August 13, 2019

Very dear Steve, David, Becky, Debbie, Faith Ann, Beth, Nate, Gracie, and all the extended Lucas family,
Ron and I send our love to each of you at this bittersweet moment when you are saying goodbye to your precious mom—just for a little while. We will see her again, and I think we will literally be jumping for joy when we see her in her prime, and way better than she ever was on earth, fully alive.  Oh, how sweet God’s promises are at times like this!  She is basking right now in the glory of God that we can only see by faith.  She fought the good fight and she won in the way of God’s upside-down rules. She won by giving up.  A long, long time ago, she gave up her right to her own way and chose to say yes to God; her whole life was a series of decisions to trust God’s choices for her.
I remember so well the first time I met your mom.  I was sitting in the entranceway to the Mission Home in Tegucigalpa in 1970 when your mom and dad came driving in, loaded with the eight of you. You were just getting back from furlough, and Gracie was happily lounging in a homemade baby bed made for the long trip from the States. Your mom walked over and said hello, and that was the beginning of the sweetest friendship.  I was expecting our first baby, and here she already had had nine children!  We entered into a relationship of mutual encouragement.
Your mom and dad were so good to us in all our years working with the Tolpan people in the Montaña. When we were on our way to or from the capital, your house was one off the places where we could catch our breath.  They knew that it was difficult to stay all the time in the village, and it was your dad’s idea to transform a really nice chicken coop into what became the “casita,” so we could have a place to stay away from the village.  That place was such a boon and another chance to spend time with your whole family and get refreshed.  Scott and Sharon look back fondly at being able to play with all the younger Lucases whenever they wanted.  You all made us feel like part of the family and helped us through those early years with the Tolpan before there was a breakthrough.
Then, of course, the Branstrom’s house became available to us and we moved across the river.  Thus began the next phase of my friendship with your mom.  We were all home-schooling then, and, oh, there was a lot of work to do!  Somehow, though, as many afternoons as I could manage it, I would slip away about two in the afternoon and hurry across the river to your house.  Your mom would always stop what she was doing, and we would go off for a half hour or an hour to talk and pray. Remember how we would go sit in the banana patch?  That was our cozy corner for heart-to-heart chats.  We needed that time to share our lives—joys and burdens together—because we could understand and relate like the closest of sisters.  Your mama was such a gift to me!
She lived out her example as a loving and godly wife and mother, and I learned a lot from her.  She shared about how she had devotions with your dad before even getting out of bed.  She showed me the beauty of Christian poetry.  She taught me to love Amy Carmichael, and this is one hers that resonates for both of our lives:

Hast thou no scar?No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.Hast thou no scar?Hast thou no wound?Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rentBy ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.Hast thou no wound?No wound? No scar?Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.But thine are whole; can he have followed farWho hast no wound or scar?

Your mama had some scars.  Yes, she had had some difficult times, losing one child, trying to raise eight more children on, humanly speaking, limited resources. There were sicknesses, challenges in missionary relationships, challenges with traveling back and forth to the US.  She kept going on God’s strength every day, and she just wanted all of you to love and serve God.  She managed to minister to the folks in Piedra Gorda somehow as well, but you were her priority. She wanted to stay close to each of you, and, whether or not she always managed that, her heart was passionately for each of you as individuals.
I grieved every time you left on furlough, because it seemed to take a year or more for you to get back, and, oh, how we missed you!  I missed those heart-to-hearts with your mom.  We had no cell phones back then.
You are all so enriched by having had Normalee Lucas for a mother, and I was enriched by having her as my dear friend.  Now I feel like she has left an empty place that you and I need to fill.  Who will keep serving the Lord with passion as she did?  Who will worship the Lord with her devotion?  Who will listen to the grieving neighbor and give bread to the needy?  Let it be you and me.  May the heritage your mom and dad left be an ongoing one until Jesus comes back!
Ron and I love you all.  Whenever you need to talk to a substitute mom and dad, we will be here for you.
Lynn and Ron Dennis

August 11, 2019

My Prayers are with The Lucas Family during this time🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Sonya Guthrie

August 11, 2019

Dear Lucas family,
Fran and I are so grateful to God the He allowed us the privilege of knowing and working with both Ray and Norma through their time with Frontier Ventures.  They will both be missed by all who knew them.  
With prayer and condolences,
Sue Patt