This side of eternity, irrespective of who you are, where you live, what you do or what you believe, recalling memories can be an incredibly wonderful privilege. Just the ability to do such a thing I think is probably better described as a power, more than it is a privilege or a natural function of the human mind. Continue reading
It’s only been three weeks since my Annie’s thanksgiving service, but it feels longer. Much longer. I feel the same way about the passing of time since the Lord called my Annie home. And in answer to the most common question I am asked, I’ve narrowed it down to three word responses: “MIssing my Annie!”, “Grieving with hope!”, “Loving my Jesus!”
It’s 4pm. It looks and smells and sounds and feels like Spring has arrived. I’m sat at the dining table; in the house where my Annie grew from tiny cell to toddler to teen to teacher. In fact, I am sat in the very seat she would always commandeer when we’d come back to visit Mom Ruth as Mr and Mrs Muliette; the seat directly in front of the radiator – the hot seat! Oh, I miss her. I miss her very much.
On Friday, April 5th 2013 at 4pm (GMT – UK Time) we will be gathering to give thanks to God for my Annie’s life He gave and saved.
It will be an occasion for memories, singing, praise and testimony to the goodness and faithfulness of God to and through Annie.
If you can make it to the venue that will be great. However, for those that are unable, we plan to live stream it via the internet.
You will need to ensure that you have a good strong internet connection. We can make no promises that the stream will be perfect because we are using a free third party provider. However, we have run tests and with the exception of a few commercials at the beginning and a 10-30 second lag, all has been well.
On rare occasions some tests have resulted in seeing a black screen or a black screen with the USTREAM logo in the centre. Our remedy has been to either use a different internet browser, restart the computer or reset the router. You definitely want to ensure that other internet usage programs (e.g. Skype, Twitter etc) are closed so that they are not sucking any of your internet bandwidth.
We will aim to start the broadcasting 15-30 minutes before the start of the service.
Please check your local time zones and act accordingly. For example, for those of you on the East Coast of the United States, you are most likely on Eastern Standard Time which is GMT -5 hours so you’ll be watching the footage in real time at your local time of 11am (broadcasting from around 10:30am).
We will also be filming the entire service so that it can be uploaded to the blog at a later date.
Either of the following two links will take you to the live stream:
Link 1 – http://ustre.am/214O – Click Here
Link 2 – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rybes – Click Here
I will not be able to deal with any technical issues, but I will be praying that it goes smoothly for all our viewers. Brothers and sisters, please support and join us in prayer on the day too. We desire all the glory to reflect God and be given to God.
ORDER OF SERVICE
Dear Broken Chariots followers and friends,
Thank you for your thoughts and your kind and comforting words.
And for those of you who truly know and follow, worship and serve, trust and obey, love and adore, experience and desire our Creator, our Master, our King, our Good Shepherd, our Mighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit…thank you so much for your prayers to Him and through Him. They sustain me and grant me peace and strength right now.
The fact that Annie is now with Jesus is as sure and as certain as the fact that she is no longer with me. However, the process of me realising both those things is incomplete and slow and may take a long time to root and flourish. But I know that as the Lord helps me to accept the pain of the one, the joy of the other will increase.
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. – Psalm 63:3
I will invariably refer to Annie as ‘my’ Annie and ‘my’ wife and I want you to know that I mean it in the past tense because I have now fully released her into the hands of her first true love; the perfect bridegroom, Jesus Christ. She always did belong to Him first. He entrusted her to me for a period – a season – just as He entrusted me to her. As a husband He gave me head responsibility over Annie and what a wonderful honour and privilege it was. The best I have ever had.
The memory of the righteous is a blessing – Proverbs 10:7
Letting go of my Annie does not mean I let go of the memory of the great blessing that she was – a blessing which effects and enhances even the present and the future for me – and many others. The Lord actually commands me to remember and count that blessing! Not exactly a tiresome, difficult command!
But then, that is the essence of every one of His commands to me. Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30
All I want to do is listen to Him, trust Him and obey Him. Because I love Him.
One of my final responsibilities is to prayerfully prepare the funeral and thanksgiving service for my dear Annie. It’s an opportunity to honour our Lord with worship and praise for the life and new eternal life that He gave and graced my Annie with.
It’s weird that ‘funeral’ has the word ‘fun’ in it. I wouldn’t know the etymology behind that word but I know that as followers of Jesus we:
do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. – 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Plans are now underway for the funeral and thanksgiving for my dear Annie. The thanksgiving service will be an opportunity to pour out the blended tears of grief and joy, and voice the harmonies of pain and praise all to the glory of our God and King.
If you are a known friend or family member, no doubt you will hear – or be able to contact someone – about the details of the service as they surface. However, we would like to open the invitation out to those who may only know us via this blog; or those we knew of in the past but have lost touch with since (I’m including our Banner of Truth friends here as well!) If you would like to come, please send us your details via the form below and we will gladly pass on further details as soon as possible.
We hope that a buffet tea will follow the thanksgiving service but I am afraid you will have to make your own transport and accommodation arrangements for the event.
Thank you.
My love in Him,
r&J
Ryan asked me to let you know that Annie is with the Lord. He took her peacefully home this evening at 10:30.
Tim (Annie’s brother)
The best part! 🙂
Annie’s Baptism – from ryan muliette on Vimeo.
Among my treasured memories of our wedding day is a photograph. It’s not a photograph that made our official wedding album – but the best ones rarely do; and it’s certainly not one that would make the gallery of this blog! Its not even my own memory – it’s a memory I borrowed – but it belongs to Annie and thus belongs to me.
Broken Chariots 