Grieving with Hope: Loss, Faith, & Divine Sovereignty
August 8, 2025
Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett
Guest: Dave Kistler, Aaron Causby
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 8/08/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, hello, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and today we’re honored to sit down with evangelist Dr. Dave Kistler, a co-host, one of the founders of Stand In the Gap Today. For those of you who maybe are listening either the first time or you’re a new listener, Dave Kistler and Gary Dull and Sam Rohrer, God used the three of them together through the American Pastors Network and then through media and radio to start standing the gap today. And the other Stand the Gap Media that’s going on for our longtime listeners, Dave, really, really well. And you know his story and what’s happened in the last year. But Dave is a busy evangelist right now. He’s actually with Pastor Gary Dull at the Central Pennsylvania Bible Conference. But we want to talk to him and reflect on the lives of his son, Nathan and his daughter-in-law, Amber, who was like a daughter that he knew her most of her life.
They tragically passed away in a plane crash just over a year ago, July 26th, 2024, and they were alongside some other members of the Nelon Gospel Music Group. Nathan and Amber were talented musicians. They were actually on their way to be used as the Lord in music, but they also served with Dave at Hope to the Hill. Nathan was the executive director for Hope to The Hill, advancing a biblical worldview right in Washington DC, making relationships and contacts for the Lord there. And as we mark this really first year anniversary of their loss, we want to talk with Dave and explore the legacy of faith that they leave, but also through this inspired those of you who have also lost loved ones. And I know in my life I, my dad passed away after a long battle with cancer, but some of you, and I’ve had the same thing with other family members and friends, they passed away very suddenly, maybe a car accident or something very sudden. And we want to talk about being grounded in the truth of God’s sovereignty, even in these sudden what we would call tragedies from a human perspective. So Dave, thank you so much for being with us today.
Dave Kistler:
I think it is an honor to be on board with you
Isaac Crockett:
And in a little bit, and we may end up going to him as well. We have a guest with us as well, Dave, your close friend, Pastor Aaron Causby, a return guest who’s been on with us many times. And if you know Dave’s story, you’ll see I think this connection with Pastor Aaron Causby. So we’re glad to have that. And I want to talk, Dave, about the one year anniversary of losing Nathan and Amber of their plane going down. But before we go into that, I just want to talk about them, about their lives, about their ministries, about their passion for the Lord. And so I just want to start by letting you describe Nathan and Amber and their passion and love for God and others.
Dave Kistler:
Well, we knew Amber for 20 years, all total. Nathan and Amber met when Nathan was 14. Amber was 15, so Nathan was 34, Amber was 35 when the Lord took them home. So 20 years that we knew her. Of course, Nathan, our son, just I think the legacy Isaac of both of them is this. And something happened today. I’ll relate just very quickly in just a moment that underscores what I’m about to say. But they both loved Jesus and they just loved people. They loved Jesus and loved people. And Nathan to his own detriment many times would serve people, do things for people. And today I was out at a restaurant, a nice little restaurant in the Altoona area that’s been featured on that program, diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It’s really nationally known. But there was a lady there that came up to me and she actually was a lady that had been part of the food services part of another facility here in Altoona that for 15 years we used for the Central Pennsylvania Bible Conference.
That facility closed just a few months ago. But she was an amazing, amazing woman, did a great job there on all of her team. But she said something, she said, I’ll never forget your son’s smile when he was here at the conference and his kindness. And she said he brought his drone one year, took it up over the top of the facility and shot some videos and some still photographs and actually was doing it for another purpose. But she said he took the time to send me photos of our facility that she said I now have on the wall in my house and other photos around it. But she said, your son was always thinking about other people and reaching out to see how we can serve them. And really that’s the legacy they’ve left, whether it be on Capitol Hill or anywhere else where they ministered around the world.
Isaac Crockett:
What an amazing thing as a parent when you go through these things to have these amazing memories of Nathan and just see how God has used and continues to use that testimony, that ministry. Are there any other memories of Nathan and Amber that stand out with just a Christian testimony? We live in this dark world and we’re called to walk as children of light. And this is such a dark sort of tragic thing to talk about from a human perspective, but there’s been so many silver linings and the Lord has worked in so many ways through this, again, what we would call tragedy, humanly speaking, are there any memories that stand out that really help testify to the Lord even throughout all of this?
Dave Kistler:
Well, Isaac, there are, there’s so many, it’s hard to narrow it down, but I will tell you this. About four days into the accident or four days after the accident occurred, I was awakened in the middle of the night and sat up and leaned over and awoke my wife and I said, sweetheart, the Lord just showed me something. He just spoke to my heart while I was lying there awake. And I said, I think what God’s trying to do maybe is do again what he did in 1956 when those five missionaries, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCulley, Pete Fleming all died on a sand bar in Ecuador trying to minister to the Auca Indians and the 12 months that followed those five missionaries deaths, which the world called a tragedy, but they didn’t know the rest of the story then. But the 12 months that followed that accident, as the world would call it, that tragedy, was the greatest influx of new missionaries, people surrendering to go to the mission field and serve God and preach his gospel in the history of the Christian Church.
And what the Lord laid on my heart is maybe this tragedy, as the world would call it, the seven precious lives that perished in that airplane crash. Maybe this will be the next great advancement of missions and missionaries and evangelists. And I will tell you this, Isaac, it’s impossible like today to virtually go anywhere without somebody knowing who you are because they followed the story and this lady said, amen. I’ve been following you on Facebook and watching all the things that you guys have tried to do to honor the Lord and honor Nathan and Amber. And she said, it’s just been overwhelming. But the stories, Isaac have been so many that I’ve lost count people that have come to know Christ as savior, people that have surrendered to go into the ministry. I was in Jason’s Deli not long ago. A man came up to me and said, I’m leaving from here to drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma to start a church, to plant a church.
And I’m doing it because of the way God used the memorial service, which Aaron was a part of in North Carolina. When we honored Nathan and Amber, he said, that grabbed hold of my heart. It’s changed my life. I’m driving to Tulsa, Oklahoma to plant a church, and I just want to let you know about that. So it’s just been amazing, Isaac, and we believe though their lives were highly significant while here on earth, we believe the impact eternally is going to be more significant in their homegoing than even in their already very significantly lived lives here on earth.
Isaac Crockett:
That is incredible to hear you say that. And I’m thinking back to that North Carolina one that Pastor Aaron Causby helped put on and others too. There’s been so many of these things that have come together and we say it memorial service, oh, this is a celebration of life, but it really felt like a celebration and like a revival service and people gave their hearts to the Lord right there. It was unlike any funeral that I can remember, at least in my life, just amazing what God is doing. We want to continue to reflect on this, dive in deeper with Dave, this journey that he’s going through. Stay with us. Please stay tuned to stand in the gap today. Hope awaits us. We’ll be right back just after this break. Well welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and today I’m talking with one of my co-hosts, evangelist, Dr.
Dave Kistler, and we’re looking at grieving with hope. And as we look at loss in the face of what feels like a tragedy when you lose a loved one, but through faith in God’s sovereignty and in God’s will, we can see God working. And as we talk about this grief and healing, I’m talking to Dave of course, and those who know him about losing his son and daughter-in-law a little over a year ago. Something that is I think almost impossible for a parent to understand unless a parent has gone through something like this, losing a child or a grandchild. And so Dave, I want to talk to you about some of these things and I know the Lord we’re just talking has used their lives. Nathan and Amber’s lives as a testimony, but he’s using you and Betsy and your daughters and grandchildren and extended family in your circle of pastoral friends and ministry to be a light and a hope to others who are going through this.
And we go back to and again, you’ve recently been to the crash site at the year anniversary of when this happened back in July 26th, 2024. But when you think to that night, that day that you received the phone call, the news about the crash that they had with the others they were with on their way to the Gaither Homecoming cruise, as you walked through what happened and things, what were some of the difficulties, maybe spiritual battles or temptations or just trials that hit right away? And I’d just love to have you talk about that and how God used those and sustained you and your family in those early hours and days of this loss.
Dave Kistler:
Well, thank you Isaac for asking. Yeah, obviously disbelief is the first response When that first phone call came in from a very well-known person, my wife was to my left. I did not have my phone on speaker, but she could hear what was being said. And when she heard the words, the plane went down. She collapsed against the wall of the building we were in. And of course I reached over with my left arm and grabbed her and held onto her and listened to what else was being communicated. They were not sure at that time whether anyone had survived. They said they did not think at that point anyone could have survived. And of course that was later confirmed about two hours later that evening, about 11:00 PM and of course, disbelief shock. You go to bed thinking, I’m going to wake up tomorrow and this is going to be a bad dream.
But you wake up after a very fitful night’s sleep saying, no, this is the new reality with which we are going to have to deal. And of course in the days that follow, you ask all the why questions. Not wrong to ask those, but God was so good to give us glimpses of his glory through the entire thing. I will tell you Isaac, what helped tremendously were people that showed up. We have a board member, his name’s Jim, he’s been part of our ministry for over three decades. He showed up the next morning, called me and said, I’m coming. And I said, Jim, you don’t need to do that. He said, no, there’s no discussion. I’m coming. He came the minute he walked in the door, tears were flooding down his cheeks and he just grabbed and held onto me and sat there with me all day, literally all day as we had others coming in and out by the scores.
He just sat there. A second pastor showed up, his name’s Don. Dear friend, loved Don, did the same thing and just sat there with me. Didn’t really say a lot. They didn’t have to say anything, just the ministry of their presence. And so really Isaac, what got us through it in the early days and has sustained us in the months that have followed has been God’s amazing grace, which has not just been sufficient, it’s been abundant, but also God’s people. And one of those, in addition to the names that I mentioned, I could mention hundreds and hundreds of others, but one of those that stepped up immediately was Aaron, who’s on the show with us today, pastor Aaron Causby, who I love more than I can express. And he stepped up in ways and his ministry to our family in ways that I cannot even explain. And he is greatly loved by our family. He’s a successful pastor, greatly loved by his congregation. He also is a funeral director, highly respected and loved in the community, but I’m telling you, none of that can eclipse the love that we have for him as a family because of the way he and so many others have ministered to us.
Isaac Crockett:
We have a lot of questions for Aaron actually later in the show. But Aaron, I don’t want to put you on the spot though. I do want to go off of something that Dave was just mentioning. When these things happen, when somebody passes away, especially unexpectedly, there is that shock factor that kind of disbelief. And it’s interesting, Dave was saying, just having people that show up and you as a pastor and as a funeral home director, what might be some advice for those of us when we’re trying to help reach out to somebody who’s just been through something like this? How can we show up in a helpful way?
Aaron Causby:
Well, Dave and I have lived about a mile from each other for a long time, and we only actually met about three weeks before the accident. Dave invited me to come pray at a tent rally that he had in our town among with other pastors. And little did I know that three weeks later, the Lord would and his sovereignty decide to take Nathan and Amber to heaven. I think initially it’s not what you say, it’s just being there. It’s just showing up. Like Brother Dave said, the people that came to see him, he doesn’t even remember what they said if they said anything. It’s just the power of presence. It’s just having someone there. And obviously I can’t do that with every family that I meet with. We serve about 400 families each year at the funeral home that I manage. I don’t make a connection like that with every family, but sometimes the Lord will allow our past to cross for divine purposes.
And I really feel like the Lord used this and he’s connected, brother Dave and I, and I love Brother Dave like my own family and look forward to serving the Lord with him in the days ahead. But the initial response is exactly right. It’s a unique situation with Dave and Betsy because the grieving process looks different for everyone, but typically there’s a funeral, there’s a casket, there’s viewing cemetery space and all those things. All difficult but do provide closure ultimately. And Brother Dave and Ms. Betsy were robbed of that. They didn’t have that. The crash site was in Wyoming. There wasn’t a casket or anything like that. So it was a unique situation, but the Lord has been so gracious through it.
Isaac Crockett:
Dave, that’s something I’ve been wondering because of the nature, it is very rare, and some of our listeners have gone through this losing a loved one in a plane crash, but this anniversary where you went back to the site and you put the markers there and those who follow your social media, which I would say go to Dave’s Facebook, you’ve got some amazing things that the Lord has led you to put there. But how did that maybe help with the process, maybe the grieving process, I don’t know, closure or just help reinforce the biblical hope that we have in Christ?
Dave Kistler:
Well, great question. And we went out and of course Aaron, again, he’s been a part of all of this. We took a beautiful marker out a marker that normally would take months to prepare, but we got word from the coroner out in Gillette, Wyoming, that here’s your options. You can come on the one year anniversary, you can come a little bit later. But the owner of the property across which you have to go to get to the accident site’s going to allow two visits. And so we chose the one year anniversary, which left us just weeks to get this monument ready. But Aaron, on my soul, I don’t even know what to say except that he helped us and that the impossible was made possible and we had this beautiful marker to take out with us. We get there, we meet the coroner, we meet the actual gentleman who was the first one on the scene after the accident, got to converse with him and then got to go out to the location.
It is an incredibly serene place. And for people who lived the majority of their life in public view, the crash is a very private place. And to be honest with you, I don’t know how to say it other than that, it couldn’t really be a more beautiful location, a more serene location. And we got to minister to the first responder community, some of whom came out there just to be with us and to meet us. We wanted to meet them. We were able to present these new coins that we have with Nathan’s image on them. We’ve used challenge coins in DC a lot. This is the most recent installment. It’s beautiful. And I was able to present one to all of those that were there and just kind of love on them and let them know how much we love and appreciate them. And I will tell you, Isaac, in that there is a catharsis for us.
It’s therapeutic for us because our son and our daughter-in-law’s witness and testimony as well as all the others that were on the plane, it’s ministering to people to this day. We ended that little memorial service out there after acknowledging all of those that were on the plane, remembering them, and then a little extra because it was our son and daughter-in-law, we closed with playing a song that is my very favorite. I want it at my memorial service, Aaron, so if I proceed, you buddy, you got to make sure this happens. But it’s called No More Night. And it was Nathan singing it and the coroner wept, the first responders wept. They had seen pictures, knew a little bit about who Nathan and Amber the others were. This really gave an opportunity for ministry to take place there, and that’s really what Nathan and Amber’s lives were about, was ministry. So that opportunity was the greatest opportunity. It could be for what we sometimes call closure. There’s never really fully closure, but it was an amazing thing for God ministered to us as we endeavored to minister to those who had served us so well the day of the accident.
Isaac Crockett:
Dave, that is so well said and so powerful. And I know again, I want to point people to go to your Facebook page where you can see some of these images that you’re talking about. It’s just incredible. And Dave goes into detail in these stories. But if you’re dealing with the loss of a loved one, our faith in God is really the same as our hope in God. Our faith is putting our trust in what God has done and what he has said. Our hope is trusting what God has promised to do. And when you lose, in this case, losing your son and daughter-in-law, that hope is there just as strong as our faith and our salvation is our hope and the resurrection and an eternal life. And to be able to do that with the first responders, and this is something that Dave and Betsy have seen it firsthand with them ministering to others, and that is a powerful way of seeing God work even in your life during these tragic times.
Well, these insights on grief, they just remind me of God’s sovereignty coming through and God’s faithfulness even in the darkest valleys, just like Psalm 23. We’re going to take another break to hear from some of our partners when we come back. We’re going to talk more with Pastor Aaron Causby and Dave Kistler. Please don’t go away. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to the program. If you’re just joining us on today’s program, we’re looking at how we grieve with hope. We’ve been talking with Evangelist Dr. Dave Kistler. He’s my co-host and one of the founders of the Stand in the Gap today program. And we’ve been talking with him about his journey over this year from July 26th, 2024, getting the news that the airplane that his son and daughter-in-law and their family and friends were on as they were headed out to minister, that it had gone down from there until just a few days ago when he and Betsy and the whole family were out there at the crash site.
And to hear the testimony, to hear Nathan singing a recording of him singing there at the crash site for all these first responders and folks who were involved in this accident, just such a powerful testimony to see how many souls have come to either know Christ as savior or to make a decision for the Lord as a result of the testimony. This young couple, again, incredible things that only the Lord could do in his sovereignty, and as we talk about this as Christians, we don’t grieve the same way as the world. And there’s so much hope that we have. But we’ve talked a little bit about and a little bit to Pastor Aaron Causby, but I want to talk about funerals and using these opportunities when someone passes away. But could you just tell us again a little bit about our friend Aaron here, pastor Aaron Causby, and maybe introduce him to the folks who are listening today?
Dave Kistler:
Yeah, I would be delighted to Isaac, as Aaron alluded to in the prior segment, we met each other just weeks before the accident happened. I had reached out, I knew who he was. I’d been following just from a distance, knew that God’s hand was on him and had a lot of mutual friends. And so I reached out and asked him, would you be willing to come pray at this tent event that we do on the 4th of July? He agreed was there. And then not knowing that just weeks, literally about three weeks later this would happen. And then Aaron called me and said, is there any way we can be a blessing and help to you? And of course, again, they’ve been beyond that. But what I didn’t realize, and Aaron, you may want to share a little bit of this at some point, but years back, our son Nathan started a Bible study in our home for some Hispanic young people in the area, some of whom I think actually probably had come into the area illegally, but he had a burden for them to try to win him to Christ.
And so they’d come over to our house and we all kind of had all kinds of games and stuff that they would do, and then they’d have a Bible study and a number of those young people came to the Lord. And Aaron reminded me a while back, he said, brother Kistler, I was actually at one of those Bible studies, so I’d actually been at your home back when he was much younger, was not a pastor at that time, of course. And I did not remember that, and that’s my loss that I didn’t. But the Lord brought Aaron into our life for a reason, and I want to echo what he said. We’re looking forward to serving together in ministry in the days ahead in a myriad of ways. And so I have the utmost respect for him. God’s blessed him with a wonderful church, a booming church, a growing church, and he is highly respected in Burke County, North Carolina. So it’s an honor to call him my friend.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, praise the Lord for that. And it is interesting. And for our listeners, our newer listeners, Dave, your wife, her parents are immigrants from Mexico, and so a neat kind of inroad there too with that. And Aaron, just so much going on in your church, it has been neat to see the Lord’s hand of blessing, helping see it grow, not just in numbers, but the conversions, the baptisms, just fruit of the spirit being seen in your congregation and in your life as your preaching has been, not just to your congregation, but you’ve been extended to many different places. It’s just neat to see the Lord using you at this point the way he is. But Dave mentioned this bond that you have through the way that God brought you together before and during this difficult time. But as somebody, again, dealing with people as a pastor, but then also dealing with them on the professional side as a funeral home director, what are some ways that families who are grieving the loss of a loved one, that they can be supported, especially by believers, for those listening right now who are believers, they know the Lord is Savior, what can they do to help others, especially we’ve talked about this a little bit, but especially even in an unexpected situation like what Dave and Betsy were going through.
Aaron Causby:
Sure. Well, you guys have been overly generous with your compliments to me, but I wish you wouldn’t stop, but you need to stop saying things like that. But I’ll tell you, every family grieves differently. Not everyone passes away as a hundred year old person under hospice care, in the living room of their home, surrounded by their family. People leave this world in different ways, and I’m not in control of that. We’re not in control of that. And death brings a lot with it. I say that often when I officiate funerals or when I meet with people that have experienced loss, death brings a lot with it. And then every family dynamic is different. I think, as we were saying earlier, just being there, it’s not what you say. You’re not going to say anything that unlocks grief or joy for someone. It’s just you being available to that person.
And the Lord has allowed Brother Dave and I to be connected through this, through the service here in Morganton and Mount Hope Baptist Church last August. And then in September we did the service in DC at the Museum of the Bible, which was unbelievable. And then even since then, the Lord’s allowed us to do some things together. But I want to say this about Brother David and Ms. Betsy. They have grieved with hope and they have grieved and grief is normal, and we do sorrow, but we don’t do it without hope. And I’ve said this to him personally, and I’ll say it here, brother Dave and Ms. Betsy have exemplified grieving with hope, having sorrow with hope through this entire process, they have represented the Lord Jesus so well. We’ve seen so many people come to know the Lord because of this, and even it speaks to who Brother Dave is.
Even the people in Wyoming that were there, they’ve ministered to them. So the Lord’s really used Brother David. He wouldn’t probably want me to share this, but he’s challenged me. Even when we were in DC for the memorial service on September 11th of last year, we went to eat at a restaurant and the gentleman that was our waiter came by. It was Nathan’s favorite place to eat in DC and we all went and ordered the same thing that he loved to eat together. And our waiter came out and Brother Dave just stopped him and said, Hey, is there anything I can help you pray about? And this man, his family, people in his family had just been diagnosed with cancer. He had a sick mother just taking the time to be there with someone like that. That’s who Dave Betsy. That’s who Nathan was. That’s just the way they live their lives.
Dave Kistler:
Let me ask you this question, and yeah, that kind comment, I appreciate that, but you’ve talked about the ministry of presence. You have been present with our family as not just a funeral director, not just as a pastor, but as a very close friend. You’re like family to us now on more levels than just what happened with Nathan. You’ve loved on our girls, you have ministered to them. You talked about it’s not what you say, it’s the ministry of being present and just being there. In addition to that, what are some additional ways that we can support families that are grieving? As you well know, Aaron have a mutual friend who they just lost their granddaughter, and we both know this man and his wife and their family, and they’re wonderful people is just a tragic thing that happened, and I’ve tried to reach out and minister to them. I know you have as well talk maybe a little bit about how we can further than just the ministry of presence, ways we can encourage people who are going through the darkest days of their life.
Aaron Causby:
Well, in the south, we bake casseroles for people and drop ’em off at their front porch. That’s what we do.
Dave Kistler:
We do that.
Aaron Causby:
Yeah, I actually have a team at my church called a care team that is in charge of that. We provide food and those types of things. But all joking aside, other than being present, obviously the power of prayer, letting them sometimes call us just to weep on the phone, often share Jesus wept at a funeral. I mean, Jesus was not a good person to attend funerals because most funerals he went to in the Bible, the people went home later that day. But Jesus attended the funeral of his friend who’d been dead four days. And you know what Jesus did? He took time to weep knowing that he was going to raise him from the dead later that chapter, but he was there with them, obviously phone calls, texts, cards, those types of things. And I think that’s why every person needs a solid church family as well. Church is a vitally important part of the grieving process, I believe it is. And it’s amazing, even in North Carolina where we live, brother Dave, how many people do not have a church? They have no pastor, they have no church. I officiate funerals almost weekly for people in our area that have no connection to a church at all. And so church is really important when you’re going through loss as well.
Isaac Crockett:
Dave, if we just have seconds here, but what is some of the impact you have seen that has come from the funerals and memorial services that you have seen for Nathan and Amber?
Dave Kistler:
Is this directed to me? Isaac?
Isaac Crockett:
Oh, sorry, Dave. Yeah, sorry, Dave. Yeah.
Dave Kistler:
Oh, I’m sorry. No, okay. No, that’s all right. Well, I will say this. There were three memorials that were done. There was one done in Georgia that was primarily for Jason and Kelly, Amber and Nathan. It focused more on the Neland family and appropriately and fittingly. And then we did the memorial, of course in Morganton, North Carolina primarily for Nathan and Amber. And then the one in DC was really kind of focusing on Nathan because of his impact, he and Amber’s impact there on Capitol Hill. The last I checked, and it’s been months, hundreds, literally hundreds of thousands of people had watched the memorial in North Carolina. I don’t know how many you have watched the memorial in dc, but I have gotten letters, calls, personal comments from people from all over the world as to how that has transformed their life. So God’s using it to this day for his glory.
Isaac Crockett:
Wow, it’s amazing. Just incredible how God does that. We’re going to take another time out to hear again from our partners, but then after this, we want to wrap things up with some final encouragement and pray for families who are going through a loss even right now. We’re going to be right back on Standing the Gap today. Well welcome back as we come to the final part of our program, and it’s hard to believe it just has gone so fast today. I want to thank Evangelist Dave Kistler, pastor Aaron Causby. Again, both are super busy right now. Dave, you have a very busy schedule with your evangelistic work and with the Hope to the Hill. You’re at the Central Pennsylvania Bible Conference right now, and it’s an all day, all night kind of thing, and other things have come up and you’ve made this work.
And Aaron working full-time as a funeral home director and full-time in the growing church. I really, really appreciate this. And I think there are people listening right now who have gone through a tragic loss and especially parents of losing a child, but many people have lost somebody suddenly or just grieving the loss of somebody no matter how it’s happened. And I think that this is so helpful, and I hope that those of you listening, that if you’re listening right now and this has blessed you, that you’ll share this, maybe listen to it again, but go share this, share the transcript or the audio or part of this with a friend or family member who could use it. But as we’re wrapping up, and I’m thinking about funerals, thinking about these memorial services, Dave, you just talked about this impact hundreds of thousands of people that have watched the different memorials for Nathan and Amber, the hundreds and hundreds, thousands that were there in person for them.
And it just continues to go. It wasn’t just a one-time thing. These are out there and people are seeing them and using them. Sometimes people will say something like, oh, when I pass away, don’t make a big deal out of me. Just throw me in a cardboard box and I don’t need a funeral or anything like that. Aaron, I want to ask you, especially for Christians, when we’re going through this grief and the world knows that this helps, it’s cathartic and it helps with closure, but as Christians, how can we use that funeral or memorial service as an opportunity to glorify God even in that time of grieving?
Aaron Causby:
Sure. Well, first of all, I believe Nathan Ambers memorial, all of them were used just for that. They were certainly about Nathan and Amber. There were songs that were played, Disney songs that they sang together. It was a lot when it needed to be lighthearted. It was serious when it needed to be serious. But the most important thing was the gospel was given in every service, and people trusted Christ in every service. And I think it’s an opportunity for us lost people, loved ones, save people, lose loved ones, and grief is present in both, but we grieve differently. As we’ve said so many times in this broadcast. It’s such an opportunity to share the gospel. And each time that I have the privilege to officiate a service here at the funeral home, our building used to be a Baptist church. And so we have a pulpit and a sanctuary and a piano and an altar. And every time I stand up to officiate a funeral, I use it as an opportunity to certainly celebrate the life of that person, but to give the gospel. Because when we lose someone, people’s hearts are tender, people are sensitive, and it’s a great time to share the gospel with people.
Isaac Crockett:
Amen. Dave, when I think back at some of the hardest funerals that I’ve ever performed that have been a part of it usually is when it’s parents burying their children or grandparents burying a grandchild. And it’s just almost unimaginable. I mean, just we know the nature of how things work. It should be the other way around. And yet sometimes God in his sovereignty, in this fallen world in which we live in death is part of this world and sometimes an early time for somebody. What encouragement would you have for somebody who’s listening right now, who’s lost a child or a grandchild maybe, and they’re still obviously still grieving, but still dealing with that loss?
Dave Kistler:
Well, it makes it very easy when your children are in heaven. Obviously Nathan was 34, Amber was 35. We knew they knew the Lord. That is the greatest comfort and hope that we can possibly have. I want to follow up on what Aaron said. I don’t know how we would’ve made it apart from the family of God. If folks are not in church, and if you’re listening today and you don’t have a church family, you don’t know the Lord, the greatest thing you can do is come to know Christ yourself, lead your family in the direction of the Lord so that they know the Lord, so that you’ll all be in heaven together one day. That is the greatest comfort possible, the greatest encouragement possible. The other thing, Erin, is this entire thing can contest a marriage and its stability. And I told my wife early on when all of this happened, I said, sweetie, we’ve got to draw closer to God than we’ve ever been before.
And Lord has graciously allowed that to happen, and God has been to us, our strong power, our defense, our refuge. He’s been all of those things and so much more. And the other thing is I said, we’re going to have to draw close to each other like never before. And I can honestly say this now, we’ve had a wonderful marriage for four decades, but right now we’re more in love with each other than we’ve ever been. I and I thank God for that, and the Lord has graciously allowed that. One final thing I want to mention, something like this happening, especially with the loss of children, is a highly stressful thing. Incredibly stressful. And I remember my wife and I talked about it. We’re going to have to really take care of ourselves through all of this. We’re going to have to eat more healthy than we ever have, though we’ve always tried to do that, going to have to try to carve out, make the time for exercise so that as we’re navigating the first year, the second year, all of the stresses have come with dealing with the states and all the different things that go with that.
That we are as healthy as we possibly can be. Our minds are as sharp as they can be and spiritually risen, tuned as we can possibly be. And the Lord has graciously allowed that. And so I would encourage those that are going through something like this to consider those things. But the greatest encouragement is we’re going to see them again in heaven and most likely, most likely sooner rather than later
Isaac Crockett:
To that. And what you’re hitting on there. So practical, maybe you could say something, Aaron, I want to give you time to give any kind of final thoughts, Dave, and pray as well. But in the wake of a shocking thing like this, like that phone call you got, and it’s just shock what needs to happen, maybe first, that idea of just eating and trying to get rest and eat right in these times and trying to know that this is going to be stressful for the whole family, trying to pull together your immediate nuclear family and as well as extended family and friends, and you feel the need to do everything. I have to do this, but you can’t do everything. Maybe what kind of has to happen at the beginning and now you’ve had a year into it and the grief continues, but how the Lord sustains in the longer term,
Dave Kistler:
Well, immediately in the aftermath of something like this, family is absolutely non-negotiable, absolutely essential. And our daughter and son-in-law, were in Texas at the time of the accident. They left immediately drove through the night, were on our carport or our porch or carport the next within 20 some hours, Myers and have stayed with us ever since. And I know every family cannot do that. All the children can’t do that. But the importance of family being close as long as they can is vitally, vitally important. Not just physically close, but spiritually close. And God is just doing some amazing things in our family. We praise God for that. And then the family of God being there, I mean, our home was just like Grand Central Station with people coming in and we tried to relish every bit of encouragement we could possibly get from people, and they were willing to give it.
We were willing to receive it. And again, that’s part of the benefit of having the family of God be a part of your life. And so a church family, if you’re not in church now, boy, you need to find a church that preaches the Bible and you need to get involved because they will be to you at the most strategic moments of life. The crisis times God will use them in ways that people that don’t have that family cannot have. We’ve commented even today, I don’t know how the lost world makes it without the Lord and God’s people in the time of crisis. And the fact is they really don’t make it. They look to all kinds of other things. But when you have the Lord and you have his people, his family, it makes the process so much easier.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, evangelist Dr. Dave Kistler, pastor Aaron Causby, thank you both for being on the program today. Thank you for opening up about these things. Dave, there are others who are going through this, others who will go through this. Please listen to this program again if you didn’t hear all of it and share it with a friend who needs this. And until next time, I pray that you will pray for us and that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today. Thank you so much for listening.
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