On Eagles' Wings Team Canada - Final Prayer Update
Dear Praying Friends,
I'm writing this final prayer update after our Team Canada finished up our last night of outreach for our Summer of Hope 2007. I write it with great appreciation to God for how he has used the team and for all the strength He has given us during many trying and difficult days. The challenge culminated for us personally 15 minutes prior to the start of our final night when LaDonna and I received deeply painful news from back home. But first...
We came to this, our ninth community, after seeing the power of God come down so mightily on the team in the past few days. But once again the faith of our team would be challenged, as the morning of our first day here I received a phone call from the local ministry leader telling us that the school administration had backed out on allowing us the use of their facilities for our outreach events. With less than 24 hours to the start of our final series of events, we had no place to go. Our team moved to prayer, and we waited for word from the leader what options we might have. Praise the Lord we got word from him that a local store owner would allow us to use his parking lot, which just so happened to have a basketball court set up at the edge. Though it was a tight squeeze for all our events, we made it work, and for three solid nights our Team Canada gave it everything they had to bring the Gospel to this needy community. It sounds redundant, but every night the hope stories of our team helped connect their lives with the lives of these hurting Native youth. Our events were well received, great relationships built fast, and nights one and two flew by. And then came night three, which would be one of the greatest challenges LaDonna and I would face.
We were filling up the RV in a nearby town so the team could have use of the generator to power the sound and electric gear when our cell phone rang. It was only 15 short minutes before the outreach would begin, and it was our son, Dallas, calling to let us know our precious first grandchild, Emma Grace, had just gone home to be with the Lord. Dallas and Elizabeth had been pregnant with twins, and right around Easter she was diagnosed with a rare condition called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. Emergency surgery on Good Friday saved baby Emma's life in the womb, but her twin sister Madeline did not survive. Since then, Elizabeth had been in a high risk pregnancy which had many peaks and valleys for us all in the months that led up to our being away on the Summer of Hope trip. On July 8, as we were making our way to our first outreach community in Fort Victory, our precious Emma came into the world. Throughout the whole trip LaDonna and I had been monitoring as best we could how she was doing in the neo-natal intensive care unit. The month was painfully difficult as she struggled for life, and our teams were much in prayer for her condition.
She improved over the past few days, and then was hit hard with an infection that her little body just could not recover from. She passed into the presence of the Lord in my son's arms, and her little hand grasping her mother's finger. That night as the invitation was given, I looked out of the RV window to see an incredible sight of many Native youth coming forward to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. It was an amazing moment that, in my own personal grief, God comforted my heart with the realization that Heaven will be populated with many more sons and daughters because of our OEW team's efforts. It was after the final outreach when we shared the news with the team, and that we were going to have to go home early to help prepare for the funeral of our much-loved firstborn granddaughter. We were able to change our flights home, and turned the final two day re-entry retreat to our trusted senior team leaders who would help the team celebrate the victories won during this Summer of Hope.
LaDonna and I are now back home, and had the awesome opportunity to hold our Emma Grace for the first time. Our hearts are full as we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. And that's what this Summer of Hope is all about. As hard as it was for us to be away during this family ordeal, and to know that we would not be able to see our firstborn granddaughter alive, we were comforted by the realization that we will one day see her in all her beauty and full of life because of the hope we have in Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul said in his letter to the Thessalonians, Wherefore comfort one another with these words... Heaven's population has just grown by not only Emma Grace, but eventually by hundreds of Native youth throughout North America who have trusted in Christ during this Summer of Hope.
Thank you for praying for us and please... don't stop now.
We came to this, our ninth community, after seeing the power of God come down so mightily on the team in the past few days. But once again the faith of our team would be challenged, as the morning of our first day here I received a phone call from the local ministry leader telling us that the school administration had backed out on allowing us the use of their facilities for our outreach events. With less than 24 hours to the start of our final series of events, we had no place to go. Our team moved to prayer, and we waited for word from the leader what options we might have. Praise the Lord we got word from him that a local store owner would allow us to use his parking lot, which just so happened to have a basketball court set up at the edge. Though it was a tight squeeze for all our events, we made it work, and for three solid nights our Team Canada gave it everything they had to bring the Gospel to this needy community. It sounds redundant, but every night the hope stories of our team helped connect their lives with the lives of these hurting Native youth. Our events were well received, great relationships built fast, and nights one and two flew by. And then came night three, which would be one of the greatest challenges LaDonna and I would face.
She improved over the past few days, and then was hit hard with an infection that her little body just could not recover from. She passed into the presence of the Lord in my son's arms, and her little hand grasping her mother's finger. That night as the invitation was given, I looked out of the RV window to see an incredible sight of many Native youth coming forward to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. It was an amazing moment that, in my own personal grief, God comforted my heart with the realization that Heaven will be populated with many more sons and daughters because of our OEW team's efforts. It was after the final outreach when we shared the news with the team, and that we were going to have to go home early to help prepare for the funeral of our much-loved firstborn granddaughter. We were able to change our flights home, and turned the final two day re-entry retreat to our trusted senior team leaders who would help the team celebrate the victories won during this Summer of Hope.