Faith....Continued

We blogged on Saturday about some friends of ours who were dealing with the loss of a loved one.  

One was the family of Lisa Williams.  We got an email yesterday that directed us to her Caring Bridge site.  There we read a note from her husband.  Since so many of you prayed for this family we wanted to share Mark's note here.  Though he is suffering, his faith in the Lord in this time of suffering will encourage you.  

Please continue to pray for them (as well as Leslie from Saturday's blog).  Here is Mark's note:

First let me say that the boys and I are doing ok.  It's too soon to know how any of us are really doing, but so far everyone's holding up.  Zach went back to school today, Caleb started school yesterday, and Adam starts today.  Theresa, Mama and I have worked on getting Lisa's things squared away and hopefully that project will be completed by weeks end. 

It goes without saying that Lisa's CaringBridge Site was a tremendous source of encouragement to her and myself.  The last time I looked, there were over 29,000 visitors to Lisa's site and over 1100 entries in her guest book.  Lisa visited the site on a daily basis and if there weren't new entries, she found joy in the old ones.  And so did I.  The Caring Bridge Site really became a barometer of Lisa's ups and downs.  When her health and prognosis was good, entries from us and visitors slowed down, but when the news wasn't good, the numbers went up.  As the numbers went up, so did the number of prayers to the Father, and as the prayers went up, our peace and contentment went up, as well.  

Prayer makes a difference, not only in your life, but others', too.  I'm not sure at all if Lisa would have lived as long as she did without your prayers.  We all know that Lisa should never have made it out of the hospital last March, but she and our family experienced a miracle.  I'm convinced after talking to so many after we came home, that God heard his children crying out, and he relented long enough to give us almost another year with Lisa--A year that we could say goodbye, to take trips, to pray together and to prepare for a painful separation.  You, our friends and family, gave that year to us by crying out to the Father and for that, our family is eternally grateful.    

Good-byes are never easy, but one that's abrupt and unplanned for can sting and hurt.   In this last year we prayed and hoped for another miracle for Lisa, but as the year wore on and Lisa's health declined, it seemed that our prayers for healing would go unanswered, that God was again turning a deaf ear to our calls.  As Lisa's health worsened, my faith in God suffered.  Why didn't he hear me?  Where's the miracle?  The Bible says knock and the door will be opened, ask and you will receive.  Those started to sound like a lot of empty promises and my faith was going down the drain.  Brother Hubbard came to the house one day and told me this--God will always answer our prayers in three ways, it's either no, yes, or not yet.  He said God will heal Lisa, but His will may be that she be healed only after she's passed to the other side.  That perspective got me back on track to believing in God's promises and His protection.  Lisa is healed and those thousands of hours of prayer time  asking for her healing were answered with a resounding yes by the Father.  So now I can proclaim for your encouragement, that Lisa Williams is free of cancer.  Her pain and nausea are gone.  Her new body is perfect and she awaits us.     

Thanks to everyone again for the thousands of acts of kindness shown to our family.  They are simply too numerous to begin listing. Please continue to lift the boys up and myself and our family.  May God Bless you and keep you -  Mark.