TESTIMONY: Absent from the body, present with the Lord

In June 2017 I had the opportunity to experience this Scripture from 2 Corinthians 5:8 first hand. My hospital ministry team leader, Maureen, called one afternoon and asked if I could immediately go with her to hospital. There was a lady from Windhoek that was very ill in the intensive care unit of Panorama Hospital.

I immediately got ready and went with my friend. When we got to the sick patient’s room, her breathing was very laboured. We could see that she was really struggling. She was about 40 years old and was looking anxiously at her husband, while he was holding her hand. Her mom was also in the room.

Maureen and I had never met the family before, but they graciously invited us into the room, when we showed them through the glass window that we wanted to come and pray. They left us alone with Eunice, the sick patient. We prayed for Eunice, anointed her with oil and sang psalms and hymns over her and stood in agreement with her before Father that she was forgiven of all sins, bitterness, hatred, iniquities, etc.

Led by The Holy Spirit, we continued ministering to her for about 10 or 15 minutes as she battled to breathe and eventually she just couldn’t anymore. The nursing sister came in and said to us that Eunice had fought bravely and that her body was very, very tired. We heard her breathing out her last breath and watched her die.

The family was absolutely shattered and heartbroken, because the operation had been a success and she seemed to have been making a healthy recovery a few days before her death.

A pastor friend of theirs was called to come and comfort the family. We stayed with them in the waiting room, while waiting for friends to arrive. At this point Maureen and I still did not know the details of Eunice’s illness, nor the cause of her death.

We all took hands and prayed together in the hospital waiting room, and while praying I saw a vision of Eunice in Heaven running and laughing, totally free. She was wearing a white dress and a long white scarf that was floating behind her as she ran joyfully.

I saw a second vision of her looking down at us from Heaven, as if looking down from a parapet, leaning on her arms on the balcony wall. She was smiling as she was listening to our prayers, asking Father for favour with transporting the body back to Namibia, etc. She looked young in my visions — about 24 years old or thereabouts and she had bouncy curls.

I shared my visions with the family and they were comforted that she was with The Lord. The mom shared that she was happy to hear that Eunice was in Heaven, as she wasn’t sure if Eunice had a chance to receive Jesus as her Lord and Saviour.

Maureen also saw a vision of Eunice in Heaven surrounded by angels. Maureen told them that she saw them laughing and rejoicing.

Eunice died on a Monday afternoon and we were invited to two more prayer meetings that week where more friends gathered around the family in support. I had two more visions of Eunice in Heaven at those prayer meetings.

In my third vision she was standing up very straight. I saw the throne of YeHoVaH elevated quite a distance away in a vast big place. It was so big that I couldn’t see any walls. Eunice was facing the throne and held her hands up high in the air and she was passionately singing How Great Thou Art to The Ancient of Days.

When I shared this vision with the group, her husband mentioned that How Great Thou Art was their favourite song. He said he had told Eunice that he would like that song to be sung at his funeral, but now, instead, she was singing it to Father in Heaven.

This testimony had great meaning for a number of people, I discovered afterwards. Eunice and her husband and some of their friends were members of a traditional church where hands were not lifted during worship. They were intrigued by what I saw in Heaven.

In my 4th vision I saw Eunice dancing in Heaven. It was a very peculiar dance. I had never seen the likes of it before. She was turning around in a circle while hopping on one leg with her arms out and forearms up. I shared this vision as well and even demonstrated the dance to the group, and immediately her husband responded: “That is Gogga’s dance, that”. His nickname for his wife was Gogga.

It amazed Eunice’s friends and loved ones that I knew such intimate details about her life, given the fact that I was a total stranger. I even explained to them that in my visions she looked young and had bouncy curls.

Those were my first encounters with Heaven and they left me with great peace. I had never before experience such a great peace in my life. The sense of peace lingered for about six weeks. I had a quiet confidence in my heart that Heaven is for real.

After those two prayer meetings, the family asked Maureen and I to accompany them to Namibia to attend the funeral and share our visions during the church service. Eunice was buried out of the Orthodox Dutch Reformed Church in Windhoek.

We shared and many people were blessed by our testimonies. People approached us afterwards and shared how encouraged they were that Heaven is a real place that one goes to when reconciled unto God.

We also learned that Eunice had had an opportunity to receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour two weeks before her death. HalleluYah!!!!

During the church service a PowerPoint presentation was played of Eunice’s life in pictures. I recognised one of the pics as the way she now looks in Heaven. When I asked her husband about the picture, he mentioned that the picture was taken when they were newlyweds. He said that she was at her happiest and pain free then, but scarcely a year later she was diagnosed with lupus.

Eunice was 24 years old when they got married but for most of their married life she was battling pain and inflammation in her body. She developed cancer in one of her organs and had an operation in Cape Town in which the organ was removed successfully. But sadly she died of septicaemia a week or so after the operation.

Upon my return to Cape Town, I pondered and asked The Lord to show me why Eunice appeared to be young in Heaven, when she was in fact 40 years old when she died.

My answer came not to long afterwards when my daughter happened to downloaded a movie from the internet called “Heaven is for real”. She wanted me to watch it with her but initially I was disinterested. She eventually convinced me to watch it with her. It was based on a true story of a 4-year-old boy who was taken to Heaven by Jesus while lying on an operating table in hospital.

The boy told his father after his heavenly encounter that no one is old in Heaven and no one wears spectacles in Heaven. Of course I was sceptical and felt that a further explanation was needed before I could let the matter rest.

The Lord was faithful indeed in this regard. I stumbled upon a Youtube video a few months later of a man, Jim Woodford, who died and went to Heaven, and he said the same thing as the little boy in the movie — that no one is old in Heaven.

Jim goes on to explain that Jesus told him believers who die choose how old they want to be in Heaven. There are apparently three reasons for their choices. They either choose the age that they were happiest, or they choose Jesus’ age when He died on the Cross of Calvary or they choose the age when they had their salvation experience.

After the testimonies of the 4-year-old boy and Jim Woodford, I fully understood the reason why I saw Eunice as a 24-year-old woman in Heaven. Her husband confirmed that she was at her happiest at the age of 24, as a newlywed, still healthy and pain-free. What a blessed hope we have that Father has indeed prepared a place for us and we will see Him face to face one day! HalleluYah!!!!