In Memory of Wes and Frances Van Nattan

Missionaries in Oklahoma, Tanzania, Kenya, England, and Ireland
Parents of Steve and Tim Van Nattan

 

This letter was composed by our Mary,
and I decided to post it just as she wrote it.
March 24, 2004

Steve Van Nattan

 

Frances Edwina Van Nattan

Born in San Antonio, Texas
April 4, 1918

With The Lord Jesus Christ
March 22, 2004

 

 

 

 

Dear friends and family,

Praise the Lord, deliverance has come! Grandma is with the Lord!

The doctor went in at around 11:30am or before, Monday the 22nd, their time, and took off the breathing machine. Grandma's body quit at 12:06. The doctor told my dad that he stayed there and talked to her during that time. Thank the Lord. What a deliverance for her!

Many of you know how very much she has suffered over the last few years. She has actually had pain quite a lot in the last 20 years my Mom says. Her body was literally worn out and used up. She had parts missing and artificial parts added. What a blessing that she is free from all of that now! Glory to God!

We will miss her very much, but what a wonderful day today was for her! During her agony and trouble last week she was crying out for Grandpa. Now she is with him! Please continue to remember us as we deal with the sense of loss that still will accompany this.

Even more, I would ask that you remember my uncle at the throne of grace, that his every need will be met in Jesus Christ.

Thank you all so much for praying for us! The Lord is good. My Dad and uncle seem to be doing fairly well at this point. Of course, Uncle Tim is very busy right now with the end details. There will naturally be hard times.

The grave side service will be at the pavilion at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, Friday, 10 AM, and Grandma will be buried next to Grandpa. Uncle Tim is making arrnagements.

In Christ Jesus our Lord,
The Van Nattans

2 Cor. 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

DELIVERANCE WILL COME

DEATH

Psalms 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Revelation 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

What was Mom's deepest quality?
Answer: After her faithfulness to Jesus Christ, her greatest strength was that she never left Wes Van Nattan
uncertain that he was her best friend and hero. As she lay in pain and confusion in the hospital in Tucson,
Mom kept calling out to "Wes." She has since found him with Jesus.

Every heroic and godly quality in Wes Van Nattan, found below, was a joint venture with Mom.

Dad and Mom,sadly but with my deepest admiration, stood alone many times when all those around them
plead with them to compromise on their stand for Jesus Christ and the King James Bible. I cannot tell
God what to do at the judgment of our works, but it seems to me that Dad and Mom will be wearing
matching crowns.

More photos of Mom down this page:

 

WES VAN NATTAN

Graduation Day One
Into a life of work for Jesus

 

Graduation Day Two
Into the Presence of Jesus himself

Daniel Wesley Van Nattan
Born in Grand Junction, Colorado-- April 17, 1919
With The Lord Jesus Christ-- July 18, 2003

His soul and spirit are with Jesus
His body is planted ready for the resurrection
at the Veteran's Cemetery at Fort Huachuca, AZ

"He cannot come to me
But, I shall go to him"
Maranatha, Lord Jesus!

Thanks to Ben Leiendecker and Jerry Smith who
ministered a Christ centered grave side service.
A surprise to all was the arrival of Paul Beverly who
worked in Tanzania as a missionary with Dad.

Thanks to my brother, Tim, who made both the joy
and the heart ache of my Mom an easier yoke.
Thanks to cousin Rollie and Michalene
and cousin Karen who comforted

The Campbells and the good folks at Quiburi...
Many more I missed, who were a close and
godly comfort to Mom.

Most of all, thanks to The Lord Jesus Christ
who saved my Dad, Mom, and me, so that
I am not without hope of seeing my Dad again.

Dad asked for the Hallelujah Chorus at his memorial service.

This old warrior for Jesus, in the photos, last Friday went to be with the Lord he loved and preached.

This saint became the man of the house for his Mom when he was in ninth grade and his own Dad died. At eighteen years of age, he worked on the WPA on a dam in Los Angeles with a "Mexican drag line"-- The only Anglo who could keep up with them and earn their respect-- chipping bed rock with a pick all day! He never babied himself as long as I knew him, though he could have a good time with my brother and I when the opportunity arose.

This man was stationed in the Gilbert Islands during WW II,
Went to Bible Institute,
Was a street preacher,
Pastored poor folks on the river bottom land of Briartown, Oklahoma,
Pastored three churches at the same time in the Arkansas Ozarks,
Drove truck so he could pay the bills while pastoring in the Quartz Hill, California,
Went to Africa in 1954 with his family,
Where he built a middle school,
Preached in the villages,
Hunted lions that were killing his African neighbors' cattle,
Doctored the sick,
Fed the hungry,
Rebuked the unrighteous,
Defended the King James Bible when all around him mocked,
Discipled new believers,
Brought in strays whom others abandoned,
Lived with the Masaii,
Preached and did the Lord's Supper in sheds, under trees, in cow dung houses,
Made Bible based African records of Gospel songs which topped the charts in Kenya with the Gospel,
Never quit looking for the coming of Jesus Christ,
And, never quit telling me, until he died, that "He will never leave us or forsake us."

Not content to quit,
he later pastored in the Northhampton, UK,
was a missionary with his wife, Frances, in Killarny, Ireland,
and planted a local church in his old age in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

He is seen above in a recent photo still chugging along and dreaming of again doing some new thing for Jesus Christ.

He did just that-- The new thing we all do only once....

July 18, 2003, my Dad, Wes Van Nattan, went into the presence of Jesus.

I feel sorry for those sorry scholars who imagine the saints go to sleep when they arrive in heaven. Imagine millions of saints of all the ages laying around God's throne sleeping when they could be rejoicing in their salvation. My Dad, for one, would not sleep long, what with his zeal to see what Jesus looks like. We have a blessed promise in this regard:

2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

There was no shame as Dad arrived in the Glory to see the Living Word. He was a friend of the Word. Once he took up the King James Bible long ago, he never turned to any other mongrel bible. He ended the way he started-- faithful to the end-- "looking for that blessed hope"-- recently, talking a lot about going to be with his Lord. Deliverance has come.

Dear Lord Jesus: I pray that you would use me in some way to honor the memory of your saint and my Dad. And, my dear Jesus-- Thank you for the memory of my grandmother Laura who showed my Dad how to love you, Lord. And, thank you Lord for Bill Linshied, the good Mennonite brother down the street, who hauled my Dad to Sunday School every Sunday morning when he was a kid.

A funny thing happened today-- We bought a tray to put under the washing machine, and my son Mike asked how we would get it under the machine. We would have to do it in place in a hole. My Daddy long ago showed me the ways of Archimedes and his lever, and I used the skill my Dad gave me to lift the machine up while my son slid the tray under the machine-- in about two minutes. Does your kid have a Dad who teaches him how to survive the life here on earth and the life to come in eternity? My Dad did this for me. He and my Mom also showed me how to love Jesus, and I love my parents for that.

Thanks for letting me take advantage of this journal and the Web to say a few things that helped me a lot at this time. You who are friends, please pray for my dear Mom who is alone for the first time in 62 years.

So many times Dad would go off hunting for game in Africa so we could eat, fetching building materials, and taking a sick African to the hospital. Would he come home OK? Mom must have wondered many times. He always came home. But, this time Dad went away on business with Jesus, and he will not be coming back. My Mom will need lots of prayer to deal with that. My brother Tim is helping, and we can call, but that is not going to fill the void.

Dear saint-- don't put off the things you dream of doing with those you love. This life is short.

Thanks for praying.

Steve

The following photos were poster here in the past:

Frances Van Nattan is still alert and trying to adjust to life without Dad.
Tim, my brother, has been a real help to Dad and Mom.

Mom told be recently that, when Dad was pastor of Quartz Hill Baptist Church in the California High Desert, he would study all week for his sermons on Sunday. But, on Saturday night he stayed up all night praying and reading the Word of God. Today, Quartz Hill Baptist Church is still on the narrow way, using the old King James Bible, and zealous in soul winning. I fully believe this it the fruit of Dad's zeal. Dad always thought he was poor at Bible study, so he studied long hours. His low view of his abilities were the perfect vacuum into which the Holy Ghost poured his power. Oh my dear Lord Jesus, I want that power for what I do for you.

Mom is contemplating the leap into cyberspace. She is learning.
The room at Quiburi looks busy, which is the trademark of
Dad and Mom. Projects are always waiting.

Frances long ago. Mom said that, as a young girl, she never felt the sting of the Great Depression because her Dad, though not rich, could always find work. People would hire her Dad in a flash because he was known to be so dependable.

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