(This is the personal remembrance that I shared at the funeral service for Wilma Koch. It is the manuscript - I added several anecdotes and some additional statements directed specifically to family members.)
We are here today to glorify God and honor the life of Wilma Koch. It is an honor for me to share some personal reflections with you but more importantly to share the passion, calling and heart of Wilma in her love for Israel and the Jewish people in talking to Jewish people about the Messiah of Israel. In Hebrew we call him Yeshua but in English we know him as Jesus.
I met Wilma in the summer of 1980. I had just finished my course of study at Moody Bible Institute and was hired by an organization called American Board of Missions to the Jews now known as Chosen People Ministries. I wondered where they would send me – Los Angeles, New York, Toronto? They told me about a lady in Columbus Ohio named Wilma who had become a volunteer and that I would be going to Columbus. Wilma was a most unlikely person to be involved in this kind of work. She is from a small town in northwest Ohio and did not really know that many Jewish people. It was the transforming call of God that brought Wilma to this work. She had attended some end time prophecy conferences at the Columbus Baptist Temple and it was there that the Lord spoke to her. I was 23 years old and just starting out on my own. Wilma took me in. She helped me find an apartment, she introduced me to people, she got me started in ministry. This kind of thing was not unusual for Wilma who poured her life into people and to what she believed. We had bible studies at her home and then at various and sundry places throughout Columbus. She took me to meet all of the Jewish people that she could find. And find Jewish people she did! From college professors, to sculptors to world famous violinists, to business executives to housewives, people in nursing homes and down and outers. She befriended Jewish people, helped them in all kinds of tangible ways and shared with them the word of truth about the Messiah. Her fearless zeal is unmatched. She was as the Bible says a fool for Christ. She did not care what people may have thought of her – but she was going to tell people about the Messiah whether they really wanted to hear it or not. Like the prophets of old she identified herself both with the message and with the people. Her personal reputation was not the issue. It was the Word of God that was the issue. But having said that, Wilma was a woman of dignity. She was very respectful of the Jewish people and therefore a wonderful testimony of the nature of grace and love of God. In the Jewish world someone like Wilma would be known as chassiday umot olam a righteous person of the world. Like the righteous gentiles who hid Jews in the holocaust, Wilma had that same kind of love and passion for the Jewish people. Wilma was a friend of Israel and will sorely be missed. I do not think that I ever met anyone who had such a clear understanding of heaven and of the dangers of hell. To her, sharing the message of the Messiah was life and death. Wilma was passionate in everything that she did. More than once, she would get so excited in telling me about an encounter with someone that she would have to stop the car on the side of the road. When she would call me, she would always be out of breath and on her way someplace. But with all of the passion for ministry, her family responsibilities were a priority. No matter where we might be, she would always make sure to be home to make dinner for her family. In Judaism Wilma would be called an ashet chayil – an excellent wife. In fact she would often talk about her family. Just last month I had lunch with Wilma and she was telling me of the accomplishments of her grandchildren.
What was it that Wilma spent so much of her time telling people? What was that message that she lived for? Wilma believed that the Jewish people were the Chosen People of God – to be a light to the nations. God had taken them out of Egypt, given Israel the Torah and in turn the people promised to be faithful to God. While the people were unable to be faithful to the Lord, God did not give up on them and even in disobedience sent forth the Messiah from them to be the light of the world. This one who came, Jesus was the mediator between God and man and brought forgiveness and salvation through his shed blood to Jew and Gentile alike. He removes the sin and the guilt of sin from our lives and gives us an assurance of the world to come. We read in the Hebrew Scriptures, “all we like sheep have gone astray but God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Wilma believed this message with all of her heart. She was not afraid to die. She knew exactly where she was going. But Wilma knew that most Jewish people were unaware of all of this. Wilma was part of the small group of people that realize that this message of Yeshua needs to return to the Jewish people – that this message needs to return to the place where it started. That is the Jewish people. The reason it needed to return there is because there is no other way of salvation than by the Messiah. Wilma was a living example of the passage of scripture that reads, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Wilma’s desire was to make Israel desire the messiah. No matter who you are here today, Jew or Gentile, if you want to do anything to honor the name of Wilma Koch, consider the message that was so dear to her heart. The message that identified her life.
What is the legacy that she leaves behind? Children and grandchildren that know the Lord. Also people who she led to the Messiah, and people whom she affected in a great way – in that regard perhaps the person in mistry she affect the most is me. Wilma took this young jewish kid just staring out and without realizing it she poured her life in me and whatever I accomplish it has much to do with wilma’s influence. For that I am ever grateful. In the end it is the relationships that you make, it is the lives you affect that will always be remembered. I am sure that Wilma has received her reward, is enjoying good health and the fruit of her labor and upon reaching heaven I am sure she heard the great words, well done good and faithful servant.
Thank you, Howard, for sharing this warm and inspiring tribute to your beloved friend. My own heart is attuned in a similar way toward the Jewish people & God’s will and purpose for them as a distinct people in salvation history. Her depth of compassion and service is humbling and challenging to all believers of the nations, who are called by God to posit ourselves alongside the believing Jewish community by serving as supporters, encouragers, and partners with sensitivity and sincerity; who are eager to see God’s purposes for His covenant people completely fulfilled in our time, and who are also grateful to the Jewish people for their unique and noble calling. The days ahead can only get more exciting and anticipatory for those who, by God’s grace, are able to discern the times in which we live. I hope,that as I continue to grow in the Lord, I will aspire to imitate godly, non-Jewish women such as your friend Wilma!
When someone has died, those who are close to the deceased are naturally saddened. But the occasion of someone’s death should not be taken advantage of by anyone to spread untruths.
In his tribute to Wilma Koch, Howard Silverman wrote of “her love for Israel and the Jewish people in talking to Jewish people about the Messiah of Israel.”
Attempts to proselytize Jews have never been received by them as an act of love. Jewish people don’t love being pestered about Jesus by Christians, they resent it. Whatever emotion was deep in Ms. Koch’s heart when she bothered Jews by pressuring them to convert to her religion, we have to admit that a genuine act of love always reflects a consideration of how the recipient of that act feels about it.
I didn’t know Ms. Koch. She seems to have impressed Mr. Silverman very favorably. Her devotion to converting Jews was not loving, and the occasion of her passing is not a valid excuse to pretend otherwise.
To the above poster’s comment, I would say that real love is telling someone the truth in love, regardless of the consequences. Withholding such would simply be an act of feigned affection.