TRIBUTE: ELISABETH MARIA VERBRUGGE (AUGUST 7, 2012)

On my right hand is a Bible. I bring it with me not because I want to read some verses of it, but to let you know that this Bible is a gift from Tante Mary. 

From my personal experience, one of the most exciting responsibilities of being a pastor at Surrey is to pick Tante Mary up and to drop her home to and from church services. Since July 2011, almost every week, my family and I have been given what I call a ‘golden opportunity’ to be in private and intense conversations at least one hour a week – not counting Bible Studies and our visits to her.

In those conversations we used to talk about either church issues or her family: children, grand children and great grand children. Indeed in our last visit few days before her death, she proudly mentioned to us how grateful she was to have four great grand children. We often talked and evaluated on our Sunday Services. While, my wife and I often focussed on technical issues, such as music, style of worship, sermon illustration, multi-media and others, Tante Mary had completely different interests. Tante Mary is deeply rooted in Pentecostalism. To her, the most important thing in Christian life and ministry is being filled by the Holy Spirit. Thus, Tante Mary’s evaluation on our worship services almost always fell into two categories: It is filled by the Holy Spirit or it is not filled by the Holy Spirit. We sometimes used an alternate word: anointing. One day there was a little trouble created by one of our church members. Tante Mary lightly said to me, ‘Don’t worry Pastor Ery, that person is not born again yet.’ Whether her judgments were correct or not, I do not know, but Tante Mary had taught me and the church to go to the basics: that is that the most important qualifications for God’s servants in ministry are born again, the filling of the spirit and God’s anointing – those are far more important that merely technical issues and performances.

One of my best friends, a pastor, told me that she wished to die while she is preaching. Behind that wish, we know that someone is doubly honored when he or she died on duty. Tante Mary as many of us know is a prayer woman. And she died on duty. On her last Sunday in Surrey, she was asked to pray for our teens that were going to have a Bible camp. On the previous week, I explained to her the details of the camp: the speaker, the place, the participants, the theme and everything. On Sunday before the service began, she approached me asking, ‘Pa Ery: what is the theme of the youth Bible camp?’ I answered her: ‘My life is my ministry.’ It was however unusual since she approached me four times with the same question within less than ten minutes. During the worship, she approached me again for the fifth time, but now she smiled saying, I now know the theme: My life is my ministry. That unusual incident tells me that when tante Mary prays for something, she prays for it seriously. She could have simply asked God to bless the teens and Amen. She however decided to make sure that she knew the theme of the camp, and she said it in her prayer that Sunday. That prayer was her last public ministry in Surrey – Though I am sure she remembered the camp, the theme and prayed for it up to her last day on earth. As the theme of the camp, HER LIFE IS truly HER MINISTRY. She died on duty, and therefore is extraordinarily honored.

Now, let me share my last memorable incident with Tante Mary. In November 2009, I visited Vancouver for three weeks, preaching in Vancouver three times, in Burnaby two times and in Surrey three times. Neither was a pastor nor a member of HFAN that time. And I do not think Tante Mary knew that eventually I would become her pastor. After my last service at Surrey, she approached me putting an envelope in my pocket. I want to be open with all of you. It was one hundred dollar. She is the very first person in the entire Canada and off course in the church who with generosity gave me some financial support. To all of you, what Tante Mary did to me may not be too special. To us, it was prophetic: someone who did not know me but my name – and I did not know her either but her name – an elderly and in a foreign land gave me some financial support. My family and I decided to come to Canada and to serve God in this country not because the money Tante Mary gave to me. God however has used tante Mary to be his prophet to tell my wife and I that wherever God calls us to go, God will provide our needs.

Lastly, less than a week before she died, we visited her one afternoon. I was sleepy and tired – and I openly mentioned it to her. Tante Mary again graciously served me with a cup of coffee. That afternoon coffee will always bring my memory to Tante Mary’s generosity. My family and I personally value her friendship and service.

Now to the whole family of Tante Mary (the children, the grand children and the four great grand children whom she is proud of), I on behalf of the whole HFAN Surrey congregation want to let you know how lovely and adorable she had been with us. We love her and we deeply honor her. We pray that this moment of grief may unite the whole family in peace. Amen.