has honored our request for her salvation! I know it's not up to me, it's between Amma and God, but I'm glad I was able to know for certain that she did indeed accept the forgiveness of Christ. Now, we have to continue living our life for Him and sharing the good news with others and continuing to pray for those we love who are rejecting Christ right now. I did before, but then I turned to Him and cried out for Him to save me, and he did! He saved me from my sin and continues to teach me how to be like Him more everyday. I've surrendered my life to Him, and it took me a while to relinquish that power completely over to Him in every area of my life, but I did. And I still struggle with taking back some control, thinking "I can do it, Daddy, I can handle it by myself. Watch me." But in reality, I can't. And it's my pride that wants to do it on my own. He's bigger and He can carry me when I'm weak and I can't go on any further. When I stumble and fall, he picks me up, brushes me off, and shows me that I just need to trust Him to handle it.

Thank You, Lord, for loving us the way You do!