International Missionary Fellowship - Foundations

Missing Jean

It is interesting how you can think you know somebody pretty well and find out that the extent to which you did in fact know them was actually quite limited, tunnel vision I guess. I have known Jean Northen for 12 or so years. To me, she was always defined in relation to her work for the Lord, in and for the people of Haiti. In the last few days I have come to see who Jean was a bit more completely, though I am sure that my vision is still quite limited.

Many of us know that she often, maybe even usually, had guests in her home. Some people needed a place to stay briefly while in town for a specific time. Many needed help while transitioning to or from a career or relationship. Jean was very active in her church. Never seeking recognition or reward, she sought only to serve, to be Jesus' hands, feet and shoulder.

Jean was one of eleven siblings, all who were able were at her funeral. Jean was a friend. There were hundreds at her funeral giving testimony to how she had quietly but positively touched their lives. Jean was a mom, a grandmother, an aunt. The love and respect that her family had for her was so evident, so real. This was an aspect of her that I had overlooked with my tunnel vision.

Jean has touched more lives in her humility than most ever will. Easily tens of thousands of folks in Haiti have been touched through her quiet obedience to Christ. Her influence on lives weaves together a tapestry whose pattern and coverage we will not know until we get home. Our knowledge of her impact was surely not important to Jean, she wanted only to share the love of her Savior in the hope that more would come to a saving knowledge of Him and into a deeper knowledge of Him.

Though I have come to find that Jean had a full life apart from the work she and Tom began in Haiti all those years ago, it is still that work through which she has had the biggest impact on my life. Through her quiet (and oh yes, persistent) encouragement to Sharon and me to go to Haiti, our lives were changed. Being involved in the continuation of the work she started has become a large part of the definition of our lives. I have seen Jean weather trials with grace. I have disagreed with Jean. I have been frustrated by Jean, and I have been a frustration to Jean.

I am here to say that my life, among thousands, is immeasurably better for the impact that Jean had on it, and I thank her for it. Jean affected not only my today but my eternity. She deserves the rest that is hers now.
- Dan

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