One night three years ago, my friend Trina Eia posted on social media the words of a prayer she had been praying for some time!

"Lord," she cried. "Do you really love me? You know how sinful I am. You know that I have had high pride (thinking I am all that) and low pride (thinking that I am not valuable at all - which is the one I struggle with more).

"Lord, please take from me all my pride. Any filth or sin in me please take it away. Please help me and my family bring glory to Your Name. Help people to know You through us. Have your way no matter how difficult. I want to know you more."

Then she explained that the Lord in his goodness and mercy answered her prayer. He gave her the gift of cancer. This gift not only has shown her how great His love is for her but also how the Body of Christ's love is for her. She wrote, "It stripped me of pride."

Trina Eia's life and legacy touched a lot of people and encouraged many in their walk of faith.

After a long battle with cancer (less than two years after posting those words), Trina went to be with her Lord and Savior on April 18, 2021.

Trina was first diagnosed with cancer in 2019 after experiencing breathing problems and diagnosed with a sporadic form of cancer called Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma. She had a mass pressing on her trachea which was causing breathing difficulties and another mass in her lower right lung. Neither were surgically removable.

In a fight for her life, Trina and her husband Shane made a trip to Arizona, to Envita for extensive testing and treatment which insurance didn’t cover. Benefits were held for Trina to help with costs. I put together two benefit concerts with the help of my friends in the music business (Mariah Hostrander, John Roginski, Marielle Thomas, and Ragamuffin Mitch McVicker).

I first met Trina many years ago in Dallas getting ready to board a plane to India. We both served in a ministry to the people in India but had never met. And shockingly we actually lived an hour's drive apart. While in India she told me that she and her husband Shane were going to adopt children from Africa because they found they couldn’t have children.

Shane, Trina, Michelle, and I all worked with a ministry called Gospel For Asia which supports national missionaries throughout Asia and we did several presentations together at Christian music festivals in Pennsylvania.

About a year or two later after our India trip, my wife Michelle and I were helping Trina and Shane at Creation Fest with GFA and that’s when we discovered she was pregnant. Then came the blessing of another child.


Besides missionary work and supporting national missionaries in Southeast Asia, Trina and Shane (like Michelle and I) were voices for the Persecuted Church.

I never met anyone who modeled Christ as much as Trina. You knew that God was in her. Her name even alluded to the fact that God was in her. The name Trina is based on the Latin word used in reference to the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Trina showed all three Persons were at work within her. God says He is a father to the fatherless, and Trina became a mother to the motherless when she and Shane chose to adopt two children. Like Jesus, she was always led by the Spirit in her life. She was passionate about making Christ known! In His earthly ministry (even in His suffering and dying) Jesus always gave glory to His Father. Trina likewise always gave glory to God - even amid her own suffering. The Bible declares that God is love. And anyone who knew Trina knew that she loved. As her family had said, "she would never let anyone go without a goodbye hug."

This became the focus behind the song I wrote about her. To show how much Trina glorified God and to give all glory to God!


Her love for her family was the reason she fought so hard when she was diagnosed with cancer!

In one of her last posts on Facebook, she ended with these words: "I want to thank everyone immensely for all you've done for my family and I these past almost two and a half years. Thank you for your prayers, cards, words of encouragement, gifts, financial help, meals etc., it has all been a huge blessing. Please, those of you who have prayed for me, I ask that with that same eagerness, you would pray for the church to love Christ and for the persecuted church.... I pray no matter what happens, life or death, I would bring glory to God and that others would come to know Jesus through this. I love you all!"


Marielle Thomas, Mitch McVicker, John Roginski, and I have all been affected by loss through cancer. And we were all involved with the benefit concerts for Trina. So we all donated songs to this compilation album to help keep Trina's legacy alive and help fight cancer! We chose songs that we felt would fit Trina's legacy.

We each dedicate this project to Trina and the other loved ones we know who fought this battle or are currently in the fight!

Besides being a tribute album to Trina Eia and fulfilling part of her dying wish, this concept album was put together to tell a story:

It starts with a tragedy resulting in questions about God and life...feeling distant from the God of the Universe. Then there is restoration but knowing we are all just broken, messed up people in need of a Savior. But there is joy in knowing God still loves us and shows us His love through His many wonders! Then there is a shift from being inward-focused to people-focused through songs about missions. And it ends with a message of hope to those who are broken and even have wandered from God's Presence...those in need of God's love. It's the story of many Ragamuffins and Restless Pilgrims.

I planned to make it a duet project. However, I didn't want to make it about me. I knew each artist involved had a message and I wanted them to share it. We also didn't want the project to be about Trina. She wouldn't have wanted us to do so, which is why the songs point to Christ but are based on things she touched on in her final message and prayer.

This project is an answer to Trina's prayer, "Please help me and my family bring glory to Your Name. Help people to know You through us. Have your way no matter how difficult. I want to know you more."

Her greatest desire was not only to know Jesus more but that others would know Him the way she did!

If you click on each track, there is a picture included plus liner notes provided from each artist involved.

Trina's final prayer was answered a year later... that her husband Shane would find and marry a Godly woman who would be a good wife to Shane and a good mother to their children.

In late 2023, Shane miraculously met and married a Christian woman named Kimberly who shared the same heart and love of Christ as Trina did. She left her state and job as a teacher to marry Shane and be a mother to Shane and Trina's four kids.

Before Trina went to be with her Lord and Savior she gave an incredible testimony which was shown at her memorial. In it, she declared her love of God and God's love for us. I encourage you to watch and share

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjX59MST9nk&t=72s