Please Say a Prayer. . .

After the first performance of our Easter Musical this past Saturday night, we received some bad news. Erik's parents were in New Orleans at the seminary, and as they crossed the street in front of the seminary campus at a crosswalk, a car hit them and injured them severely. We'd appreciate your prayers.

Erik's Daddy has two broken legs, a deflated lung, some blood on his brain, and a cervical fracture. But, the one who needs your prayers most urgently is his mama. She has a herniated brain stem, and is not responding to anything except pain at this point. Please keep them in your prayers and Erik and Jason, too. Pray for strength and peace and patience and healing. . .

Erik's brother called to give us the news late Saturday evening. He and his family had just left our home Saturday morning after a fun filled week of play with 8 children under one roof! They were almost home when they got the news. So, poor Jason had to turn around and drive another 11 hours to New Orleans after he drove nearly 12 hours back to Florida earlier that day.

The most amazing thing to me is that in the midst of this horrible situation God has made Himself real and present through friends, friends who are like family. Take for instance, Sterling, our neighbor, who when he heard about Erik's parents called us and offered his company's plane to Erik. Erik took him up on the offer of a quick flight to New Orleans, and when Sterling heard that Erik would be traveling alone, he went with Erik. When they arrived in New Orleans, he had a car waiting for them at the airport, and he drove Erik to the hospital and stayed for a while. And, then there is Kevin, who drove 8 hours from Northwest Georgia to be with Erik. And, Sean stayed behind and played Jesus in tonight's Easter Musical performance so that the show could go on. And, Chris and Becky who met Jason and Jen on their way home from our house. Chris drove the 11 hours with Jason, so Jason wouldn't have to go alone, and Becky got Jen and her crew the rest of the way home safely. And, then there are all the seminary families who have gathered to support Erik and Jason and their parents.

But, the thing that has touched me personally the most is the outpouring of love we have received from our community and our church. Good heavens, within a few short hours word spread from one corner of our little town to the other. In a matter of hours, we received phone calls from everyone ~ from the lady who cleans our home to Joshua's teacher to our hairdresser and on and on. Our church has an average attendance of like 300. And, I guarantee you that at least 150 of the 300 have called or contacted me in some way today. The family of God is a good thing, a really, really good thing.

Also, please pray for my children and my nieces and nephew. Some of them are too young to understand, but some of them are not. My Joshua's sweet little dam broke tonight, and he cried and cried. He misses his Daddy, and he saw his Daddy cry and that is bothering him. Please pray that Jen and I will have wisdom to know how best to talk about all this with them.

Thank you so much.