Yesterday was a difficult day. We woke up to the news that our friend Judy needed to get back to the hospital for her significant other. When she and Jon (my husband) got there he had died. I spent the rest of the day with Judy just being there and doing all the things that needed to be done. My heart was heavy for my friend and colleague on her loss.
Late afternoon I had a meeting with the Palmer Fellowship and the Superintendent David Beckett. As I drove the 45 minutes to the meeting I was trying to get myself mentally prepared to be in a different place both physically and mentally. I was really finding it hard to shake the sorrow I was feeling. God has a way of providing hope even in the midst of sorrow.
The meeting began and we started talking. Palmer folks shared what has been happening since we last meet face to face in July. Worship has doubled, giving is up, new ministries are getting started, they have moved to a new location, visitors are coming to check them out, and they listed all the ways they have been present outside the walls of their church and visible to the community. The experience of listening to them and looking around the table was uplifting and a reminder that even in the midst of what we might think is death - God can bring new life.
A little over a year ago I began meeting with the Palmer Fellowship. Some of our initial conversations were about death, others about their history, lots of frustration was shared and if I were asked at that point what their future held - I would have said death. Here I was surrounded by the same group of people (with new faces added) and I couldn't even recognize the people I had been with a year ago.
God is amazing. God can turn our mourning in to dancing. God can take a hopeless situation and help us find hope. Even in the midst of death God provides resurrection. Thank you Palmer Fellowship for allowing God to lead you to new life and I thank God that I have been witness to the resurrection. I invite any reading this to lift a prayer of thanks to God for what has been done in Palmer and that they may continue to be faithful as they move forward.
I am reminded that it is that same God that will be with my friend Judy and all who mourn. God will provide the light of hope.
Leila, Thanks for this post. I celebrate the work God is doing in and through the Palmer Fellowship. What wonderful testimony. I am thankful you were a part of both that and present with your friend Judy in her time of loss and grief.
ReplyDeleteYou and Jon are doing great work for God in Alaska.
I'm so glad you share through your blog and your various posts on Fb.
May God continue to bless your ministry and presence there.
Marge Bradshaw