Goodbye to a Friend

2/18/07 - Lord's Day - After Breakfast. We received word on the morning of the Sabbath from our friend Ron in Lubbock that his wife, our good friend and longtime supporter Sarah Huntley, had died after a massive asthma attack at 4 a.m. that morning. Sarah had been a friend of ours going back to our days teaching and fellowshipping at Awarehouse in Lubbock. When we moved down here in 2005, Ron and Sarah would come by regularly - usually bringing some much needed used building supplies Ron had scrounged up somewhere. Just this month they came by the land with some fencing and some used 1 x 6 boards that will be very useful when I start building a larger water catchment system.

Sarah was always concerned - and sometimes that is not a good thing, but Sarah was concerned most often with the welfare of others. She was always there when we encountered a setback or a tragedy, and I remember so well how Ron and Sarah were ever-present in the emergency room waiting area when we lost our son Thomas (and I almost lost Danielle) back in 2005. On many occasions. back in those days when I was traveling and preaching full time on the road, there would come a time when I was scheduled for a preaching trip and I did not even have the money to buy gas for the vehicle, much less to pay for food or lodging. So many times Sarah would walk up to me and privately squeeze a check or some cash into my hand - generally in an amount that would make the trip possible after all.

Sarah was nice and because she was nice, she was gullible. So many times I was exasperated at how easily she was swayed over to one position or another - just because she liked and trusted the person who talked to her last. She was always hoping for the best in people, and she was fiercely loyal. This is one of the reasons they stuck with us when virtually everyone else in Awarehouse abandoned us - and it was why they continued to fellowship with us in Smyer, even during some of the toughest times we have ever faced.

Sarah was a trooper. She was afflicted with virtually everything. She had massive amounts of allergies, and about every other sickness and disease you could get and still live. She spent most of the last years seeking a doctor who would have the patience and knowhow to treat all of her conditions simultaneously - without upsetting the balance of something else that was going on with her health.

Anyway, we will miss Sarah tremendously - and we pray for Ron that he will be strengthened and encouraged, and that he will be at peace concerning God's will in this.

Some stuff went on here at the ranch this week too, but I don't care to talk about it.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker