Charlene Sims
October 31, 1950 – November 23, 2023

Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful servants.
​Psalm 116:15

Early Thanksgiving morning, all was quiet in the Sim’s household with Maverick, their aging golden retriever, sleeping beside Charlene’s hospice bed. Suddenly, at 3:45 AM, Maverick uncharacteristically jumped up and ran to Steve’s bed and nuzzled him awake. When Steve got up to check on Charlene, she breathed her last few breaths and flew into the arms of Jesus. In that moment Steve lost his wife and best friend and Forgiving Forward lost a dear friend and our most passionate team member.

I met Steve and Charlene in early 2014. Their small group was going through the Forgiving Forward Video series and the leader arranged for me to have lunch with the group on one of my trips to Dallas. Charlene happened to sit across from me and we had a lively conversation about the transactional nature of forgiveness. Charlene had suffered horrific abuse in her childhood and had been in counseling and support groups for many years with some moderate success, but no real freedom. She was adamant that forgiveness was a process and nothing I said that day could change her mind.

A couple of months later, we were teaching the Forgiving Forward Seminar at their church. I taught Session One at the three worship services that Sunday and we shared the rest on Monday evening. The pastor anticipated 150 would attend the seminar, so we brought 175 workbooks, just to be safe. “Oh, ye of little faith!” After the second service, we ran out of workbooks as people registered for Monday night. We were trying to figure out how we were going to get workbooks from Atlanta to Dallas in 30 hours, when Charlene, who was helping with the registration, said, “I’ll print them for you.” She went on to explain that she owned a printing company, The Master’s Press. So, we gave her the file and she had her team print 200 copies as over 350 people attended the seminar. This was our first experience with Charlene’s generosity and “whatever you need, we’ll get it done” attitude.

A few days after the seminar, Charlene called Toni and said, “I can’t believe what just happened! This morning, the Holy Spirit revealed the root wound I have been carrying my entire life. So, I grabbed the Protocols bookmark and forgave what God had specifically shown me and I am now free! It wasn’t a process! I choose to forgive and the tormentors are gone! They’re just gone!” From that day on, Charlene was “all in” with Forgiving Forward and was passionate about helping people to forgive. She was one of the first trained forgiveness coaches and then became a trainer of coaches. She led Forgiving Forward Study groups and assisted and trained several ministries in the DFW area in incorporating the Forgiving Forward model into their systems. Charlene often traveled with us to help at our teaching events, running our resource table and helping answer questions and coach attendees. She became a Forgiving Forward Ambassador and our “Head Forgiveness Coach” in the DFW Metroplex.

What is most important to Toni and I personally, is that Charlene not only became a dear friend and supporter of Forgiving Forward, but we became family to her. I’m not sure there are many things better than to have Charlene view you as family. Their home became our home base whenever we traveled to Dallas, with total freedom to come and go as our ministry schedule required. She even let us use her car or one of her company cars, so we didn’t have to rent one. Anything we needed, if it was in her power, she made sure we had it. She was a gift from God to us.

We have no idea how many lives were changed because Charlene shared the message of Forgiving Forward with them, coached them through the Forgiveness Protocols, led them through the video course or through the ways she supported and encouraged Toni and me personally. Her passing left a big hole in our ministry team and an even bigger one in our hearts.

Thank you Charlene for modeling faith, grace and peace in such an extraordinary way. You are truly one-of-a-kind! We love you and we’ll keep spreading the message until we see you again!