Brittany and Abigail Hensel

A couple of weeks ago, I saw (for the second time) a documentary on the TLC channel about two remarkable girls named Brittany and Abigail Hensel. These girls are an amazing inspiration, phsyically and spiritually. Their story is an amazing inspiration.

http://www.hemmy.net/2007/06/15/peers-into-the-lives-of-two-headed-twins/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFs8TnUX9Fs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKWApOAG2g&feature=related

Team Hoyt

I saw a video on Team Hoyt this past summer while volunteering at a Joni and Friends family retreat. It was tear-jerking, not only because the story is so inspiring, but because I think it such a picture of how our Heavenly Father helps us to run the race.

Here are some videos on YouTube, (The third link is the exact video that I saw this past summer).

Team Hoyt: An Inspiring Story of Courage and Dedication
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AcsQ-NUPJQ

The Inspirational Journey of Team Hoyt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrRkW7koAQ&mode=related&search=

Together: Team Hoyt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10&mode=related&search=

Put Hope in Motion

I have blogged previously about Bethany Hamilton - a young surfer who lost an arm in a shark attack. Bethany has now teamed up with World Vision to raise support for disabled children around the world. Her mission is called Put Hope in Motion.

Here is an excerpt from her website:

Aloha, and thanks for visiting my fundraising page!

I'm so excited to be able to use my surfing to help children in crisis through World Vision. I've chosen to focus on the needs of disabled children around the world, and I hope you'll join me by making a donation that will help provide them care, support, and hope.

Did you know that there are 120 million disabled children worldwide, and less than 2% of them have access to education? Worse yet, many of these kids are abandoned or neglected by family or society. When I heard that World Vision has programs around the world designed to help release the potential that God has given each one of these children, I knew I had to take part.

Here are some ways your donation can help special needs children:

$25 helps pay for a prosthetic limb for a child
$50 helps pay for the building of a therapeutic rehabilitation center
$75 helps pay for mine clearance in rural areas
$160 provides a pediatric surgery
$250 provides a wheelchair for a child

One of my favorite Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Won't you help me show the world's children that this is true for them also -- no matter what challenge they face? Thank you for joining me in this effort!

Mahalo, Bethany

In Our Hearts, We Were Giants

I saw a small portion of a program on the History Channel last night. It was about a family of dwarves that were sent to Auschwitz during WWII and experimented on by Josef Mengele for nine months. Amazingly, the family of 12 (seven of whom were little people) as well as ten other friends and neighbors (who pretended to be related) were all spared and survived the Holocaust. The Ovitz family is the only family to escape the SS killing complex completely intact.

Perla Ovitz, one of the seven siblings, said: 'If I ever questioned why I was born a dwarf, my answer must be that my handicap was God's way of keeping me alive.'

After the family left Auschwitz, they relocated to Haifa, Israel where they resumed the music and comedy stage show that they performed in before the war. They achieved much fame and success and all lived to ripe old ages.

I am inspired by this story, not only because it shows courage and strength but also because of the irony. Hitler was a powerful man and many strong men died as his hand. It is ironic to me that the weak, little ones are who survived. We hear a lot about "survival of the fittest" and about disabled people being "weak." And yet, it was because of the Orvitz's physical weakness that spared their lives and gave them the strength after the war to go on with fruitful lives, rather than sinking into a realm of defeat, despair and self-pity.

Unlike Job and the Orvitz siblings, not many of us with disabilities will ever get a clear and direct answer from the mouth of God as to why He made us the way that He did. But, like Perla Orvitz, we can all say that God had intentional purposes of love and mercy behind why He chose to make us the way that he did.

Heaven forbid that God ever have to answer our persistent grumblings and "why God's?" with an answer as painfully specific as the Holocaust. Maybe we should just have faith that He knows what He is up to and not risk having to be told all of the answers.

If you are interested in learning more about the Orvitz family, click here.

Here are some other links as well:

Doctor Death and the Seven Dwarfs
The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz

Here is an Amazon link to the biography written about the Ovitz family.

Krista on the Radio!

You may remember my friend Krista from a story that I posted on this blog back on January 23, 2005. (If you haven't read it, click here).

I just received an e-mail informing me that Krista has been interviewed. Here is information on where to go to hear that program! (Way to go, Krista!)

Krista was interviewed as a part of the radiothon described below. She will be on the radio sometime during this coming weekend. We don't know when, but you can hear the interview on the KS95 website starting Friday morning, by following the instructions below.

Tune in to the 8th annual KS95 for Kids® Radiothon, broadcast live March 3-5 from Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka. During the past seven years, this premier fundraising event has generated more than $7.7 million for Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare and Children's Cancer Research Fund. To hear the courageous stories of kids battling cancer and living with disabilities, tune in to 94.5 KS95 FM or log on to www.ks95.com

Krista's story and photo is also featured under "Meet the Kids" at :http://www.ks95.com/ex.html

Go to KS95.com

Click on KS95 for Kids

Click on Meet the Kids

Click on Krista Horning

Click on the link to listen at the top of their story

Jaqui Saburido

Jacqui's story is painfully inspiring. As a 20-year old college student back in 1999, she came to the U.S. for a short visit to take some English classes. She was hit be a 19-year old drunk driver. Of the four people in Jacqui's car, two died, two survived. Jacqi, one of the survivers, was pinned under the dashboard of the passanger side and 60% of her body was burned after the engine caught fire and spead to the inside of the car.

Miraculously, she survived.

Jacqui is now living with her father in the U.S., far from her family and friends so she can get the medical attention she needs. She has had 50 surgeries already.

Jacqui's website is: www.helpjacqui.com

There is a link on the home page to a power-point slide show that tells her story and show before and after pictures.

There is also an address where you can send notes of encouragement to Jacqui. It is:

Help Jacqui
P.O. Box 27667
Austin, TX 78755

Jacqui has told her story on Oprah as well as appearing in a state-wide Drunk Driving poster campaign in Austin, TX.

The boy who hit Jacqui is now serving two consecutive 7-year prison sentences for manslaughter. He will get out of prison when he turns 28.

It is a humbling thought to see how quickly a person's whole life can change -- one foolish choice -- and a young girl winds up severely deformed, and a young boy winds up in prison for 14 year. I don't want to take only pity and judgment away with me after having read this story, but to pray for both Jacqui and the drunk driver. Both lives, and the lives of all their family and friends, have been forever changed.

Rosemarie Siggins

Rosemarie Siggins, who the media has dubbed, "The Woman With Half a Body" has an extraordinary story. She was born with legs but shortly after birth had them both amputated due to the onset of a rare genetic condition.

Rosemarie's story is one of those jaw droppers -- and not because she doesn't have legs. She is amazing because she is happy, well-adjusted and lives a life more completely normal than those who can boast of being "completely normal."

She is married, works a job, drives a car, even had a baby. Nothing seems to stop her. Her story is inspiring and so is her personality.

The last link (below) gives a more recent update, including information that Rosemarie and her husband Dave are expecting their second child in January!

Here are some links to some stories about Rosemarie.

The Woman With Half a Body
Rosemaire Siggins
Jeffery R. Werner's Page

Terukuni Fujii

Here is a very personal story from the Taipei Times archives that I thought was very insightful. Though I was sometimes teased, I certainly never experienced any persecution or cultural ostracism to this level.

It is the story of a Japanese man named Terukuni Fujii who developed a mark of some sort on his face when he was two years old that developed into benign tumor that grew to deform his face. He seems to have overcome all the odds as I see he is currently a professor of Science of Nursing at a university.

Fujji is now 46 years old. There is a small photo of him included in the article.

Here is a quote from Fujii from the article:

With the release of his autobiography, entitled Face of Destiny, last October, Fujii became a torch bearer for 1 million people in Japan with deformed faces.

"Many of those people tend to cloister themselves at home as others look daggers at them," Fujii said in a recent interview.

"I urge those people to go out and tell others `I suffer, my heart aches,'" from the way they are treated, said Fujii, who has frequently been spat at in the street.

"I have been saying the same thing for two decades ... but there are finally moves to break down the invisible wall" between the handicapped and others, he said.

Beauty in the Beast

Beauty in the Beast is a book written by Sally Klein O'Connor. The subtitle of the book is, Breaking the Spell of the Mirror and her tagline is, "For those who look into mirrors and see only what they are not."

You can read the first chapter of the book on her website. Sally also has a music ministry and her website includes concert information, songs, photos, as well as a place to sign up for her newsletter.

Here is the write up about the book:
When she was eight years old, Sally was bitten by a dog on her face. It was not the mark that caused the most damage, but the cruelty of her peers calling her "Scarface." The name nurtured the teeth and claws of the beast in Sally's soul. As she grew up, she bought into the lies that she could never be really accepted by those around her -- and especially by herself.

But the One who made her in His image began to speak the truth into her heart. As God continues to restore her, Sally is learning to see the beauty of the One who calls her His own and that His beauty lives inside her.

Kyle Maynard

Last night, Larry King Live featured a 20-year old congenital amputee named Kyle Maynard. I was really encouraged by his testimony, faith, and chutzpah, as they say. He just wrote a book entitled, No Excuses.

Here is a brief review:
Born a congenital amputee -- missing his limbs below the elbows and knees -- 19-year-old college student Kyle Maynard has excelled at nearly everything he has attempted in life: from playing middle school football, to becoming a high school wrestling champion, to breaking world records in weightlifting. Now, in No Excuses: The Inspiring True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life, he tells how a devoted family, a strong religious faith, and a "No Excuses" attitude toward his handicaps helped him accomplish so much so early in his young life.

It was amazing to see footage of Kyle driving his car, getting dressed, wrestling, playing football, and numerous other things that would be difficult even with all four of your limbs! I hate to use the cliché word "inspiring" but he truly is.

Clcik here to view Kyle's official website.

I am always drawn to people who beat impossible odds and after having done so, their demeanor is one of genuine joy and humility. Kyle is definitely one of those people. He seems to exude so much confidence and kindness. No hint of self-pity over what he has suffered, nor an ounce of pride over what he has since achieved.

I am intrigued that Larry King continues to have people like Kyle and Joni Eareckson Tada and Scott Burrows (Murderball) on his show (among others). It seems thatpeople in wheelchairs who are extremely high-achieving, happy people seems to stymie him. I am glad that they get the airtime though. These are the kinds of stories that need to be told.

Julianna Whetmore

Many months ago, I linked to a newspaper story about a young girl named Julianna Whetmore. My mom happened to be watching the TLC channel the other night and a one-hour program entitled, "Borm Without a Face" came on. She taped it for me and I watched it this afternoon. It turns out that the program is about Julianna. Check the TLC listings. If it is re-aired at any point, it is well worth seeing.

Julianna's parents are courageous and loving people. It was interesting for me to see Julianna's story told through their perspective - it gave me a unique angle to my own situation and all that my own parents probably went through in the early days when no one knew what was wrong with me or if I had any future at all. It also reminded me, once again, that there is never room for self pity, because even those of us who have suffered much -- there is always someone who has suffered more.

Please be praying for Julianna. She is only two or three now and will need a lot more surgery. I have included some links that tell her story, show some pictures, as well as a mailing address should you want to write the Whetmore's a letter of encouragement.

Here is a link to a local newspaper story about Julianna

Here are some photos of Julianna taken at birth

If you would like to send Julianna a letter:

JULIANA WETMORE
c/o THOM AND TAMI WETMORE
P.O. BOX 65852
ORANGE PARK, FLORIDA 32065

Donna Yeatman Brown

I was at a Sister Kenny clinic this morning getting some physical therapy done on a minor neck injury (compliments of the gym...proof I never should have attempted rigerous exercise!) On the wall in the waiting room was a beautiful oil painting of a frozen-over river in the wintertime. Next to the paining was a small bio of the artist. Here is what it said:

Donna Yeatman Brown
Council Bluffs, IA

Disabled since birth, Donna grasps paintbrushes between her elbows where her arms stop. Her disability affected both legs, also requiring her to use an artificial limb. She is married, has three daughters and does all her own cooking, cleaming, and shopping, drives a car, and does volunteer work for schools and Girl Scouts.

I was amazed. I presume Donna's painting was on the wall because she must have been enrolled in the Sister Kenny rehabilitation treatment program. Here is some history behind the program:

Did you know that Sister Kenny was not a nun? Elizabeth Kenny was born in Australia in 1880. She was trained as an army nurse and treated the sick for 31 years in the bushlands of Australia. She acquired the title "Sister" -- used in British countries for "nurse."

In 1911, when she encountered her first case of polio, Sister Kenny was unaware of conventional polio treatment -- immobilizing the affected muscles with splints. Instead, she used common sense and her understanding of anatomy to treat the symptoms of the disease. Sister Kenny applied moist hotpacks to help loosen muscles, relieve pain, and enable limbs to be moved, stretched, and strengthened. The theory of her treatment was muscle "re-education" -- the retraining of muscles so that they could function again.

In 1940, Sister Kenny traveled to the United States and eventually to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where, in 1942, the Sister Kenny Institute was established. Sister Kenny's pioneering principles of muscle rehabilitation became the foundation of physical therapy. Today, Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Services is one of the premier rehabilitation centers in the country, known for its progressive and innovative vision.

Carolyn

On Thursday, Oprah had a woman on her show named Carolyn. The media has dubbed her "The Woman Without a Face" but having similar things said about me, I choose to call her by her name, Carolyn.

Carolyn was shot at point-blank range in the face by an enraged boyfriend a year and a half ago. Her story will air on the Discovery Health Channel on a program entitled, "Plastic Surgery: Before and After." For more program information, check out their website at: www.discovery.com/health.

For more information on Carolyn and her dramatic and inspiring ordeal, go to Oprah's website: http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200505/tows_past_20050526.jhtml

To view a slideshow click here: http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200505/20050526/slide_20050526_101.jhtml

The Good, Insane Concordance Maker

Here is the latest online article written by John Piper. The article has been taken from http://www.desiringgod.org/.

May 11, 2005

There’s a catch to this story that comes later. I hope you read to the end. I think you’ll be encouraged. I was. I read in a recent issue of Books and Culture a review (by Timothy Larsen) of a new biography of Alexander Cruden, the man who single-handedly wrote one of the early concordances to the King James Bible (Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Who Unwrote the Bible by Julia Keay). That means he recorded every one of the 777,746 words in the Bible and made a note of every place where it occurs. For example, the word “him” (6,667 occurrences), “her” (1,994 occurrences), “God” (4,444 occurrences), etc.

In the mid-1720s, Alexander Cruden took on a self-imposed task of Herculean proportions, Himalayan tedium, and inhuman meticulousness: he decided to compile the most thorough concordance of the King James Version of the Bible to date. The first edition of Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737. How could he have possibly completed such a project? Every similar undertaking before or since has been the work of a vast team of people—in recent times made incomparably easier by computers. Cruden worked alone in his lodgings, writing the whole thing out by hand. The KJV has 777,746 words, all of which needed to be put in their proper place. Cruden even wrote explanatory entries on many of the words—in effect, including a Bible dictionary as a bonus. The word “Synagogue,” for example, prompted a 4,000-word essay.

Furthermore, Cruden’s day job was as a “Corrector of the Press” (proofreader). He would give hawk-eyed attention to prose all day long. Then he would come home at night, not to rest his eyes and enjoy some relaxation, but rather to read the Bible—stopping at every single word to secure the right sheet from the tens of thousands of pieces of paper all around him and to record accurately the reference in its appropriate place. He had no patron, no publisher, no financial backers: his only commission was a divine one.

Cruden’s Concordance has never been out of print. Some hundred editions have been published, many of which have been reprinted untold times; shoppers at a popular online bookstore today can choose from 18 different in-print versions of Cruden’s.

For this, thousands of lovers of the Bible thank God. They have studied the Bible seriously for almost three hundred years with Cruden’s help. If this is all we knew, we would simply be amazed at his industry and give thanks. But here’s the catch. He was, if not insane, utterly maladjusted.

Cruden was institutionalized for madness four times in his life. His behavior was often bizarre.

On another occasion, Cruden had apparently gone to break up a brawl but ended up spending the best part of an hour admonishing disorderly soldiers not to swear while periodically whacking them on the head with a shovel. He also would propose to women with whom he had established no romantic bond (one such intended he had not even met). Being unable to take no for an answer, he would then turn himself into a persistent nuisance, if not a stalker.

Eventually he decided that God’s call on his life was to reform the morals of Britain. “He therefore started a one-man campaign to have the King name him to a position hitherto unknown in British government, ‘Corrector of the People.’ He then went rambling about the country admonishing strangers to observe the Sabbath.”

He simply could not discern what was fitting and probable. This meant he did foolish things. But not all foolish things are bad. “He did not know—as all normal people do—that when a man gets propositioned he can feel sad for the plight of the prostitute, but there is really nothing he can do to help. Cruden instead hired her to do legitimate work, and she lived a respectable and grateful life thereafter.”

On another occasion “Cruden did not know that a prisoner’s case was never reconsidered when he was only a few days away from execution. He went at this campaign in his usual obsessive and forthright way and pulled off a political miracle—the man’s sentence was reduced to deportation.”

What encourages me about this is to realize that God’s ways are strange. “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). And in this strangeness, sinful and sick and broken people fit into God’s designs. He has purposes for the mentally ill and for the emotionally unstable and for the socially maladjusted. And he has purposes for you.

As Timothy Larsen observes, Cruden did not have the sense to know that “one man working alone in his bedroom could not produce a complete concordance of the Bible.” And from this folly millions have been blessed. Beware of belittling God’s crooked sticks. With them he may write the message that that makes a thousand people glad.

Looking for merciful design everywhere,

Pastor John

John Farese

IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN AFFLICTED
The testimony of John Farese

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver. Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments. Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, Because I have hoped in Your word. I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, According to Your word to Your servant. Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For Your law is my delight. (Psa 119:71-77)

And He (God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being... Acts 17:26-28a

John Farese lives in Florida with his brother Paul and sister-in-law Janis and their four children. He enjoys a very productive life, is keenly interested in a variety of sports, and has a special involvement in information technology, including the maintenance of his own Web site. He has been disabled since birth, is paralysed in both arms and legs, and has been unable to sit up for over five years.

I came into this world on 27 August 1956, the second of Vincent and Joan Farese's seven children. My older brother Bernie was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a severely crippling disease that meant that he was never able to walk. So was I - and a younger sister Tina. In each case, the doctors told my parents that the child concerned would not live beyond its eighth birthday. Tina died of pneumonia when she was four years old.

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, and quietly accepted the doctrines taught to me by my parents and the parish priest, especially the idea that a person got right with God by obeying the sacraments of the church. At one stage I was told that if I recited forty-five prayers from a particular Catholic prayer book every day for a whole year I would escape the pains of purgatory and hell, and be immediately accepted into heaven when I died. I never missed a day - but had no assurance that my discipline would pay off.

One special highlight I remember was a trip to Lourdes, in France. My mother took my brother Bernie and me there to seek healing from the Blessed Virgin Mary - but we came back home in exactly the same state as before.

My early years were spent in suburban Boston, Massachusetts, but when I was fifteen my father's business relocated our family to Florida, so we all moved south. Leaving behind relatives and friends in whom I had found a sense of security was devastating to me, yet in God's providence it was to prove the best move of my life. Brought up in a city where Catholicism was a dominant factor, I had come to believe that anyone outside of that tradition was beyond salvation. Yet four months after moving to Fort Lauderdale, and when I was still home-sick for Boston, our next door neighbour invited my mother to a home Bible study. Although we had a large white family Bible in our home, it was hardly ever opened, and I was shocked when my mother accepted the invitation. There was another shock when she agreed to the Bible study leader's suggestion that her son, who was then a freshman at Florida Bible College, might come and talk about the Christian faith to my brother and me

That visit, and others which followed, had very different sequels. Bernie and I were so impressed by what John Tardonia told us about Jesus Christ as the one and only Saviour that we both gave intellectual assent to the gospel of grace and said a 'sinner's prayer'. In Bernie's case, this marked a dramatic change. He began to pray, study the Bible and go to church, and eventually enrolled in Bible College. Even more marked was a radical change in his lifestyle, which now seemed driven by a daily desire to please God.

In my case, the only change was for the worse. I had made some new friends whose lifestyle was rampantly self-centred and immoral, and I pitched in with them, determined not to let my disability keep me from enjoying life to the full. For the next twelve years gambling, heavy drinking, marijuana abuse, weekly visits to strip clubs and frequent engagements with call girls provided a means of escape from the pain, loneliness and emptiness I was experiencing.

Some years after Bernie and I went our separate ways, my younger brother Paul, who was a popular athlete in high school, joined me in the sex and drugs scene, until he went away to College on an athletic scholarship. During his first term, he got into so much trouble that he was on the verge of being expelled, yet when he came home for Christmas two months later there had been an amazing change. Like Bernie, he had become a committed Christian, and he was soon urging me to turn away from my dissolute lifestyle and get right with God. I knew in my heart that he was right, and even prayed with tears that God would change my life, but I loved what I was doing, and found myself unable to break my destructive habits.

At this point Bernie gave me a Bible, which I promised to read, but it sat unopened on a shelf for the next six months, while I went back to gambling, sex and drugs. Yet there was a difference. For the first time, I began to feel uncomfortable doing what had given me such undisturbed pleasure before. I kept remembering my conversations with Paul and my promise to Bernie that I would read the Bible. These nagging thoughts eventually became so strong that I took the Bible down and began to read it. I began at the first page, and in three months had read it right through - but by then I too had become a Christian. It was while I was reading the Sermon on the Mount that God opened my eyes to the truth about my sin, the inability of religion to deal with it, and the need to repent and trust in Jesus Christ as my own personal Saviour. As I did, I was given an assurance that my sins had been forgiven and that I had become a true child of God.

Like most new Christians, I found myself full of zeal. I wanted to be baptized, join a Bible-believing church, and do whatever I could to serve others. I remembered Jesus had said that he 'did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Matthew 20:28) and that 'no servant is greater than his master' (John 13:16). Being bedridden, I was not sure that I could contribute anything to others, but by the grace of God I am able to be of energetic service in ways far beyond anything I had imagined.

In light of my physical condition, I am often asked the age-old question, 'How can an all-powerful God of love allow you to suffer in this way? Surely the Bible says that God always does what is right? Yes it does - and he does! I have come to see that suffering is one of the many ways in which God demonstrates his unfailing love to those who have come to put their trust in him. Writing out of his own painful experience, the Psalmist says, 'It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees' (Psalm 119:71) - and I gladly endorse every word of that testimony.

Among other things, suffering empties us of pride and self-dependence, and makes us realize our complete dependence upon God. When we reach the point where we have nowhere to turn except to God, we begin to get a clearer view of who and what he is. Day by day, I am discovering more and more of his wisdom, love and grace. I am also finding that God's power is made perfect in my weakness, and that 'when I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Jesus went through appalling suffering, physical, mental and spiritual, yet at the end of it all he was to 'see the light of life and be satisfied' (Isaiah 53:11). I count it a privilege to experience in some small way 'the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings' (Philippians 3:10) Although I am bedridden, struggle to breathe comfortably, and often have to contend with painful bed sores, I count them as 'light and momentary troubles' (2 Corinthians 4:17) For all the difficulties they cause, I know that they are achieving for me 'an eternal glory that far outweighs them all' (2 Corinthians 4:17) How trivial they will all seem in the light of the eternal bliss that awaits God's children in the world to come!

One of the psalmists wrote, Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me' (Psalm 66:16) - and I gladly do so. He has turned my mourning into laughter and my desolation into joy. He has made my heart rejoice with 'an inexpressible and glorious joy' (1 Peter 1:8). When I struggled to escape from his grace, he drew me to himself. I bear witness that never servant had such a master as I have, never brother such a kinsman, never spouse such a husband. No sinner ever had a better Saviour than Jesus, no mourner a better comforter. I want none beside him. In life he is my life, and in death he shall be the death of death. In poverty, he is my riches, in sickness my health, in darkness my sun. Jesus is to me all grace and no wrath, all truth and no falsehood: and of truth and grace he is full, infinitely full.

Miracle Baby Has First Birthday

DECATUR, Ga. — Emmanuel Hawkins celebrated a birthday Wednesday that he was never supposed to live to see.

For 16 weeks after his mother lapsed into a coma brought on by an assault, Emmanuel continued to grow inside her womb. Doctors tried to persuade his grandmother, Nonnie Hawkins, to end the pregnancy. They warned her that even if Emmanuel was born, he could be severely deformed — or stillborn.

"I told them, 'I rebuke you.' I have the final say," Hawkins said. "I'm believing my child is going to wake up and have this baby."

But after 114 days, Tara Hawkins-Bottoms never woke up. The 18-year-old did, however, stay alive long enough to give birth on March 16, 2004, to a 2-pound, 10-ounce boy.
"God delivered him," Hawkins said.

Her daughter was taken off life support two days later.

Born three months premature — very weak and barely breathing — Emmanuel was not expected to survive 24 hours. He was hospitalized for 10 weeks with medical problems that included a bacterial infection and low blood pressure, and he had to have heart and eye surgery.
"He was as close to death's door as you can get without entering," said his doctor, neo-natologist Bridget Cobb. "To come from those circumstances is just miraculous to me. It was a reminder to me that I am not in charge."

Red, White, and (Black and) Blue

As of last week, there are 11,285 more disabled Americans than there were just four years ago. Why? Because brave men and women - men and women born strong and healthy - willingly put themselves into harms way and fought with their lives in the War on Terror.

Time Magazine has done a cover article on the wounded soldiers in their latest edition.

Every war mutilates in its own way, leaves its distinctive marks. In this war, unlike battles past, only 16% of injuries were caused by gunshots, according to a study; 69% were from explosions--the roadside booby traps, the car bombs, the rocket-propelled grenades. The vast majority of injuries are to arms and legs left vulnerable even as body armor is protecting vital organs. The amputation rate of 6% of wounded soldiers is twice that of earlier wars. But in addition, doctors are seeing new injuries, some of them inconspicuous compared with the shredded flesh of bombing victims. Traumatic brain injury occurs when the shock from an explosion damages neurological fibers. Soldiers may survive a blast with scarcely a cut, only to find over time that they suffer coordination and memory loss, dizziness, insomnia. Some have to learn to walk again--or to recognize their wives and children.

Please keep the wounded American and Iraqi soldiers and their families in your prayers.

Daniel Cruver

This tribute was written by a dear friend of one of my coworkers. I had the pleasure of once briefly meeting Daniel before he died. This article is in response to a very disturbing, not to mention completely FALSE, statment in the article in my previous post: We are not talking about children that have anything to teach us, other than new depths of human pain and misery. Who in their right mind would let their child suffer unbearably to satisfy such irrational perverse nobility?

There is no such thing as a suffering child who does not have anything to teach us.

MEMORIAL
A Father's Tribute to His Son and His God

By Dan Cruver, South Carolina

Our precious Daniel William Cruver II was born on October 12, 1999. When he was thirteen hours old, our seemingly healthy baby boy began experiencing seizures. After one week in NICU and many tests, we were sent home with no diagnosis and some seizure medication. Throughout the next several months Daniel's seizures continued unchecked by medication. As he grew healthy and strong physically, we noticed that he was not reaching any of his developmental milestones. Our Daniel never smiled, cooed, turned his head, rolled over, sat, crawled, talked, or walked. The doctors of Duke, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins concurred with our local doctor that Daniel had some unidentified type of incephalopathy that was causing his seizures and preventing his development. Our family and friends around the world prayed with us for healing and for the grace and strength to meet each challenge. We settled into life accepting Daniel as the sweet and helpless son and brother that he was.

Every day God answered our prayers. He abundantly provided the grace and strength we needed. On October 13, 2002, the day after Daniel's third birthday, God began to reveal His answer to our prayer for healing. As an ambulance rushed us to the hospital after Melissa (Mommy) administered CPR to Daniel, we began to realize that Daniel's disability was not static. We repeated this scenario two more times until on November 4, 2002 Daniel was placed on a ventilator and was admitted into the PICU. Daniel's seizures had taken away his ability to swallow. This inability was causing him to aspirate on his own secretions. On November 19, 2002, God answered our prayer for healing. Our answer was not for physical healing but for spiritual healing. Our good and gracious God took Daniel from this world of pain and suffering. On that day our baby heard the words, "Welcome home, my child!"

The following tribute, written by Dan (Daddy), was read November 21, 2002 at the memorial service for our son. You may hear that service on sermon audio at http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=112102231916

In the midst of his suffering, Job spoke these words: "My days are past, my plans are broken off, even the desires of my heart" (Job 17:11). For the first time in our lives these broken words of Job echo the substance of our thoughts and the emotions of our hearts. Surely it is the Lord who gives and the Lord who takes away; blessed be the name of our Lord.

We prayed for healing. But should God, in His gracious wisdom choose not to grant healing, we prayed that God would take Daniel gently and tenderly. We asked our God for grace. Grace to let Daniel go for His glory and Daniel's eternal joy. We prayed that God would sanctify our deep distress unto us; that He would continue to work through Daniel's testimony in the days, months, and years to follow; that He would keep us from being overcome with regret and guilt, and that the Great Shepherd of the sheep would minister intimately to Daniel's spirit in those moments of passing from this world to the next.

We prayed knowing that God gladly hears the cries of His children. And though He did not grant all of our pleadings, we put our hands over our mouths and bow our heads in worship of our Sovereign God. Psalm 115:3 says, "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases." Our God does whatever He pleases. So with heads bowed in worship we say, The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending was pleased both to receive our requests and to take our beloved son, Daniel. Again, we put our hands over our mouths and worship. Worthy is our God, who in His unspeakable grace was pleased to bruise His own Son, to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing for He has done what He has pleased with our little Daniel!

While Daniel was with us, we were the ones who were free, we were the ones who could walk and talk and sing and play and smile and touch and kiss. His was to sit quietly and take in a world that he could not understand or enjoy. But now things are quite different. The tables have been turned. Daniel is now the one who is free and we are the ones who remain in these bodies of death. We are the ones who groan with all of creation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Daniel has that freedom which we all desire. Yet we with Daniel groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. So we cover our mouths and worship the God who will one day make all things new.

Daniel's life's seed has fallen to the ground and died, but will now bear much fruit. The flower of his joy has just begun to bloom and its blooming will be without end. We rejoice that Daniel's three years of almost unrelenting suffering are over. May the Christ who has carried our sorrows and sufferings be praised! Unlike Lazarus, who was raised by our Christ only to die once more, Daniel lives never to die again. The One who is the Resurrection and the Life has granted to Daniel not only an abundant, overflowing life of intense consciousness, but such life as is everlasting. We say to our son, "Daniel, we grieve not only for our loss of you, but also for our sin-induced blindness and unbelief in the face of the most weighty moments of our lives. But though we grieve we also rejoice in your inheritance! And Daniel, we wish to go HOME too. We love you and through your life we have grown to taste more of God's goodness. O Daniel, our great hope, amidst our grief, is that Jesus paid for all our sin. And one day, with you our son, we will stand complete before the throne." So our hands cover our mouths and we worship the majestic God who made our precious Daniel.

Daniel was God's silent little preacher. He has preached and we have listened. So we praise our God who has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and in that choosing gave us Daniel for a short, but deeply treasured time. We cover our mouths and worship the God whose strength is made perfect in weakness; blessed be the name of our Lord.

I close this tribute with words from a friend: "What a ministry little Daniel has had in our lives! More powerful in many lives than the wasted worldliness of those who grow old for nothing. Weep for your loss, and weep for those who have never tasted so much of God and eternity. Things are not what they seem."

Click here to see a picture of Daniel.

Lucy Grealy

At the age of nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a lethal form of cancer with only a five percent survival rate. She lost nearly half her jaw to the disease, endured three years of chemotherapy, and endless painful operations attempting to reconstruct her face. Yet in her 1994 memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Grealy tells the story of a different kind of pain - "the deep bottomless grief . . . called ugliness." It is this pain that she calls "the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison."

The book is a powerful, strikingly candid account of the alienation, humiliation, and hostility Grealy endured as a result of her deformity. It is also a fresh and insightful commentary on the relationship between beauty and happiness in our society. The critical response to the work was overwhelming.

You can order Lucy's book through Amazon.

Lucy is now a writer and poet. Here is a quote from her book, Autobiography of a Face:

"I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison."

Marc's Testimony

I found Marc's website last week and knew immediately I wanted to post it on my blog. What a testimony to God's love and grace Marc's life is! Please visit his website and view his photos and read his testimony!

It is encouraging to me how powerful personal testimonies are. Of all my postings, the one I have gotten the most feedack on so far is Krista's testimony. I hope to get my own up too one of these days.

If Marc and Krista's testimonies have encouraged you, drop me a note and let me know so I can pass it on and encourage them!

If any of you have a similar testimony and would like to share it with others, please e-mail it to me and I will post it to my blog.