Tribute to Kandice

This tribute to Kandice Robinson was delivered at her Memorial Celebration at the Community Grace Brethren Church in Warsaw, Indiana,  on July 31, 2010, by Wayne Hannah, Asia Regional Director. Kandice was the Team Asia and Wayne’s personal Administrative Assistant.

On July 28th…this week, 2008…Kandice Robinson was approved and accepted as a missionary to Asia with Grace Brethren International Missions.  This was her dream…her plan…and evidently God’s plan for her.

On July 28…this week, 2009…Kandice should have been living and serving in Central Asia as part of our missionary team there. But she wasn’t. It was still her dream…but her plan was on hold…God’s plan? Now, a big question.

On July 28…this week, 2010…Kandice was approved and accepted as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, healed and living in the presence of King Jesus.  Not her plan…not what she had dreamed for this week…but precisely and clearly God’s plan!

Just two years and a few months ago, I met Kandice. It was a Saturday afternoon. Here’s a summary of how that conversation went…

Kandice, what’s your dream, your vision?
To make followers of Christ among the deaf in Thailand
We have no deaf ministry in Thailand.
Where do you have one?
Uh…nowhere.
Why not?
Because I guess we have been waiting on you. (We laughed…Yes, I really said that.)
Oh…well, if I wanted to go, what then?
You can’t go to Thailand.
Why not?
There’s no team there yet…give us two years.
Hmmm…
And you also need training with a good team of church planters.
Who and where would that be?
(I gulped)…Uh…a country in Central Asia 
Where’s that?
Central Asia, Former Soviet Union, nearly totally Islamic, dangerous, extreme poverty...(pause)…but I’m sure we can find some deaf people there.
How long?
Probably two years…and that’s after the year it will take you to get there.
Hmmm…then what?
Then…we can talk about you going to Thailand.

I left the encounter thinking, “I’ll never see this girl again.” Kandice left thinking… “Yessss!!”

Kandice started the application process that Monday!  Now…THAT’S Kandice!!! I knew her less than 48 hours at that point but knew that we had started an adventure with an unbelievably exceptional, courageous, determined, passionate on-mission young woman who loved her Jesus.

So, when faced with the reality of stage four cancer last November, realizing that she may never make it to Asia…let alone Central Asia or Thailand…I guess it isn’t any wonder that when we kept giving her the option “to get out of the deal” …to go live it up…have fun…jump out of airplanes…race dirt bikes or something…she responded… “I am still Team Asia…and my dream is to still be a part of God’s mission to Asia!” So she eagerly accepted the  offer to become the team’s and my administrative assistant.

I don’t have the time to share how significant that relationship became to me, (like having someone who really understood what suffering’s all about), to all of us in Asia, to other GBIM missionaries and to the IMC (GBIM’s local headquarters). But let me read a few of the tributes to Kandice from them. I can only highlight a few words from each of their tributes.

Kevin & Jill Kane (Cambodia) - She was a TRUELY awesome example of God's Grace! We will miss her!

Ralph and Joan Justiniano (Japan) - We will never forget her upbeat spirit, cheerful countenance and desire to continue to give as much as she could in the face of all that she was going through. She was truly an inspiration.

Christian and Bonnie Beuggert (Thailand) - We appreciate Kandice’s deep compassion for people.  She loved Asia…and she had a contagious smile.

Mike Taylor (IMC)  -  A radiant smile, inviting warmth and she stayed ahead of her cancer.

(Many people commented on her smile…contagious smile, happy smile, gorgeous smile, always smiling, radiant smile, etc.)

Barb Wooler (Africa) - True.  Genuine.  Objective.  Quick.  Smart.  Capable.  Lover of God. Steady…what she was before her cancer is what she was after her cancer.

John Ward (IMC) - the most courageous person I've ever had the pleasure to know and serve with

Samantha Muntz (IMC) - We had some good times laughing,  jamming to music and sharing together while working in that little office with no windows.

Julia Whitacre (IMC) - She had a no-nonsense, fiery personality that made the window-less office full of sunshine!

Vicki DeArmey (IMC) - She oozed God's grace and strength.

Jay Bell (IUSA) - She should have been a preacher!  After she shared her life and journey with nearly 2000 kids at Momentum, I told her she was a great preacher.  She just flashed me that infectious smile.

Tom Julien (IMC) - I have never known anyone who has manifested so much vitality and optimism in the midst of suffering as Kandice. Her contribution will not be measured by her length of service but by her devotion to her Savior.

Kent and Becky Good (Cambodia)- She was a delight and an inspiration. She left the world a better place than it was before she came…a vivacious smile, a wonderful sense of humor and a real servant's heart.

Bob and Jean (SE Asia) - You just cannot help but fall in love with her.

Tim and Jessica Robertson – (Cambodia)  Life often seems to be about being faithful when things don't turn out how we planned. Kandice lived that out before us and we won't forget her example.

Besty (Asia) - I will always treasure finger jousting with Kandice in Thailand and our times of crying together always ended in laughter.

Les and Debbie Nesbitt (Thailand) - extremely capable and passionate person who also exuded humility.  It’s rare to find that in a person

Dan and Tina Junker (Japan…who struggled through Dan’s own battle with cancer last year) - In Kandice's case she was able to be a real testimony and witness for Him all along and then at a deeper and more urgent level during her battle with cancer! May God use those seeds planted by our dear sister to bring many, many others to His saving grace!

(Lots more was written about her, but with limited time, these were all that could be read.)

Tammie and Jim, Kandice’s parents, gave me this article that Kandice had written on the subject of loss. I’d love to read it all to you but don’t have the time. Let me just highlight a couple of parts.

“Sometimes the best comfort is remembering we have a God who suffers with us.

Yes, loss is something we all experience. We often think of loss as it relates to the death of a loved one, but loss comes in various forms…loss of a friendship, loss of a dream, loss of an opportunity. Sometimes these losses aren’t the result of traumatic experience, but just the natural changes of life. Sometimes losses are traumatic though. Sometimes the changes of life seem less like ebb and flow and more like a two-by-four to the face. Lost dreams often catch us right under the chin. My loss of my dream to move to Asia last year was the hardest thing I’ve ever faced, but I know that both “big” and “small” losses cause us to struggle…struggle to adjust, struggle to accept, and struggle to find a new direction. The truth is that all loss hurts. Often our hurt and confusion in loss can make it hard to see God’s hand, but the real surprise is that even in the midst of loss our God is right there beside us.

The truth of who God is, the reminders of his love and goodness, that’s what keeps me going when the loss overwhelms me. Honestly, most days I don’t even admit to myself how badly I want to be living in Asia right now. I just can’t live in that space because I’m not healed from that loss. I just keep going, pressing forward through the loss because it’s what I need to do. It’s what my God has called me to do. It’s what he gives me strength to do. I have strength enough to trust him for today; strength to trust his goodness, strength to rest in his faithfulness, strength to live in the midst of suffering because my God suffers too, strength to lean in against his chest and cry, strength to love him through the pain, strength is what he gives me.

Sometimes the best comfort is remembering we have a God who suffers with us.”

(You can read the entire article by clicking here.)

I will close with a story that you are probably familiar with. Let’s see if you know these names…Roger Youderian?...Ed McCully?...hmm…how ‘bout Peter Fleming? No? You might recognize these two names in this group of five…Nate Saint and Jim Ellot.  In 1956, these five young missionary men were martyred on a river’s beach in Brazil and all of them were aged 32 or younger…Fleming and Elliot were  but 28, Kandice’s age. The comparison I’m making is not to their stories but to the fact that at least hundreds…maybe thousands…inspired by the “too soon deaths” of these young men may have served on the international mission field over the years. We believe and are praying at GBIM that many, many people (like the two thousand kids at Momentum who two weeks ago heard Kandice’s incredible testimony), inspired by the life of Kandi-Marie will step up to take her place, to take the gospel to the lost of the world. Would you be one of those?

If you would like to further Kandice's dream of reaching Asia with the Gospel, specifically by giving relief to those in need in Central Asia, you can give by clicking here.

Read an article Kandice wrote in January about her experiance at the Team Asia Family Conference.

And to read more about Kandice's life, click here.