Thursday, August 11, 2005
The Lord is Faithful
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I planned on blogging an update on my sister, but I am so utterly exhausted from our travel and getting settled back at home that I just don't have it in me to create much of a post. I will copy (with a few edits) a email I sent to our pastors and prayer team.
My eyes are teary with relief and praise. We finally have a report of praise to share with you all who have been so loving to labor with us through prayer and support. Mom told me Tuesday (the day before we left Oregon that we could leave messages with Abi on her cell
phone even though it was out of minutes, so I called and left one. She called back within a few hours and said she wanted to meet us and was willing to take steps toward healing. We met with her at 3pm, bought her lunch and had a long talk. Judging from behavior and physical appearance, she has indeed been 'sober' since we last saw her (about a week). She looked significantly more healthy and acted like my old sis again, witty and keen.
So we had a sober girl with a willing heart who was ready to listen and reason with us, praise God. My heart sang praises at that alone! Then we "just" needed, in a matter of hours, somekind of short term yet immediate treatment. Most low-cost in-patient treatment places are always full and most that cost are nearly $3,000 a week. After two hours of calling with her on a cell phone from a Honeybaked Ham, we were able to find a sober/safe house for women. They just happened to have two immediate openings and the girl we spoke with bent over backwards to try and get Abi a quick entrance interview the next morning at 11am, just 3 hours before we had to leave for the airport! My husband took her to the interview while I packed. This whole episode brought out the qualities for which I married Tommy. He has a heart for grace filled righteousness and to love the lost. He has been more than patient and loving to my often difficult family.
Abi was accepted and allowed to move in immediately. Tommy paid her first month rent, made sure she had food and we left to get on the plane! Tommy said when he hugged Abi and left, all the girls there cried. I pray that we might be vessels of blessing and Good News to the women there. This house seems a perfect first step. It is a safe place to live which will require her to be responsible for herself and they have a zero drug tolerance, which were our short term goals. Praise God!
I knew that the Lord might ask me to have even more long term faithfulness without a change in Abi or perhaps suffer a final tragedy of loss. I prayed that I might praise Him and trust Him regardless of what happened to my sister. Yet I also prayed that God would send deliverance so that we could praise His faithful name with joy instead of tears, and He has so kindly, with dramatic timing, answered our prayers, to His glory. I had been praying with the passage in John about Lazarus, where it says that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, "SO" he waited two days to go to them after Lazarus died. Because He loved them, he delayed, so that their joy might be more full, by seeing the glory of the Lord with greater power. Indeed, God has mightily shown His faithfulness and cemented in our hearts the importance and power of prayer. Both Tommy and I are certainly changed and refined. Thank you to all who offered prayers. There is still a long road before Abi, but I pray that a corner has been turned. We pray that she will stabilize at this place while we work to get her into a long term program.
My eyes are teary with relief and praise. We finally have a report of praise to share with you all who have been so loving to labor with us through prayer and support. Mom told me Tuesday (the day before we left Oregon that we could leave messages with Abi on her cell
phone even though it was out of minutes, so I called and left one. She called back within a few hours and said she wanted to meet us and was willing to take steps toward healing. We met with her at 3pm, bought her lunch and had a long talk. Judging from behavior and physical appearance, she has indeed been 'sober' since we last saw her (about a week). She looked significantly more healthy and acted like my old sis again, witty and keen.
So we had a sober girl with a willing heart who was ready to listen and reason with us, praise God. My heart sang praises at that alone! Then we "just" needed, in a matter of hours, somekind of short term yet immediate treatment. Most low-cost in-patient treatment places are always full and most that cost are nearly $3,000 a week. After two hours of calling with her on a cell phone from a Honeybaked Ham, we were able to find a sober/safe house for women. They just happened to have two immediate openings and the girl we spoke with bent over backwards to try and get Abi a quick entrance interview the next morning at 11am, just 3 hours before we had to leave for the airport! My husband took her to the interview while I packed. This whole episode brought out the qualities for which I married Tommy. He has a heart for grace filled righteousness and to love the lost. He has been more than patient and loving to my often difficult family.
Abi was accepted and allowed to move in immediately. Tommy paid her first month rent, made sure she had food and we left to get on the plane! Tommy said when he hugged Abi and left, all the girls there cried. I pray that we might be vessels of blessing and Good News to the women there. This house seems a perfect first step. It is a safe place to live which will require her to be responsible for herself and they have a zero drug tolerance, which were our short term goals. Praise God!
I knew that the Lord might ask me to have even more long term faithfulness without a change in Abi or perhaps suffer a final tragedy of loss. I prayed that I might praise Him and trust Him regardless of what happened to my sister. Yet I also prayed that God would send deliverance so that we could praise His faithful name with joy instead of tears, and He has so kindly, with dramatic timing, answered our prayers, to His glory. I had been praying with the passage in John about Lazarus, where it says that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, "SO" he waited two days to go to them after Lazarus died. Because He loved them, he delayed, so that their joy might be more full, by seeing the glory of the Lord with greater power. Indeed, God has mightily shown His faithfulness and cemented in our hearts the importance and power of prayer. Both Tommy and I are certainly changed and refined. Thank you to all who offered prayers. There is still a long road before Abi, but I pray that a corner has been turned. We pray that she will stabilize at this place while we work to get her into a long term program.
1 Comments:
At 8/13/2005 9:43 PM,
Renae in St. Louis said…
A faithful spouse willing to sacrifice, love, and serve through such difficult situations has got to be one of the most wonderful blessings God gives us to get us through until sin is no more.
What a beautiful picture of Christ's love for his church. Thank you for sharing it.
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