Please Pray! ....UPDATE

From an email I received this morning:

"Jeremiah was on television last night and appeared very calm and spoke very clearly. This case has galvanized churches all over the nation and East Africa. Leaders from all over the region have begun to come to his aid.

Mama said the investigation is continuing, which she and Jeremiah want to happen, because until the investigation is fully done his name cannot be completely cleared."

I will keep you updated here when I find out more. Thanks for praying with us, Kathryn Pin It

Please Pray!

I received an urgent prayer request for Jeremiah Paragyo, who is a national pastor in Kenya and cares for many orphans in his home. Dan is involved with an organization that works to raise support and involvement with this man's ministry in Kenya. He is pictured below with "his kids".

Jeremiah has been implicated and named as an accomplice in a terrible crime.

"A shocked Bishop Paragyo told the reporters that his detractors were trying to malign him in public. Kisang' said the Bishop would remain in police custody to shed more light on the saga that has left many people reeling in shock and disbelief."
I don't want to share the entire story here on my blog because of it's graphic nature, but please do click the link to read the news article explaining the situation here.

Also visit Child's Hope to find out more about the organization that Dan is involved with, and Jeremiah's ministry.

"Please join us all in praying for Jeremiah and Beth and that the truth is brought out as loud as the National News broadcast these horrid accusations."

Thanks, Kathryn Pin It

I'm hooked

I never thought it would happen. I have become a true blogger. I read AND write blogs, I check them daily, and I laugh and cry with my fellow bloggers.  I sit in front of my screen and tears roll down my face as I read what other women have written, what they are living, how they draw others closer to God through their stories. I want to introduce you to two blogs that have blown me away recently.

The first is My Charming Kids.

This is the site I have had in my sidebar as a prayer request. God is doing miraculous things in this unborn baby's life and it's faith-challenging to watch. I love this blog because I am reminded to pray and that God responds to our prayers, and because the photos are so beautiful.

The second is Bring the Rain.

I read this one last night with tears falling like rain. God answered this family's prayers in a different way, and somehow the beauty of life and family is no more apparent than in this story. The pictures and words are beyond moving, and the Sovereignty of God shines through each detail. Here's an excerpt that I love:

(A 5 year old makes a picture for her newborn sister who has recently died)

"I want to give it to her, mommy.  I want to put it in her basket." 

They call her "casket" a "basket," and we don't correct them, because frankly, I like the idea of a basket better anyway.

"OK."  Now what do I say? How am I going to explain this to a 5 year old?

 She looked at me, waiting.

"So..should we put it in the mailbox, mommy? Will the man come and get it?"  

She wanted to understand the details of our new situation, and the truth at that moment was that I did too.

"Well, Abby, the great thing about heaven is that Audrey can see all of the things that we are doing down here.  AND, she can see what you made for her!  She can just look right into our house and see it."  I waited to see how this felt to her.

Without a word, she spoke life back into my tired bones.

She took the edges of the drawing delicately and lifted it high above her head, closer to her baby sister.  She had her head tipped back, looking upward, and after a few seconds, she closed her eyes and a smile made it's way across her face.

"She liked it, didn't she?" I asked her quietly.

She nodded, still glowing, and ran off to play.

I don't know where you are tonight, or what hurts you are holding up to God, but I will promise you this.  If you can just trust Him enough to bring it to Him, He will rejoice in your masterpiece.  And if you need to scream a little, know that you have a God who can take that too, as long as your face is tilted (even slightly) toward Him."

You need to go read some more of this blog, but make sure you have tissues handy.

Pin It

Healing

As the song says, I am being held. By love and prayers and really tight hugs.
I am healing, but I am not, as someone told me, "amazing". You might like to know that I too screamed at God in the night. Those words that came when I could not form any others, when anger was my first and all encompassing emotion. But as I came to the moment when my baby slipped away I felt the grace of God melt all of that anger into a sad acceptance. I don't know how He did it, but I know it wasn't me. He gives life, and He takes it, and he caresses my rage into gentle tears. He takes my chin in his hand and gently turns my head.
My girls are beautiful. They are happy and full of the promise of spring. They are muddy and sunkissed and stomping the last pile of snow, barefoot in bikinis. They are giggling in the bath and ask "Mom, what is that animal with a squarish nose that likes to go in the water sometimes, but lives on land? It's a something-bara". "A capybara.", I said. "Yes! We are capybaras and we have to wash our fur now." They are playing baseball and floating boats and drawing fairies and birds. All is right with girlhood at this glorious moment of spring. This, too, holds me. Pin It

Another Heaven-Birth

Last night we lost another 9 week baby. We don't know why, although we hope to get some kind of medical answer in the future. As we grieve we covet your prayers for our healing. Right now it seems like a reoccurring nightmare. This song could have come straight from my heart. Take some time to listen. (I double posted this on my other blog so no one would miss it.)

Held by Natalie Grant

Two months is too little.
They let him go.
They had no sudden healing.
To think that providence would
Take a child from his mother while she prays
Is appalling.

Who told us we'd be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?
We're asking why this happens
To us who have died to live?
It's unfair.

Chorus:
This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held.

This hand is bitterness.
We want to taste it, let the hatred numb our sorrow.
The wise hand opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow.

(Chorus)
This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held.

Bridge:
If hope is born of suffering.
If this is only the beginning.
Can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior? Pin It

The Sovereign Surgeon

I was starting to worry this morning and turned those thoughts into prayers. I was praying that God would guard and protect my daughter's hearts from emotional trauma and pain, and then I realized... that was not really what I wanted to pray for them. We all need experiences of pain over the course of our lives to make us deep, feeling, knowing, and loving people. And yet, some kinds of painful experiences can be be so devastating in a young person's life. They can be disabling and haunting. As I prayed for my girls, I asked the Lord to be the heart surgeon in their lives. That every cut that must be made, would be made by His expert hands; precisely, lovingly, for their good, and for His glory. Amen Pin It