By now, most of you know that our good friend, Mindy, suffered a major stroke on Friday.  After being misdiagnosed and sent home, she was finally admitted Sunday afternoon.  She is in the ICU at Vanderbilt Hospital, and the doctors are doing the best they can to treat her.  Right now, she developed an infection, and the doctors are trying to figure out what it is in order to treat it.

Her three boys (Kyle-6, Micah-2, and Wesley-2 weeks) are doing fairly well, considering the circumstances.  There has been a rally of support to care for them and the whole family.  It truly has been a glimpse of the body of Christ this week.

For everyone, there has been a range of emotions this week, from fear to anger to guilt to sadness, even some joy.  It really is a rollercoaster.  Most of the time, it just feels too heavy to bear, too heavy to find hope, too heavy to see God.  But then, suddenly there will be a break, a wave of peace that sweeps over.  Maybe it is in some much needed laughter or a few hours of good rest.  Maybe it is in the sweet little snuggle of a new baby or an excellent dinner from a friend.  For me, it has come from our friend Lillian’s awesome organizational skills, knowing that everyone is having their basic needs met.

For the past few days, I have felt God whispering something to me over and over.  Then last night He sang it to me.  Do you ever have a time that you feel like a song at church is meant just for you?  That was last night.  It was a song by the band Gungor, and the chorus says, “You make beautiful things.  You make beautiful things out of the dust.  You make beautiful things.  You make beautiful things out of us.”  But it isn’t until later in the song that His message was repeated to me.  “You make me new.  You are making me new.”

Allister put on this same cd yesterday, too.  It is full of this same message.  “Jesus, you’re the one who saves us, constantly creates us into something new.  Jesus, surely you will find us, surely the Messiah will make all things new, will make all things new. ”

Over and over He keeps telling me, He makes all things new.

Revelation 21:5  And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

So this is my prayer.

Lord,

I pray that you do what you do best.  You take the broken, damage, degenerated, painful parts of us, and You make them new.  You are a God of healing, body and soul.  I pray that You continue to raise up the body of Christ to wrap their arms around this family, to be their strength when they have no strength, to pray when they cannot pray, to cry when they cannot cry, and to meet their needs.  I pray you keep showing us that You are here, never leaving her side.  I pray that her life, even in the hospital, will be a great testimony to Your love and glory.

Amen.

One amazing thing I have seen over the past few days is everyone’s ability to see and meet needs.   Normally we wait around until someone asks for help, and then we ask how we can help.  Or we ask if we can help, only to have the person to say they are fine, even though they are definitely not.  What I have seen here is different.  It isn’t waiting.  If someone sees a need, they meet it.  No questions.  Because sometimes, a person doesn’t know they need help until they are completely overwhelmed.  We don’t want anyone to get to this point.  There are so many needs.

So here are a few ways you can help.

Most importantly, you can pray.  Pray for Mindy, for healing and strength, for her body to fight hard.  Pray for the doctors, the nurses, everyone who has a role in her care.  Pray for Kevin to have strength to make it through another day, for energy and love and encouragement.  Pray for her boys, that they will be surrounded in love and support.  Pray for their families, as they care for the boys and as they have to go back home, that they will have peace and love surrounded them.  Pray for lots of continued help.  Pray for a band of angels to surround her at all times. Pray for all the things that we can’t remember to pray for.

Secondly, you can keep up to date on her condition and the family’s here. You can also leave comments and prayers here as well.

Also, if you want to help with day to day things, like groceries, mowing the grass, praying at the hospital, bringing meals, we have a Care Calendar set up.  Please email me, and I will send you the log-in information.

Finally, if you feel led to help financially, you may send monetary donations and/or gift cards for groceries or VISA gift cards. We’d love for their medical expenses, legal fees, family travel, etc. to be completely covered. You can send assistance to the address listed below.

Donations for Mindy, c/o Lillian Boeskool, PO Box 953, Brentwood, TN 37024

But please keep praying.  Your prayers mean more than we will ever know.  And thank you for showing me the body of Christ.

So after an hour and a half of sleep I left my house this morning at 3:45am to catch my 5:30 am flight.

I am a little tired.

But I am a lot excited. 

In about one hour I will board my plane in Atlanta and begin the three and a half hour flight to Guatemala City.  My gate is filled with people who either look to be going home or to visit loved ones. There are only a few of us who seem to be tourists. Even this early, it is filled with smiling faces, people expectant, people ready to be home. 

As I am leaving home, I am feeling a lot: joy for this incredible opportunity, sadness to leave my snuggle buddies, pain (this chiropractor is killing me), a little scared of what’s to come, and just plain tired.  I wonder if these people aren’t feeling the same.

As I leave, I am praying that my words be few, my arms be wide open, and my heart be big.

So I realized that I haven’t talked much about what I will be doing in Guatemala.  I am super excited about it, and I want to share it with everyone.

Sunday morning my flight leaves the Nashville airport at 5:30am.  It is a totally terrible time to fly, but it means that we arrive in  Guatemala city at 11am, which is pretty amazing.  On the first day, we will be going to Mama Carmen‘s orphanage, which houses approximately 60 children, from infant to 17.  There we will be passing out supplies and having craft and play time with the kids, as well as teaching them some Bible stories.

Monday, we will spend the morning back at Mama Carmen’s playing more with the kids, then we will be heading out in the afternoon to a state run orphanage, Hogar Solidario, which houses approximately 300 girls.  Here we will pass out supplies and play with girls. This will be a very different orphanage from Mama Carmen’s though, very institutionalized.

Early Tuesday morning, we will leave for the city of Xela, the second largest city in Guatemala.  It is a four hour, windy trip through the mountains.  Outside of Xela is the orphanage where we will be spending the remainder of our trip.  It is called Cerecaif and is home to approximately 60 children, ages 4-16.  Cerecaif was the dream of a couple from Mexico who gave up their lives there to give a much needed home to the children of Guatemala.  The orphanage is now run by their two daughters, Lourdes and Teresa, who carry on their work by caring for 60 children, day in and day out, not just giving them a place to stay, but making them a home.

Obviously, as anyone would,  these women need a little extra help from time to time.  We will be going and doing some practical things: painting, sewing sheets, cooking and giving cooking lessons, laundry (They do laundry for all 60 people by hand.  By hand people!), giving haircuts (that’s my job).  Some of the women are going to be doing some special things for the girls, such as doing their nails and some basic makeup, and teaching them to make jewelry.  Then, most importantly, we get to play with these super amazing kids and teach them about the Jesus.  Overall, I pray we will be able to be extra hands and feet for these sweet ladies, that we can take some of the burden off of them for a few days and that we can just share Christ’s love with them and the kiddos.

We will fly back Saturday morning, super early again.  I’ll be home by probably around 4pm.

If you are interested in keeping track of where we are and what we’ll be doing, you can check either Orphan Outreach’s blog or their facebook page.  I will definitely be posting a lot of pictures when I get back, as well.

As for now, I am finishing up my preparations.  I have one suitcase already packed full of toys and supplies for the kids.  I am working on some clothespin dolls to take to them today and trying to get Allister packed to leave tomorrow to go to Memaw and Papaw’s house for the week. I am trying to fully comprehend what I am getting ready to do.

For those of you who pray, please pray.  For the trip, for my team, for these kids, for these women who sacrifice themselves daily to care for these children.  And maybe a little pray that my back won’t die along the way (as it feels it may right now.)

Thank you for your support and love and prayers.

I recently started seeing a new chiropractor.  This is super scary to me since my last one has left me with chronic hip pain.  I’ve had at least 5 people recommend me to the one I am going to now, swearing that he is a miracle worker.  Needless to say, I am a skeptic, but my pain wins out over my skepticism.  I have been going for a couple weeks.  Today I mentioned that I think I have a rib out of place (something that happens occasionally to me and apparently not very many other people since everyone thinks I am crazy if I mention it.)  Sure enough, there it is was, all wonky.  Turns out that putting it back into place is 1,212 times more painful than the original displaced rib.

Looking at my xrays the first day, Dr. Josh talked about where my spine needs some help.

This is a picture of a normal spine. 

This is a picture of my spine.

I guess I have more work to do.

Instead of the normal Sunday morning worship this week, our church did something a little bit different.  No Saturday night service, none of the normal three Sunday morning services.  Instead, we had one huge service Sunday night outside by the pond.  We had a giant baptism service, where between 150 and 200 people got baptized, where we worshiped and shared our stories, and where we got to celebrate as one giant church body.

I was one of the 150.

I know this seems strange.  I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was four years old.  I have grown up in the church my entire life.  I went to Christian camps and a Christian college.  How did I miss something so fundamental that Jesus tells us to do?

Well, I had already done it.  Not me exactly.  My family.  I was baptized as a small child, before I could remember, not because I had chosen to identify myself with Christ but out of tradition.  Turns out, there were a lot of people there Sunday night that were just like me.

Somehow I made into adulthood never realizing that this was something I should have done.  The last few years I have been hearing God tell me to do it, quietly whispering it to me every few months. And I have quietly ignored him the last several years.  I didn’t want to draw attention away from someone who may have just been saved, but I always felt I was missing out on something.

Recently, my five year old asked Jesus into his heart.  He did it entirely on his own.  He had been asking us questions for months, wondering how it all works.  Several times he started to do it and then decided he wasn’t ready.  One morning, a month or so back, he looked at me during breakfast, grinned really big, and said, “Mama, guess what I did last night. I was praying and looking at my Bible, and I decided to ask Jesus into my heart.”  After the initial surprise and a little bit of hurt feelings (I always thought he would ask us to pray with him), I realized that his way was better.  He decided to do this.  On his own.  After that we talked to him about baptism and why we do it, and he asked when we did.  Earl had an answer, but I did not.  To which he responded, “Why don’t you just do it then?”  Good question.  Right after, the announcement about the baptism was in our bulletin, and I couldn’t ignore it.  How could I tell my son to obey what God tells us to do if I didn’t?

In the end, I did it out of obedience.  There have been far too many times that God has asked me to do something, and I have just said no.  Far too many times that I have been too afraid, too busy, too tired, too selfish.  I did it for the simple reason that Jesus did it, and he tells us to, as well.  And it felt good.

I know that there is nothing magical about that dirty cold water (I was one of the very last ones) in a horse trough on that stage on a beautiful night in Tennessee.  I know that the work Christ has done has already happened within me.  It is a symbol of what happened to me the moment I turned away from sin and toward God.  I was buried with Christ, buried of my old, dead self and raised to walk in a new life.  Though I know this new life began twenty-six years ago, there really was something incredible about standing as one among a group of 150 dripping wet people, worshipping the God that truly does save, truly does set people free, truly does bring new life.  I am glad to belong to Him.