Unto Eternal Life
The Message editorial staff often write memorials
honoring veteran missionaries. We sorrow at saying good-bye to these
friends, but we are not left with the big WHY question. In April
when ABWE's flags flew at half-mast we assumed another elderly saint
had died. We learned the flag had been lowered in honor of Maura
Pilet, 37, the mother of two small children. We are reminded that
God's ways are perfect. He has cut short the lives of those who-humanly
speaking-were essential to His work: John and Betty Stam beheaded;
the five young men stabbed to death in the jungles of Ecuador. Missions
history is filled with accounts of people who gave their lives to
serve after learning of the death of missionaries. Maura can never
be replaced, but where are those who will pick up her burden to
pray and win the lost?
Maura Kay Pilet
June 2, 1961 - April 26, 1998
Maura was born in Long Beach, California. At the age of 13, she
trusted Christ as Saviour. She received her degree in nursing and
joined the US Air Force, where she achieved the rank of Captain.
Later she certified as a nurse-midwife and received a masters degree
in nursing.
Maura and Chris joined ABWE in 1997.
On Saturday April 25, 1998 Maura spoke at a women's meeting in
Louisiana telling the group, "After the service at the last
church where we spoke, I bit into a granola bar, felt a hard crunch
and cried, 'Oh no! I lost a tooth.' I started thinking, my hair
has turned gray, I've lost a tooth, and I've put on weight. This
depressed me, but I kept coming back to the verse: 'What is seen
is temporal' (2 Corinthians 4:18). My teeth and my hair are temporal.
I can't live for such things as teeth and hair.
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