February 28 Today in OPC History

On February 28, 1990, General Secretary of Home Missions and Church Extension George Haney wrote the following words of comfort to a young OPC pastor serving as a church planter. The pastor had been shaken up about the sudden death of a believer in the mission work. Haney wrote,

It was while I was in seminary that I attended my first Christian funeral that I frankly dreaded to attend. My dear friends, Henry and Doris Fikkert, were at seminary at the time and had a little daughter who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and at about one year of age radical surgery seemed to give some relief, but the prognosis was not good. Eventually she died and I went to the funeral service conducted by the late Robert Atwell. Doris and Henry greeted us all as we entered the funeral parlor and, admidst their sorrow and tears, told us how thankful they were that they knew where little Allison was and that some day they would go to join her. I was totally unprepared for that kind of reception by the parents and was then struck with the message based upon Psalm 30:5, "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Under those circumstances I understood more clearly the resurrection hope that God has given to His people. I also came to appreciate the custom on some of our foreign mission fields of Christians to gather together in cemeteries on Easter Sunday morning to celebrate the resurrection. I never got so far as to recommend to any session I have worked with that we do likewise!