Good-bye, Mama Deane!/Charity that has Gone Before Us

St.Catharines awaits us as Josh and I prepare to depart from Mama Deane's 'house of peace'. We have retreated here for about 4 days, enjoying the company of Deane and getting a little taste of the south( last night she made corn bread!).
Her house is full of books and I dedicated all of my reading to the biography of missionaries called 'From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya' by Ruth A. Tucker. I have learned so much and feel so inspired after reading about C.T. Studd, Hudson Taylor, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, and more.
C.T. Studd was extremely intense and very controversial. Hudson Taylor's strategy is one that wouldn't be modeled today since he didn't church plant or raise up local leaders of China but focused on getting the message of the gospel out. Amy Carmichael was seen as not being evangelical enough as she rescued prostitutes from the temples and raised them. Gladys Aylward has trouble learning and felt that she wasn't even the one God originally chose for her work in China. William Carey married a woman who didn't want to do missionary work.
These men and women so badly wanted to be used by God, and that is what happened. They have set the groundwork for us today. These are only the missionaries whose names we know. Many have sacrificed, died and spent their lives saving souls, and are not remembered on this Earth, but I imagine that in Heaven we will hear their stories.
Within the hour, Josh and I will board a plane and travel back to Canada into St.Catharines. We will be staying with Pastor George and Marilyn Woodward, who are going to give us premarital counseling. Today marks ten days until Josh and I get married!