Week of November 27
...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus- Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
Some people think I'm a stodgy, cranky, Yankee. Well, they are right-but that's how God restored me. I wasn't always so conservative.
I spent the sixties and seventies searching through drugs, radical politics, rebellion and anger. I spent my adolescence as a ski-bum, working on a
riverboat and looking for extremes. I rode motorcycles and did every reckless thing to excess. I believed that life was just an existential malaise of meaningless, random events and if there was no reason to life, I thought I would at least make it
exciting. I fought the system, institutions and all the things my generation rejected. I joined the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and I was tear gassed more than once. I tried a lot of things to fill that God-shaped vacuum at my center, but nothing fit. Atheism was my religion. Nothing meant anything in light of death.
Then things I couldn't explain began to happen. I bought a Bible and actually began reading it. God was laying the groundwork.
When I decided to get married, I chose the church to which my family had belonged for centuries- First Church of Christ, Wethersfield. In order to be
married there my fiancée and I had to join. The church preaches the Word of God in the Spirit.
My fiancée's relatives, who are from a long line of Christian evangelists in China, were praying for me. So were the faithful at First Church. I believe all these prayers prompted God to save me.
The Holy Spirit began to move. It was as though the Bible had been written solely for me. Every time I opened it, the passage I read spoke directly to my needs. Every church bulletin, letter or post card from church seemed to minister to me as though I was the only person for whom it had been written. Sermons seemed prepared just for me as did the worship. And I saw the Holy Spirit in people's faces at every church event. Jesus was everywhere.
One night I even had a dream that one of the pastors at the church told me "you will receive a message from your shoe." My cat awakened me, I got up, and went about dressing quietly. I remembered the dream and looked down at my shoes but there was
no message. I did notice my suit was wrinkled and changed into another, which was a different color than the first one.
Now I had to change my shoes to match my suit. As I was leaving the house I noticed a sticky note stuck to the heel of my shoe. On the sticky note was a Bible verse.
"I am the Vine, you are the branches, abide with me."
I've been to the peaks and struggled with valleys. I've had doubts and downs and faith and ups. God is slowly and I must say, painfully at times, remaking me in His Son’s image.
I know God is at work in me, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. He is crucifying my fleshly ways, as I learn to be led by the Spirit.
I am confident of this, "that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6 NIV)
Jesus Christ saved me from myself. Praise God.
Leigh Standish
Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Copywright Thanks Be, First Church of Christ,
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Jack's Miracle
Week of November 21
Good Friday Jack was working out at the gym, as he often did. Without warning he collapsed on a weight machine and slid to the floor. A cardiac nurse happened to be working out nearby. She normally would not have been at the gym at that hour but a schedule change at work allowed her to be a the gym. She had the presence to remove vomit from Jack’s mouth which cleared his air passage. Jack, unconscious but breathing on his own was rushed to a nearby hospital.
I the emergency room Jack remained unconscious, a couple of times the doctors lost a pulse. He remained in a coma. The doctor told his wife that a cat scan showed no activity…if he regained consciousness he probably would be a vegetable. Jack’s youngest daughter, Colleen, a high school student, told her mom not to believe the doctor.
“Our God is bigger than that,” she said. Later after the rest of the family arrived Colleen found her way to the Chapel. She was alone. She prayed for God’s healing power. She said she clearly her a voice in her head say, “I will restore those (brain) cells Sunday to glorify my son’s resurrection.”
When she reported this revelation to her family she was met with skepticism, heads shaking in disbelief, and eyes rolling. The next day Jack was still in a
comma and on life support. Twice Colleen, in talking to her dad, got such a strong reaction on the monitoring machine that the nurses came in the room. The second time she was asked her to leave the hospital room. She insisted her dad was going to be ok. “You don’t know my God or my dad,” she told the nurses as she left.
The next day, Easter morning, there was a banging at her bedroom door. It was her little brother reporting that “Dad woke up.”
An excited Colleen, while driving to the hospital stopped at every convenience store she passed to exclaim “Behold the Lamb of God, my dad is healed.” She arrived at the hospital to find her dad sitting up and being his old feisty self.
When Colleen returned home that day and turned on her favorite Christian station the first thing she heard was “Behold the Lamb of God.”
Jack Reilly
Tucson, Arizona (as told by his daughter)
Good Friday Jack was working out at the gym, as he often did. Without warning he collapsed on a weight machine and slid to the floor. A cardiac nurse happened to be working out nearby. She normally would not have been at the gym at that hour but a schedule change at work allowed her to be a the gym. She had the presence to remove vomit from Jack’s mouth which cleared his air passage. Jack, unconscious but breathing on his own was rushed to a nearby hospital.
I the emergency room Jack remained unconscious, a couple of times the doctors lost a pulse. He remained in a coma. The doctor told his wife that a cat scan showed no activity…if he regained consciousness he probably would be a vegetable. Jack’s youngest daughter, Colleen, a high school student, told her mom not to believe the doctor.
“Our God is bigger than that,” she said. Later after the rest of the family arrived Colleen found her way to the Chapel. She was alone. She prayed for God’s healing power. She said she clearly her a voice in her head say, “I will restore those (brain) cells Sunday to glorify my son’s resurrection.”
When she reported this revelation to her family she was met with skepticism, heads shaking in disbelief, and eyes rolling. The next day Jack was still in a
comma and on life support. Twice Colleen, in talking to her dad, got such a strong reaction on the monitoring machine that the nurses came in the room. The second time she was asked her to leave the hospital room. She insisted her dad was going to be ok. “You don’t know my God or my dad,” she told the nurses as she left.
The next day, Easter morning, there was a banging at her bedroom door. It was her little brother reporting that “Dad woke up.”
An excited Colleen, while driving to the hospital stopped at every convenience store she passed to exclaim “Behold the Lamb of God, my dad is healed.” She arrived at the hospital to find her dad sitting up and being his old feisty self.
When Colleen returned home that day and turned on her favorite Christian station the first thing she heard was “Behold the Lamb of God.”
Jack Reilly
Tucson, Arizona (as told by his daughter)
Sunday, November 13, 2011
A Special Job Reference
Week of November 13
Approximately twenty years ago I was working as a secretary in a steamship company in New Orleans. I had been there a couple of years but because I had studied to be a legal secretary, I was ready to get a job with a law firm. I started to seek God’s guidance to help me find a job where I could utilize my legal training. During lunch hour, I would take my Bible and head behind the office building where there were benches and fountains.
While I was out there I would often see homeless people and panhandlers. There was one man in particular that was there every day. Eventually, he came to me and asked what I was reading and I told him. He asked if I was a Jesus freak and I said yes I am. He said I made him feel uncomfortable when he was trying to ask people for money. I told him I had no condemnation for him, but that I thought he seemed able bodied enough to work. I also shared my desire to get a job with a law firm.
We became speaking friends and one day he said, “Since you know God so well, why don’t you pray that I get a job.” At that moment I put my hand on his shoulder and started praying out loud. “Not here, not now,” he protested. I just kept praying. That was on a Thursday. On Monday he came running up to me at lunch. He was clean and groomed and I hardly recognized him.
An attorney who he had been asking for money had hired him. I was happy for him but I was jealous. I said (silently of course) God, I am the one who wanted a job with a law firm, have you mixed things up here or what? I was sure God knew what he was doing and I thanked him for giving this man a job. About a week later, the man came to me and said, “I have an interview for you at the law firm. The senior partner needs a secretary.” I thought this would take an act of faith for me to go on an interview at the recommendation of this man. Were they just humoring him? Those thoughts vanished immediately because I knew no matter what; I would do nothing to cause him to waiver in his belief in answered prayers. I was not going to let pride prevent me from going and thereby show a lack of faith.
I thanked God for the opportunity, went on the interview and I was hired on the spot. The attorneys still tell people that the best employment recommendation they ever had was from a homeless man. I quickly remind them that God alone was the employment agency.
God will answer your prayer when you step out in faith. God also has a wonderful sense of humor.
Carolyn Bourgeois
New Orleans, Louisiana
Approximately twenty years ago I was working as a secretary in a steamship company in New Orleans. I had been there a couple of years but because I had studied to be a legal secretary, I was ready to get a job with a law firm. I started to seek God’s guidance to help me find a job where I could utilize my legal training. During lunch hour, I would take my Bible and head behind the office building where there were benches and fountains.
While I was out there I would often see homeless people and panhandlers. There was one man in particular that was there every day. Eventually, he came to me and asked what I was reading and I told him. He asked if I was a Jesus freak and I said yes I am. He said I made him feel uncomfortable when he was trying to ask people for money. I told him I had no condemnation for him, but that I thought he seemed able bodied enough to work. I also shared my desire to get a job with a law firm.
We became speaking friends and one day he said, “Since you know God so well, why don’t you pray that I get a job.” At that moment I put my hand on his shoulder and started praying out loud. “Not here, not now,” he protested. I just kept praying. That was on a Thursday. On Monday he came running up to me at lunch. He was clean and groomed and I hardly recognized him.
An attorney who he had been asking for money had hired him. I was happy for him but I was jealous. I said (silently of course) God, I am the one who wanted a job with a law firm, have you mixed things up here or what? I was sure God knew what he was doing and I thanked him for giving this man a job. About a week later, the man came to me and said, “I have an interview for you at the law firm. The senior partner needs a secretary.” I thought this would take an act of faith for me to go on an interview at the recommendation of this man. Were they just humoring him? Those thoughts vanished immediately because I knew no matter what; I would do nothing to cause him to waiver in his belief in answered prayers. I was not going to let pride prevent me from going and thereby show a lack of faith.
I thanked God for the opportunity, went on the interview and I was hired on the spot. The attorneys still tell people that the best employment recommendation they ever had was from a homeless man. I quickly remind them that God alone was the employment agency.
God will answer your prayer when you step out in faith. God also has a wonderful sense of humor.
Carolyn Bourgeois
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Trusting God
Week of November 6
It had been 16 years since I visited any gynecologist. I had no problems up until last year. I had been having irregular bleeding and heavy periods. I had several tests.... and they found that I had fibroids and a cyst on my ovary. My doctor suggested in November a full hysterectomy.
This would be my 5th surgery where they would be cutting my abdomen so I would have to sign a paper that I understand that there is more risk involved. I asked about keeping my ovaries so that I wouldn’t go into full menopause. My doctor said given my age and the cyst (that may require surgery to be removed in the future) she recommended taking everything. So she told me to let her know what I wanted to do.
I struggled with this until the day before she had scheduled my surgery. I had asked the Lord over and over again if I am doing the right thing. To be honest with you I was afraid. It was a pride issue also.I didn’t want anyone to know, because it could look as though I was weak or defeated. I chose not to tell anyone but my family.
I had these thoughts that were not of God that were telling me that things would not go right and I would die on the operating table. I was upset and I was up late at night worrying. I picked up the Bible looking for an answer. I went to several church services seeking solace but the negative thoughts just continued worse than ever. It was like the more positive I received the more negative I became. This whole thing was overwhelming. Pastor always says that the battle is in the mind. Let me tell you what was going on in my head was a war.
I had decided that I would go to women's group and afterwards I would call the doctor to tell her I decided to delay the surgery. But when I went to women's group Sandy who has always been such a comfort to me and my family, praying for us etc., came up to me and told me she was happy to see me there and asked me if I would be now able to come on Tuesdays. I told her what was going on and she began to talk and I knew the Lord was speaking to me through her because a peace and comfort came on me. The attacks immediately stopped. Sharon prayed for me and I was relaxed and knew what I had to do and it was right. I would have the operation.
Everything went extremely well in surgery and I was up walking in 8 hours, I went home two days later. When I was in the hospital I had such comfort knowing that Jesus was there with me. The nursing staff commented on how fast I was up and walking and I knew that it was the Lord giving me the ability to get up so quickly.
When I returned a week later to have the staples removed my doctor shared what she didn’t want to tell me on the telephone. She said they tested everything that was taken out and found that I had cancerous cells in the body of my uterus. This is an extremely fast growing cancer. Every time the uterus sheds, the cancer grows and starts spreading into the blood. The recommended procedure for this is a full hysterectomy. What they found was that the cancerous cells were still intact and were concentrated in one area of the uterus
My doctor told me that I was a lucky woman that someone was watching over me. I said I know God is. She said you are cured. She kept saying that over and over. We cried and held one another.
My doctor had no idea that the cancer cells were there. I asked her why it wasn't seen on all the tests. She said that where it was located no test would have detected it. I cried even more. If I had not had this operation I would be looking at 5-6 months, that’s all.
If my doctor had not taken my ovaries she would have had to go back in and get them. When cancer is present the best operation is actually cutting your abdomen (what I had) because when they do the other surgery there is a risk of dropping cells.
What an awesome God we have. Not only did He heal me of something that would have killed me but also He didn't even let me know that I had it and my family never had to go through that worry and anguish. I do not have to know everything. I just have to trust Him. No glory can be given to any test or doctor but only to God because He knew and no one else did. I am so grateful words can’t describe.
Jackie Harmon
Richmond ,Virginia
It had been 16 years since I visited any gynecologist. I had no problems up until last year. I had been having irregular bleeding and heavy periods. I had several tests.... and they found that I had fibroids and a cyst on my ovary. My doctor suggested in November a full hysterectomy.
This would be my 5th surgery where they would be cutting my abdomen so I would have to sign a paper that I understand that there is more risk involved. I asked about keeping my ovaries so that I wouldn’t go into full menopause. My doctor said given my age and the cyst (that may require surgery to be removed in the future) she recommended taking everything. So she told me to let her know what I wanted to do.
I struggled with this until the day before she had scheduled my surgery. I had asked the Lord over and over again if I am doing the right thing. To be honest with you I was afraid. It was a pride issue also.I didn’t want anyone to know, because it could look as though I was weak or defeated. I chose not to tell anyone but my family.
I had these thoughts that were not of God that were telling me that things would not go right and I would die on the operating table. I was upset and I was up late at night worrying. I picked up the Bible looking for an answer. I went to several church services seeking solace but the negative thoughts just continued worse than ever. It was like the more positive I received the more negative I became. This whole thing was overwhelming. Pastor always says that the battle is in the mind. Let me tell you what was going on in my head was a war.
I had decided that I would go to women's group and afterwards I would call the doctor to tell her I decided to delay the surgery. But when I went to women's group Sandy who has always been such a comfort to me and my family, praying for us etc., came up to me and told me she was happy to see me there and asked me if I would be now able to come on Tuesdays. I told her what was going on and she began to talk and I knew the Lord was speaking to me through her because a peace and comfort came on me. The attacks immediately stopped. Sharon prayed for me and I was relaxed and knew what I had to do and it was right. I would have the operation.
Everything went extremely well in surgery and I was up walking in 8 hours, I went home two days later. When I was in the hospital I had such comfort knowing that Jesus was there with me. The nursing staff commented on how fast I was up and walking and I knew that it was the Lord giving me the ability to get up so quickly.
When I returned a week later to have the staples removed my doctor shared what she didn’t want to tell me on the telephone. She said they tested everything that was taken out and found that I had cancerous cells in the body of my uterus. This is an extremely fast growing cancer. Every time the uterus sheds, the cancer grows and starts spreading into the blood. The recommended procedure for this is a full hysterectomy. What they found was that the cancerous cells were still intact and were concentrated in one area of the uterus
My doctor told me that I was a lucky woman that someone was watching over me. I said I know God is. She said you are cured. She kept saying that over and over. We cried and held one another.
My doctor had no idea that the cancer cells were there. I asked her why it wasn't seen on all the tests. She said that where it was located no test would have detected it. I cried even more. If I had not had this operation I would be looking at 5-6 months, that’s all.
If my doctor had not taken my ovaries she would have had to go back in and get them. When cancer is present the best operation is actually cutting your abdomen (what I had) because when they do the other surgery there is a risk of dropping cells.
What an awesome God we have. Not only did He heal me of something that would have killed me but also He didn't even let me know that I had it and my family never had to go through that worry and anguish. I do not have to know everything. I just have to trust Him. No glory can be given to any test or doctor but only to God because He knew and no one else did. I am so grateful words can’t describe.
Jackie Harmon
Richmond ,Virginia
Sunday, October 30, 2011
John's Miracle
Week of October 30
In mid July 2009 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii I became very sick. I had been healthy all my 63 years and this was a new experience for me. After a week of high fever, aches and waking up with the sweats I called my doctor friend in Montana. After hearing my symptoms Dan said I needed to see a local doctor.
I did and he thought it was a sinus infection. After a few days I started getting vertigo, and seeing double. I decided if I didn’t feel better in the morning I would go to the emergency room.
In the morning, still feeling lousy, I took a cab from where I lived outside of Koloa to the hospital on Kauai where I was admitted with what was originally thought to be double pneumonia. It was not.
While my lungs sounded clear x-rays revealed two white clouds. I was transferred by air taxi to the Staub Medical Center in Honolulu. Here I tested positive for Wegener’s granulomatosis, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the organs of the body. I my case it was the lungs.
I do not remember of lot of the initial weeks in intensive care as I was drugged and in an induced coma. I was not expected to live very long and my wife and three daughters were called. They came from Montana to visit me for the last time. I did not know they were even there.
My body weight went from 167 to 132. Massive doses of steroids were given me as part of my treatment. When I awoke from the coma I was on a ventilator and had all sorts of tubes in my body. I was literally a rag doll and could only move the muscles in my neck. An emergency button to call for help was draped over my shoulder so I could press it with my neck.
I remember thinking. How am I going to possibly come back from this. I believed I couldn’t and became totally depressed.
The bed I was in was a special physical therapy bed which could be set to do a wave like motion under the body. It wasn’t suppose to be on for me but it was. The motion caused me to move sideways and my body became lodged between the mattress and the sideboard. I was being squeezed with my arms dangling helplessly over the side of the bed. I could not move my head to press the call button. I was crying out “nurse help…nurse help!”
Then a strange thing happened. It was as if my spirit had left my body. I was sitting on the edge of a small stream with tall wet grass along the banks. A mist was rising from the water. I knew if I lay down in the wet grass it would be over. No more struggles. There would be peace. My spirit was ready to totally give up.
A hand gripped my shoulder. I “sprung back.”
A voice said, “Can I help you?”
After getting me help I found out that the man who touched my shoulder was the pastor at the hospital. He told me that he received a call 30 minutes earlier from my friend Jim in White Fish, Montana who asked that the Chaplain to look me up.
From that moment on I never had depression again. In fact, during the rest of my hospital stay I was even joyful. My spirit was strong and I made dramatice progress physically. Within two weeks I was completely off the ventilator and oxygen.
I still could not move a muscle but my physical therapist thought my muscles were ‘firing’ and I believed him. He began by massaging my muscles and moving my limbs.
I was moved from Intensive Care to the sixth floor of the hospital where they put patients who are close to being released. I worked hard and talked and joked with almost every aide and nurse on that floor.
One day the doctors looked at me and my progress and said “John you are a living miracle.” They suggested I be transferred to a nursing home in Montana where I would be near friends and my support system.Flying Nurses International flew with me from Honolulu to Salt Lake City and onto Glacier International Airport in Kalispell, Mt.
It wasn’t until I was back in Montana that I learned that my doctor friend Dan and Jim, who I knew from my appraisal business, had been meeting and praying for me daily throughout my ordeal.You see, the doctors were right, I am a living miracle. And I was right, I could not come back on my own. I have no doubt that God through His grace spared my life and used my friends and that Chaplain to help me back.
John Woods
Kauai, Hawaii
In mid July 2009 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii I became very sick. I had been healthy all my 63 years and this was a new experience for me. After a week of high fever, aches and waking up with the sweats I called my doctor friend in Montana. After hearing my symptoms Dan said I needed to see a local doctor.
I did and he thought it was a sinus infection. After a few days I started getting vertigo, and seeing double. I decided if I didn’t feel better in the morning I would go to the emergency room.
In the morning, still feeling lousy, I took a cab from where I lived outside of Koloa to the hospital on Kauai where I was admitted with what was originally thought to be double pneumonia. It was not.
While my lungs sounded clear x-rays revealed two white clouds. I was transferred by air taxi to the Staub Medical Center in Honolulu. Here I tested positive for Wegener’s granulomatosis, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the organs of the body. I my case it was the lungs.
I do not remember of lot of the initial weeks in intensive care as I was drugged and in an induced coma. I was not expected to live very long and my wife and three daughters were called. They came from Montana to visit me for the last time. I did not know they were even there.
My body weight went from 167 to 132. Massive doses of steroids were given me as part of my treatment. When I awoke from the coma I was on a ventilator and had all sorts of tubes in my body. I was literally a rag doll and could only move the muscles in my neck. An emergency button to call for help was draped over my shoulder so I could press it with my neck.
I remember thinking. How am I going to possibly come back from this. I believed I couldn’t and became totally depressed.
The bed I was in was a special physical therapy bed which could be set to do a wave like motion under the body. It wasn’t suppose to be on for me but it was. The motion caused me to move sideways and my body became lodged between the mattress and the sideboard. I was being squeezed with my arms dangling helplessly over the side of the bed. I could not move my head to press the call button. I was crying out “nurse help…nurse help!”
Then a strange thing happened. It was as if my spirit had left my body. I was sitting on the edge of a small stream with tall wet grass along the banks. A mist was rising from the water. I knew if I lay down in the wet grass it would be over. No more struggles. There would be peace. My spirit was ready to totally give up.
A hand gripped my shoulder. I “sprung back.”
A voice said, “Can I help you?”
After getting me help I found out that the man who touched my shoulder was the pastor at the hospital. He told me that he received a call 30 minutes earlier from my friend Jim in White Fish, Montana who asked that the Chaplain to look me up.
From that moment on I never had depression again. In fact, during the rest of my hospital stay I was even joyful. My spirit was strong and I made dramatice progress physically. Within two weeks I was completely off the ventilator and oxygen.
I still could not move a muscle but my physical therapist thought my muscles were ‘firing’ and I believed him. He began by massaging my muscles and moving my limbs.
I was moved from Intensive Care to the sixth floor of the hospital where they put patients who are close to being released. I worked hard and talked and joked with almost every aide and nurse on that floor.
One day the doctors looked at me and my progress and said “John you are a living miracle.” They suggested I be transferred to a nursing home in Montana where I would be near friends and my support system.Flying Nurses International flew with me from Honolulu to Salt Lake City and onto Glacier International Airport in Kalispell, Mt.
It wasn’t until I was back in Montana that I learned that my doctor friend Dan and Jim, who I knew from my appraisal business, had been meeting and praying for me daily throughout my ordeal.You see, the doctors were right, I am a living miracle. And I was right, I could not come back on my own. I have no doubt that God through His grace spared my life and used my friends and that Chaplain to help me back.
John Woods
Kauai, Hawaii
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Turtle over Miami
Week of October 23
It was a great year for me and my two boys. I was a single mother of an “all state- all area” 325 pound offensive lineman for Sarasota High School. The season ended at10-2. It had been a long time since SHS had seen that kind of record. It was his senior year. I was in charge of the “Pre-game meals”, so I was able to spend more time with Brian before the games. It was a great season for him and our family to see my son, the center of attention for 4 years, and now he would be moving to a college in the fall on a full scholarship!
January 2005 arrived, and Brian was preparing for “recruiting” and I was really getting nervous. He was going to possibly be moving out of state. How will I visit him or take care ofhim?How can I watch over him or protect him? All these things racing through my mind and crying out to God, “Please Lord, don’t take my son so far away”. As the days went on calls were coming in from all over the U.S. and Brian very quickly decided he wanted to stay in Florida! Whew! Relief for me, he can’t go to far…”God please let him be close”. I kept giving it to God and then I would take it back.
One morning I woke and remembered a dream I had during the night, which was very strange for me as I do not ever remember my dreams. It was about a big turtle crawling up the side walk. And that was it…so I said God “What does this mean?” Well he revealed to me that when Brian was very small a large turtle had wandered to our front door. My husband at the time picked it up and put it in our bath tub. He thought Brian would get a kick out of seeing it when he got home from kindergarten. I remember the look on his face. He was so excited, watched it for hours and fed it. It made me happy to see him get excited over this turtle. Then we decided we had to release it and took it to the pond by our house and let the turtle go…So I thought okay this was a happy moment for us and it reminded me how happy Brian was, so I took that from the dream.
A weeks went by. Within that time Brian and I had been traveling from university to university, looking to accept the best deal. He finally made a decision to move to Florida International University in Miami, a Division I school. I thought, Oh No, there’s too much crime and drugs and how will I protect him and watch over him? I became very anxious again and began praying and asking God to help me through this time. “As such a time as this”….
It was May 2005 and my little boy was graduating. I was planning a big graduation party at my home. Of course praying everyday for protection, and trying very hard to give it to God. I was still feeling a bit anxious. “God help me please, I know you will protect him, Help me to trust you better”.
Graduation day came. I was doing the last minute house check, as a dear friend of mine Debbie was preparing food in the kitchen. I decided that I needed to sweep the front porch and ran to get the broom. As I opened the front door my eye caught an object to the left and as I turned and saw the object I looked up into the sky laughing and said “Thank you God, Thank you God”….it was a large turtle at my front door. And as the Holy Spirit spoke to me, he revealed to me that a turtle carry’s his home on him, he also has a shell that protects him. The spirit was telling me that Brian would be protected and safe. That day was a day of peace for me. The last time we saw a turtle on our front door had been 12 years ago, when Brain was six. I knew this was from God and tears of joy and peace were within me. I knew that God was telling me to TRUST Him. “As such a time as this”……
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4
Thank you God, I love you…
Linda Kelleher
Sarasota,Fl.
It was a great year for me and my two boys. I was a single mother of an “all state- all area” 325 pound offensive lineman for Sarasota High School. The season ended at10-2. It had been a long time since SHS had seen that kind of record. It was his senior year. I was in charge of the “Pre-game meals”, so I was able to spend more time with Brian before the games. It was a great season for him and our family to see my son, the center of attention for 4 years, and now he would be moving to a college in the fall on a full scholarship!
January 2005 arrived, and Brian was preparing for “recruiting” and I was really getting nervous. He was going to possibly be moving out of state. How will I visit him or take care ofhim?How can I watch over him or protect him? All these things racing through my mind and crying out to God, “Please Lord, don’t take my son so far away”. As the days went on calls were coming in from all over the U.S. and Brian very quickly decided he wanted to stay in Florida! Whew! Relief for me, he can’t go to far…”God please let him be close”. I kept giving it to God and then I would take it back.
One morning I woke and remembered a dream I had during the night, which was very strange for me as I do not ever remember my dreams. It was about a big turtle crawling up the side walk. And that was it…so I said God “What does this mean?” Well he revealed to me that when Brian was very small a large turtle had wandered to our front door. My husband at the time picked it up and put it in our bath tub. He thought Brian would get a kick out of seeing it when he got home from kindergarten. I remember the look on his face. He was so excited, watched it for hours and fed it. It made me happy to see him get excited over this turtle. Then we decided we had to release it and took it to the pond by our house and let the turtle go…So I thought okay this was a happy moment for us and it reminded me how happy Brian was, so I took that from the dream.
A weeks went by. Within that time Brian and I had been traveling from university to university, looking to accept the best deal. He finally made a decision to move to Florida International University in Miami, a Division I school. I thought, Oh No, there’s too much crime and drugs and how will I protect him and watch over him? I became very anxious again and began praying and asking God to help me through this time. “As such a time as this”….
It was May 2005 and my little boy was graduating. I was planning a big graduation party at my home. Of course praying everyday for protection, and trying very hard to give it to God. I was still feeling a bit anxious. “God help me please, I know you will protect him, Help me to trust you better”.
Graduation day came. I was doing the last minute house check, as a dear friend of mine Debbie was preparing food in the kitchen. I decided that I needed to sweep the front porch and ran to get the broom. As I opened the front door my eye caught an object to the left and as I turned and saw the object I looked up into the sky laughing and said “Thank you God, Thank you God”….it was a large turtle at my front door. And as the Holy Spirit spoke to me, he revealed to me that a turtle carry’s his home on him, he also has a shell that protects him. The spirit was telling me that Brian would be protected and safe. That day was a day of peace for me. The last time we saw a turtle on our front door had been 12 years ago, when Brain was six. I knew this was from God and tears of joy and peace were within me. I knew that God was telling me to TRUST Him. “As such a time as this”……
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4
Thank you God, I love you…
Linda Kelleher
Sarasota,Fl.
Help from Strangers
October 22
Everything seems fine until I distinctly smell gasoline. I pull off the road, open the hood and find gas seeping out of the fuel line. It is a miracle that the engine hasn’t caught fire. Now what do I do?
A car pulls in behind me. The driver sees the leak and proceeds to tape the split hose. What a Godsend he is. Come to think of it, I have had a lifetime of Good Samaritans who have come by and bailed me out of trouble. on the roadways and byways of life. Many of them were strangers but as the parable says, they were my real neighbors.
"Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do likewise." (From the parable of the Good Samaritan.(Luke 10: 36-37)
Everything seems fine until I distinctly smell gasoline. I pull off the road, open the hood and find gas seeping out of the fuel line. It is a miracle that the engine hasn’t caught fire. Now what do I do?
A car pulls in behind me. The driver sees the leak and proceeds to tape the split hose. What a Godsend he is. Come to think of it, I have had a lifetime of Good Samaritans who have come by and bailed me out of trouble. on the roadways and byways of life. Many of them were strangers but as the parable says, they were my real neighbors.
"Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do likewise." (From the parable of the Good Samaritan.(Luke 10: 36-37)
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