Dear Prayer Warriors,
My heart sings at the type of summer our family lived out. Outside of one trip to the ER for Anna’s seizure, we experienced much bond building love, joyful activities and great memories. We haven’t been in a place to receive such good things in years. For a while, our minds became conditioned with trauma’s headlock that makes us think that around any corner we will be attacked and confounded in deep sorrow again. Instead, this summer helped us lay a hold of greater surrender and hope for the Lord’s plans for each of us, much like the lyric we sang church last week, “He’s not done with me yet.” Praise the Lord, what grace. We are doing better than we deserve!
Sacrifice of Praise
I love the image in the book of Romans where the Author says that the church is like the human body. Each person is a different part and there is a clear interdependence by all parts. For me our hardships made that clear. I remember attending church for the first time after Simon’s passing, I physically trembled as I tried to sing, just dumbfounded at what we were enduring. Moments later sitting down and being unable to utter the words. Then a couple of weeks later my little brother Olivier, who also is my spiritual father in the faith joined me for church. As he sang and worshipped, he had his hand around me while the other one was outstretched. I couldn’t even lift up my head, he sang louder than usual and kept me participating. He was causing me to sway and engage. In time, I lifted up my head, and joined the song. This type of praise and ascribing worth to God amid the deep sorrow was only possible because I went to church and had a dear brother standing in that gap. To lay a hold of the glory of God, to acknowledge Jesus as my help during deepest sorrow; that is a sacrifice of praise. Maybe nobody noticed around us what was going on or why I was weeping extra in worship but in the spirit world God saw us praising as never before.
The church, not just Olivier, served as substitutionary worshipers helping me believe, they sing on my behalf because I could not get it together. They prayed for me. I listened to an author describe something similar, he said, “It’s the church saying ‘I will believe for you’ just be still and let the words of worship wash upon to your shore. Let God’s Word through the preaching minister to your wound.” Recently I had a stranger in the children’s church pick up line turn to me and say “we have been praying for your family weekly for years.” Has that ever happened to you? Someone you have never met, has such a compassion for your circumstance that he labored in prayer for years for you, what mercy! What grace! Lord, teach me to pray like that. I didn’t know how to respond. I hope the day comes when God will reveal the invoices of prayers He fielded on our behalf causing such divine attention to our pitiful state. Jesus is the head, the one holding us together. Praise God for the unity in Christ.
Ministering with Empathy
The “hard things” for me this summer came in the form of rising to the occasion and opportunity to serve others. If you know my life, I am composed of many trials but three of the most formative are mental illness, special needs, and the death of a child. For some reason, each of these trials afflicted a different family we know and love this summer. We love a couple where the spouse is afflicted with a debilitating mental illness. Next, we know some first time parents still in the NICU one month after their child's birth, and lastly, I have been talking to a father who lost his son tragically. We cannot help but resonate deeply with these three families. We labor in prayer and believe God’s best for each trial. I have been carefully reaching out to them knowing it’s not my words that they need but God’s healing. I learned that there are no pragmatic steps to prescribe, I can minister understanding because of my past, but that is just perspective. What is it I can give in the present? Certainly kind encouragement is welcomed in each, I especially desire for them to see “Christ in me, the hope of glory”. Songs helped me greatly, Meds helped, meals, going to a grave weekly helped, may that be the case for them too. I trust we are helping, there is still more to do. May they have a testimony of God's faithfulness and be able to reconcile His goodness to their trial. This is a righteous calling in my life, I am honored and well tailored to serve them. It’s part of God’s good coming from the evil we endured. Praise the Lord.
In Praise for Anna
-Lets keep up on praying for Anna. She is doing great with no sign of seizures. She is struggling with bowel movements, even with all the helps it seems so inconsistent.
-We finally got her 10th birthday present in the mail, its is a human trailer system for hiking on narrow paths. It works pretty darn well, I love spoiling her. See the picture I attached below.
-We have turned away from night nurse help because of the difficulty of finding a committed, “good” one, and instead we have been happy to receive an RN during the day, two days a week.
- During our time of RV hunting we were constantly frustrated because the standard RV door was not wide enough for Anna and her wheel chair. Amid the search we felt compelled to apply to the Make A Wish foundation to see if they could help. In the process, we did find an RV. Now Make A Wish selected Anna to receive a wish. It puts us in a mind state of wonder and gladness, pray for God to reveal what would be Anna’s sincerest desire for mankind to gift. I asked Renee what Anna would want and she instantly replied “she would want to be healed.”
-Anna completed intake at a speech clinic that specializes in Eye-gaze devices. May the Lord do a miracle there as we have plateaued in knowing how to use it.
Praise God for:
-a wonderful summer.
-my mother’s strength and interests resurfacing amid being in memory care.
-Classical Conversations, ballet, enrichment programs and AWANA for Renee and Victor
-Victor’s 3rd birthday.
-our time with Simon “diamond” and how his life continues to impact us for good.
-Continued hymn sings at our house
Please Pray for:
-Our daytime nurse is Nicole, pray for her to engage on a heart level that Anna would be befriended by her and loved. May our family be salt and light to her as well.
-our faithfulness and availability to minister to these three families that they may come to a place of meeting with Jesus and offering sacrificial praises amid their dark and heavy loads. If not me, then may they have an Olivier. Or maybe an Aaron or Hur who upheld Moses arms during Israel's battle against the Amalekites. May God be glorified.
With love, Nic for the Currat
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