Marti Wilson was born Martha Ethel Crosby in Yarmouth, NS, on March 16, 1948, and died of complications from pancreatitis on September 16, 2010. Marti was predeceased by her parents, Paul and Thelma, and by six brothers: Paul, Jr., Gordon Jon, Bert, Ernie, and Foster. She is survived by her sister Sandi (Doug), her brothers Mark (Beth) and Laurie (Diane), her sister Mary Ruth, and by her sisters-in-law Luella and Dora. These and countless more family members and friends love and mourn her. Her husband Jonathan and daughter Leah, along with Leah’s husband Jonathan, and their children Jaimichael and Nora, feel her absence most keenly. But with Marti we live in hope of the resurrection through Christ.  Marti inherited Gaucher disease from her parents and was physically affected by it from birth. As a child she learned very quickly that she was different. She tired easily, suffered frequently from infections, and had to protect an enlarged spleen that was one of the effects of Gaucher disease. As a young child, she was hospitalized hundreds of miles from her family and felt isolated and vulnerable, until she began reading her Bible. At the end of her hospitalization, she had read the Bible through and knew that God loved her. She moved to Vancouver, BC, in 1973 to make a life for herself. She was led to mature faith in Jesus Christ by the compassion and patience and love of the people of First Baptist Church during the ministry of Roy Bell. She met her future husband, Jonathan, when he joined the staff of a volunteer street ministry that Marti directed out of Hobbit House. After they had flirted shamelessly with one another for several weeks, Kerry MacFarlane Bell assigned them to be prayer partners. They spent their first prayer time together walking from Regent College to Acadia Beach on October 31, 1978. Their relationship developed quickly and they were married on June 23, 1979. In spite of Marti’s disease, she conceived and on March 1, 1981, gave birth to a delightful girl, Leah Claire Elisabeth. After the early years of raising Leah, Marti worked as an elementary school teacher, medical secretary, in the Mathematics Department and in the Advancement Office at Westmont College. She was the Assistant Registrar at Westmont College when the effects of Gaucher disease forced her to retire on disability in 1999. After that she developed a ministry of prayer, burden-bearing, and spiritual friendship that has had a world-wide impact.  She had a passion for truth-telling, an abhorrence of estrangement, a laugh that was the music of heaven, a delight in physical pleasure, a willingness to bear the pain of others, and a deep love affair with God.  During her last hospitalization, she passed through some dark days but for most of the time she was spiritually at peace and even glowing, while her body failed in spite of her passion to live and the care of her doctors, nurses, and others. She died knowing that death does not have the final word. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death has been defeated by Life. One day death will be destroyed, we will be raised to new bodies, and she will teach her husband to dance on the streets of gold in the new creation. Thanks be to God for her.