Noah

We just returned from 3 wonderful days with our first grandson Noah Gregory, born to son Levi and his beautiful wife Katie on October 8. Wow, what a time! Exhilarating, refreshing, staggering, invigorating, revitalizing. Felt every one of them. Katie took this pic of Levi, June holding Noah, and me.

On our last night Levi wanted to have a time of worship together. As he banged out a passionate worship song on guitar in

their small living room, tears streamed down Katie's face, June had her arm around me, I was holding Noah, doesn't get much better. Levi sang part of Psalm 84:

"How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God..."

The singing and guitar were delightful, and reeeally loud... What amazed me was Noah just slept peacefully against my chest.

I thought... Noah has heard Levi and Katie worship before - for nine months of pregnancy and every day at home after his birth :)

Thank God for the gift of Noah, for life, and the amazing ways He revives us!

Healing and Community

A friend of mine, Gerald Martinez, is in the middle of the greatest challenge of his life...

You may know of Gerald from Extreme Home Makeover where they helped rebuild and renovate their home and outreach center. He and his wife Leisa have given their lives to serving the poor in an area called the "WarZone" in Albuquerque.

Just this year Gerald discovered he had Hepatitis C. His liver was almost completely destroyed and from a blood test found his viral load (number of viruses in the blood) was at 5 million. The church prayed for him that week, and the count went down to 500k. He then started an experimental drug treatment along with intensive prayer.

For several months he was wiped out during the treatment. He was averaging 20 hours of sleep a day. He went through lots of soul searching, looking at what is most important in life and thinking about what would happen to his family if he were to die and go to be with Jesus.

Every Sunday he went to worship services and people would gather around him and pray for healing. What an amazing picture of community. He told me they would lay hands on him, plead with God for healing, worship together, and weep. Gerald told me how hard it was to be weak and to receive when he had always gone 100 miles an hour and taken care of everyone else.

Just 2 weeks ago Gerald was scheduled for a blood test which would determine his progress and whether treatment could continue. His viral load needed to be below 5k...

On the Sunday before, they celebrated communion in which they prayed the blood of Jesus would cleanse and heal Gerald's blood...

The tests came back, and his level was at 24. Two-four! The nurse said "I've never seen anything like this before..."

What a powerful picture of God's healing love through community (the real life Extreme Home Makeover)! Gerald poured in to community his whole life, now those people were there for him. They prayed for him, worshipped with him and wept with him.

Sadly, I see many people in crisis who are isolated with no faith community, no one to pray, worship, weep and walk with them.

Gerald isn't out of the woods and wanted me to ask for continued prayer, especially for his liver and kidneys to be healed and restored. Please join us in praying for complete recovery!

And THANK GOD for His healing which flows through community!