Charles and Joan Hufstetler: I Saw Jesus In Their Lives

From Dr. Ina Bunyi: A former Bible Clubber’s tribute to her modern day heroes of faith.

• Did you ever want so badly to get sick just so you can receive a box of no bake oatmeal cookies? I DID! 
• Did you ever wonder why some people just won't give up, go away and leave you alone? I DID!!

 
I am so glad I never had to get sick in order to get the much coveted cookies that Mom Jo faithfully made and sweetly served every week to us Bible Clubbers. I am so thankful that Uncle Chuck never gave up and kept waiting outside our gate until my brother and I were dressed and ready to hop in his car to attend DVBS or Sunday church.

In His Sovereignty God knew I would need to know Christ as my Savior early in life and used this loving couple's compassion and burden for the souls of neighborhood kids to make sure I did.
 
It was during one of those Saturday Bible Clubs when I heard about the Savior’s love for me and accepted His gift of everlasting life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“Whosoever” surely meaneth me, surely meaneth me
Oh surely meaneth me!
“Whosoever” surely meaneth me – “whosoever” meaneth me!!
Who can resist such a gift that included me? I am very thankful God gave me wisdom not to!
 
In 2007 (30 years after I last saw them) God allowed me to visit the Hufstetlers and to personally thank them for being my spiritual parents. I am indebted to the people God used for the blessed reunion where once more I saw Uncle Chuck's mischievous grin and enjoyed (my favorite) Mom Jo's cookies that I too now prepare and share on occasion to Bible clubbers in the neighborhood where I now live. 
 
It was during this time that I learned that before I met them, they were ready to retire from their work in Marinduque (another province) in order to take charge of another work in the States, but God sent them on a "detour to Manila." I know now I was one of the reasons why.
 
Uncle Chuck and Mom Jo were a couple who let the light of God's love so shine (Matthew 5:16) before others that they saw God in all their good works, heard Him in their words, and even in their silence when they knew speaking out their mind may not be of help or may offend.
 
I am only one of those many children (in the early 70s) and adults (this past decade when we were reunited) who benefited from their godly light.
In their eyes I saw His care
I could see His love was there
They have been so faithful
And I saw Jesus in their lives
Mr Ron Hamilton's "I Saw Jesus In You" rephrased 
They knew that as much as they did it to the least of my brethren (Matthew 25:40), including tiny Filipino kids, they were doing it for the Lord!
 
To love unconditionally and non-selectively...to prefer God's will over their own is a great blessing and challenge to me.
 
For years, even to the very end of conscious life they prayed for my husband Dan and me. If they knew you and your need, I am sure they prayed for you too.
 
I will eternally be grateful God sent Uncle Chuck and Mom Jo so that I would get to know about the love of Him who sent Christ His Son on the cross so that whosoever, including you and me, would believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life!
 
How can I repay them and God for their loving kindness? It is not the "sacrifice" of a written tribute nor a well meant recording of a song that I sent for her Memorial Service (made possible through the kindness of friends) that pleases God but of a life that is broken anew and made contrite by the example of this well loved couple who were themselves only fired up by God's everlasting and sacrificial love.
 
The light, in Mom Jo's corner where I belonged, was dimmed by her recent home going (and that of Uncle Chuck in 2009). If I am really thankful, I can pay their goodness forward to others by doing my best, through His strength and for His glory, to brighten the corner where I am.
 
Will you pray with and join me as I ask God's help to see beyond myself a world that is lost in the darkness of sin and in need of our little lights to shine brightly in our corners so that they may through us see the greater Light of the Savior.

I Saw Jesus in You
by: Ron and Shelly Hamilton
 
When I enter heaven's glory
And I see my Saviour's face,
I will offer Him ten thousand years of praise.
Then I'll find that special one
In whose life I saw God's Son,
And through tears of joy with trembling lips these words I'll say:
I saw Jesus in you,
I saw Jesus in you,
I could hear His voice in the words you said-
I saw Jesus in you,
In your eyes I saw His care,
I could see His love was there,
You were faithful,
And I saw Jesus in you
 
 
When I stand before my Father
To receive my life's reward,
And my soul is bathed in God's eternal day
When this race on earth is run,
And God sees the works I've done,
More than anything I long to hear my Father say:
I saw Jesus in you,
I saw Jesus in you,
I could hear His voice in the words you said-
I saw Jesus in you,
In your eyes I saw His care,
I could see His love was there,
You were faithful,
And I saw Jesus in you