what lays around the corner?

I had the priviledge of speaking at my brother-in-law's funeral service this week!
Our family was truly blessed to have known and loved this wonderful generous man! Antonio Sanchez was married to my eldest sister Lisa for 42 years. He battled with cancer and went to be with the Lord on Saturday. They have three grown children.

As I traveled to the funeral I felt overwhelmed and troubled for my sister and all that she was going through...You can imagine the pain and loss we all felt.

Antonio was a boot maker..."an artist"...he made boots for 6 US presidents, and many Hollywood stars. I will never forget one weekend he was in town... I can't remember when exactly this was but it was in the 80s. He was making a run to deliver some boots he had made to a client and that was the reason he was in town. He asked "Do you want to go with me to deliver the boots" I thought it was odd that he was asking me and I just simply said that I couldn't cause I had errands to run. He left and later on in the day when he returned I asked him how his delivery went. He simply said "it was good, but I got lost looking for the ranch". I then asked him "whose ranch?" and he said "Patrick Swayze's". My mouth fell open...I said "why did you not tell me he was your client"! He simply said "you did not ask" and smiled at me. That was Antonio....

He was a simple man with a great talent! The captioned picture above shows the boots he made called "The Liberty Bell". These are held at the Smithsonian for viewing.

At 4AM, the morning of the funeral, I awoke and my head was flooded with a message for the funeral. I fought the Lord and told him I was not scheduled to speak, just to sing. I could not sleep as I kept having visions of these people in the room that I was supposed to share Christ with. I finally told the Lord.....ok, if the opportunity presents itself I will obey you of course. Well.....when I arrived at the funeral by brother who is a minister came to me and said that he was going to officiate the message in english and that his interpreter was not going to be able to assist him. My sister Lisa then told me to go ahead and plan on speaking after my brother spoke. She wanted me to deliver a message to them in Spanish! Well, the Lord set me up again!!!

I delivered the message of having a personal relationship with the Lord to a room full of unbelievers and devout catholics. I had no idea when I went to the funeral what lay around the corner...I had no idea what God had in store for me to do...

There is nothing more difficult that speaking to a room filled with you whole family...the strangers are no biggy to me... I've done that many times before. But my family is my greatest hurdle. How could I say no to my dear Sister? How could I disobey my Lord? He gave me the strength to do this and for that I am so greatful. The Lord wants us to obey him above our hurdles and He will set you up!!!

I will miss my dear Brother in law, but I know that he walked straight into eternity and was received with open arms by Jesus! Please pray for my sister and her family.