Death of My FIL

Shortly after midnight Sunday, the Lord took my father-in-law, Rev. William O. (Bill) Gamblin. He was 90.

Bill spent much of his life pastoring small churches out West, in pioneer missions. He served churches in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona and Texas, as well as in Ohio and finally Western Kentucky. In many cases, his was the only Baptist church in a small town; and often too small to support him, so he was bi-vocational

When he attended Association meetings, it was often a 300-mile round trip to Association headquarters.

He was the first non-Mormon ever elected to the city council in the small Utah town where he served.

I admired my father-in-law very much. I will miss him.

Funeral arrangements incomplete in Paducah, Kentucky.

One tender story: About eleven Saturday night at our home, Bill's condition worsened and he became basically non-responsive. Janice (my wife, his daughter), sat down on the bed, took him in her arms, and began to softly sing,
"What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon his face, the One who saved me by His grace.
When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be."

A few minutes later, Janice called me from the next room.

"Tom, he's gone."

Bill had received the ultimate healing.

 

Thank you, Scarlett. Janice is finding that His grace is sufficient.

 

Those who know about such things say that the hearing is the last thing to go. So it is entirely possible that the last thing he heard was Janice's singing "when he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land, what a day that will be." And the first thing he heard after that was the voice of the Lord saying, "welcome home."

We'll know for sure by and by.