Aunty Barbara

The Letter;

July 2, 2026

Dear Aunty Barbara;

Your words to me yesterday were so expected, yet so welcome.

I love you so much, I hardly stop to wonder what I might mean to you.

To BLESS you and bring you Joy, blesses me!

Cheryl and I have been having fun preparing for this day.

Each day I am able to write out the Bible, I wonder if anyone else knows about it. It’s not for bragging, it’s the experience that surpasses mere knowledge. Then I remember how you and I were each brought to it through God himself, and discovered it about each other! This is one of the more precious things I share with anyone else on earth.

But let’s get to the part of what you have shown me, through your life.

As an Aunty… you required that I call you Aunty. Just like my Mum, required me to spell Mum this way. She was precious to me just as well. She loved the Lord, and loved to talk about him. She made “God in the conversation” a normal thing. You, her sister, carried & carry that same legacy to me. And for me, at 63, it’s part of me to realize that these other children I find myself having been given, have been given by God. The connection is a Holy Spirit born one.

I know what it is to be a father, and an Uncle, oh, and a Grand Father. The Love of God that wells up in me for others is profound. It’s unlike any other kind of Love.

What I’m trying to say is that there was a time when I felt that I was lost and drifting in a dinghy… we—you and I—were walking along Burrard, traveling north, on the East side, just past Georgia. I was telling you about my broken life, and you said, “…when Jesus is in your boat…” and I wept, from deep inside, and said, “I don’t think he’s in my boat…” and you prayed with me… and look… Jesus was in my boat! He doesn’t leave us! He waits for us, he waits for us, he was asleep, quietly resting until I came to end of ME, to begin with him anew.

You, Aunty Barbara, have a legacy in me. I am so happy to be a loved nephew of Barbara Forster.

Another story I love is God’s providing. How you prayed in the late night hours, and a man brought money to you for rent and food, your first supporter (I’m pretty sure). Making prayer tangible!

Now I have stories of my home in Christ being made available to those He brings across my path.

A most recent one is when my son Nicholas, needed me…

He woke up on May 25, 2026 to Bailiffs & a moving company that were there with a court order to put him into the street, and take possession of his home. He called his ex-wife, who called his sister, Sarah, who called me. Cheryl and I stepped into action… I drove to UBC where he lived and when he answered the door… he walked past me in a fog, and out to my truck, he had one of his cats in a tote, and he placed it inside. Then he went and got his second cat. His concern was actually, “what about my cats!” I thought of you there! You’ve always told me a person’s soul can be seen in how they treat animals!

We loaded up the truck with various things, the movers took away the rest for storage that he can go back and get later.

He wept. He was sweating so much. His hair and beard were outgrown, and disheveled. He cried out loud… I assured him everything was going to be ok.

“How do you know?” he asked me, there was no sarcasm in his voice, he truly wondered how I could know.

I told him in a different way, but the same message that Jesus was in his boat! As he and I spent the next hours together, traveling to Duncan on the Ferry, to his sister’s place, I knew I was with a true believer. Tell tale sign? Even in the midst of such loss… his wife, his career, his home, all his hopes and dreams… he was thankful, he greeted this thing with humility.

“ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21 ESV

Yes, this is the verse that proceeded the account of how “they“ descended into depravity, but I see it also as the path to his light. To acknowledge God, to honour him as God and to give thanks is the act of repentance, turning around and walking toward the light.

Whenever I shared a scripture with him, he did not push it away, but received it, like a man hungry… Accepting food… And then he answered each one with his scripture… Like responsive reading, and it was agreement in the spirit. It was God assuring me that he is alive and well in the heart of my son.

So… He’s doing well, by the way… But my heart is full this hour, as I wait to come see you.

God, I pray that you will help us find a way to spend time with one another with you.

“I just want a sunny, lazy, windy time with the people I like Best.“ Enid Blyton, The Sea of Adventure 

Love, your nephew, Laurence