She sat directly across from me in the Upper Room on a beautiful, warm Saturday morning. A white handkerchief covered her bare head, hiding the effects of massive amounts of chemo. A yellow shawl was draped loosely around her thinning body. A Bible rested comfortably on her knees, open to Psalm 29, the passage we had just read. Head tilted slight upward, eyes shut, a wide smile graced her face. Her close friend who had driven her to the gathering sat next to her. The love in the room was thick.
Earlier she had given us the news. “I just got such good results from the doctor,” she gushed. “A Pet Scan showed 80 percent of the tumors are gone. It’s so encouraging.” We all clapped and cheered. “Having some good days now as it’s between chemo treatments,” she explained. “I am so happy to be here among friends.” After the meeting, we had coffee and a little food as she said this was one of the few times she had an appetite. “After a treatment I get very sick for over a week and I can hardly eat.”
Lynda Peters is her name. Most of you don’t know her but she needs your prayers. We are going after the other 20 percent, asking God to drive the remaining cancer out of her body. Would you join us in praying for her?
An Extraordinary Sunday: One of the best as some 16 people were baptized in the Little Church baptismal, 13 kids and three adults. Very moving. Very special.
Pastor Toby baptizes one of the young disciples growing in the Lord under Toby’s training and shepherding. She and Kori and her helpers are doing a great job.
Love of God: a favorite worship song, written by Ryan Delmore, so beautifully sung by Kirsten Ford. Photo: Mary Hurlbut
A Beautiful Passage, on the love of God: “For I am persuaded beyond any doubt, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38,39
Prayer Focus This Week
- My niece Rhona undergoing a neurosurgical procedure next week through an open craniotomy to fix one or more cerebral aneurysms on the left side of her brain.
- Those struggling with stress in their marriage
- Pray for Tom Cies whose mother just passed
- Praise to God for the high school scholarship money raised at the BBQ last Sunday, twice what the goal was.
- And praise to God for Mark Blumenfeld’s testimony of receiving Christ at his wife’s memorial on Monday
- Connection for the men at the breakfast this Saturday
- National Day of Prayer coming up a week from Thursday
Final Thought: You never see the stars so clear as when you are in the desert.
Pastor Jay