Have Your Sorrow Turned Into Joy

I had a funeral to go to last weekend. A friend's mother went home to be with the Lord. The viewing was Friday night and the funeral Saturday morning.
The friend who lost his mom is Trinidad Hurtado, Director of the Baptist Rescue Mission in Fort Worth.
On my way to the funeral home Friday evening, I called a precious friend, Mark Stephen Puckett (pictured below) to see if he could go with me. I had met Mark at the Mission a couple of years ago and we became fast friends. He walks there to attend services regularly.  The joyous expression in the photos captures exactly who Mark is on the inside. His mind and heart are completely and totally fixed on the Word of God and our Saviour.

Mark answers his telephone with a Scripture verse and constantly recites Scripture and praises the Lord in conversation. He is a great blessing to me and so many others. Mark makes his way around town on foot and has a routine of visiting several nursing homes each week, reading Scripture (which he does flawlessly), praying and encouraging everyone.

My friend Mark is a man who God saw fit to touch in a special way. I have never met another like him. He rejoices constantly. He reminds me of Isa 26:3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (For the photo, he opened his KingJames Bible to the gospel of Mark. He rejoices in the name that his parents gave him.)


He has traveled to Mexico and to India on mission trips.  He once heard an announcement on the radio that said, If you can get to El Paso, we will put you to work on the mission field of Mexico.  Mark got on a bus to El Paso, and soon found himself busy driving a truck for a mission work in Mexico.  He still prays daily for the missionaries that he worked with back then.


Mark is a man who is not stained by the world. He has not become cynical or critical. He is a man of great faith - the kind of faith that moves mountains. Thank God he prays for me and for the country of Croatia!!


His rejoicing is contagious. For many of us at the funeral, he helped to turn sorrow into joy.


Thank you God for my friend, Mark Stephen Puckett.