This will be the most bittersweet newsletter I have ever sent to you. As we had shared with you in our January letter, Ed was diagnosis with Covid-19 Pneumonia. The virus quickly and viciously attacked his lungs. Even though Ed would spend weeks in the hospital with the last few weeks being in ICU, none of the treatments were able to help him. Throughout this journey, until the last few days, the doctors continually expected his lungs to respond to these treatments and begin to expand, for all of his other vitals were remaining strong. But, Ed knew the entire time that his lungs were worsening and not improving. Prior to being taken to ICU, they had coupled him with different layers of oxygen, which hindered him from being able to speak. He resorted to communicating to us by writing notes. One day, while in distress and in great weakness, he calmly signaled by hand that he was rapidly digressing and wrote the following:

NOTHING IN MY HAND I BRING SIMPLY TO THE CROSS I CLING

So many of you, throughout the United States and on foreign fields, joined us as we prayed for Ed to be healed from this cruel virus. The Lord truly used this time to put many of us on our knees seeking His face in this urgent time. Of course, my earnest desire and the desire of our family, friends and co-laborers, was for the Lord to raise Ed up one more time from his deathbed, as our Lord had so graciously done several times over the past few years. However, both Ed and I knew that we must pray rightly concerning these things. I shared with our children and friends that we do come to the Lord with our request; however, we must submit Ed and ourselves to God’s will in this matter and not to ours. I continued to convey that Our Father alone knows the future; and He alone knows what His plans are for Ed and for us. So, I had to lay my will along with my beloved husband down at the feet of Jesus, and commit myself to accept what His will would be in this crisis. For I know in whom I have believed and I trust that my Lord and my God does only what is right and what is best. Friends, God’s will was done! Our prayers were answered! For our Father chose to give Ed, not just another temporary healing here on earth; but, He gave him his perfect healing and brought him home to be with His Savior and Lord, face to face in all of His glory.

Many of you know, Ed has had many physical issues since suffering from Guillian-Barre from the flu vaccine years ago. However, my dear husband never allowed those physical issues to deter him from serving and loving the One who had given him Eternal Life. Never did Ed shy away from his call of being an Evangelist. Often he would write to you saying, he would go anywhere, anytime, at any cost to carry out the mission that God had given him to do. He was faithful to do that to the very end. We were privileged to be with him when he passed over to the other side. As we did often during those days at the hospital, we would read scripture to him and/or play one of his favorite songs. That night, Josh, our youngest son, chose to play, ‘NO MORE NIGHT’, a song Ed had sung on many occasions. As the song was playing, my dear precious husband’s spirit departed from that weaken, frail body, in perfect peace, as if he was experiencing the truths of the song. How thankful I am that I was able to be with him throughout that time.

Now the reality of all that has transpired is setting in on us. Grieving one you have loved so dearly is a very tough thing to go through. My heart is broken and my mind still reeling as I attempt to grasp the finality of his departure. Even now as I type out this newsletter, my heart is pounding and tears are streaming down my face, for I miss him so. But, we do not sorrow like those who have no hope, as Paul states in I Thessalonians. For we know that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus, when He comes again. So precious friends, Covid-Pneumonia may have been the immediate worldly cause of these things that we are suffering; but ultimately, it was our Almighty God, the One whom Ed loved and served so faithfully, that called him on February 27,2022 to his eternal home in glory. Friends, the Lord is truly so faithful for He is holding me up day by day, in His Righteous Right Hand; for Ed’s departure to his new home has not altered ‘Who God is and What God does’, one iota.

Oh, what a blessed woman I am, to have been the wife of this precious man. I will forever be thankful for the Lord giving me the privilege and the opportunity to be Ed’s helpmate in life and ministry. He was true to his callings, as a faithful and loving husband, a nurturing father and provider for our family, a doting and compassionate grandfather, a caring friend and a passionate, doctrinally sound Evangelist, full of light and heat, for the sake of the Gospel.

WHAT AWAITS THIS MINISTRY?

Many have asked, “What is going to happen to Ed Lacy Ministries?” Well dear friends, Ed Lacy Ministries was never about the man, Ed Lacy. From its inception in 1983, it has always been about the God of Ed Lacy, which had saved him and called him into the Gospel Ministry. Therefore, Ed Lacy Ministries will continue to press forward.

As I have prayed and sought godly counsel concerning these decisions, I have considered Matthew 11:12 & Luke 16:16. This was the time of the imprisonment and soon death of John the Baptist. The enemies of God as always, were out to hinder or trying to stop the gospel from going forth. In the case of John the Baptist, the very forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, he would face opposition in an attempt to stop the message of the gospel. Most of the Pharisees had sold out to the world as they were seeking the approval of man and not of God. They were false teachers who were leading the people into the wide-gate of counterfeit conversion, which leads to an eternal hell. They were more concerned with their outward appearances rather than the condition of their hearts before a Holy God. Thus, the Lord called them hypocrites, whitewashed sepulchers full of dead men’s bones. John the Baptist came preaching repentance and the remission of sins; and the religious leaders hated him and his message. At that time, these religious leaders along with the worldly leaders would hear the message and they wanted to stop the message and suppress his ministry. But it was never John the Baptist’s ministry! It was the ministry of the God of John the Baptist. The same is true today. A ministry that belongs to God continues to go forward.

This has been a great reminder and motivation for us that the mission of God is to continue to press forward until He returns. What will stop the gospel from going forward dear friends?

No, dear friends, no event or person can stop the Kingdom of God’s Work. The Gospel presses ahead relentlessly. The Lord of the Harvest is going to build His church! The faithful ones will be preaching the unadulterated truth of the Gospel, as is written in His Word; and people will be pressing, relentlessly unto salvation, through the narrow gate of true conversion, just like Jesus responded to John the Baptist in Luke 16:16.

SO ED LACY MINISTRIES WILL CONTINUE BEING FAITHFUL TO BE ON MISSION WITH GOD!