I first met Bea Hoekstra in the fall of 1997. It was my first Sunday at Collegiate Presbyterian Church on the west side of the Iowa State campus. When I told Bea I was a freshman she said, “I always love hearing that. It means you will be here for a long time.” Bea and her husband Jim were kind of like spiritual parents to us young college students. Their door was always open. I think about coming to their home during some of my dark lonely times my Sophomore year. After college I came to visit Jim and Bea. It was right after I had left my job teaching in inner city Chicago. It felt ironic to me that although Bea had been battling colon cancer for many months, she was the one strengthening and encouraging me. In January of 2006 I came back to Ames again to see Jim and Bea. I was applying to 6 different PhD programs, and I was picking up my college transcripts from Iowa State. I remember hearing Bea pray for me at lunch, “Lord give Dave 5 closed doors and one open door”. Over the next 3 months I received three rejection letters and one acceptance letter (to LSU) the other two schools never got back to me. The prayers of the righteous are powerful. That lunch was on a Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, Bea went in to the hospital for chemotherapy.
The last time I saw Bea was 3 months later over memorial day weekend. A friend from college, James, went with me to see her. Her body was frail, but her spirit was so strong. We were sitting in the hospital lounge when another women joined us. She was asking about the puzzle on the table. In the discussion I mentioned my family had a Narnia puzzle we would solve during the holidays. “Have you read those books?” Bea asked the woman, “The Lion in the stories represents Jesus." How sweet it was to hear that name on those lips.
That next October Bea passed away. It just happened to be the weekend I was back in Iowa for fall break. Being a northerner living in the south I was missing the changing of the trees. Bea's funeral was on a Sunday afternoon. It was a bright, crisp day and the red orange and yellow leave were falling silently across the cemetery. It was so sad to see her go, but it was abundantly clear the joy that Bea had now come home.
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My Grandmother Esther was one year younger than her sister Pearl. There were six siblings total in their family spanning over 2 decades: Lowell, Pearl, Esther, Rosalie, Joe and Jean. My Great Aunt Pearl never married. She went straight to Hougten College from high school and went straight to Haiti from Hougten where she was a missionary for the remainder of her life. She would spend three and a half years in Haiti and 6 months back in the States. My mom talked about how exciting that forth year would be when Aunt Pearl would come home to see everyone. I saw a picture this summer of my Mom when she was about five with Aunt Pearl, Aunt Rosalie and Grandma.
One of these years that my Aunt Pearl came home was in 1974 when my mom was in college. She brought home this long haired kid named Howard Chapman, my dad. Grandma didn't know what to think of him. But my dad's parents had also been missionaries that came out of Houghten. In fact a neat little story about this was a trip Rachel and I took this summer. I wanted Rachel to meet my Aunt Rosalie who is now in her 90's. Rosalie gave me Aunt Pearl's old college year book to give to my mom. In the year book was a note from Pauline Chapman who was a Freshman when Aunt Pearl was a Senior. That would have been my Dad's aunt, years before my Grandparents had even met. So when my Aunt Pearl met my dad they had lots of stories to swap. Aunt Pearl told my Grandma, “He would would be good for Judy. He comes from a solid missionary heritage”.
In December of 74 Aunt Pearl passed away from cancer. Two years later my parents were married and two years after that in 1978 I was born.
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Five years ago today Rachel's mom, Barb Yutzy, lost her battle with MS. I knew I wanted to write something about her today, but I wasn't sure how to do it. I never met Rachel's Mom. And how do you show honor to someone you have never met?
From what I have gleaned about Barb from Rachel and her family members, it seems to me that these three women were made out of the same stuff. Part of what links them together in my mind is that they all lived roughly the same number of years, Aunt Pearl 55, Rachel's Mom 60 and Bea 62. But deeper then that was that all three loved and served the living God. And the thing that truly humbles me is that there is no doubt in my mind that when they were alive, all three of these women prayed for me, specifically. Bea's prayers are a huge part of my role here at LSU along with countless other ways she prayed for me and the other students from Iowa State. Although Aunt Pearl died four years before I was born she had to have prayed for “Judy kids” some day. And how many thousands of prayers must Barb have prayed for “Rachel's future husband”. And these are the seeds sown into my life.
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked before us.”
How I long to live a life the reflects the faithfulness of those who have gone before me.
