I've known the Schultz family now for over a decade. Their christian heritage goes back to long before the second world war. They lived in the self same street in Haarlem, The Netherlands, as the Familie ten Boom. Reverend John Schultz, the father of Rev. Mitch Schultz grew up in the same neighbourhood as Corrie ten Boom. Both have served Christ with deep love and passion. Mrs. Corrie ten Boom in the well known way and John Schultz as missionary for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. It was there that Mitch was born.

Mitch became an ordained C&MA pastor himself and served the Lord in the Manchester area, United Kingdom, as pastor of the Birchwood Evangelical Church in Warrington. It was there, in their last months prior to a planned return to the USA, that a two-fold cancer tragedy struck their family. First Mitch's wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of a golf ball, which tumor literally brought her to an hour away from death according to the surgeon. But as Elaine recovered beyond expectation, and the family returned to the USA for further recovery treatment, their 12-year old son Travis started to get sick. Travis, an atheletic sports lover and enthousiastic soccor player, started to have headaches and loose coordination. He was subsequently diagnosed as having an unoperable terminal tumor in the brain stem. It was used, or permitted, by God to draw him home to Christ in August 2000.

In the midst of these tragedies, these Personal Lessons on Mark's Gospel were written by Mitch. It takes a man who knows his own frailty and a man who knows that only Jesus is truly the Way , Truth and Life to cling unto Him in the midst of these trials the way Mitch did. There are many valuable insights to be extracted from his words, grafted in pain yet flushed with God's glory. I have no doubt that Travis would have continued to carry the Gospel torch in a way worthy of his dad and grandpa, and his godly mom and grandma. But here we touch the mystery of God: Father took Travis to be with Himself at the spring age of 12... .

Hans J.A. Dekkers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
heb122@solcon.nl

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