Bec's Blog

June 2025

One year ago I retired. It was a glorious weekend as we had the retirement party Friday night. There were beloved family and friends present – including people from the last 25 years of ministry. Our precious Dove leaders Deryl & Mim Hurst traveled from Pa to be with us too! There was great music. Delicious food. Marvelous decorations with which I was surprised. An astounding cake. And more.

On Sunday we had the passing of the baton service, and Amanda’s ordination too. Again, it was wonderful. Cherished family and friends were present – including my twin sister Rev. Dr. Joyce Nki arrived just that morning from Kenya, Africa! My own dear younger sister and her husband, cousins from NC, and my husband Jon and our precious children were there too.

My husband Jon had waited four years, since his retirement, for me to retire. And now here it was! We had dreams of more family time, being in Maine for the summer, helping to care for his (94 at the time) mother, and traveling. With our son and his wife living in Vienna, Austria, we were anticipating seeing a lot of Europe.

We were on Long Island, NY, with his mother for a week, and then finally in Maine in mid July. It was the dream we’d imagined for years that we would finally convert this place we came to for a few weeks each summer into our second home. We got a larger TV, ordered curtains, and were enjoying nesting at Blueberry Point, and then I got sick. Very sick. By the end of the month we were returning to Florida with immediate medical follow up. We were supposed to be gone from the church for four months, and then quietly re-enter in October. That did not happen.

I was on heavy dose steroids, with additional meds and doc visits and blood work and CT scans and infusions, etc., for the next six months. Since I was immuno suppressed and compromised, I had to avoid crowds and children. Basically I was isolated for six months. As an extravert, this took some adjusting to. I was extremely grateful for those who prayed for me, contacted me and visited. But it would not be until March that we were able to return to our beloved church family in person. Nine months.

One of our Dove leaders calls retirement, “refirement.” Initially I embraced this optimistic thought, and then just as quickly, dropped it. I felt anything but refired. What I’ve come to realize is that it became for me a time of refinement.

Isaiah 48:10 says, “I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.” This turned out to be true of me as well.

Peter writes in I Peter 5:10 “In His kindness God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.”

This is what happened to me. A year after retiring, or should I say, refining, I have been restored, supported and strengthened. I have dreams and hopes once more. His strength has sure been made perfect in my weakness. (2 Cor. 12: 9,10) I am so grateful for those who have prayed for me and shown me the love of Christ. I have grown closer and gone deeper with Christ and His Holy Spirit once more. And I’ve been humbled.

I want to encourage you, today, to never give up. When despair and discouragement and depression (those “D words” from the devil) seek to swamp you, stand firm.

Paul, who knew a thing or two about suffering, said “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.” (I Corinthians 15:58)

On the other side of the refining, life is more meaningful; people are more precious; and each day of life is something for which to be grateful.

So, now, may “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)