{"id":2126,"date":"2018-06-21T02:48:37","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T06:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/?p=2126"},"modified":"2018-06-21T02:48:37","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T06:48:37","slug":"truth-had-the-last-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/2018\/06\/21\/truth-had-the-last-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth had the last Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Edmund, one of our church leaders, passed away.\u00a0 The physical battle at the end of his life was hard as his body gave into the cancer.\u00a0 However, the spiritual battle that followed for his wife Imelda and his daughter Estella (the only believers in his family) has been fierce.\u00a0 All the other family members (unbelievers) insisted upon a traditional funeral for Edmund.\u00a0 There was little Imelda could do as she was overwhelmingly outnumbered.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the day arrived for Edmund\u2019s funeral.\u00a0 Obviously, Imelda, Estella, and all the believers were disappointed in the way the funeral was to take place.\u00a0 The extended family did as they wanted.\u00a0 Then Edmund\u2019s body was taken to the cemetery where things were still done according to tradition.<\/p>\n

\"Funeral
Funeral for Edmund<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I and most of the believers watched from a distance.\u00a0 As the casket was being closed and about to be placed into the grave, I saw Imelda say something to Estella.\u00a0 Estella then immediately came out of the cemetery and walked right up to me.\u00a0 She expressed that Imelda wanted me to come in.\u00a0 I did so, followed by several of the believers.\u00a0 At that moment, Imelda did something I have never seen before in this culture. \u00a0She stopped the burial.\u00a0 And then she just looked at me.\u00a0 I took just a few minutes to share the truth that Edmund\u2019s soul is already in heaven because of his faith in Jesus.\u00a0 Then another believer read a passage from the Bible and prayed.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really sound like much as I type these words.\u00a0 However, in the end, by her actions, Imelda didn\u2019t allow tradition to have the last word.\u00a0 She honored her husband\u2019s faith and the Lord, and Truth had that last word.<\/p>\n

With Edmund\u2019s burial, it would be nice to say the battle is over for the believers in this village, and especially for Imelda and Estella. \u00a0But we are sure more heartaches and attacks will come.\u00a0 Please pray for us, the believers, and especially for Imelda and Estella.\u00a0 Please pray that, through her courageous stand and testimony, others will come to know Jesus as their Savior.\u00a0 Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Edmund, one of our church leaders, passed away.\u00a0 The physical battle at the end of his life was hard as his body gave into the cancer.\u00a0 However, the spiritual battle that followed for his wife Imelda and his daughter Estella (the only believers in his family) has been fierce.\u00a0 All the other family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":2128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-2126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ethnos360","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}