Yesterday, I had the honor to speak at Valdean Peppler’s funeral.  If you are a family member and want a copy of the Grave side service or Eulogy, you can find it here.  For the blog, just read on.

When Valdean Peppler started a conversation with her friend Elaine she would always say:  “Elaine, today we are one day closer to paradise.”  On March 20, 2024 she left our earth to do just that.  She looked forward to her entrance into heaven and even told my wife in the months before she died that she had dreamed of a new house that was being built for her and that all the streets were Bible names.

I have a hard time contemplating this whole scenario.  But Valdean … she did not.  And when her son Glen Junior reached out to her dear friend Elaine to let her know that she had passed away, Elaine shouted with joy!  They had both prepared themselves for this moment.

And her life represented that:

Well into her life, Valdean found a freedom in rediscovering the offer of John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

From the moment she accepted that word, and Him, Valdean’s life was changed forever.

She could not stop reading her Bible.  She lived a life of purpose.  And she became an Agent.

A Change Agent 

A Travel Agent

A Prayer Agent

Valdean was Change Agent  

Upon hearing that a strip club was going to open on Main Street in Longmont, Valdean and her small group began to pray.  They prayed that the Boardwalk would not open.  Not too long after that, not only was there no Boardwalk, there was a Lord’s Walk.  The Lord’s Walk Christian Book Store was not so much a business…it was a beacon, a family run and influenced place to be encouraged, prayed for, and ministered to.  The Lord’s Walk changed a city.  Valdean was blessed by having family help her run the business, but more than that, she was blessed to influence thousands of people.

Valdean was a Travel Agent  

Those of us who knew Valdean heard “Travel with Angels” every time we left her.  It was not just a saying.  Never would this be more vital then a Glenn Junior accident.  Driving too fast, he veered across highway 287, hit a telephone pole, and ricocheted into an enormous tree.  He ended up waking up in the passenger seat and the tree had pushed the steering wheel completely through the driver’s seat.  Some would say that not wearing a seatbelt saved his life.  More would say that God did.

Valdean was also a Prayer Agent

Any Time Someone Needed Prayer, or counsel, or advice, or encouragement, Valdean was a Beacon of Wisdom.  It wasn’t just her gift, it was her willingness to cry out to God in prayer and request … she activated God to help her … and others.

This didn’t apply to just big things, it applied to ALL things.  Over 30 years ago, Valdean was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.  It was a grim situation.  When Valdean heard that her heart was failing and nothing could be done, she simply “prayed and spoke” Psalm 73:26  “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  Her heart began to improve and her granddaughter Leissa awoke one morning to hear her grandma screaming as her doctor told her “your condition is supposed to be degenerative but by all intents and purposes you had a perfectly normal echocardiogram.

I have always asked:  “Why in some cases does God seem show up and not in others?”  I do not know, and Valdean did not know either.  But she celebrated the victories and kept her faith in the defeats.  She chose to give all glory to God and I know that He was blessed by her worship through the good … and the bad.

I will leave you with this:

Jesus is real.

His house is real.

His love is real.

And He has prepared a place for us…..as John says in John 1:  “To those who would receive Him, to those who would call on His Name, He gives the right to become children of God”

And it is never, ever, too late to live a life of purpose.

It can start today.

And all it takes is discovering, OR rediscovering, the offer of John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J