Dear Pastor Dudley,

My wife and I wanted to write you many times to thank you for the impact you and you ministry have had on us and on so many other people we have come to know.

I want to share with you the story about our Jewish neighbors, Lee and Ann. Lee was like a father to us, so he and Ann always wanted to know how things were going in our lives, business, etc. During one of these conversations, when my wife was telling Lee about a particular challenge we were facing, Lee asked her if we had tried talking to our Pastor. He said, “I know your Pastor. I know Rutherford….I watch him on TV every Sunday. I know Dudley. I don’t miss him one Sunday.”
We were so excited, because it looked as though God, as He does time and again, was showing us how He orchestrates things. Lee and Anne have been almost been permanent names on our prayer lists. And I believed as we prayed, and he listened to you preach every weekend, God’s Spirit was slowly softening Lee’s heart.
It was a week ago this past Saturday that Lee passed away at 89 years of age. That evening, I held him in my arms while we called 911 for help. As I knelt there holding Lee, I was helpless, devastated, and could do nothing but whisper a prayer for the Lord to forgive him.
Later, as we prayed through our grief, we experienced God’s comfort as He affirmed us of His eternal purposes. It seemed that at the same time the Lord was comforting us for the loss of our beloved Lee, His Spirit was already telling us about the work ahead of us. Ann is still here and she needs us and she needs the Lord. All we know is that God pursued Lee and used people like you to touch him; and we were comforted that Lee was able to hear the Good News, crystal clear from you Pastor Dudley.
This close to home experience only reaffirms this: God’s story of His pursuit of the human heart continues, one heart at a time, and He needs His people to help Him carry out His plan.
Please pray that my wife and I will continue to love on Ann. Pray that she will be open to God’s Word and that she will visit Shepherd with us one of these days. May God help us continue to thirst and seek after him and may the lives of many others be completely transformed through your ministry, for the Glory of Christ.

Marco and Marcia DaSilva 

January 5, 2007