Into Eternity

January 22, 2018 by Isak Westraad 4 Comments

As I am sitting here at Frontline Fellowship in Cape Town, South Africa, I find it hard to know where to even begin writing.  A week ago, my life was forever changed in a way I would never have imagined.

Sunday the 14th of January, my best friend, Michiah Lancaster, went Home to be with the Lord.  He and his younger brother, Isaac, were here in Cape Town on a missions training course given by Frontline Fellowship for the month of January, and they were supposed to come to Mozambique afterwards for some missions work and a visit.  Michiah and I had been both so excited, as it had been 3 years since we had seen each other in person.

That fateful Sunday afternoon, as I was driving home from Bible study, I got a call from Auntie Tressa, Michiah’s mom.  The moment I saw her name on my phone, calling me, I knew something was wrong.  When she told me that she now has one more son in Heaven, I knew it was Michiah. She then told me he had suddenly drowned in a swimming accident. I cannot express in words the horror, shock, and grief I felt.  I could not believe that my best friend was gone.  Not only did it seem unreal, but it felt wrong. I was angry in way, that God would take him away from us.

After that it was a flurry of activity as I prepared to fly out to Cape Town to be with Isaac and to attend Michiah’s memorial service and burial.  I arrived on Wednesday, and Thursday morning was Michiah’s memorial service.  It was so, so beautiful.  I am so thankful for Dr. Peter Hammond, director of Frontline Fellowship, who put together such a beautiful and Christ-exalting memorial service.  Many people came, most of who had only met Michiah a few times or had only known him a few weeks while on the training.  It was amazing for me to see how even in his short time here, the Lord had used him to touch so many people’s lives.  At the service Michiah was remembered for the Christ-loving young man that he was, with his heart to glorify God in all, desiring to live full out for Christ, and to be a bright light in this dark world.  Dr. Hammond’s message was powerful and challenged people to make sure they are ready for eternity.  It was exactly what Michiah would have wanted.

Friday was a very hard day for me.  Michiah’s absence was so sharp, and the pain felt almost unbearable.  I could not fathom that he was no longer just a phone call away, and it broke my heart. As I sat in the room where Michiah had stayed, I noticed a journal.  I picked it up, saw it was Michiah’s, and so I started reading it.  After finishing his journal, I listened to all the whatsapp voice messages he had sent to me in the last six months as well.  At the end of it all, I was amazed.  Just amazed.  Looking back at what he wrote in his journal and what he shared with me, I could see how the Lord had been preparing Michiah for his death.  Knowing Michiah as well as I did, I know that his greatest desire in life was to live all out for Christ, without any sin or struggles to keep him back.  His greatest griefs in life was his flesh and his own struggles with sin.  He wanted to be holy, and to glorify God in all.  In his journal, I was amazed to see how the Lord had pressed eternity on his heart and how he had seen the grace of God in salvation in a deeper way than ever before.   He knew with certainty that he was going to Heaven, and not because of anything he did, but only because of what the Lord Jesus did for him on the Cross.  Listening to his whatsapp voice messages that he had sent me recently, I was so encouraged to see how the Lord had been helping him to overcome certain sins he struggled with, to throw aside weights that had held him down, and to love and live for the Lord more than ever before.  All this and so much more in the last 6 months.  The Lord had been preparing Michiah for eternity.  Michiah never complained in the 4 years of our friendship about tiredness really, but in the last 6 months, in almost every message he sent me, he would tell me how tired he was.  How much he wish he could rest, have more time with the Lord, and just quiet down a little.  Now he IS resting! One of the last things he wrote to me, he shared about how we rest in Christ, in life and in death.  And that is who Michiah was.  He did not rest in himself or his own good works, he rested in Jesus while alive.  And now in eternity, he rests still in Christ, just more perfectly than ever before.  And this was his greatest desire in life, to be perfect before the Lord Jesus Christ, without any sins or struggles to hinder him.

So as our hearts break and we grieve his sharp absence, we rejoice knowing that Michiah is in glory, now absolutely perfect, with the Savior whom he loved so very much.  So we mourn, but not like the world, because we know even though he is dead, he LIVES!  Praise the Lord of our Salvation!  Michiah is Home.

Below are some quotes from Michiah:

“”We live a pilgrim’s life.  One that is not always easy, but it is not meant to be easy until we get Home.  We must remember that it is not this life that we will be living for eternity.  This is not our best life here.”

“Oh how we MUST RUN to Christ! This is a real battle! Just look to Christ and all sin will be SO ugly! Christ has set us FREE, may we trust Him!”

“God will sometimes ask us to do things that we do not want to do.  But we are called to obey.” 

“In everything we must seek to do everything for the glory of God.  Oh, that we will be satisfied in God, doing the things that don’t seem to be very big, doing all to the glory of God!”

“We will not understand the big picture of what God is doing until the end.  Then we will see how beautiful God’s work is.”

“It is SO hard to understand why God would love me! Chief of SINNERS!!!!!!! I should be in HELL RIGHT NOW! ONLY BECAUSE OF GODS MERCY AND GRACE CAN I BE CALLED RIGHT BEFORE GOD! I have NEVER done a thing that would make me worthy of what God has given to me! It is just SO AMAZING! Oh THANK YOU LORD!!!!!!!”

~ Michiah Lancaster

Good bye for now, my dear friend and brother, Michiah.  I miss you so much, but I know where you are, and I know you would never want to come back to this sinful, troublesome earth.  Until we see each other again in eternity.  RIP