I can still remember when we met Lord, on a hot August day in 1982. I was a new college graduate with a head full of knowledge and a heart that wanted to serve You, Lord. And I was scared. Especially that.

I’d left my collegiate world and instead of pursuing marriage or an MBA, I was becoming a missionary. You know I’d always pictured a missionary as a little old lady dressed in black with her hair pulled back in a bun, living in a hut with snakes and rats in a far off land.

But Nancy was greeting me at the missions’ training center in a Chicago suburb with a quick smile and sparkling eyes that held intensity and humor and a deep, deep love for You, Lord, borne through suffering. I didn’t know all she’d suffered on that day. No, on that day, I felt relieved. Nancy was a petite beauty, happily married to Dave, the effervescent Englishman who had first persuaded me to pursue missions in France when I’d met him at the Urbana ’81 missions conference eight months earlier.

Over the course of our year in training, Dave and Nancy invited us into their home, and fed us yummy meals. We listened to French comedians on tape with their two teen boys and talked of God and France. They had served as missionaries in Lyon for eight years before returning to Chicago to be on the home staff of our mission.

I was scared of this new calling of missionary. I felt it in my soul, Lord. You’d intercepted my life at that missions conference and here I was. Scared.

And Nancy was there to care and listen and pray and also whisper with that sparkle in her eyes, “What about Paul?” when I’d talk of my desires for a husband. Back then, Paul was just my teammate, and we were two of seventy-something young people on a suburban campus, all passion for the Lord with hormones thrown in.

But Nancy knew.

Fast forward a few years and Paul and I were married and back in France, serving as career missionaries. Dave and Nancy had also moved back to France, living in a different city, with their role being to care for all the European missionaries.

And how they cared! Nancy became an older and wiser mentor. I cherished their visits to our home where Nancy and I would steal an hour or two away from my boys and talk about life and dreams and heartbreak and You, Lord. Always You. Intense and no-nonsense, Nancy always brought my wandering thoughts and fears back to trust in You, in Your Word, and in Your calling.

Throughout the 38 years of my friendship with Nancy, she’d often give me wise and simple advice. “Sometimes you have to take the risk of being misunderstood,” she’d said when she and Dave visited us in Montpellier. She sympathized with my hurting heart as a young mom in a foreign land, struggling with depression. Oh, she understood. She’d been there.

Over the years, as our friendship deepened, she confided in me some of the heartaches and sufferings that had grown her into this petite and godly girl, and how You, Lord, rescued her in so many ways. We cried and prayed together.

At missions conferences, I would soak up the hour or two with Nancy as she carved out time to meet individually with each of the women under her care. So many of us found a friend and mentor and example in Nancy.

And then, Dave and Nancy moved to England and then back to the US and suddenly, Paul and I were in a similar role of pastoral care providers for the missionaries in Europe. It was a role that seemed too big, and again I was scared.

But I was also prepared. You’d prepared me, Lord, through Nancy. I only had to remember all the times she had ‘been there’ for me, the way she would turn her attention solely on me and listen with one ear to me and the other attuned to You. That was my role now with the precious women under my care.

And Nancy prayed. Real, face on the floor prayers for us. I cherished those prayers and the letters and emails she sent, always filled with Scripture.

“Be assured that my prayers will be with you both.  Elizabeth, you say that the job sounds like something beyond your ability. I can understand.  That’s when the  Lord takes over (Ex. 3:12a)…”

“Do give Paul my love, and hang in there, dear one!  ‘The One Who is in you is greater than the One Who is in the world.’ (1John 4:4)  And He will finish what He has begun.  My prayers are with you.  Thanks so much again for sharing.  We’re in this race together!”

“I am thrilled, Elizabeth, to see how you persist in growing and moving on with what the Lord has for you.  It takes determination and daily sacrifice for one to do this, but I am learning more and more that the Lord is right there behind us giving us that desire and then helping us make progress.  ‘For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him, and the power to do what pleases Him.’  Phil. 2:13 (NLT)”

“You two have been and are faithful servants who rejoice our hearts.”

“Keep up the good work, dear one.  I was reading Psalm 92 this morning, and concerning v.12 where we read about the righteous flourishing like a palm tree, F.B. Meyer comments: “There is no part of the palm that is not utilized in some way.” (Bible Commentary, p. 258)  I feel the Lord is doing this with you and Paul.  He is using your past experiences and gained knowledge to build up and refresh His servants who need the help and encouragement.”  

Nancy struggled with health issues. When she and Dave retired to Florida, she could no longer travel, but she continued mentoring women near and far, teaching Bible studies, and praying. She’d always been known as a woman of prayer. And I knew she continued to pray for us very faithfully.

When we spent a year back in the States in 2017-18, Paul and I made a road trip to Florida, with one of the goals to see Dave and Nancy. We wanted to see them face to face. And we had a wonderfully Spirit-filled visit with the couple who truly was responsible for getting us into missions in France and helping us stay for so long.

We ended our time together with a lovely meal at a French restaurant, slow, relaxed, remembering, laughing, sighing, Nancy and I with whispered sharing. Sweetness. Just what we wanted. A time alone with them to simply say ‘thanks.’

This past Sunday, I learned through Facebook of Nancy’s sudden death, complications from a fall and surgery. Such a shock! Now Nancy is rejoicing with You, the Lord she loved so well here on earth. But many are grieving. Nancy will be missed.  She lived a long and beautiful life, reaching eighty years, always joyful beside her Dave.

It was my privilege to call Nancy a dear friend, and I’m sure she is up there in heaven, cheering me on, reminding me to keep running the race, eyes fixed on You, dear Lord, amidst all of life’s ups and downs. And I will.

Nancy has shown me the way.

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog. + +