over and we will meet you and stand before you. We thank you that also this is a time of celebration in a sense because we've come to honor and to remember the memory of our dear friend and our sister and for some, uh, their own flesh and blood. And father, we thank you that that memory is a good memory. We thank you this evening that we have known this sweet woman as a lover of Jesus Christ with a firm and secure and stable and assured faith in him. We thank you for how that has shown forth in her life throughout the years, even up to the very end. And so while we gather here to mourn and to grieve because we will miss her, while we gather here to consider the sobering realities of the shortness of life and the time that is coming when we will stand before you at the same time we come to rejoice in your grace in the life of our dear sister. And we thank you this evening that there is an eternal hope, a confident expectation that we may have in Jesus Christ all who are trusting in him. We know that this world is not all that there is, and that this life, though it's very short, is not all that there is, but that those who die in the Lord go to be with him and to be with him forever and for all eternity. We thank you that Jesus Christ has purchased by his blood salvation for all who repent and put their trust in him, even as our sister Gina did. So we ask that you would help us to remember these realities as we gather this afternoon, this evening, that your Holy Spirit would come and cause these truths to bear, be brought to bear upon us. And we pray that we might be comforted as we consider these things. And we pray especially for the family. We thank you for this family and we pray that this time of coming together in this place with the church and all of their friends and loved ones would be a time of of glad reflection, and also a time of encouragement, and also a time, Lord, of fixing our eyes and our hearts upon the things that really matter, even the things of eternity. And we ask all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Gina was a lover of music. She loved to sing. She was a good singer, a very encouraging singer. If you ever sat next to her while she was singing, she sang often at different choruses. And it was a blessed time when we had the opportunity to see her sing. And she loved to sing. She loved the great hymns of the faith. And I want us to now take our program and sing one of the great hymns of the faith. When Peace Like a River. Again, it's in our program. If you'd like to follow the music, it's in hymn number 580 in our hymn books. So let's stand together as we sing hymn When Peace Like a River. ♪ And peace like the river ♪ ♪ Comes and lifts my way ♪ ♪ When sorrows I'm steeped in control ♪ ♪ Whatever I want ♪ ♪ Thou hast taught me to say ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should profit, That Christ has regarded my health, has cherished, and has shed his own blood for my soul. With my soul, with my soul, Be it well, be it well with my soul. I sing of the bliss of victorious love, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. The Lord makes the day when the faith shall be signed. Even so, Israel, with my soul, Israel. Amen. Please be seated. At this time, Frank is going to come and give us the eulogy. Before I start, I just want to first extend heartfelt thanks to this congregation and all the outpouring of love, the love of God that has come from you. I want to especially thank my sister-in-law, Linda, who through this time has her own bereavement to deal with, and yet she's been so supportive of me and has taken so much pressure off my shoulders. I want to thank Mariella McDaniel for all the way she poured herself out on Gina when I couldn't be there for her. I want to thank also Rosalind Sims. I don't see you here, I'm sorry, but there you are. I want to thank Rosalind for the same exact thing. Thank you, sister. And Elaine Cathcart for taking Augustine and giving him the homeschooling that we were not able to give. You there somewhere? Hi. Some of this is going to sound repetitive, so bear with it. On a cold morning, which was February 23rd, 63, In the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Vincent and Joan Farise were blessed, with the birth, exceedingly blessed, with the birth of their daughter, Gina, along with the rest of the Farise family, of course. Proverbs 12, verse 4 states, a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. And then chapter 31, verse 10 and following, who can find a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil, and she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. And again, we're gathered today to remember Gina Lorraine Gervasio, my beloved wife, my best friend, my confidant, the beloved mother, daughter, sister, friend, and sister in Christ. Now, for those whom I have not had the pleasure to meet, I am Frank Gervasio, Gina's husband of 21 years, 21 short years. I am truly grateful for your presence here. as we share maybe some tender memories of her life. Again, the year 1986 was a key year for Gina. It was in the spring of that year that she made the public statement of her second birth and the reality of her attachment and wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ by being the first person baptized, again, in the history of Emmanuel Baptist Church. Now with the exception of one brief season that she mentioned to me, which preceded my advent into her life, there was never any question as to her public profession of attachment to Christ of the Bible. Her life was an open testimony of the love of Christ, and nowhere was her attachment to Jesus Christ more evident than as my wife of 21 short years. I was personally introduced to her by my brother, Mark Canova. I don't know if he's here tonight, but she was, at the time, heading up a local singles conference, the only one we've ever had in this church, as a matter of fact, at the time. And it was November 1994. And I had just gotten to the church, maybe about a month before. And so he introduces her to me. Her soft, gentle hand shook mine as she assured me, with that sunny smile of hers, that the conference was going to be such a blessing, and indeed it was. It was. I remember Pastor Brian Wheeler preaching at that conference on the passage in Proverbs 4, verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Now, I won't deny that there were probably a little more than a half a dozen or so ladies in the church which I had found attractive during those days, but... I didn't mean it to be funny, I'm sorry. All right, but... Again, not to the point where I was pursuing anybody. I should have just went on and read that, anyways. But something kept drawing me back to her. Probably God. I noticed she had an interest in music, as was mentioned before, and in singing in particular, and so I invited her to my apartment, which at the time was an apartment I was sharing with my, or my brother Eric Sims was sharing with me. And we wound up meeting once a week on Tuesday nights to do some singing together, and I'd play guitar and keyboards and whatever I played. Boy, how I looked forward to those meetings. But I knew something was coming. Eventually, what I believed to be the inevitable happened, and she begged out of those meetings. just wanted to be friends, and she didn't want to give me the wrong impression. And so even though I knew this was coming, even though I knew this was coming, I was still nonetheless very disappointed. But I bowed down to the Lord's providence for me in those days. And as the September song used to go, I don't know how many of you are familiar with that song. It goes back to the 1930s, so it's quite some time ago. Part of the words of that song go, I let the old earth take a couple of worlds, and as time went around, she came my way. As time went around, she came my way. Most ironically, it wasn't September of that year, 1996, that she came around. Those were the days when we were having fellowship on the beach quite a bit, the singles. I had a studio apartment which I was renting from someone at my place of employment, and occasionally we would have fellowship after the evening service there with all the singles. Eventually we would all be gathering together on the beach, and we would wind up singing hymns to a pair of guitars in the light of a moon rising on the horizon. One such night, after everyone left, the two of us talked a while and as she was leaving, she hesitated in the doorway and turned around and said something in the nature of, I don't want to get your hopes up, but I think I'm interested. Now, I was glad to hear that. Anyways. Now, not only was I drawn to her because of her beauty, she was certainly one beautiful woman. But the spirit of encouragement that she bristled with, that is, she was covered with, okay? Someone had once made a statement that encouragement was adrenaline for the soul. And that's something that I needed. In our courtship, we would. encourage one another to put God first and keep short accounts with him because the tendency was to focus on the relationship. And so that wasn't very healthy and so we encouraged one another to stay close to the Lord. I could go on with a bunch of stuff here, but I'm just going to get right to the point. I could not possibly see that there could be anybody else for me. I even started referring to her as my lily among the thorns. That's something that I pulled out of Song of Solomon, Chapter 2, as a lily among thorns. So is my love among daughters, and that is exactly the way I saw her, exactly. So in the providence of Almighty God and his provision, I made her my wife. And on October 17, 1998, we were married. Short of the day of my conversion, that was the happiest day of my life. And we looked forward to building a life together in service to Almighty God. Unbeknownst to us, however, What lay immediately around the bend was a close call where she, and this was about three months after we were married, where she almost lost her life back then because of some bleeding fibroid tumors that brought some kind of blood count level low at the time. But thankfully her life was spared. But the possibility for having children looked bleak. But the Lord provided something else or someone else. I believe the man's name was Bradley Douglas, Dr. Bradley Douglas, a highly skilled surgeon with integrity that was able to save her uterus. And against all odds, and I'd use that term quite loosely, Raffi and Augustine were born, solid as a rock. Now if anything marked her life from this point forward, it was the self-denial that she exhibited for the purpose of fulfilling her God-given assignment as a wife and mother. She was the first one up every morning. Cup of coffee and sandwich for me, for work, everything, like clockwork, every morning. I could see my lunch and my coffee every single day. This continued even after the kids came. Just add breakfast for the kids. And this cheerful, self-denying spirit of devotion to her family caused me to be ashamed of myself. But at the same time, I was recognizing what a well-suited helpmate the Lord had provided. I remember after Augustine was born, I fell into some kind of dumb male postpartum of sorts, where I was under a lot of pressure. And I fell into something of a depression as a result. And during this time period, she would constantly be looking for ways to take the pressure off of me. While, I don't know, I guess... Some may think that to be good, bad, indifferent, may be dysfunctional. But you see, that was a part of her character. She always put others ahead of herself no matter what. And she was happy to do it and I was the primary recipient of this. Now the house is still full of evidence of our unwavering dedication to Raffi and Augustine's homeschooling and their overall well-being as I look around and I notice books on parenting and books on courtship, not courtship, but on being a good helpmate and so forth. She poured herself out, poured herself out to this family. She would also at moments, at a moment's notice, rush to her brother Johnny's aid, to help him do something that he may have needed to do and could not do it for himself and there was no one around at the time to help. Always ready to pour herself out for others. She also found it a privilege to be a hostess for Christian hospitality in our home, which we would often have, except for closing years, of course. And she also hosted a monthly cancer healing meeting, which brings us to October 2015, of course, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, I don't want to get bogged down with the medical details of this, but stay focused on Gina in the midst of this. Two years later, in October of 2017, we brought her to the emergency room because she could no longer walk. Tremendous pain in her right leg. And so it was diagnosed that the cancer had spread and that she would have two months to live. Well, two months went by and she was far from dying. And this happened several times and her death did not materialize. That prediction never materialized. And that was because she was a fighter. She didn't just succumb, but she fought this thing tooth and nail. And she did this for two reasons. Number one was an obedience to the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. And the second is that she didn't want to leave us alone, no matter what shape she was in. And she, and how we needed her, and then she was right here, how right she was in that sentiment, because we needed her to be there even in her condition. Especially me. This is especially true for me. I still needed her prayers. I still needed her ear. I still needed her encouragement and adrenaline for the soul. She gave me. She even, I don't know if I should even mention this, but she even tried figuring out who would be a suitable helpmate for me once she departed. And she would even name names, which of course, I took with a grain of salt, but it showed that she was concerned about me being lonely. She surely was one I was not worthy of. Indeed, the world was not worthy of. And I remember the last time I took her for a walk in her wheelchair. She was horrible condition. Her body racked with pain. Gina was one of these girls who, even when she was in her 50s, when she dolled herself up, she looked like she was in her 30s. She always had a youthful look about her. By this time, however, she looked like she was in her 90s, and the cancer had really taken a hold of her. I took her for a walk down Judge Winnikoff. As we made our way up and down Judge Winnikoff, she would greet everyone who passed by with that same sunny smile that she greeted me when we first were introduced. The grace of God and Christ shining forth even in the midst of all that suffering. During her closing days, we would greet each other with pet names. She would call me, you're my I say, you're my gugu too, okay, and you're my daddy, etc. She would tell me, I love you, and I would tell her, I love you too, and she would say, I love you more. And I guess the game was that I was supposed to say, well, I love you more and go back and forth and back and forth like that, but I had to stop in my tracks and say, that's probably right, you're absolutely right, you do love me more. I simply could not out love her. With that being said, I believe she loves me today more than she ever did. Today. With a love that is not only unfettered by remaining sin, but has reached the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Ephesians 4. Because she's in heaven. But I want to make something absolutely clear here. She's not in heaven. because of the kind of life she lived or what she was here on earth either to me or my children or my sons that is and anybody else for that matter. She's in heaven because of what Christ did. She's in heaven because he lived a life of perfect obedience which was credited to her behalf when she believed and atoning for her sin on the cross for her forgiveness. which merits she received by faith alone, and anyone can receive it by faith alone. Now, I don't want to turn my wife's tender eulogy and her memory into a sermon, but I would that you would please indulge my folly for just a couple of minutes here. There's something which I believe the Lord has laid heavy on my heart, and it's been heavy on my heart ever since she passed. There's something that I realized, and I realized it at that moment, and I would that nobody would have to realize it at the moment of the passing of a spouse. This is for you who are married. And especially you who are newly married or young and married or are sure you're going to marry somebody. It's obvious that you have a soon-to-be spouse. I don't know who you are. Some of you may think, what is he talking about? Well, what does he mean by that? Well, then this is not for you. But there will be some who will know it's for them, and it's pointed right at them. That person you're with is on loan to you. Realize it now. And don't let the cares of this life block you from cherishing that individual. When you take those marriage vows to cherish, that's not just a word, that's a deed. do it. If you've slipped from it and you're married right now and you have slipped from doing that, get back on track now. Who can't find a virtuous woman? I did. I shall deeply, deeply miss her. We shall all miss her. And for those of us in Christ, We shall see her again when we meet at Jesus' feet. Thank you, Frank, for being so open, revealing to us something of that preciousness of what Gina meant to you. and also the reality of the life, the new life that was given to Gina as a Christian. The scripture says, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Gina bore witness of a true faith in Christ. May we join together now as we sing in that hymn, the second one in your program, My Faith Looks Up to Thee. And the hymn number is 454 if you'd like to follow the music. My Faith Looks Up to Thee. Let's stand together as we sing. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Thou hear me while I pray, take all my ills away, O let me from this day be holy night. May thy rich grace, O heart, strength to my fainting heart, my spirit's heart, as thou Oh, may my love to Thee grow more than changelessly a living fire. While life's dark days I tread, and griefs around me spread, be thou my light. With darkness turn to day, white sorrows tears away, love of our land be ever straight from thee assigned. When, as life's cleansing stream, When, as hope's solemn stream, Shall Amen. Please be seated. I'm reading from the scriptures, the holy scriptures, the word of God, where it's found in Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 through verse 20. And as I read this, Let me draw your attention to the importance that is played upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who meant so much to Gina, the one that means so much to us as sinners, because he's the only Savior. But listen to the word of God as it portrays him. It begins by speaking of God the Father, who, he says, hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him, I say, whether they are things in earth or things in heaven. So reads the word of God. Let me present just a couple of thoughts in reference to our sister, Gina, the realities, the realities that she faced and all of us face as mankind. Mankind, as he became from the hand of God, his creator was perfect and upright. God gave him the promise of life on condition upon obedience, his obedience, and God threatened death upon his disobedience. Adam's disobedience was short, Adam's obedience was short-lived. By the subtlety of the serpent, Eve was drawn into sin and likewise Adam. In their sin, it involved all of us. And by that sin, death pertains to all of us. All men became dead in sin and totally polluted in all parts, both body and soul. In order to fulfill his own wise and holy purposes, God permitted this to happen because even in this, God was directing everything to his own glory. As Adam and Eve stood in the place of and in the stead of mankind, and the guilt of their sin was reckoned, accounted by God's appointment to the account of their posterity, therefore we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All men became wholly inclined to all evil. But in the eternal plan of God, it pleased God to make a covenant of grace in which God freely offers life and salvation by Jesus Christ to sinners. On man's part, God requires faith in him that they may be saved and promises to give his Holy Spirit to all those elected to eternal life. God's covenant, this covenant of grace is revealed in the gospel. To give effect to his eternal purpose, God chose and ordained the Lord Jesus, his only begotten son, to be a mediator between God and man. God's only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, at the appointed time took on himself the nature of man with all of its essential characteristics except sin. The Lord Jesus willingly took the office of a mediator. He became subject to God's law. which he perfectly fulfilled. He also endured the punishment for sinners, which they should have borne and suffered. He bore their sin and was cursed for their sake. He died on the cross. On the third day, he rose from the dead with the same body in which he suffered and then ascended into heaven. It was there that he sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for his own people. By his perfect obedience to God's law and by his once for all offering up of himself to God as a sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ has fully satisfied all the divine claims and demands for justice. It was Christ alone who is fitted to be the mediator between God and man. Those who are his people who are redeemed by Christ have been led to repentance and to salvation, which means a person is caused by the Holy Spirit to feel and understand the evil of sin and is caused by faith in Christ to humble himself on account of sin. It is the gospel, the gospel message, the good news of the message that is the only external means of making Christ and his saving grace known to man. And this is what is being made known to us today in the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Gina Gervasio, a daughter, a sister, a mother, and a wife came to hear this blessed gospel. And by the means of the Holy Spirit, Gina was caused to feel the evil of sin and was given the grace of faith in Christ. And then the promise of forgiveness of sin through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the perfect righteousness of Christ was imputed to her. And by the ministry of the Holy Spirit within her, she gave clear evidence of her love for Christ and of her confidence in his saving work on her behalf. Over the years of her life, since her conversion, she gave evidence of the joy in her great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in the midst of the struggles with her remaining sin, she gave evidence of what was exhorted to us as Christians by the Apostle Paul in Colossians when he exhorted us to put on, and this is what she put on and gave evidence of, tender mercies. kindness, humility, meekness, and long-suffering. She gave evidence of love for God as well as love for her neighbor. Gina's presence before her Savior in paradise today is not because of what she is or was while she was living, as Frank said. She has declared this often, and it is only and totally because of the sacrifice of her Savior and His righteousness having been imputed to her that she now stands in the very presence of God. Gina's presence is not with us today. because her spirit has left her body and her body will return to dust and suffer decay. But her soul, Gina herself, is now perfected in holiness and has been received into the paradise with Christ, looking on the face of God in the light of glory and waiting for the full redemption of her body. This is the case of all men and all women who are united with Christ. The souls of all those who are without Christ and yet in sin and die are cast into hell and remain in torment and in utter darkness until the great judgment day. Sober, but it's the word of God. This fact from Scripture is reason for all of us to consider our eternal state before God. As Scripture says, it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that, after this, the judgment. May God help us to see the glory of Christ. Now let me say a few words to Joan, to Bernie, to Kathy, to Paul, to Linda, to Frank, Rafi, and Augustine, concerning Gina, your daughter, your sister, your mother, your wife. Gina is not here with us anymore, but she's in the presence of her Savior and the glories of paradise, forever to be with the Lord. Her departure is a great loss to each of you. Her departure is a great loss to every one of us at Emmanuel. And you and we grieve because of her death. And that's all right. That's all right. We are not to neglect our grief. It is right for us to mourn her leaving us. But in the midst of our grief, because she is our sister in Christ, we are to find comfort in the only one who can give comfort, real comfort. And that is in our Heavenly Father's love, in our Lord Jesus shed blood for our sins, in the ministry of the Holy Spirit who was sent by the Son as our comforter. In the words of the Lord Jesus, who said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In the midst of our sorrow, in the midst of our heavy burden, in the midst of the despair, in the midst of the distress that this pressures upon us, let us heed God's call, the Lord Jesus' call. By faith, cast our burden upon Him. I can tell you from the Word of God, the revelation of Himself, that He loves us deeper than any human imagination can get. He loves us with an infinite heart, and that is good reason for us to go to him. Let's take courage, receive this word for comfort. Let us not doubt his grace because of this tribulation. Remember God's word. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those that fear him. to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not fear evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. May the grace and the comfort that comes only from our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, be that which ministers to us at this time, because of what we see in him, and what Gina saw in him, and what she sees in a special way with him right now. May God give us comfort as we look to him in this special time. Now at this time, let's take our program again and let's sing another hymn, one that was precious to Gina as she loved it and sang it, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. And it's found in a hymn book of 582, if you'd like to find the music. My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. Again, let's stand together as we sing. I know it's built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I cannot trust the sweetest grain, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. In heartless trails, with talking face, I rest upon unchanging grace. In every rough and stormy gale, I His holy trial and at His blood, Suffered me in the pounding flood, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When I shall launch in worlds unseen, Oh, may I then be found in Him, As in His righteousness alone, Long as to stand before the throne. And please be seated. At this time we're going to have some words of reflection. They will be before this microphone and podium right here on the floor. And the order in which they will be coming is this. First, Rafi Gervasio. Second, Pastor Paul Faris. Thirdly, Linda Faris. And then Mariella McDaniel. And then Charles Barker. So if you'll come at this time. Well, first on behalf of me. and my family. I want to thank you all for being here. There's so many familiar faces, and I'm really, really happy to see you all. It's really an encouragement to see all of you tonight. And I'm somewhat unprepared. I literally wrote this on the drive here. But I do have a theme, and that theme is how my mom was a mom. And if I'm being completely honest, I got blessed. My mom was very faithful to the souls of both Augustine and I. And every morning when we all woke up, we were doing a devotion together, no matter what. Didn't matter if she was sick, didn't matter if I was sick, didn't matter if my dad had gone to work or was sick that morning. We always did a devotion together. She did her devotion, she would be up early, way earlier than all of us, doing a devotion privately on her own, and then she would do a devotion with us. And whether it was private or whether it was with us, my mom was faithful to pray for the souls of Augustine and I, always. Her one desire was for her to see us again when we all died. She raised us in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. Not only that, she raised us to have manners. I don't know if you've met me, I barely have those. But the manners that I do have, I learned from her. And I'm so grateful that she was there to show me, hey, this is the way you do things. No, not this way, this way. And honestly, it was such a blessing. She was also always, always there to think about what was best for Augustine and I. No matter what it was, she was always thinking about what was best for us. Homeschooling was a big part of that. She homeschooled us ever since we were young. I think I went to Booker Christian for one year. And then from then on, I was homeschooled up until my junior year in high school when I started going to public school. But she always was thinking about what's best for us. She was always working hard to school us, to homeschool us, to show whatever we need to do, to help us in any way, spend money to get us a tutor, anything like that. She was always there to do that. She was also always, always on our side. Not if we were wrong, but other than that, she was on our side. I can recall a time where my mom and another friend of hers went under some serious pressure for the way that me and my friend were, kind of the way our characteristics were, because we were both hyper people. And she was right there in front of us, defending us, and showing that, listen, other people are different. And she was right there to defend us, right there to protect us, and right there to be the first to say, hey, listen, they're kids. They're not sinning. They're kids. And I was really grateful for that. Because honestly, from that experience, my mom showed me, hey, I need to be there to protect anyone in that type of situation. Honestly, my mother was honest. She was very in front of all of that. I'm sorry I'm a little nervous. I'm kind of trying not to bust down, but she had that way of being headstrong, but she was also very humble. One of her most favored qualities from a lot of people that I've heard is her humility. Always, you know, whenever she was wrong, always admitting it. Always repenting. Always doing things for other people. Always serving other people first is a huge part of her humility. Really, the next thing that I kind of want to go into is, it's kind of a huge thing, because I learned this now, and I should have learned it earlier. Did my dad preach a sermon? Well, not necessarily. Am I going to? Not exactly, but I'm kind of going to go on that trail, so here we go. Be careful how you treat your mother. Because I can tell you that as a young child, and even not recently, but like before, I was very disrespectful to her. And sometimes she would say to this effect, be careful how you treat me, because someday I'll be gone. and you'll regret it. Now, there's a part two to that, so put that aside. She was right. The past week and a half has left me to kind of marinate in that and to be like, hey, yeah, I didn't treat her the way that I should have. And, you know, I would say and do things out of anger because I wasn't obeying her and it was wrong of me. And God is now disciplining me for that. But I would strongly encourage you, always respect your parents, and treat them, treat your mothers with the utmost of respect. Because honestly, your mom is probably the greatest gift you're gonna have in your entire life. I can promise you that right now. Your mom is the greatest gift you have in your entire life, and when you lose her, you're not getting another one. So love your mom, or else I promise it's gonna come back to bite you. However, on the flip side, my mom would say, remember, I love you. No matter what you do to me, no matter what you say to me, no matter what I say to you or what I do to you, I will always love you. And that is why you treat your mom like the queen that she is. Because no matter what, she will always love you. And I wish that I hadn't taken that for granted. I don't get a second chance. I do get to remember what an amazing person she was to me, to my brother, and to everyone else. But you all, young ones or people who have mothers that are still here, you all have a second chance. Take it. Because you never know when it's going to go. When Rafi called me on behalf of Frank to ask me to give testimony in loving memory of Gina, my big sister, I thought long and hard about what I might say in such a short period of time, and my mind wrestled with a number of different ideas. But I began to consider, what would Gina want me to say? What could I say in these brief moments before all of you who love Gina dearly that would have her approval and delight? So with a few moments allotted to me, I want to say a few things to you about the idea of friendship. Gina was gifted at friendship. She was verbal. She was social. She was kind. She was generous with her time and energy. And I don't need to prove this because any of you who knew her can, I'm sure, recall many, many times when she gave of her time generously to help you in some way. Whenever I would meet somebody that learned I was Gina's brother, they would say something like this, you're Gina's brother? I love Gina. She's so kind, she's so funny, and so thoughtful. This kind of thing happened to me over and over again during the last 35 years. Many, many, many times I heard, you're Gina's brother? Gina was concerned about how others were feeling or doing. She had some kind of gift or ability that was able to measure how others felt and was often concerned to help and comfort others. Who she was on the inside often spilled out of her onto anyone and everyone around her. She was always so friendly. She had few filters. She talked. She sang. She cooked. She laughed. She made you laugh. She was an all-around friendly person. But if she was here, she would tell me to not overdo it. She would say, be honest, Paul. So with her whisper in my ear, I can say she was not born friendly. During her early days, around age 15 to 20, Gina, as well as myself, we were not always friendly and generous, and what spilled out of us was much different than what most of you witnessed over the past 35 years. She dealt with difficult and dark issues. Gina had real struggles like we all do. But Gina had changed dramatically, and I know why she changed. And it has to do with a certain friend that she met, a really close friend, a friend that helped her learn how to be friendly, helped her learn how to love others and how to forgive others. Her friend showed her how to be generous with her time and her energy. Long ago, the educated leaders of the Jewish people in the days of Jesus were called, they were called Pharisees and lawyers. They thought they were putting a pejorative, negative or disparaging title upon Jesus. When in the gospel of Luke chapter seven, they called Jesus a friend of sinners. They thought he was somehow unclean and unworthy of being considered holy because he was spending so much time with the poor and needy, the prostitutes, the uneducated, the poor folk. But in reality, those educated religious leaders, in fact, were revealing an integral part of Christ's glory. His glory. Unlike those religious leaders of the day, Jesus was indeed a friend of sinners. This is part of his glory. Jesus, friend of sinners. He left a glorious, majestic, divine throne, a throne of infinite power, for a humbling condescension, whereby he took upon himself the very nature of humanity, a humanity he had actually created, a humanity that rebelled against his love and grace. God's incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ is a cogent and real display of his great love and sincere friendship for sinners. Jesus died on the cross in the place of sinners. He died and rose again to make sinners his friends. In the gospel of John, we read in chapter 15, greater love has no one than this, that to lay down one's life for his friends. Also in verse 15 of that chapter, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." Gina was captured by the friendship of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Gina became a disciple of Jesus Christ, the friend of sinners. And thus Gina herself learned well how to be a friend to sinners, because she learned from her very own friendship with Christ. This theme of Jesus being a friend to sinners was captured so well in a hymn written by Joseph Scriven, an Irishman. My mom's Irish. Back in the 19th century, the title of the hymn is What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Now, Joseph Scriven was about to marry his childhood sweetheart, and after he graduated college the day before his marriage, He rode out on his horse to meet his fiance the day before they were to be married and found her dead in the river. The horse that she rode to meet him in threw her and she landed on the side of the river and hit her head and drowned. And he said that she had green eyes. And he said, every time I looked at the hills of Ireland, I thought of her. So we moved to Canada to get away from Ireland. When he was in Ireland, his mother was ill and wrote to him. So he wrote back to his mother in Ireland and wrote this poem that I'm about to read to you. He wrote a poem to her to cheer her up because he knew he couldn't be back there in case she had died. So he wrote this, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, and what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who with all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our very weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Now, That poem remained in the papers of his mother. And at age 35, he found another love and was engaged again to be married. And two weeks before his second marriage to his second fiancee, his fiancee died of tuberculosis. But this man lived the rest of his life clinging on to his friend Jesus. And Jesus is a friend of sinners, and Gina loved the Lord Jesus. And I just want to say one thing to close. We got a phone call on our message machine here at the church a couple days ago, and it was a 50-year-old man in the hospital who just found out he got a second-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. So I went to visit him. He was distraught. He's fearful. He said, please pray for me. He said, I have never really had a relationship with God. My philosophy is it is what it is. That's what my dad taught me. And so I prayed with him and I read him some scripture. And then I told him about my sister, Gina, that she had just died of cancer. And I said, I made a voice memo for my brother Bernie up in Massachusetts, because I plan on seeing Bernie this summer, and I wanted Gina to be able to have a few words for Bernie. Well, I played it for this man. And he was in pain. He's getting chemo drip and everything. So we left, and the next day I came back to visit him. And I thought we would continue to talk about the scriptures and pray. Well, the only thing he could tell me was, how can your sister be so happy knowing that she was days away from dying? And I want to play for you what I played for him. This is 11 days before she died. She's a little weak, but you'll see. But imagine this man who's maybe on his deathbed, and he's been encouraged by Gina. And I just want to play it for you and hopefully encourage all of you. Hello, we are at Hospice by the Sea, and we're with Gina, and we're just having a visit. So I'm going to record some voice memos. What's on your mind, Gina Farese, or Gina Gervasio? Well, I understand that we are here to interview Gina, to speak to my brother Bernie, and say hello to my beloved Mary and David and Vincent. and Aunt Mary Albuterque and anybody else that's present. Of course, everybody up there I love very much. Barbara Ann, and Aunt Barbara, and whoever might be here, and Gail. Anyways, so I just want to say that, hello, I love you. I hope you're hearing this voice. Hello, I love you. May this cause you to rejoice. Ding-a-ling, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-a-ling, ding-ding. Of course, I'm not German, but I love Germans. So, um, how come you're having such a good day today in reference to being alert and awake and you're not sleepy? Well, I think one reason is because the hymns are alive and I can't sing anymore. I'm used to it. With the sound of music. With songs they have sung for a thousand years. And we know who created the music and the songs and the mountains and the Edelweiss and all that we're singing about, don't we? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen, brother. That's exactly what I'm getting at. You got it. Plus, Paul filled up this room with delicious grapefruit-scented doTERRA oil because he's got allergies. to all the pollen that's out here. Those beautiful grounds. I'm staying at a place called Hospice by the Sea. And they're absolutely gorgeous grounds. And he can't go outside because he's allergic to all that pollen. But he put on this doTERRA oil. It's like magic. Of course, God made it from the leaves of the trees. And, uh... Well, Tammy went up to New England to be with Aunt Mary. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You rubbed her and all that stuff, remember? Yeah, I remember. I remember. Absolutely excellent. And so... And Mary met her at your house. Aunt Mary met her at my house, that's right. Yeah, so we're just enjoying the beautiful scenery outside the window and enjoying the fragrance filled in the air. We're having a great conversation because What is there that is not great to discover and talk about? You know, we're in this wonderful kingdom that God made. I'm going to pause it because we have a machine outside. I never planned on playing that publicly to anyone. It's for my brother Bernie. But I just wanted to share it because this fella that's dying of cancer was blown away by someone who was so close to dying and was so happy. And he asked me, how can she be so happy? So may God use it for his salvation. Frank, I first just want to thank you for your devoting words to Gina. They were beautiful. Struck me to the bottom of my heart. Raffi and Augustine, your mom loved you so much. She was so proud of you. She wants you to be happy. And she wants you to love one another and lean into each other and lean into God. Well, hello, everybody. I'm Linda, Gina's little baby sister. That's what she would call me. Thank you for being here tonight and sharing your love for Gina. Gina's love and faith was impactful to so many people. She gave her heart and she shared her passion so freely. Gina was a natural-born teacher. From playing school as children, she was always the teacher, to teaching us how to be strong and brave and how to give the best of ourselves in the most difficult situations. Gina was a protector and ultra-compassionate. Being her little baby sister, I felt her protection all my years growing up and even through adulthood. She could muster up bravery and have the confidence needed to lead a battle that some of us will never have to face. She was articulate and she had a way with words. From our teenage years, she would want to know what was on my mind and offer to pray about these things. I couldn't always find my voice, but we'd discuss these things and she would lead us with prayer, just the two of us. She did that for me. I'm sure many of you have shared that experience with her too. My heart is filled with happy memories of laughter, silliness, and sober-minded conversations relating to understanding the difficult realities in life's concerns. I always wished for Gina's friends to know her sense of humor. She always brought laughter to our lives. I know a lot of this you probably, I mean you've heard tonight, but I'm going to say it again. Gina loved to sing. She loved to dance. She spent hours on end singing. She sang at weddings, with friends, and with the Coral Ridge Choir. She treasured her time. leading the young children of Emmanuel Baptist Church with singing lessons. The children are all grown up now, and they often come to her house to sing hymns with her. Gina's newest friend from hospice, Valora, she's here, I don't know, she's a music therapist. She met with Gina several times. She let Gina pick the music that she would play and sing with Gina, and even recorded a music legacy during Gina's final days to pass on to her children. She did that on Friday. She and dad would sing together, and Frank and Gina raised a musical family. Gina's friends were hand-picked gifts and blessings from heaven, brothers and sisters in Christ. Gina was so very hospitable, appreciative of every relationship she shared. Gina loved her friends deeply. Her cares were for our souls and for our well-being. I will hold close to my heart Gina's thoughtfulness, encouragement, and kindness. Gina poured her heart into the love she shared with Frank, her loving husband, her children, Rafi and Augustin, all of her brothers and sisters, mom and dad, her nieces, nephews, cousins, and our aunts and our uncles. She cherished Frank's family, Ralph and Vincia, Emma, Sylvia, little Sylvia, Marcello, and the entire family. She loved you guys. Gina loved to cook authentic Italian dinners. That's right. I will always want one more eggplant parmesan dinner the way Gina made it. Of course, I would never want to clean up the messy kitchen after a day of cooking with her. But the memories will last me for my lifetime. Gina loved mom and dad dearly. and she was as much a daughter to Ralph and Vincia. Her love is precious. I know. Frank was Gina's answer to prayers for a godly man, a devoted father and a family man. Frank, how she loved you and the love you share is monumental. I will keep saying one more time, I love you, Gina. We love you. The lasting memories that I will marinate in my mind is of her singing and dancing, her laughing, and bringing people together. Thank you. I'm sorry if you look in your things. My name is not actually listed in the upcoming speakers, but my brother called me and asked if I wanted to say anything at the memorial. I, for some reason, denied, but I really want to just say a few things, and I'll just make it brief. In addition to affirming what my entire family has said about how loving and kind of a mother my mother actually was. I would just like to give some stories of this. No matter what I did, when I was a little child, even towards the end, if I would go outside or pick a weed from the grass or draw a stick figure picture, of me and my mom or whoever, I would show it to her. Her face would always light up with joy and she would go on and on about what great accomplishment this thing that I had just done was. And she would be so proud of me, even this small little thing that I had just done. She's so kind. I've been told this story ever since I was a little child. When my mom was little now obviously I didn't witness this myself, but when my mom was little she she was watching The Wizard of Oz and She was watching the scene where Dorothy was getting taken away by the flying monkeys or whatever they were and She wanted so badly to help them that she took a screwdriver to the TV screen. She tried to help Dorothy out of there. Another example of my mom's immense kindness and thoughtfulness would be, even towards the end, this was December, I believe, of 2019. She was in such terrible shape, as everyone here knows. She couldn't move barely at all. She could barely pick anything up. But if you walked into my living room, you would see rows of gifts that she had assigned to give to people. Because she wanted so much to give back to all the people that were helping her in this time when, really, they were giving back to her for everything she had done. so so great and kind of all these people she she wanted to do her best and she was just So kind even in this terrible terrible state. She's how rose a presence and she Painted these little Christmas ornament balls and she said it all out and she was ready to give it to everyone. So That's all I just wanted to talk a little bit more about how kind my mother was. I My name is Mariela and I met Gina the first time I came to our church, 27 years ago. She immediately took a special interest in me and very sweetly befriended me. I was 18 years old and she was 30, so I really looked up to her as her disciple and she helped me so much. She really taught me a lot as a new Christian. She called me, Marieli, you're my girl. Only my mom calls me Maria and Gina. So in God's providence, we were able to become roommates for several years before the Lord gave us husbands. And she fell in love with Frank and I fell in love with Rob right around the same time. So we double dated, we traveled together. I still remember the night she came home and said, he's the one for me. And she was right. You loved her so well to the very end. So we each got married within a year of one another. She was my bridesmaid, my maid of honor, and I was hers. And the Lord Even after we each married, we started working together for Dr. Aker, so we would see each other six out of seven days a week, and really strengthen a bond of friendship. Then the Lord blessed us with all these baby boys, and they all were born right around the same time, so they've grown up as very close friends and cousins. She is my children's Auntie Gina, and I'm Raphael and Augustine's Tia Mariella. Gina was a very gifted woman. I know I'm like number seven in the line to speak. And you all know and love her, so I know you know some of those gifts. She is the definition of genuine friendliness. And add to that her Italian flair, her great, she really had an amazing sense of humor, loud, contagious laughter, which I greatly miss. And again, she loved to entertain and cook and sing and dance, and we did a lot of that together. She was such a good listener. She didn't necessarily always give me counsel, but she always prayed with me and for me, very fervently. That's one of the things I miss the most. praying with my Gina every day. But among all the gifts that the Lord entrusted her, and Frank already alluded to this, the one which beautifully stands out is the gift of encouragement. I used to call her, Mike, Barnabette, because she didn't like it if I called her Barnabas, because that's a male name. But in the Bible, Barnabas is a son of encouragement, of comfort and consolation. And Gina was a daughter of encouragement and of comfort and consolation to me. She always saw the best in people, brought out the best in people, and loved to encourage and to comfort other people even when she was in the midst of indescribable pain. The last time that she actually responded to my communication was a few hours before she died. I was holding her hand and singing, Great is Thy Faithfulness. I was crying. Her eyes were closed and she couldn't speak much, just whisper. But she let go of my hand and took my teary cheek. And she could hardly speak, but I really took that as, she's comforting me. She's saying, that's right. He has been faithful. He will be faithful. Don't cry. It's going to be OK. And so even in her weakness and in her pain and in her dying hours, she was comforting me. And then she whispered, my girl, I love you. Notwithstanding all the resources invested, Gina could not conquer cancer, at least not in the short term, yet she was not conquered by cancer. Why? Because there were truths upon which our sister had her faith that could not be shaken by cancer. On the contrary, her faith was so strengthened. She had laid hold of the Christ who had laid hold on her. She was united with him by faith. Therefore, she was not conquered by death. She knew that she was a wicked sinner. She would be the first to acknowledge that, and she was very quick to repent as well. She knew that Jesus Christ had paid the debt of her sins by His sacrificial death on the cross, and that she was accepted only and only by Jesus' perfect life and obedience. She wasn't even trusting in her very good testimony. She always said, it's all of grace. It's not me. It's Christ and me. And God was so faithful to her every day of her pilgrimage. I saw it with my own eyes. He kept all his promises and carried her through this trial. He comforted her through many of you. And you know, your labor of love was an extension and an expression of the love of Christ to her. So thank you so much on her behalf, on behalf of the family. What you did to her, you did to Christ. Thank you for praying so faithfully. She always appreciated it so much. She said, Oh, I don't want to be selfish. All their prayers are for me. But the Lord answered every one of those prayers and his perfect wisdom and love he did. Jesus said in the Gospel of John chapter 11, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Gina did. She was persuaded that nothing could separate her from the love of God which is in Christ. No cancer, no excruciating pain, not even death could alter that bond of love that God had for her in Christ. And even in her weakest days, she was a beautiful example of Christ's strength. And those who walked with her through the last few years saw how the Lord sanctified her through this trial and really formed a beautiful treasure in her heart, stamping his image in her heart for many to see. And I am forever thankful for the privilege of having shared my life with Gina, of having loved her and have been loved by her. Few experience. the joy and the comfort of true intimate Christian friendship like the Lord gave us. I don't have enough time or words to express how my life has been enriched and even who I am is part of what Gina taught me to be. I don't even realize how much I have been blessed by her friendship. She taught me how to live and she taught me how to die. Do you know people tend to die the way they live? People tend to die the way they live. And she died in peace because she lived in peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. She died loving and trusting in Jesus because she lived loving and trusting him. She died full of gratitude and praise because that was the song on her lips during her life. She died encouraging me because she lived encouraging me. So most likely we will die as we live. So let's consider that. And Gina had a favorite phrase. I heard her say it in the happiest days. We shared baptisms, weddings, holding our new baby boys born in the hospital, when our hearts were broken, when we had to forgive one another. And we had to do that a lot because we were very close. When we prayed and worshipped together, when we wept together in the darkest days of sorrow and pain and fear, which were many in the last few days, Gina always said this, and I wish I could say it the way she said it. I say it to honor her, and I know she knows now what this means, and it is so true. God is so good. He is so good to me. Thank you Jesus, Regina. Amen. It's nice to look out and see some old friends that I haven't seen for a while. And it's a pleasure to be up here to speak about Gina. And I thank you, Rafi, for coming to me right away and allowing me to speak about Gina. Frank, I'm going to tell you something that you know. There ain't nobody like Gina. That's for sure. There's nobody like Gina. And we have loved her from the very beginning. 35 years or more, we've known Gina. She's with us from the very beginning of this church. And most of you know that there are only three original members left, my wife, me, and Gina. And now there's two. Paul wanted to sneak in there, be an original. But we'll kind of take them under our wing. I'm sure the testimonies that I have to speak about are things that everybody has said, and indeed they have. And it's a blessing to be able to say that even in the darkest times that Gina's disposition was one of somebody who was happy and thoughtful and cared about others. And her concerns were not about money. or any such thing as that at all, she cared about people. And in the few minutes I do have, I want to just focus on one simple word, and that's anticipation. Gina always hoped for the day when she would have a faithful husband and children whom she could love and care for. Her prayers were certainly answered in that regard. There's no doubt about that. Gina also longed to be with her savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And she also longed for others to be there with her when that great day comes. In Psalm 17, here's some interesting words that David wrote. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. Then he says this amazing thing, I will be satisfied when I awake in thy lightness. I will awake in thy lightness. And that's exactly what Gina's hope was, to be with the Lord and with her family and friends, and that they would all be there with her as well. She knows the truth that her Heavenly Father loves her with an everlasting love. She knows that for certain, and we were blessed to have Gina in our company. Frank, Raffi, Augustine and the whole family. We know that you miss Gina, and this church will certainly miss Gina and be talking about her for years to come. I want to close with a few words from one of my favorite hymns, and as many have alluded to, Gina loved to sing. And this hymn was a call and promise with the truth that our heavenly father desires for his sons and daughters to come to him. And the words are simply these, come you sinners, heavy laden, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Come, you thirsty, come and welcome God's free bounty. Glorify, true belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh. Come, you weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. Then the hymn ends with this refrain. I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms, in the arms of my dear Savior. Oh, there are 10,000 charms. And so rests our dear Gina. Gina has a great Savior and had a tremendous influence on her life. Praise our Lord. Let us take our bulletins, our programs, and sing one more hymn, then we'll close in prayer. Following our prayer, there is refreshments in the bag for all. The hymn is The Sands of Time Are Sinking. Let's stand together as we sing. The sands of time are sinking, but all of heaven breaks. Our God hath lived on in life, what days great gifts hath had, and glory, glory, glory, in Emmanuel's hand. A king there in his beauty without a veil is seen. It were a well-spent journey, no serpents may be seen. O Christ, He is the fountain, the deep, sweet well of life. ♪ Dreams on earth I've tasted ♪ ♪ For deep a dream of love ♪ ♪ Fair to an ocean fullness ♪ ♪ His mercy love can spare ♪ ♪ And glory, glory, far and near ♪ ♪ In Emmanuel's prayer ♪ I will not gaze at glory but on my King of Grace. Amen. Please be seated. Let us pray. Eternal God and Heavenly Father, you have displayed your wisdom, your almighty power, your deity, your goodness, in your great creation. All creation proclaims your glory and the heavens declare the works of your hands. The proof of your existence is clearly seen in the abundance of all that we see. Only an utter fool would say in his heart, there is no God. Still, the truth of the gospel is disclosed to us explicitly only by the special revelation of the written word, and it is only through the gospel that we begin to understand the wonder of your grace. Thank you for drawing our sister, Gina, to yourself through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ask that you would open all blind eyes to see the desperate need of salvation. that you'd move stubborn wills to repent of sin, awaken cold hearts to believe in Christ. You have chosen by grace to reveal to us salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ. We ask that this time of remembering your grace to Gina would be the time when you would save sinners. May the Lord of peace himself give us peace always, by all means. The Lord be with us all. Amen. We're dismissed. so so Ha ha, stop laughing. so Thank you. Okay. Oh my God, we're baking. We're baking a hot dog. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in thee I give it back to thee That in nine ocean depths it's low, May richer fall or be. Restores its form. I cannot hold my heart to Thee I chase the rainbow through the rain And feel the promises not vain That more shall tear away life's glory day. And from the ground that blossoms red, thy flag shall ever be. Moment by moment I fly from above Looking to Jesus till glory does shine Moment by moment I fly from above Lying with Jesus by death reckoned by, Living with Jesus, a new life divine. I'm kept in his love. moment I fly from above looking to Jesus till glory doth shine moment by moment O Lord I am Thine When at last my life has ended And I enter Heaven's realm you There are times when day is ending And my work is almost done When I stand afar from God And I watch the setting sun I see Jesus preaching on His way, the sky abounds with deep red. Please. That in thine ocean depths its flow, May richer fallen be. restores its laurel rain, that in thy sunshine's blatant sting. Cannot close my heart to thee I chase the rainbow through the rain And feel the promise is not vain That more shall see so Moment by moment I fly from above Looking to Jesus till glory does shine Moment by moment I fly from above Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned by Living with Jesus, a new life divine Looking to Jesus, still worried of child in his love. Moment by moment I fly from above, looking to Jesus till glory does shine. His hair. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I fly from above. Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. I am blind When at last my life has ended And I enter Heaven's realm In the dwelling of the West Oh, my pain will then be over Earthly cares will all fade away Golden light will glisten And my work is almost done When I turn the floodlight on And I watch the saints come I see Jesus Every single one Save me, Lord