Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled, Trust in God

John 14:1-3

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God; trust also in me.
In my Father's house are many rooms;
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me
that you also may be where I am.”

December 29, 2005

Dear praying friends,

There is a lot to consider right now, and we aren’t finding an awful lot of time to process what this month has meant, or even what it feels like.

In light of that, I needed to update you anyway, so that you can stay connected to us in this unusual time. I’ll have to save the impressions and “take-homes” for another day.

KATY
Katy is home from the hospital. We are leaning on the Lord for the renewal of her strength. I hope you stay tuned to the realities of her medical challenges by checking her blog regularly. http://katyreel.blogspot.com

HELEN THOMAS
The past few days have been particularly difficult. Most of you know Irene, Maria, Juanita, Cruz and Angel Thomas. And you know the relationship Wayne and I have had with them since they were all very small. In fact, at some given times they have all lived with us, Juanita for the longest, almost four years. Irene is our receptionist, both Irene and Maria were in Mom’s Place, and now in StoryTellers, and all the girls and their children are very involved in many parts of the ministry.

You noticed that Helen, their mom, had been hospitalized, in my last email. Well, her condition became grave, and on Christmas Eve, the doctors told the girls that Helen’s life support was not helping her, and her body was tired, and she was ready to go. Almost all of her organs were failing and there was no brain activity.

Since Helen was born on Christmas day, the girls asked if they could wait until Monday. And so it was. Many family members came by. We were prayerfully present the entire time. Hospice began services, a catholic priest came to deliver last rites, and both brothers had been contacted in their respective prisons. There was a great deal of grief and deep, deep sadness. It was a heavy day, but also, a great deal of peace, somehow for those of us clinging to Jesus.

The life-support was discontinued at 4:30 and Helen passed peacefully at 5:00 PM. Helen knew Jesus with a simple faith, responding both to our evangelisms over the years, and to her children who wanted to gift her their saving faith. Helen remembered the Jesus of her childhood, who she learned had come to seek and to save those whom are lost. We will see Helen in heaven. (With my mom, maybe right next door)

The past two days, we have been busy with arrangements. Helen will have services at The Neighborhood Center on Wed., all night with a wake, and then burial Thursday morning of next week. We are fund-raising with her dear children; the costs are about $6,000.00. Please contact me if you can help in any way.

AND THEN …
… for those of you who know Desiree Garcia (Justine Garcia’s cousin). Her brother Miguel Rodriquez who we had with us for years when he was younger (our last record of him with us was when he was 9), accidentally shot himself on Christmas day and passed. We met her in the hospital, right after she had gone to the church to look for me. It was so strange, because Juanita said to her that Miguel was her best friend in grade school. He was fourteen. For those of you who remember her and love her, I am going to need some help with this situation. Call me about this also if you can help.

Please pray for the Thomas family and the Garcia/Rodriguez family as they suffer with their grief and loss

WHERE is your God in the midst of all this?" sometimes critics say as they comment on the terrific pain of the world, of our families, in our midst. I was impressed hearing a Christian answer, "You should ask the question again, but move the question mark! Then you will get a powerful answer."

"What do you mean?" says the critic.

"Where is God?" The answer is, "In the midst of all this."