my joy

The season is not over, so I'm asking for your continued prayers.

If you don't remember our dear brother and co-worker Claudin, you can read about his heartbreaking and miraculous stories from some of our old posts... like this one or this one.

His sweet wife has been battling and overcoming many odds with her current pregnancy, hoping to give Christie-girl a baby sister or brother.

Many a baby have they already lost, to not discard this one.  Many a tiny child have they wept over and they carry the losses of their children, still, today.  Before Christie, they lost her big sister in the parking lot of the main hospital in town, refused to be seen with doctors on strike, burning tires and breaking bottles and callus to the woman in the corner with her husband delivering her baby, now lifeless.

in the parking lot.

Christie, whose birth story was and is a sweet miracle, is an image of His great redemption story, a joy to both of these godly, hard-working and ever patient man and woman.

baby Christie

And now Josie is battling, battling again, with great joy and perseverance, and she is 27 weeks and has started bleeding.  Dark hours I tossed and prayed for them last night, waking tired this morning and anxious to do something, anxious to fix something, anxious to change something.

She is back at that same hospital, flat on her back, on an iv, pillows under her legs and bleeding, still, holding still for baby's life.

Baby's heartbeat is strong, and he kicks her, still, as she lies and prays.

Christie is home with Grandma, Claudin is running between work and home and the little church he pastors and the hospital...taking her meals, sleeping there overnight, praying.

He is weary and patient and kind and thankful.  Thankful deeper than any circumstance...simply thankful that our God is his God.  

They have been here before.  They are here again.

God was there the many times before, was there with them bleeding in that parking lot, is there with her now in the large room she shares with dozens of others, He was there and is there and will be.

It is dangerous, for the life of his wife and his child, it is temptation, temptation to worry and to fear.

Please be praying for them, continually, as you pray.  Please pray with Josie.  She is staring at the ceiling, surrounded by suffering, calling out to our God for a miracle, her hand on her stomach.  She is missing Christie and praying.  Pray for Claudin...as he works and leads and fathers and husbands and runs and feeds and cares for.  Pray for Claudin as he represents JESUS to so many around him, always a testimony, always being watched, especially in the midst of fatigue and crisis.  Pray for Christie as she hangs with Grandma and misses her mama, too small to understand.

My joy in the situation is that they are not alone.  My joy in the situation is that they are dear friends of the Father, and He is by their sides and God and Claudin and Josie and I live in complete confidence that He will carry them through.  My joy in the situation is that His hand is not--nor has ever been--short.

Thank you for being my praying friends.  

Today is my birthday.

Their bills are racking up, there is no such thing as insurance, and there is NO treatment given, NO medication forked over, NO surgery undergone without the full-money received beforehand.

Will you take me out for coffee for my birthday and send us the $5 instead?   I know exactly what I want to do with it.

Thank you.