JOSIAH-MINISTRIES

TRIBUTE TO MY MOM

                   Peggy Jean Griffeth    January 9^th 1931- April 5^th 2010  

 

     In the first chapter of Luke, the writer was led to give an account of Jesus’ life and what he had witnessed. In the same way Moses was told to write down the miracles that God had done for them. So that their descendents would know the greatness of their God. In the same way I want everyone to know how the Lord extended our moms life five more years. Give glory to where glory is due.

      After a few years of fighting COPD, my mother was getting weaker and weaker. In the late fall of 2005, we had a family dinner at my parents house. Later on that evening, I happen to look down the hallway as my mom collapsed and fell cracking a couple ribs. After getting her to her bed, we spent the next hour or so ministering to her. She was very scared and knew that she was not ready to meet the Lord. As we spoke to her and prayed with her she finally went to sleep. It upset me to see her that weak and scared. As I was thinking about what had happened the following week, I said to the Lord “this is not how I want to remember my mom when she dies”

 

     The following January. Joan and I started attending the “Life in the Spirit” classes at Northwest Foursquare Church in Federal Way. Most of the teaching was on healing. The prayer team there was seeing the Lord heal many people through their ministry. Around the beginning of February, my mom came down with a case of bronchitis. The Doctor prescribed antibiotics for her, but they made her sick and she had to stop taking them. We had been sharing with her what we were learning in class as well as some of the healing testimonies. We went to see her on a Monday and she was sicker and weaker than I had ever seen her. We offered to bring her to class on Wednesday for prayer and said she would go. We introduced her to Gene Wilkerson (the teacher of the class) and he explained that even though she had smoked 50 plus years, Jesus wanted to heal her. Gene and some of his team prayed for her. As they prayed her lungs started to clear and Gene told her to take a deep breath. She was able to take a deeper breath than she had taken for years. We brought her home and the bronchitis had lifted and her breathing had greatly improved. She started attending the life in the Spirit class regularly. As she received prayer she continued to get stronger and stronger. Over that time she was able go shopping, cook, clean her house again, and other functions she had given up. I’ll never forget how she used to smile when she was receiving prayer.

 

     In May of that year she was water baptized by her new found friend Gene Wilkerson. Before he baptized her Pastor Steve Schell interviewed her and she shared her testimony of what the Lord had done for her. Later that night my dad told her that she was glowing as she spoke. The following month they played a video of those baptisms during the church services. In the video, they had mom’s complete testimony. When it showed Gene baptizing her, it sounded like the whole church applauded. Those are some of the memories of my mom I’ll never forget. It was a very simple prayer I had prayed, but God had answered it.

 

     The following year Gene founded Flames of Fire Ministries and continued to visit mom and minister to her. There were a lot of battles to be fought, (broken hip, hip replacement, MRSA, heart issues…but the Lord carried her through them all. I will always be grateful to the prayer team from Northwest Church and Flames of Fire Ministries for what the Lord did through them.

 

     Over the last five years, mom and dad welcomed 12 new great grandchildren into the family as well as seeing many of the grand kids get married. They have always shown that they had enough love for them all. It was great to see how much joy it brought to them to have the kids come and visit. It blessed them to be able to watch Marshal while Katy worked. I believe all of this came about because God gave us the gift of five more years.

 

     I have never known many people like my mom. When we would visit with her, she always listened and was truly interested in what you had to say. She loved to her stories about the great grandkids. I hope that I can become that same kind of person.

 

     In the last couple months, we could see she had made peace in her heart with every one. I know that there could never have been enough time with her, but I know that she is with Jesus now. I pray that as my family grows that I can have the same love for them as she showed for mine. I know that nobody can replace her, but we can honor her by take the good things she gave us and live by them. I know of very few families that are as close as ours. One of the reasons for that was mom and dad.

 

     I pray that this message blesses you as you read it

     In Christ, Marty Griffeth

     www.josiah-ministries.com