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PONNAMMA NINAN : JOURNEY OF FAITH<br />
SEVIKA SANGHAM OF MARTHOMA CHURCH SFBA, SVC AND THE NINANS<br />
As you know for Mum there were no<br />
acquaintances. She took Jesus’ command to<br />
love wholeheartedly so seriously, that toward<br />
the end of her life all she did was call people<br />
around the world to bless them and pray<br />
unceasingly for them. Dad and Mum spent<br />
an hour in prayer every day and that my<br />
friends, is what I will miss sorely - my own<br />
personal prayer warrior.<br />
My mother's favorite saying was "A stitch in<br />
time saves nine." My brother Ajit's rhetorical<br />
answer would always be, what about saving<br />
the 10th stitch? She attempted in every way<br />
to save the 10th stitch she encountered.<br />
Why? Because for Mum Jesus is real, He lives<br />
and Heaven is a reality and she didn't want to leave anyone behind, not even the tourists seeking Sai Baba in Bangalore. I<br />
have witnessed her sharing that “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one goes to the Father without believing<br />
in Him”. She loved the scriptures passionately and was the one person I know who didn't read it for theology but rather<br />
to practically apply it to her life and ours, every day.<br />
My other most favorite thing about Mum was that Dad loved her. He loved her so much that he faithfully walked her<br />
home to Jesus with confidence knowing he will see her again. This is what keeps us kids steady. She indeed fought the<br />
good fight and her banner of Jesus flies high over our heads today as the children she bore for Christ's glory.<br />
I hope the verse I got the day she went into her second surgery will give you comfort the<br />
way it has for me:<br />
I Thess 5:8-11 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith<br />
and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but<br />
to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake<br />
or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one<br />
another, just as you also are doing.<br />
We are not afraid of death for Jesus took its sting out for us and whether Mum had<br />
stayed with us or preceded us into heaven; it was the timeliest win - win victory for Jesus.<br />
I hope you and I will live life without her to the fullest with the last words of wisdom she<br />
gave me while she was in and out of sedation: "Believe, have faith, pray and breathe."<br />
Preethy Susan Mathew (Edamala)<br />
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