My Aunt Arlene :)

Last week my dad contacted me to share that the health of his dear younger sister Arlene had taken a turn for the worse.  Later in the week I found out that Arlene had passed on to be with her Lord and Savior.  This brought back a flood of memories for me about Arlene.

I have many wonderful aunts who have touched and blessed my life, but Arlene has done so in a different way.  Let me tell you about Arlene...

Arlene grew up in a family of 10 (my dad’s family) and she was the 3rd from the youngest.  Arlene had a learning disability and this affected her entire life.  Life was not full of victories for Arlene, such as graduating from school, having children, a good marriage and so much more.  In spite of this, if you talked to her you would never hear failure in her voice, only joy, especially for others.

About 5 years ago Arlene was attending a strong Christian Church in Minneapolis and the Pastor there preached about being “all in for Jesus”.  Arlene had always loved the Lord but she realized she never was “all in”.  Arlene decided right there that she wanted to rededicate her life to Jesus so she could be “all in”.  She even got baptized.  Wow what a change happened in her life!!  Arlene always was a super loving person, but now that love went through the roof and she was always ready to share about her Jesus.  What an example to us!

Whenever Diane and I visited her when we were in the states Arlene always grabbed our hands and told us firmly, “I am praying for you guys in Brazil” and then she would tell everyone “here is my niece and nephew the missionaries”.  This humbled us greatly as we saw that Arlene was every bit the missionary we were, and that her love for others was unequaled.

Arlene lived her last years in a nursing home where she touched many lives, both the workers and fellow residents.  At Arlene’s funeral many of the staff of the nursing home wept over her passing.  With all the death that these people face it’s hard to imagine them getting this emotional over a person unless they were super special.

Through the years when something special was about to happen she always exclaimed “oh goody”.  So last week when I heard of Arlene going to Heaven I could just see her stepping into the arms of Jesus and shouting out “oh goody”!

May we all have the simple joy and love that Aunt Arlene had!!

Jeff