JACK & NATALIE HOLSTEAD
MOM'S PASSING
May 28, 2014
Friends & Family,
Last night (5-28-14) at around 8:20pm, Mom went to be with the Lord. She passed in her sleep as we had been praying for.
About two months ago, Mom took a turn for the worse and we as a family (Kathy, Kian and myself) decided the best thing was for her to be living with Kathy. Natalie, as most of you know her by, was getting unsturdy on her legs and forgetting things more easily.
For the last two months Kathy cared for her along side hospice care. Mom enjoyed the stay with her daughter but missed everyone at Pasadena First Church and Casa Robles, her home for 20 years.
Last August, the doctors had given her 2 months to live but God wasn't ready to take her yet. Her family needed her still and the family rallied around her and got closer together because of it. Nine months later Natalie is now resting in the Palm of His Hand. We thank God. She did not suffer at the end. She slumbered into Eternity.
We thank you for all your prayers and thoughts for her and now ask you for those same prayers and thoughts for the family as we transition over to being without Jack and Natalie, Mom and Dad.
In Him,
John Wesley Holstead
May 28, 2014
Friends & Family,
Last night (5-28-14) at around 8:20pm, Mom went to be with the Lord. She passed in her sleep as we had been praying for.
About two months ago, Mom took a turn for the worse and we as a family (Kathy, Kian and myself) decided the best thing was for her to be living with Kathy. Natalie, as most of you know her by, was getting unsturdy on her legs and forgetting things more easily.
For the last two months Kathy cared for her along side hospice care. Mom enjoyed the stay with her daughter but missed everyone at Pasadena First Church and Casa Robles, her home for 20 years.
Last August, the doctors had given her 2 months to live but God wasn't ready to take her yet. Her family needed her still and the family rallied around her and got closer together because of it. Nine months later Natalie is now resting in the Palm of His Hand. We thank God. She did not suffer at the end. She slumbered into Eternity.
We thank you for all your prayers and thoughts for her and now ask you for those same prayers and thoughts for the family as we transition over to being without Jack and Natalie, Mom and Dad.
In Him,
John Wesley Holstead
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Jack and Natalie Holstead, Retired
New Address (May 1, 2014) 29539 Camino Cristal Menifee, California 92584 USA (map) Phone: (626) 447-6467 Email: jnholstead@charter.net Jack - May-31-1929 to Jul-11-2013 Natalie - Mar-11-1927 to May-28-2014 Anniversary - August 18, 1951 Jack and Natalie celebrated their 60th anniversary August 18, 2011! |
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Christmas Day 2013:
I spoke with Natalie today in her home in Casa Robles. She and her family, including Marilyn and her family from Calgary, were celebrating Christmas together, and missing Jack together. Natalie sounded wonderful. She told me she's feeling well, though missing Jack a lot! She seemed pleased to hear and to know that there are so many of us who remember and love them from up here in our neck of the woods. It was a joy to connect with Natalie and a delight to have a Christmas visit with her. Gord JOHN (JACK) HOLSTEAD (Died 11th July, 2013):
BELOVED CANADIAN MISSIONARY FROM TORONTO MAIN STREET CHURCH. Dr. John Holstead of Temple City, California passed away on July 11th, 2013 with members of his family at his side. Jack (John) was born in Toronto on 31st May, 1929 to Hiram and Kathleen Holstead. He was a member of the Toronto Main Street Church. After attending High School in Toronto he moved to Boston, Massachusetts to attend Eastern Nazarene College where he met Natalie Wheeler of Hookset, New Hampshire. Jack and Natalie graduated in 1952 and 1951 respectively and then moved to Kansas City, where Jack enrolled and then graduated from Nazarene Theological Seminary in 1955. Jack was later ordained and served as pastor of the Brantford Church of the Nazarene. Jack and Natalie were called by God to be missionaries and were commissioned by the Church of the Nazarene to Formosa (Taiwan, China) in 1956. They served there until 1973 where they were asked to move and start the work of the Church of the Nazarene in Hong Kong. They served in Hong Kong for 14 years. This was followed by 3 years as a professor at Canadian Nazarene College as well as returning for one last missionary term with CARE Ltd based in Hong Kong. Jack and Natalie retired to Casa Robles Missionary Retirement Centre in Temple City, California in 1994. Jack was a dearly loved husband, brother, father, grandfather, father-in-law, uncle, friend and pastor. He was “Uncle Jack” to a countless many he loved very much. He is survived by his wife (Natalie), three children (Kathy, John and Kian) and their spouses (Tom, Sandy and Shari), two sisters (Thelma and Marleen) and their spouses (George and Dennis) and four grandchildren, (Aaron, Sarah, Natalie, and Claire) among numerous nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend Jack’s “Celebration of Life” service to be held at Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene. The service will commence at 2 p.m. on Saturday 20th July, 2013. We are indeed grateful for the life and ministry of John (Jack) Holstead and we pray that the ministry investment of Jack and Natalie will reap eternal rewards. -- "In the Loop", July 16, 2013 NCN News Report >>> |
Christmas 2011 Greetings ... click here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ September 10th, 2011: Dear friends, Just a short note to thank you for your prayers for Natalie. She still has several medical issues and one is her poor kidneys. She needs your continued prayers. Now we praise the Lord because she was able to leave the nursing home and come home. Yesterday I picked her up and she was ready to go! She will have continued physical therapy at home with a nurse coming three times a week. I thought you would like to know of her wonderful improvement. The Lord does answer prayer. Jack ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ August13th, 2011: This is the latest update on Natalie's situation. I have been on the go and running. Natalie was discharged from the hospital to a nursing home this past Thursday. She cannot walk, needs a wheelchair. She can't feed herself. Her mind is rather confused. She did have a very high amount of calcium in her blood. This causes a lot of it. Hopefully she will return to normal. That is our prayer. It is the most difficult thing in my life to deal with. Natalie and I have been together for 65 years. We and the family are coping and the grace of God is our support. Your prayers mean so much. Your olde friend, Jack ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 11th, 2010: Seriously, Natalie and I are both doing well. I speak this Sunday at the Altadena Church of the Nazarene not far from us. Then December 5th I preach in Chinese at our Chinese Church at First Church Pasadena. We do pray for a lot of folk too. This month I lead the singing at our Casa Robles weekly Thursday Prayer Meeting. We take every opportunity to encourage our fellow seniors and friends via e-mail. Our roses around our house (over twenty bushes) have over one hundred blooms. I have seven large pomolos growing in our back yard tree. They will be ripe in another week.We just put in a new water pump for our back yard waterfall and pool. We set our own pace and it is great. Ha. Appreciate your keeping in touch and we have so much to praise the Lord for. Give our love to olde Canada Central. Your "golden oldie" missionary friends, Jack and Natalie |
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On L.I.N.K.S. Ministry:
I am not sure how old the LINKS program is! Back when Mary Scott was the General Director of NWMS it was referred to as Box Work. Kansas City would request that we be specific and name brand names of the things that we needed. We were overwhelmed at the response! Each year we would receive clothes and shoes for our children. A lot of things were not available in Taiwan in those days. Natalie would receive beautiful table cloths, a few of which we still have. Many of the local churches would write personal notes and letters and send cards on our birthdays and anniversaries. You have no idea how that encouraged us! We remember so well at Christmas time when we had the gifts from the home churches all wrapped and under the Christmas tree. We would tell our children that these gifts were from our family of Nazarenes back home. Those were all gestures of sacrifice and love for Missionaries. In turn, we would respond to the churches with personal notes, pictures and put them on our regular missionary prayer letters. I believe we were bonding in a unique way with these dear folk who went out of their way to send us gifts of love. We felt as though we were in it together - this gigantic task of World Evangelism. |
In the nearly 50 years that we have been affiliated with World Mission the Box Work program and the succeeding LINKS program. This has tied us closer to the home churches. When furlough came around and we visited the churches we would meet those wonderful Nazarenes who shared and cared for their missionaries. We are ever in debt to the faithful Nazarenes, pastors and local churches who supported their representatives serving in foreign lands.
It just highlighted the fact that we were in this task of global outreach together. We were part of the family and being remembered with cards and cash gifts and other items also meant the home church was praying for us as well as the mission fields. LINKS affords the average Nazarene an opportunity to show real love and care for real people called missionaries. Natalie and I are coming to the end! We only hope and pray that our Zion will not, by neglect and insensitivity, phase out the Links program. There is a great family of missionaries not only depending on the home church but desperately needing the personal touch. LINKS invigorates and energizes the faith and labours of the missionaries! THANK YOU CANADA CENTRAL NAZARENES FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS IN THIS AREA OF SERVICE. WE TRULY ARE FOREVER INDEBTED TO YOU. Your "golden oldie" missionaries, Jack and Natalie Holstead |
