PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 401: The Overcoming Life of Gracie Mutana
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 401: The Overcoming Life of Gracie Mutana
Sharing the story of the passing into glory of little eight-year-old Gracie. You will love to hear about her victorious life. She lived by Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and she passed away at 4.13 am, 13th February.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Here we are, together again! Well, the last two or three weeks have been very busy, but also very sad, but also very precious. Perhaps I should tell you a little bit about them, which means I’m going to talk about a dear friend called Nadia.
Nadia Mutana has done some podcasts with me in the past. Sometime ago, in fact, I was looking up this morning to see, and when did Nadia come on the podcast? It was way back, No. 18, No. 19, and No. 93. Well, they were a long way back, because we are up to podcast 401 today!
I remember with podcast 93, Nadia talked about passionate mothering. Nadia has an interesting story. She is a Rwandan. She escaped that terrible Rwanda war. But when she lived in Rwanda, she grew up very, very wealthy. She grew up with a single father. Her mother was not around. She only had servants who did everything for her.
So, when she came over here to Canada, then America, she did not know how to do anything in her home. When she got married and started having children, she didn’t know how to do a thing, how to mother, how to cook, how to be a homemaker. But she had a heart to please God and be the best mother and wife she could ever be.
She put her heart into it and Nadia raised seven amazing children. Absolutely amazing. She’s not only mothered them, nurtured them, but she has trained them. They have grown up to be so beautiful. We are so proud of them.
But just recently Nadia has been through such a very difficult time, in fact, for the last eight years. I’m just going to share about her youngest daughter, little Gracie, who was born eight years ago. Gracie was born with a very, very rare disease, Cloves Disease. But there were so many physical problems with her. They did not give much hope for Gracie. And yet, three years later she was then diagnosed with stage four cancer on top of this very rare disease as well.
So, for the last five years, Nadia has been in and out of hospital, mainly in hospital with Gracie, as they have sought to do everything they can to help her. It has been an incredible struggle. And just to watch little Gracie and all that she has been through, it is so amazing. In fact, in these last five years, Nadia has had to do it on her own. Well, she had God with her, and the support of the brothers and sisters in Christ. But after little Gracie was diagnosed, her husband left her. She’s had to face this on her own.
And so, it was just at the end of January when the medical profession, who had grown to so love Gracie themselves, said, “There is nothing more we can do.” The medical profession gave her no hope, but we continued to hope and pray as we always have for Gracie. We’ve continued to be in faith.
Nadie is a woman of faith. She believed for the healing of Gracie from the day she was born. In fact, Nadia has seen so many miracles of so many things. The things that they said Gracie could never do she has done! They said she would never be able to walk, but she walked! She runs! She can just about do anything. She jumps on the trampoline. She could do so much. Even though she had to walk on the outside of her little club feet, she did so many things they said she could never do.
She’s been healed of so many things. So, with Nadia, we continued to believe for her miraculous, supernatural healing. We were praying for this right up to the very end. Of course, we had to do it by faith, because when we looked at little Gracie, we didn’t see healing, but we continued to believe. But in the end, little Gracie went to be with the Lord.
Well, were we all wrong to believe in faith? No. I believe that God wants us to always be in faith, always believing Him. Then it’s God’s responsibility what He does, His plan, His purposes. They prevail, but our responsibility is to be in faith. So, we were.
But in that last month or so, when she came home, she gradually began to fade. The last few days she was just lying on the sofa. We were with her. It was such a privilege just to be with her, just to hold her hand, just to watch her every breath, wondering when that last breath would be. On the last day, in the evening, Colin and I went home. We wondered if she would last that night.
We got a message from Nadia early that morning to say that she had passed. She passed in the morning at 4:13. That number was so powerful for Gracie. Nadia had taught her the Scripture, Philippians 4:13: “I can do all the things through Christ. who strengthens me.” She had taught her that Scripture.
Gracie knew that Scripture. She lived by that Scripture. She believed that Scripture. And she did so many things, as I said before, that nobody ever believed she could do, or they said she could never do. But she did them, because she believed that she “could do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me.”
And it was so amazing that, as she passed, Nadia looked up at the clock, and it was 4:13! And right beside the clock was that Scripture, written in big letters, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me.” But I think God, even though Nadia had been in faith, in the last couple of days, God was preparing her. Even when Gracie was able to talk, she had told her mother that she wanted to go and be with Jesus.
So, we went down. It’s an hour and a half away. We came not too long after she had passed. I walked into the room, and I went and sat by her on the sofa where she was lying. And I looked. And I couldn’t believe it! I just exclaimed, “Nadia!” Because on little Gracie’s face was this little, tiny smile. It was amazing! She had such a look of contentment upon her face, and this little smile.
I said, “Nadia, is that how she passed?” She said, “Well, no, she wasn’t like that, because as I was dressing her, her face was just normal.” But she said, “I came back a little later, and there it was!” And we all could not get over it. I had to sit there and just look. I could not take my eyes away from her. I was in the presence of God.
In fact, I think one of the most incredible things in life is to be with someone as they pass from this earth into the glorious world of eternity. I’ve had that privilege. This time, I wasn’t with Gracie as she passed, but we were still in the presence of the Lord when we got there. I just have to share it with you, because I have never seen anything so amazing in all my life. It’s so incredible.
It reminds me of a Scripture. In fact, I’d been reading this Scripture a week or two before. It’s Psalm 48:14: “For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide, even unto death.” I’ve always loved that Scripture. I’ve loved it and I’ve quoted it. I just appropriated it that God would be my guide, even unto death.
But I found there’s so much more to that Scripture that I hadn’t even realized. I felt to look up some other translations when I was reading it a week or two ago. So, I went to an old translation. I usually read King James. I love the King James Bible. I grew up with it. It’s very familiar to me, so I read it, and love it, and live in it.
But I am not a King James only, because I’m also a connoisseur of translations, and I love to check them out, especially some of the old translations. I went to the Wycliffe Translation. That was the very first translation that was ever translated into English.
John Wycliffe translated it from the Latin Vulgate. That was a way back in 1380. Wow! That’s when he translated the New Testament and then in 1382, he completed the Old Testament. This was his translation: “For this is God, our God, into without end, and into the world of world; he shall govern us into worlds.” He’s speaking of the eternal world. I thought, “Wow! That’s incredible!”
Let me look at another translation. I went to another one, Young’s Literal. This was written by the guy who did the Young’s Concordance. Many are familiar with the Strong’s Concordance, but we also have the Young’s Concordance. This is his literal translation: “That this God is our God, to the age and forever. He doth lead us over death.” Wow! This was getting rather exciting to me. I thought, “Oh, well, I’ll go to a real modern translation.”
So, I went to the Passion Translation: “Yes, this is our God, our great God forever. He will lead us onward until the end, through all times, beyond death, and into eternity.” I began to see that these translations have something I hadn’t seen in the King James. Instead of “He will be our guide unto death,” they are saying: “He will be our guide beyond death.” Oh my, I thought I’d better look this up!
So, I went to the Hebrew. That’s where we’ve really got to go to test things out. I guess I do this just about every day. I went to the Hebrew, and it’s just a little word, al, and it means “above, beyond, over.” I realized these translations were correct!
Dear ladies, can you get this? This is so glorious. God is not only our guide even unto death. No, He is our God, guiding us over death, into His glorious eternity. He is our God, taking us above death, beyond death, into His glorious world that will never end. Oh, isn’t that so amazing? Oh, and then, of course, when I looked at darling little Gracie, I thought again of that Scripture, and I saw on her face that God had guided her over death, beyond death into His world. There was that little smile upon her face.
I thought, “Oh well, I’d better check this out even more. I’ll check out a commentary.” And so, I looked up the commentary by Andrew Bonar. He was a wonderful Scottish preacher and teacher way back in the 1800’s. He was a great man of God. Actually, Andrew Bonar was the youngest of eleven children. His next brother up from him, I wonder if you've heard his name. His name was Horatius Bonar. He was also a great preacher and teacher of the Word, and a very famous hymn writer. He wrote over 600 hymns.
Just think about this, ladies. Here these two great preachers, teachers, writers, have impacted the world for God. In fact, Andrew Bonar also wrote a biography of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. That is a wonderful biography. But these two were the youngest of eleven children.
There was another brother who was also a great preacher in the Scottish church. In fact, they have studied this family, and they counted up 364 years of preaching from this family . . . people who were in the ministry for 364 years of ministry. Isn’t that amazing? But I think, wow, in this day in which we are living, when even Christian families stop having children at maybe two or sometimes three, wow! Andrew and Horatius Bonar wouldn’t even have been born! Praise the Lord that they were.
Anyway, I was reading Andrew’s commentary on this Scripture, and he says exactly what I found myself in the Hebrew. It’s wonderful when you read and you get a revelation. Then you read further and someone else has exactly that same revelation.
“It is not our God unto death, but shall lead us over death. Surely it means it is He who leads us over death to resurrection, over Jordan to Canaan, beyond the time of death. Yes, He is it who leads us onto this last victory, and leads us to trample on death.”
Oh, praise the Lord! Well, I just had to share that beautiful revelation with you, because it means so much to me.
So that day, Friday the 13th of February, this month, our darling Gracie went to be with the Lord. We were blessed to bury her later that day on our land. Very sad, but a beautiful and triumphant burial service. Then we had a fellowship meal that night with those who came to the burial service.
But then there were two other celebration services for little Gracie. One at Serene and Sam’s barn over the road for all the people around this area. And then one down in Shelbyville where Nadia and the family currently live and go to church there. They were amazing too.
But then, oh, goodness me, it seems to be the time of celebrating people’s lives. Coming home from the barn last Saturday, I came home to get news that my only brother also passed away that day. That was the 21st of February. He was not eight years old. He was 80 years old, and had been suffering with Parkinson’s Disease for many, many years. He was ready to go to be with the Lord.
It was so sad to know my only brother had gone, but we know that he is rejoicing. My only regret about my brother is the fact that we have lived in two different countries. So, I have missed out on so much of being with him because he was the most amazing person to be with.
In his younger days, he was very fit, adventurous, and quite an amazing person. He’s always served the Lord, he and his beautiful wife, Judy. They served the Lord on the Anastasis, the YWAM ship. In fact, my brother Grant did all the plumbing on that ship. Then he became the evangelist on that ship.
Then they were called back to New Zealand to run a halfway home for people getting off drugs. That was a very challenging time for them. In fact, oh goodness me, when Grant would begin to tell us stories of some of these people and the most amazing and funny and incredible things that happened. He’d keep us entertained for hours.
But we would only get to meet occasionally. They were away on the Anastasis, and then when they lived in New Zealand, we lived in either Australia or America. So, our lives had only been getting together when we would travel . . . when we would go down to New Zealand, or perhaps they would come over here. They were the most precious times. Oh, my. What precious times they always were!
I always used to say I was very deprived because we were only a family of three, my brother, myself, and my sister. We ended up, as we grew up, all living in different countries. My sister now lives just over the road from me. But for many years, she lived in Canada, and we were in Australia, and then here in the States. My brother, around the world, or in New Zealand.
I always think, “Wow, you need to have a big family to keep family around you!” Because there’s always going to be those who are traveling to other countries. But I think I am very, very, very blessed myself now, in that our immediate family, our six children biologically, then our four adopted, all live around us here. All our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are around us. I think we are very, very spoiled.
But anyway, so on the Monday night last week, we had another celebration of life. I don’t like the word “funeral.” I love a “Celebration of Life” because it’s amazing to celebrate someone’s life, isn’t it? So, we celebrated. Our children and some of the grandchildren, and Levi, that’s my brother’s son who also lives here. He lives over the road from us.
We were able to tell the stories of his life. Oh, my brother did so many things. I couldn’t take time to tell you them all now. But he was a most amazing harmonica player, and my son Wesley had recorded a couple of his songs, playing the harmonica. When he played it, everyone cried. He could make it talk. He would make you cry. It was so powerful. It was great to listen to that again.
So, that’s what I’ve been doing these last two or three weeks. It’s been a time of loved ones passing, but also of being even more and more aware of the eternal world, which I call “the real world.” It is the real world. This life is only a vapor. Every moment is counting and preparing for eternity.
I’ve recently completed a study and looked up every Scripture where it says: “according to your works” and how we will be judged and given rewards or miss out according to our works and according to our words. Wow! That’s so challenging, isn’t it? When you get all these Scriptures together and you read them, you think, “Wow! I cannot waste a moment in preparing for eternity.”
Dear mothers, oh, I want to encourage you today, as you are mothering, nurturing, training your children in the ways of God. You are doing something eternal. Don’t despair and think, “Oh goodness me, I’m just home, stuck here with all these children! I could be out on the mission field or doing something great to serve God.” You are doing a great work serving God in your home! God looks upon it as an eternal work, for He gave you this work to do. He gave it to you.
I think of Nadia and how she poured into little Gracie’s life for eight years. I have never seen such an example of “pouring out” motherhood. She doesn’t have one regret of motherhood. She poured into her life for eight years. It wasn’t wasted because little Gracie’s gone. No, not one minute was wasted! Every moment was eternal! Because she prepared Gracie for the eternal world. Gracie walked with God. Gracie knew God because she had a mother who knew God. Gracie knew how to intercede and pray for people because she had a mother who knew how to pray. Gracie worshipped because she had a mother who knew how to worship, even in the face of challenges and difficulties all around her.
When I say little Gracie worshipped, you don’t understand what I’m talking about, unless you could see it. In fact, Jeremiah, their oldest son, put together a video for the celebrations. On there, you see reels of little Gracie worshipping in the hospital, on the hospital bed, her hands raised and going up and down in powerful worship unto God. Just a little, wee girl, worshipping like no adult I’ve ever seen worship. She was ready for the eternal world; most probably more than most adults are.
But every moment of your mothering is powerful. Make it eternal. Well, it is eternal, but make it powerfully eternal, mothers. Pour into your children that which is eternal and that which is going to last.
Yes, for the Word of God, that’s an eternal thing that will last. Every moment you give your children that Word, well, I’m sure you are. You must get sick of me telling you to have that passion, that habit of the morning and evening gathering of your children to read the Word into them.
That eternal Word, because what does it say? “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away.” In fact, the last time I was with my brother, Grant, in New Zealand, just over a year ago, it was such a precious time. I didn’t know it and I longed to see him again. I hoped I would. But it costs a lot of money to get down to New Zealand, and we didn’t get down again.
But, as we talked, I never forgot one of the things he said to me. He was just in the Word. He was loving the Word. He said, “Nancy, this Word is my life.” He said, “This Word is going to go into eternity,” and he reminded me of that Scripture, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away.”
And he said, as I also believe, that when we get into that eternal realm, we will have so much greater revelation of the Word. There’s so much now that we don’t fully understand, we cannot even comprehend with our finite minds.
In fact, this morning, in our family devotions (we’re reading through Hebrews at the moment) and we read the chapter of Hebrews 7 this morning. Oh goodness me! It is so incredible! But we got to the end, and I said, “Oh my, we need at least a month to sit and contemplate and meditate on every Scripture because we couldn’t take it all in. It was just too much!
You read Hebrews 7, and you will realize it’s just too much. In fact, will we ever understand it now? But we will in the eternal realm, and even then, it will be little by little. We will get more and more glimpses and more and more understanding and more and more revelation of the Word, because we can read the Word, but we just read it on the top.
There’s depths and depths below it of incredible revelation which we can get glimpses of here, and we do. That’s my most exciting thing in life when I get glimpses of revelations. But there’s much we will not get until eternity.
I remember reading in Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven how the more (now ladies, this is very important to remember) the more we have of the Word here and get into our lives here, the more we will have a foundation for revelation in Heaven. Oh, lovely ladies, we don’t want to go into heaven shallow, with just a shallowness of the Word. We’ll have more to catch up on. But to go into it with the depths of the Word in us, we will have more on which we can build, for revelation, even in that eternal world. Oh, yes.
Well, my lovely ladies, we are meant to be talking about our MORE AND MORE life. We’re still in this series but I didn’t even get onto it today. I’m so sorry, but I hope you were blessed as I shared about little Gracie and about my family. Maybe I’ll have to get Nadia back on the podcast to share her story with you. I will do that sometime soon. So, you can look forward to that. Next week, we’ll be back. I’ve got my notes sitting right here about my next point, No. 19, MORE GROWING IN THE WAYS AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. We didn’t get to it, but we’ll do it next week.
Shall we pray?
“Dear loving, heavenly, eternal Father, we love You. We thank You that You are our God, our eternal God. You are our God forever and ever. You are our guide, who guides us over death, beyond death, into Your glorious eternal world that will never be destroyed, that will never pass away, that has no end. How we thank You that we belong to Your unshakeable kingdom. Oh, we thank You, Lord God.
“Help us to be constantly more aware of eternity, knowing that every moment here is preparing for eternity. This is just the vapor. Eternity is the real world. Help us, Lord God, to keep our hearts and our minds looking for, and hasting unto the day of the Lord, wherein the heavens will be on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. But we look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Oh, we thank You, Lord God, and we praise You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.
“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”
DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.
IT IS ENCOURAGING FOR ALL WIVES AND MOTHERS.
Here is the link to hear Nadia’s story, the You Tube her son Jeremiah made which was played at the Celebrations for Gracie. You will be inspired:
Scripture recited in prayer:
2 Peter 3:12, 13: “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelling righteousness.”
SCRIPTURES ABOUT HOW WE WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO OUR WORKS AND WORDS:
Take time to look them up and share them with your children:
Job 34:21, 22; 31:4, 11;
Psalm 11:4; 17:3; 33:13-15; 62:12; 66:7;
Proverbs 5:2; 15:3; 24:12;
Isaiah 40:10; 62:12; Jeremiah 16:17; Ezekiel 7:27; 33:20; Daniel 7:10; Hosea 7:2;
Matthew 6:27; 12:36, 37; Acts 17:31; Romans 2:6; 14:10-12; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:4; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:24, 25; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; Hebrews 4:13; 9:27; 1 Peter 1:17; 4:5; 2 Peter 3:2, 10; Revelation 2:23; 20:11-15; and Revelation 22:12,