I recently received this email about Barbara J. Buckland:

Buckland - Barbara J., August 2, 1942 ˆ April 14, 2003, died peacefully at
Surrey Memorial Hospital. Predeceased by her parents, she is survived by
her brothers, Don (and Sarah) and Richard (and Mary) and her aunts and
uncle, Mollie Sarvela, Kirstine Griffith and Sandy and Miram Buckland.

Her many friends and relatives delighted in the joy and happiness she
brought to each day and will miss the courage and faith she showed in her
battle with cancer. A celebration and memorial of her life will be held at
the Church of the Epiphany at 10553 ˆ 148th Street, Surrey, BC, Canada at 12
noon on April 22, 2003. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the
charity of your choice.

A loss is felt personally when someone takes to heart your own journey in life and somehow becomes part of that journey. Barbara naturally did that by her courage to grow in love. (Gal 5:6b, II Peter 1:3-11)

I first met Barbara as a Fuller student in Jude Tiersma Watson’s class Introduction to urban Missions. I had brought two friends into Jude’s class to share a little of their life’s stories with the class. That evening she began to pray for Willie Hartsfield. The care in her heart for Willie continued for all the years she was at Fuller and long after she graduated and moved back to Canada. Willie soon after that class made choices that landed him in prison; Barbara continued to pray for him and corresponded with him regularly. Willie also began to entrust his own thoughts, cares, and concerns to her and began to pray for her when he discovered that she had cancer. She became one of the tangible evidences for Willie that Christians have learned something about the source of love rooted in God (Eph. 3:14-21).

Jude and I were also recipients of her letters. What we will miss is far beyond just the joy of getting mail; -- we will miss her voice and the kindness expressed in those letters. Willie will miss the mail even more than we will simply because she continued to remember him over these five years while he was in prison. And now he will not be able to thank her for her caring thoughts of him. Every sign of love makes a profound difference. She maintained correspondence across the miles with a good number of friends. I am wondering if there will be any effort to collect these letters and keep them for the sake of the church. So much of the wealth of souls living out of the heart that God gave them for the world in mission is meaningfully preserved for the rest of the church to reflect on by their collected letters and journals.

If anyone is inspired to write Willie at this time his address is (for the next year or so):

Willie Hartsfield D08585
450-2-60 Low
Avenal State Prison
PO Box #9
Avenal, CA. 93204