Pray for Grace Amidst Desperation
Dearest friends & family,
I write to you asking for your prayers. I don't always know what specific requests to update this page with in a way that would not be repetetive or general, but today I write with a very specific purpose. This last Saturday two lives ended & many lives were forever changed.
Laura is a seven year old student at SI's Special Education School, Genesis. She was the second of twins, and while her brother Emilio has no physical or mental abnormalities, Laura is quite bright, but refined to a wheel chair with some different mental and physical handicaps of which I'm unsure of the diagnosis to tell you the names. Yesterday, Sunday, I spent some time in the presence of these two special children helping interpret for Sissy who's more closely connected to the students as the Physical Therapist at the school. Saturday afternoon, as Laura & Emilio's uncle was cleaning a pistol in the home, the gun fired & killed the mother of these two precious seven year old kids. I plead with you to join in intercession for these two & their family. Sadly, the tragedy does not end there. Emilio, if not Laura as well, witnessed the entire event. Their uncle is currently in prison. Since enbalming of the deceased is too expensive of a practice to take place here, the vie wing of the body was immediate that afternoon/evening, at which, the aunt of this young woman died (of a heart attack I assume), and the parents of the deceased, the grandparents of these children are both hospitalized at the point of heart attacks not wanting to accept all that is happening.
Please join many in lifting up these motherless children and this entire family! How do we pray after something like this happens? I still feel very much at a loss of words. I do believe God is God, God is good, God is sovereign & all-knowing. I think the God whose love is unconditional desires nothing more than to draw Laura, Emilio, their father, each member of this family & their friends who are mourning into His embrace & hold them close to His heart. I pray against guilt & blame. I pray for strength to continue on each day until finally someday the nightmare isn't so harshly real. I pray God may use death to draw others who are living like they're dead, apart from Him, to find life in Christ. I pray for His grace & mercy to flow down & cover each of their lives.
Yet again I'm struck by the shortness of life on this earth, especially as we try to grasp the concept of eternity. Each day we have breath is a gift to live to the fullest.