Bonnie Mae Bennett Easterling

Bonnie Mae Easterling, age 89, died in Oklahoma City on October 20, 2010. Bonnie grew up on a windy northwestern Oklahoma farm, the youngest of five girls born to Eugene and Ethel Bennett. She married her former high school basketball coach and together they built a life full of faith, family, service, and friends. Their life together included stops in Turpin, OK; Manhattan, KS; Boulder, CO; Tonkawa, OK; Wichita, KS; McPherson, KS; Albuquerque, NM; and Oklahoma City, OK. Bonnie was widowed at age 52. She continued an active life of work, volunteering, parenting, grandparenting, and travel.

Her dedication as a wife, mother, care giver, businesswoman and - most important to her - as a servant of God was an inspiration to family and friends and enriched their lives. She was active physically and mentally until about 10 years ago when Alzheimer’s disease noticeably began to take her memory and abilities. Even then she kept her warm smile and a chuckle. She loved the Lord and almost until the last candle flickered out would sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” always ending with a hearty, “A-men.”

Bonnie was preceded in death by her husband, Verlin Robert, her parents and four sisters, her daughters-in law, Judy Easterling and Sheila Easterling, and grandson, Mark Bennett Easterling. She is survived by her children: Robert & wife Susie, Lael & wife Katherine, Connie Collins & husband Samuel T., and Verla Raines & husband Clarence; grandchildren: Michael Easterling, Jeffrey Easterling, Heather Easterling Beiras, Lukus Collins, Marcus Collins, Stephen Collins, Dylan Raines, Christopher Collins, Caleb Collins, Sterling Raines, and Peter Collins; and great-grandchildren: Jason Easterling, Lindsay Beiras, Malia Easterling, Taytem Collins, Samantha Beiras, Eisley Collins, and Macy Easterling.

A funeral service will be held at 10:30AM, Tuesday, October 26, 2010, at Memorial Park Historic Chapel. Visitation will be at Memorial Park, Monday from 8am to 9pm, with the family present to greet friends from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, NC 28201), the Oklahoma and Arkansas Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association (6465 South Yale, Suite 312, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74136), or the Verlin and Bonnie Easterling Scholarship at Northern Oklahoma College (NOC Foundation, PO Box 310, Tonkawa, OK 74653).

A TRIBUTE TO MY CHRISTIAN MOTHER

by Connie M. Collins

Mother lived a long life serving her personal family and her Christian family. She was introduced to her Savior, Jesus Christ, through the Easterling family. She and Dad taught us God’s truth so that each of us could make our personal decision concerning the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Mother loved to write and keep diaries. I’m thankful to have so many of her thoughts and stories. It’s as if she’s still talking to me when I read her writings.

When I was a homesick college freshman away from home, Mom wrote me many letters that I am grateful I kept. These are some of the comforting words she wrote to me:

“One thing to remember is that everyone else is also going through emotional hurdles and some are so much worse than ours. We just have to keep our eyes turned upward to our source and one by one our problems will be solved.”

“The Lord takes care of us, doesn’t He. We must keep our faith strong.”

“There is no better way if we can always keep our hearts and minds open to know God’s will.”

“We must learn to trust the Lord for everything.”

“We have so much for which to be thankful, especially our faith in our Lord and His promise. He said in His word that He cares for us and will provide our needs so we must trust and not let material shortage rob us of the joyful life we should have.”

This legacy of God’s truth is the best a mother can leave for her family. Mom gave us her best.

Psalm 73:24-26 sums up Mother’s life. “Lord, You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Mother is enjoying her portion forever in heaven. May we all receive ours as well.

BONNIE MAE EASTERLING

Born May 22, 1921 Died October 20, 2010

HIGHLIGHTS OF A LIFE JOURNEY LIVED IN SERVICE

Read by Lael R. Easterling at the service

Bonnie Easterling passed from this World on October 20, 2010. Her life journey started as an Oklahoma farm girl and spanned the period that included the great depression, the dust bowl, World War II, the Cold War and space travel. Her dedication as a wife, mother, care giver, business woman and - most important to her - as a servant of God through her Christian faith were an inspiration to family and friends and enriched their lives.

Bonnie Mae Bennett was born on May 22, l921, at home on the family farm south of Selman, Oklahoma on the high, windy, treeless plains of northwestern Oklahoma. Her father and mother, Eugene and Ethel Richardson Bennett, worked the red soil supporting the family. The Bennett sisters, Mildred, Vera, Sammie, Wilma, and Bonnie grew up on a farm with animals to care for and chores to do. Bonnie enjoyed going with her father to feed the cattle in the winter and got to drive the team of horses pulling the feed wagon. Her dog, Curly, was her companion on these chores.

Selman was typical of the small western town supporting the pioneer farmers. The CO-OP with the grain elevator by the train tracks and the school were the town’s reasons for being. The school provided sports and entertainment for the community. Bonnie enjoyed school; particularly art and drawing, played basketball on the Selman H.S. team, and aspired to be a teacher.

Bonnie remembered being lonesome after her older sisters left the farm to establish their own adult lives. She was 14 years old when in August of 1935, a 20 year old man dressed handsomely, with a flat straw hat and white shoes, came to the Bennett farm to introduce himself to Gene who was on the Selman School Board. This was Verlin Robert Easterling who had just graduated from Northwestern Teacher's College at Alva, Oklahoma, and was taking a teaching position at Selman. Bonnie, a fourteen year old, barefoot girl with straight, blond hair experienced her first "heart beat" when she met him at the door. Verlin was Bonnie's English and Oklahoma history teacher and her basketball coach. After two years in Selman, Verlin moved west to Turpin, OK, where he was superintendent of schools. Now, with Bonnie's maturity and adequate geographical separation, they began dating. They liked to go to ballgames and movies and agreed to go steady on their third date. They were in love. Verlin asked Bonnie to be his wife in May of 1939. They were married in the First Presbyterian Church in Alva on July 21, 1940. Bonnie was 19 years old.

Bonnie's introduction to the Easterling family was at first disconcerting. Large family and neighbor weekend gatherings at their sandy 320 acre farm near Aline, Oklahoma were common. Greetings were expressed joyously with hugs and smiles. Prayer and devotion were an integral part of the Easterling family daily activities. This was very different from the more reserved Bennett family. By example and loving encouragement from the Easterling family, Bonnie came to accept Jesus as her personal savior. She made her public acceptance of Jesus at a church congregation summer camp meeting. This act gave her great joy and relief. God gave her a strong desire to see others saved and to study His Word.

Verlin took a position at Montezuma, Kansas at the beginning of the 1941 fall semester. It was in this small town in southwest Kansas that the young couple with thoughts of starting a family and building a career heard the news that Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japan. Verlin felt strongly that his civic duty was to join the military. This decision started a four year odyssey for Bonnie who followed his wartime career to the mid-west and east coast duty stations. Their first child, Robert, was born in Waukegan Illinois where Verlin trained sailors for war. Later, Verlin served on convoys crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Bonnie, with Robert in tow, would sometimes return to Oklahoma during his deployments but would meet him on his return to New York.

Verlin resigned from the active navy after the war. He remained in the Navy reserves, a decision that would give Bonnie many future travel opportunities. He found a high school teaching job in Junction City, Kansas and Lael was born there in March 1946. Verlin by this time had become an associate professor at nearby Kansas State University in Manhattan, so the growing family moved to Manhattan. Verlin pursued a PhD degree from Colorado University, taking the family to live in Boulder CO while he completed his thesis - typed by Bonnie.

Connie was born in Manhattan in 1951. In 1953 the family moved once again - this time to Tonkawa, Oklahoma where Verlin became President of Northern Oklahoma Junior College. Verla, was born in nearby Blackwell, Oklahoma in 1958.

Bonnie came to enjoy travel - no doubt a legacy of living with Verlin who was passionate about travel. The family traveled every summer holiday period, sometimes joining Verlin during his two weeks of active navy duty. Most summers during the 1950's included a holiday in Colorado while Verlin completed his degree. One summer, Verlin agreed to manage rental cabins in Allenspark owned by friends. For Bonnie, the "holiday" was memorable because she did most of the work of cleaning and preparing the cabins for guests.

In 1960 Bonnie and her Tonkawa friend, Gladys Kreger, flew to Europe to meet Verlin who was there for Navy duty. They had a grand time touring Ireland, London, Scotland and continental Europe. After Verlin died in 1974, Bonnie continued to enjoy travel that included trips to Ireland, South Korea, Israel, and Australia.

In 1965, Verlin resigned his position at NOJC. Subsequent jobs took the family first to Wichita, then to McPherson, Kansas, Albuquerque, NM, and finally Oklahoma City, where he became Executive Director of the Oklahoma State Historical Society - a fitting challenge for a history professor born in the Oklahoma Cherokee Strip. During this period Verlin suffered recurring heart problems and he died in 1974. Bonnie became a widow at the young age of 52. The transition was difficult, but with the support of friends and her faith she persevered and prospered in her solo journey.

Bonnie's commitment to her spiritual life was a constant factor throughout her adult life. Wherever she attended church, Bonnie served in leadership positions, on committees, and generously gave her energy and talents wherever needed. She generally was the driver who would pick up older friends and drive them to and from church. She enjoyed PEO, Christian Women Club, church activities, family activities, and helping others - most notably as a Deaconess Hospital volunteer for 19 years. Bonnie also served on the Deaconess Hospital Board and the Deaconess Home Board.

Bonnie contracted for a house to be built to her specifications in Bethany Oklahoma. She was very proud of this house that provided a place for family and friends to visit for over 20 years. She prized her large colonial dining room set that could seat 14 people for celebrations. Hobbies such as sewing, quilting, collecting, and reading gave her great pleasure over the years.

Bonnie's four children, their spouses, and 11 grandchildren were a blessing to her and she to them. The family held reunions in Red River NM in 1991, Ruidoso NM in 1996, on the beach in Oak Island, NC in 2001, and at Boiling Springs State Park near her pioneer farm home in 2007 to celebrate her 70th, 75th, 80th and 86th birthdays.

After recovering from a broken pelvis in 2002, Bonnie sold her Bethany house and moved to Southern Plaza independent living apartments. The transition was hard, but she continued to be a blessing to others with a joyful heart. At that time she wrote-"The Lord continues to grow more dear to my soul as He has blessed me in so many ways. The Bible tells us that God would be a husband to the widow and as we acknowledge Him in all our ways He will direct our paths. I praise God for the knowledge that He will never leave us or forsake us. Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. I asked God to guide me into the activities that I could be of service to Him. This has been the best way."

Bonnie was active physically and mentally until about 10 years ago when Alzheimer’s disease noticeably began to take her memory and abilities. This is a terrible way to go. Nevertheless, she loved the Lord and almost until the last candle flickered out would sing, “Praise God for whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” She always ended with a hearty, “A-men.”

October 26, 2010

Message for Funeral of Bonnie Easterling

Given by Clarence Raines

In 2004, soon after Bonnie moved to a new living center called the Wellington, we became concerned as to whether she was taking her medications properly and safely. As a solution, it was my privilege for several months to serve by driving to her place early each morning to help her with the medications. We would always have a devotional time together. One of us would read the Bible, we would pray, I would share something appropriate to the Scripture: an interpretation, a poem, or an excerpt from a literary work, and she would usually spontaneously respond with a verse of song or a chorus. It became a kind of order of service.

One morning soon after this began and after I had shared a poem, she startled me by saying, “I want you to say that at my funeral.” I was a bit taken aback because I had never heard her refer to her own death. My response was the obligatory “Oh you'll probably have to say something at my funeral, you'll outlast me."

"No, no" she said, “I'm serious. It's important to me to know the right things are said at my funeral.”

Over the next few weeks on half a dozen occasions she made the same request about something I had said or shared. At the same period I was leading a weekly Bible study at the Wellington and on two occasions after the study, remarking on something I had used, she said "Include that in my service.” A few months later an old friend of the family died and I took her to the funeral. On the way back she became very intense and said, “Will you please see to it at my funeral service that it's not all about me; at least let it be more about what I believe. I especially want it to be a tribute to the grace of God.” I pledged to her that insofar as I was able and had opportunity, I would honor her requests and her desire. She never spoke of it again, but I made notes and kept these things in my heart.

And what I attempt to bring before you is what brought her joy and fulfillment and meaning.

About 20 years ago when our family lived in Kansas, she came to visit. One evening she asked me if I knew of a poem which contained in it the idea of a man who had written something for his wife, but it was intended to be read after he had died. I suggested a possibility, we looked it up and read it; she said that wasn't it, but she liked it better. So, at her 75th birthday celebration when members of the family were sharing words of appreciation, I made the poem my contribution.

She remembered it and asked me to say it again years later. She said it reminded her of her husband and their life together. It was written in the 1890s by an Irish poet, W. B. Yeats, obviously to someone he loved.

When you are old and gray and full of sleep

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true;

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead,

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

30 years after his death she said memories of husband’s spirit still helped to guide and steady her.

She had many Bibles, and she wrote on the margins and on the flyleafs and on notepad pages and stuck them in her Bibles - aphorisms and poetic lines and other thoughts. One of her most frequent sources was a passage from the poetry of the British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. He wrote a monumental work on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; she had written lines from it in many different places.

The particular section is called the Passing of Arthur. The last battle has been fought. The king is mortally wounded; all of his knights are dead except Sir Bedivere. Arthur is carried down to the lake and placed upon a barge to sail away to the isle of Avalon, the isle of the blessed, “where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns,” and where the king says "I will heal me of my grievous wound." Lying on the barge he speaks to his brave knight Bedivere, who stands on the shore:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfills himself in many ways

If thou shouldst never see my face again,

Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice

Rise like a fountain for me night and day.

For what are men better than sheep or goats

That nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer

Both for themselves and those who call them friend?

For so the whole round earth is every way

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.

Bonnie believed that heaven was God's throne, that the earth is His footstool and that when she prayed God listened and answered. Sometimes he said “Yes”. Sometimes the answer was no. Sometimes it was “Probably, but you'll have to wait”, but He always answered, because the whole round earth is every way bound to heaven by chains of steadfast love.

In those days of 2004, she was sometimes depressed. I remember them as twilight days for her; it wasn't dark yet but the sun was definitely going down.

I know that she had heard the word “Alzheimer’s” in regard to herself, but to use the current idiom, she simply couldn't wrap her mind around it.

She knew that something was happening to her, depriving her of her memory and her memories, stealing away her emotional and mental health, encroaching upon her well-being. At the same time she was chafing under her restricted life. She wasn't over having her automobile taken away; she had been such an independent, even adventurous woman that the deprivation of any part of her freedom was a bitter pill.

She would start to question; a couple of times she used that old interrogative adverb "why?". She would be tempted to complain and then she would catch herself and mildly scold herself and say, "I know there are reasons for all this, I do believe that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, and I know that God has been good to me above most others. I am grateful for all I have been able to enjoy and I suppose I should expect some adversity,” and she would sing (and I would sing with her), “Count your many blessings...”

She found a little poem that was of significant help to her. It was a verse written by Fanny Crosby, writer of more than 100 hymns, friend of President Ulysses Grant, blinded by disease at the age of four. Ironically this was a poem never set to music, written about the age of 16.It was food for Bonnie's soul.

O what a happy soul am I, although I cannot see

I am resolved that in this world contented I will be

How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't

To weep and sigh because I'm blind I cannot and I won't.

"Well," Bonnie said after hearing it again, “if she won't, then I won't either.”

But there was something far more insidious going on within her mind: she began questioning what she had never questioned before: her relationship with God. It was painfully apparent that it was the disease eroding her sense of affirmation and assurance, stifling her confidence creating and nurturing a sense of unworthiness and doubt .Have I done enough? she would ask. Have I come up short? Have I missed the mark? Have I failed to meet God's requirement?

This would take us back to the basics: Grace 101.

For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He has saved us.

The words of Jesus: Truly, truly I say to you He who hears my words and believes on Him Who has sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but is passed from death to life.

The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law could not do because of our weakness God did by sending his son in our likeness on account of our sin; He condemned sin! Not us! That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us....in us.

I was using one of her Bibles and had serendipitously discovered lines she had written in the Bible which were what we needed at that moment. They were words of John Bunyan written in the 17th century, and they speak to the impossible demands of law. The law offers many commandments - thou shalts and thou shalt nots- but gives us no ability to perform what it commands. The Gospel is good news because not only does it simplify the demands but empowers and enables us to do them. And when I read them she laughed with delight and said “Oh, that's so good.”

Bunyan wrote:

To run and work the law demands!

But gives us neither feet nor hands

But better news the Gospel brings:

It bids us fly and gives us wings.

“Well that's right,” Bonnie said. “We shall mount up with wings like eagles.”

During those twilight days the one passage which seemed to do her the most good, one which I had used in a Bible study, was another passage from John Bunyan. It seemed to resonate deeply within her; it delighted her and always made her weep. It is from Bunyan's magnum opus, the great allegory Pilgrim's Progress, the story of a pilgrim named Christian and his journey from the City of Destruction to the celestial city. At the beginning he is described as being clothed in rags with a heavy burden on his back. That burden becomes the focus of the first chapters.

He can find no relief from his burden. He tries several things including a visit to Mr. Legality, but that only makes the load heavier. He is almost in despair when he comes to a place in the road - a place "somewhat ascending"- a hill! And on top of the hill there is a cross. Then he sees at the foot of the hill an open grave. He climbs the hill and as he nears the top, something marvelous starts to happen: he feels his burden loosening! And as he comes up even with the cross, the burden falls off, tumbles down the hill, rolls to the edge of the grave, falls in and, Christian says, “I never saw it again.”

"Then was Christian glad and lightsome." He said, "He has given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death.” And it was so surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden that he looked and looked again until the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.

I looked at Bonnie and the waters were on her cheeks and she sang:

“Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near.”

Bonnie was my mother in law and my friend. I admired her and I loved her. I was inspired by the pure consistent light of her spirit; I was always impressed at the bounty of her hospitality. In the last few days as I tried to characterize her life, the words which kept forming in my mind were echoes of Romans chapter 12.

Listen to it and see if you don't think it's a good fit.

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them; if service, in our serving, the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and always show hospitality.”

And in all of these words I see a portrait of Bonnie. I wonder if Paul knew someone very much like Bonnie whom he used as a model for that passage.

The book of Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to mourn and a time to dance.

When we learned that Bonnie had Alzheimer’s Disease it was a time to mourn. When listening to her and realizing that her reality was fragmenting and drifting away, I mourned. The first time I saw her angry and lost and desperately confused, I mourned deeply. When in a small worship group, she had an opportunity to express her faith-experience and she did not because she could not, my mourning was complete. I said to myself Bonnie doesn't live here anymore. The Alzheimer’s has stolen her away and left a shell. Her disease was a grievous wound to herself and to those who loved her.

It was a time to mourn and the mourning continued week after week, month after month, stage by stage, until at the end of Wednesday of last week near the midnight hour, the bell of heaven tolled for her and she crossed over out of her bondage, sorrow and night into Christ's freedom gladness and light.

Today if there is yet a trace of grief in my heart, it is but the residual sorrow of a belated goodbye until the day dawns and the shadows flee away, until the Sun of righteousness arises with healing in His wings and all of God’s children get home.

“Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? And the watchman said ‘The morning comes.’”

“Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.”

Today as I look upon the dwelling of clay in which she lived for a season, methinks I see her spirit soaring through the firmament, basking in the thrill of a freedom we can't even guess at, being regaled by lovely vistas indescribable in human language, listening spellbound to a music grander and more melodious than any ever heard at Carnegie Hall or in any concert hall on earth. It was Isaiah who first told us that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

. But Bonnie's eyes have now seen! Her ears have now heard! And her soul is at the present moment being filled with the glories that never die and the beauty that never fades.

And now it is time to dance.

Over the years I have been asked many times, ”What is heaven like?”. And my first response is I don't know. The Scripture tells us some things, mainly with metaphor, but not with much detail. There are hints, suggestions, intimations, adumbrations and foreshadowings. We have books on the daily life of the middle ages daily life in the Roman Empire, but no Scripture about daily life of heaven.

But I can tell you what Bonnie believed - based on these intimations and metaphors- and I can tell you what she expected.

She believed that she was made in the image of God and that her spirit was indestructible. She believed that there was a time she did not exist but that there would never be another such time.

She believed that there was a place called heaven; she didn't know where it was, maybe somewhere far away out beyond what's left of the big bang, maybe as one astrophysicist suggests, there is a mirror image universe inside the one we see. Or as someone a few generations ago who wondered where heaven might be located, and decided just to call it the "beautiful isle of somewhere". That worked for Bonnie.

We enjoyed a little poem by Emily Dickinson. No evangelical poet was Ms Dickinson, but she wrote:

I never saw a moor I never saw the sea

Yet know I how the heather looks and what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God or visited in heaven

Yet certain am I of the spot as if the chart were given."

Bonnie was that certain.

She believed that the Heavenly Father had a very big house and that it contained dwelling places for all His family to live together forever and, being brought up on the old King James Bible, she believed that those dwelling places were mansions- "In my Father's house are many mansions" and one of them had her name on the title deed.

It was her expectation that when the time came to fold the tent and disembark from earth, she would board the train bound for glory, and that it would be a very short ride to the next station - that place called Heaven. And when she drew near that destination she fully expected to look out the window and there would be Verlin and her papa and her mother, and Mildred and Sammie and the other sisters, and Thelma and all the family members who had taken an earlier train...and by the mercies of God, she expected to see them all! Dear old friends and bosom buddies, some from whom she had been separated for a very long time, and towering above them all would be Jesus; and with the Lord overshadowing and angels singing, she would rush into the arms of family and old friends, with everyone excited and hurrahing and laughing and exulting, and almost smothering her with the affection of Heaven, and everybody saying “Welcome home, Bonnie! Welcome home!” And home indeed is what she would find it to be. Something very much like that is what she expected.

And she expected it as surely and as naturally as in the spring she expected flowers to appear, and in the autumn for the trees to turn orange and red, because she knew whom she had believed and was persuaded that He was able to keep everything she had committed to Him until that day.

And after she gets acclimated and comfortable, she'll start looking back down the road, waiting for you and me.

She believed that there is a coming day for which all other days were made, a day of complete redemption when everything that is wrong with the world would be made right, everything broken would be fixed, every good thing that had been lost would be found, because Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, because He must reign until He has put all enemies under his feet and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

She could say with Job: “I know that my redeemer lives and on the earth again shall stand, and though this body sees corruption and is destroyed yet for myself I shall behold Him.”

It is time to dance.

Bonnie was a believer!

Her faith was not in a church or a creed. Her faith was in Jesus. She had no elaborate theology; her creed was the simple one of the first Christians: Jesus is Lord!

She believed that He was the Bread of Life, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star, the fairest of ten thousand, the way the truth and the life, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

She could not begin to imagine her life without Christ and all he meant to her. All would have been sterile, barren and practically meaningless. He was the boundary and the center, the promise and the fulfillment, the resurrection and the life, the first and the last, The Alpha and Omega.

She believed that God so loved the world...

She was certain that He had paid her debt which she could not pay, that when He died on that long ago Friday afternoon, He died for her; that on a cruel Roman instrument of justice and execution He had taken her place, he had borne her griefs and carried her sorrows, He was wounded for her transgressions, bruised for her iniquities, that the chastisement for her peace was upon Him and that by his stripes, she was healed.

And she had no doubt whatsoever that the Sunday morning following... up from the grave he arose!

She never sang anything with such conviction and enthusiasm, such joy and assurance as when she sang "He arose. He arose Hallelujah Christ arose"

It is time to dance.

Her life is now complete. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. She rests from her labor and her works do follow her. Now her peace is permanent: unruffled by the noise of battle or by the din of strife and alarm; she will never be troubled again by the terror that stalks by night or the arrow that flies by day. She is beyond the reach of any threat of disturbance, distress, disappointment or disease.

“Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast,

There by his love o’ershaded sweetly her soul shall rest.”

Her pilgrimage on planet earth has ended. It is closing time. Time to go home. Absent from the body; present and at home with the Lord.

She fought the good fight -Oh didn't she fight a good fight.

She finished her race, she kept the faith.

Her burdens have all been lifted. Her grievous wound is healed. It is time to dance.

We honor Bonnie Mae Bennett Easterling. We hold up her character and quality of living for all to emulate. We extol her faith. We praise her God from whom all blessings flow. The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

BONNIE EASTERLING EULOGY... October 26,2010 by Rev. Hugh Wayman

The whole Easterling family have always meant so much to us, so when Bonnie Bennett joined the clan, we think of her in that family..

It was such a privilege to be pastor and friend of the relatives, so when Verlin and Bonnie and family moved to OKC.. it was a blessing to have them in our First Free Methodist Congregation.

Through their influence and encouragement, we built a gymnasium on to the church, which has been a great help in serving the needs of our community.

Bonnie, so easily called by her first name, could be counted on for many helpful tasks..To name a few: She served on the various church boards, Sang a beautiful alto in the choir, Provided Easterling Hall at the Free Methodist Camp at Perkins, Assisted in the Women's ministries and missions, Volunteered at Deaconess Hospital, Established a Scholarship fund at Central Christian College in McPherson, KS, and also at Northern Oklahoma College at Tonkawa... and much more..

In public life.. she served well as first lady when Verlin was president of Northern Oklahoma College at Tonkawa, when he started the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas, and when he became Director of the State Historical Society in Oklahoma City.

Bonnie was a 'bonny' lady to all she met, and made life much easier for her family, students, friends.. and on to people she never would meet through her scholarship programs.

She remains a blessing, as we remember her good days and her prayers for each of us, desiring we achieve what God has laid out for us to do..

May God touch and keep each one, and remain with you always.. As we pray for her loved ones and friends, let us remember her life lived in Jesus.... and may we seek His will.