Our Beloved Pastor Dave

I exchanged my train tickets to get home to be with Noline during this tragically historical time. Having had problems over the years with my back, I have experienced numbness in some parts of my foot. No matter how sharp the instrument used to prod and probe, I could not feel a thing. I call it bone numbness. This is what I was feeling, ‘bone numbness’ when Noline called me in Ivano Frankievsk with the news of Bro. Dave’s death. Denial would’ve been a good choice of a word to describe my immediate reaction. I did not want to accept it; Noline repeatedly inquired if I was still on the line as I fell silent with a deep seated grief for a man I dearly loved.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. These Holy Spirit words have comforted many over the two thousand years since they were written, used and quoted. I know he is with the Lord and is now beholding the face of the Savior he loved and served so faithfully. He has no regrets having left this world. But my heart ache is in my own selfishness to have Bro. Dave still with us.

The same feelings of shock and unbelief, which flooded my mind, when I saw the first and second planes go into the Twin Towers, revisited me with Bro. Dave’s death. There is no intention on my part, to try to stop the pangs of grief for a man so beloved. I plan to let the memory of his love and care for me continue to take its course through my life, for as long as it takes. I make no apologies. Like the train tracks I ride on, back and forth to Western Ukraine, I now have a deep sorrow in my heart at the loss of this man of God. But I also retain a deep gratefulness for having spent so many years working with him and for him.

The Neches River and Anderson county line in Texas is the place of his last living moments. But the word he loved and preached lives on. I have four memorable occasions that are milestones and checkpoints in my life. When I gave my heart to Jesus Christ in 1972; and was forever changed by the love and power of God. When I married my childhood sweetheart in 1973; she made me the happiest person alive. When God called me into the ministry and asked me to serve Him all the days of my life. Lastly being absolutely transformed by the knowledge of the New Covenant, preached, taught and lived out by David Wilkerson.

 I thank you sir for your obedience to stand out from all the different voices in the world. Thank you for your steadfastness in preaching a pure gospel and not being moved by the newest fads in Christianity. Thank you for revealing the New Covenant to us and then living it for us to observe. Noline and I love you and knowing we will see you again, causes our heart to rejoice. You will never be forgotten.