Dear Deborah & Naomi + Family:
When I returned to Richmond to stay, I was startled and greatly saddened to hear that my dear Pastor & Brother in Christ, Mitchell Martinez had been taken from us! I was so greatly blessed by him and his ministry as Pastor, Evangelist & a great comforter of a sorrowing soul. When I first met him, it was at the Richmond Rescue Mission on the evening of Sept 2, 2000. I was convinced by the enemy that "God no longer wants to hear from you," among other lies. That very night, the first time I desperately needed to stay at the Mission myself, Pastor Mitchell, in the midst of his (always) superb sermon, pointed toward me and proclaimed "The Lord understands that you've lost a precious family member." Then, a little while later, he again pointed in my direction and said, "You are loosed!" I went out of that amazing chapel meeting thinking to myself that it certainly didn't seem like our so loving God and our Father didn't "want to hear from me anymore." Before I went to sleep I determined that such lovely words were for me (my darling mother had died, and there was another grief nearly as bad) and I, gratefully in those sweet, clean sheets, prepared to rest in sleep, when the Holy Spirit Himself visited me and finished the precious work of hope in my soul begun by your dear & lovely husband and son. He, the Holy Spirit, filled me to the brim and overflowing that night which I will never forget and now I know that happiness & that gracious love that only the Awesome God and our Savior can impart to His suffering but repentant child, obedient at last. It took me 32 yrs to finally obey the Lord God in a way that He could approve, and He told me to get up and go to RRM and that very night the angel He sent me was your marvelous Man of God, Pastor Mitchell G. Martinez! I will never forget him either and every thought of him and of all of you and your ministry to me causes me to bless God and thank Him always for all of you! Thank you! Thank you! Love in Christ, Berta Parsons (aka Barbara)