Faith Like Anderson

I(Kevin) am normally the first one up in our house. It's always been that way. I get up very early. I enjoy starting the day in the dark and the quiet.

About 2:00 this morning Anderson came into our room and wanted to get in bed with us. He never does this so we decided to let him climb in. About 4:00 I couldn't sleep anymore with the extra little person in my face. I went downstairs. About 5:00 Anderson came down and said he didn't feel good. I felt his head and he felt a little warm. He said he wanted to eat and ate about 2 bites of cereal. I knew then that he was sick. He likes to eat his breakfast.

Later we gave him some fever medicine and he laid on the couch for a few minutes. Benay then sent him to the bathroom with me (she was holding Giovanni) because he was holding his hand over his mouth and she was, obviously, a little worried.

In the bathroom, he told me he was okay, but against his wishes I made him lie down on the floor until the medicine kicked in. He got up to tell me he was okay and proceeded to puke (as he calls it) on the floor, a rug, his feet and my feet. I spun him around and he finished up in the toilet. (sorry, no photo to document this story.)

As he finished up he was crying a little bit and he looked to me and asked me to pray for him. I stroked his hair and began praying that God would take away his pain and help him to not "puke" anymore. He has not puked since and has been feeling great with no more problems.

Why did I not think to pray immediately as did my 4 year old son?

Anderson prays about everything and I mean everything. For our lunch food to be good, for him to run faster, everything.

I'll give an example. This is a picture of him playing baseball a couple of weeks ago. Our good friends Mark and Ali Kaiser, were visiting us from the state of São Paulo. Mark was pitching the ball to Anderson and he just could not make contact with the ball. I'm not sure Anderson has ever played baseball. Since he was born he's been kicking a soccer ball so it makes sense for him to have some difficulty hitting a baseball. Anyway, a few minutes into trying to hit the baseball he stopped and put his head on the bat. He did this for a little while. Mark and Benay thought he was just resting or concentrating really hard before he tried again. Benay asked him if he was doing those things and he said no. She asked what he was doing and he said, "Asking God to help me hit that ball." Benay said he hit the next 4-5 balls that Mark pitched.

Confession time.......as you read that, how many thought, "what a cute story" and just kept reading? If so, why?

Why do we not hear a story like that and praise God for answering a prayer? When God says pray about everything in Philippians 4:6 (Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.), do we believe it?

Why does it seem easier to believe that God will answer a "healing from sickness" prayer faster than he will a "hit the baseball" prayer? Do we believe he has levels of importance or that he ranks our prayer needs? Or do we really believe "pray about everything" really means everything?

My kids keep teaching me valuable lessons on prayer and faith.

Jesus himself (in Luke 18:16-17) said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you, anyone who doesn't have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God."

I pray that today you (adults) can focus on this verse and appreciate the candidness with which Jesus spoke to us about our faith. And I pray that today we can return to a child like faith that Jesus loves so much.

I praise God for the lessons that kids teach us about faith and prayer. Go here if you want another example.

Faith Builder

For the past 3 weeks we've been getting some email updates from a missionary couple in Recife, Brasil. We've actually never met Chris, Teresa and Sara but we feel a closeness to them through the emails they've sent out. Their passion for spreading the Good News to everyone has grabbed our hearts.

The last 3 weeks they've asked us to pray for this family:

The little girl on the left is named Bianca. For the last 3 weeks she has fought the disease called dengue fever. If you don't know anything about it then you need to do a little research on the internet. It's a disease that is carried by mosquitos and its a yearly battle fought by many cities in Brasil. It's something that affects tropical countries and even though our city has four seasons, the health officials will, from time to time, come to our home to make sure that the houses in our neighborhood are doing all that's possible to prevent the spread of this disease. There is even a Brasilian website that tells you how to prevent dengue, where outbreaks have occurred, videos, etc. It's a bad disease that affects many people each year.

Yesterday Bianca lost her battle with dengue. She was only 7.

I can't even imagine what that would be like.

We received an encouraging email from Chris and Teresa today about Bianca's death. Some people might have a hard time thinking how news like this could encourage brothers and sisters in Christ. Bianca's family are believers. Their response to this terribly sad news was incredible to read. Chris and Teresa's comments were uplifting to us as well. With Chris and Teresa's permission I am posting their email below. Please pray for Bianca's family: her dad (Duda), her mom (Branca) and her older sister (Brenda-9 years old).

Here's their email:

Paradise belongs to Bianca

After 3 weeks of fighting infections in her body, Bianca is now at peace, free from pain and suffering, and safe in the arms of Jesus. She died Saturday morning around 10 AM. The funeral will be Sunday morning at 9 AM. We were riding in our car across town when we received the call from a brother. We went directly to the hospital to be with Duda and Branca. What can you say? What can you do? We cried, we listened, and we cried some more.

I was moved by something Duda did right before Regis (one of the leaders of Boa Vista) prayed: Duda worshiped God. He sang a song by himself. We listened. The song expressed trust in God. I thought, "How many parents would worship God after their child has died?" We were definitely standing on holy ground. After he finished, he said, "The kingdom of heaven belongs to children; Jesus welcomed Bianca. I don't understand God's ways, but I trust Him. God knows what is best for our family."

Both Duda and Branca expressed to us just how much the cards, phone calls, letters, emails, and the prayers from all of our brothers and sisters all over the world meant to them. Teresa printed out several and gave them to them. They told me to tell you: "Your prayers encouraged us and we thank God for you." Please continue to pray God will comfort them.

We all wrestle with prayer for healing, don't we? Why does God choose not to heal sometimes? There are no easy answers. Does it mean God is not powerful enough to heal? No. Does it mean that we did not have enough faith (as the false health/wealth gospel teaches?) or that we didn't pray enough? No, of course not. Prayer is not manipulating God to get Him to do what we want but to trust Him and say, "You know what is best." We don't know why, but we don't see the "Big Picture" either. God does. As Job learned, we don't need to know why, we just need to trust Him. I do know God is the only One who can and will bring good out of tragedy. This He will do.

The flip side of this is: death is not defeat or the end. We were created for eternity. Death is just the doorway into our final existence. We can rejoice with Bianca. She has won the victory. She has avoided a lifetime of struggle, pain, and suffering. She served a purpose in her short 7 years of life. We still hurt for Duda, Branca, and Brenda (her 9 year old sister), but we know as Christians, there is hope. They will see Bianca again. When David's 7 day old son died, he said, "He cannot come to me; but I will go to him." (2 Samuel 12:23) Words of comfort and hope. "Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55) Keep them in your prayers this week. If you would like to send them your thoughts, we can translate them, print them off and give them the emails. Thankful there is an empty tomb, Chris, Teresa, and Sara

God is mightily working through the lives of Duda, Branca, Brenda, Chris, Teresa and Sara in northern Brasil. Their faith has encouraged Benay and myself so much today.

If you would like to reach out to any of these people then you can visit Chris and Teresa's blog at: http://www.brazil4jesuschrist.org/ I know they would love to hear from you.

Faith

When our family lived in Abilene, Texas we were a part of an amazing family of God. It was a big church family but so many people took us in and made us feel welcome. The Spirit of God lives in that city more than any other city we've ever lived in. We only lived there for about 10 months but it's still a very strong part of our lives and we go back to Abilene every 2 years when we visit the states.

The preacher of the church family that we were a part of there has a blog. He recently had a post that was amazingly faith building. If you would like a living, breathing testimony of faith then click here.

Faith

Here's one reason why I love Chuck Swindoll's teaching ministry so much:

"What we often don't realize is that behind the scenes, before He ever flung the stars into space, God had today in mind. He had this very week in mind. In fact, He had you in mind. And He knew exactly what He was going to do. God is never at a loss to know what He's going to do in our situations. He knows perfectly well what is best for us. Our problem is, we don't know. And we say to Him, "Lord, if You just tell me, then I'll be in great shape. Just reveal it to me. Explain Your plan to me, and I'll count on You." But that's not faith. Faith is counting on Him when we do not know what tomorrow holds."

Sometimes we need to be reminded that if we can see it and hold it before we act in faith it isn't faith at all.

Stepping out on faith isn't always easy but that's kind of the point isn't it?