Dear Praying Christian Friends,

The Bible says in 1Peter 1:24, “ For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:” Death is our enemy.

It seems like the last few months of our ministry and our lives have been dominated by death. We have changed our plans and our church program time and again to deal with the blows that have been dealt to us. Melina’s father passed away after a time of illness on January 29. We returned to the field after his funeral and I made a trip across the border to Haiti to check on the ongoing church reconstruction.

Then Melina’s mother passed away unexpectedly in Flint, Michigan, on February 19 and we returned home for her funeral. My uncle passed away the next day in Baltimore, Maryland, but I was unable to attend the services because I was in Flint with my wife.

We returned to the field and celebrated our yearly fête at the church in Santo Domingo with over 300 present people saved and 13 new converts passed through the waters of baptism! Then we hosted a group from my sending church, Calvary Baptist Church of Dundalk, Maryland, and my home pastor, Cameron Giovanelli. We were able to take the group to several areas in the Dominican Republic and give an “on-site” report of our work to our pastor and church men. The trip was a great success and we were so happy to have our sending church with us for the second time in our career. As soon as the group left, we headed off to a weeklong missions conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was also a huge success. Returning to the field, it was time for youth camp in the mountains of Jarabacoa.

However, the devil was not done with us. Our camp this year ended in tragedy when one of our young college students died of drowning on the day before Easter after chasing a soccer ball into the river. He could not swim and was not familiar with the river and went right in over his head and did not come back up. We recovered his body after three hours of searching. We had his funeral service the Monday after Resurrection Sunday.

I told my wife that night that if I lived to be 100 years old I would be happy to never see another corpse or never go to another funeral. But Thursday night of the same week my sister unexpectedly passed away of heart failure in Springfield, Missouri, and I got the phone call early on Friday morning. Another blow from the angel of death!

As I said, Death is our enemy. I take each of these deaths personally because I know that Satan wants to attack us, cause us sadness, distract us and discourage us--all of us. But we will not be discouraged because each of those who passed had made a profession of faith and have cheated Satan and Death of their prize! 1Corinthians 15:54 and 55 says, “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Yes, death is our enemy. But we have the victory through Jesus Christ Our Lord!

Your Missionaries for the Gospel,

Wesley and Melina Lane
E-mail: PreacherWes@hotmail.com

“And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”   —Acts 5:42