A Legacy of Faithfulness

At 1 pm yesterday my mother-in-law Anina Walberg, like someone taking a deep breath before diving below the surface of the water, breathed deeply and stepped into God’s presence.  If we had one we would have fired a cannon (See my blog entry, Here Comes the Boom.) Since we don’t have a cannon, Facebook and Blogs will serve the purpose of announcing the home-going of someone who walked faithfully with God.

Anina was born in Onalaska, Washington (which she always pronounced Warshington).  Raised on a farm, she had very little pretense.  She played the organ at church and for a radio ministry of Pastor C.T. Walberg.  In the course of time she married him, continuing to play the piano, organ or accordion as the need arose.

She wasn’t a great orator.  She didn’t organize the Women’s Retreat.  She didn’t oversee any of the church ministries, but she faithfully helped those who do such things.  She encouraged her pastor-husband, she raised her four children, and she provided meals for missionaries who were passing through.  She even hosted her husband’s estranged father when he showed up on the doorstep while Dr. Walberg was traveling around the world with Bob Pierce.

She opened her home to the friends of her children and Sharon has said she used to complain that her boyfriends were so interested in talking to her mom they often left late for dates.

She was an expert marksman with a dishtowel and could snap you where she wanted at twenty paces.  She had this way of flicking her wrist and hitting you on the backside with her fingers that came close to leaving a welt.  You found yourself walking around the kitchen with your back to the counters and your eye on Anina.

When Dr. Walberg passed away and I couldn’t do it anymore, Anina stepped in to take over as the voice of the radio ministry.  She was heard on KTYM for years as she brought a word of Scripture, a poem and a word of encouragement.  When the radio costs got to be too much she morphed the radio ministry into a literature ministry which she only gave up, begrudgingly, last December at age 96.

As the responses are pouring in the theme over and over again is that people saw Jesus in Anina’s love for them and her faithfulness to God. No flash.  No Glitz. No Glam.  Just a daily living out of her faith in Jesus in whatever season she found herself.  I have no doubt she heard, “Well done good and faithful servant” when she got to the throne room yesterday.