Friends in Hard Times

Many of you know and love the Shueys, a family who was sent by Grace Baptist Church (in Greenville, SC) to Louisville to attend seminary (Southern). They were my neighbors in Greenville, 5 houses down, and they're my neighbors again here, and so much more... basically the closest to family we have here in Greenville. Dave is a pastor-elder at our church here, though now he is on sabbatical due to the intense pressures on him and our church body at large lately... most of you have been praying for Christy & Ryan Fullerton (our preaching pastor) and Jeff & Christy King (our counseling pastor), and you know that the brunt of the pastoral burden was on Dave, as our only pastor NOT spending large amounts of his time in the hospital. Well, the Lord saw him & his family through that time, and is continuing to sustain them through seemingly deeper and deeper waters. They have had one "curveball" after another thrown at them-- I mean, pretty much any category you can make up, the Lord has seen them through it lately. From car damage, to mugging, to an unexpected need for foster-parent certification, to (in some ways most wearing) general schedule upheaval, to the latest, which I'll elaborate momentarily. They have been tested and tried in many ways, and are responding in faith and trust, to the GLORY of our Good & Faithful Father, Suffering Savior, and Strengthening Spirit.

Most lately, their oldest daughter, Morgan has had a sustained illness that is so far unexplained. It's just serious enough to be alarming, though at this point there is no actual diagnosis...just lots of tests, which leave a large enough question to be vaguely unsettling. Please pray for peace for Dave & Sina, grace and physical strength for Morgan (she was in good spirits, though weak, when I saw her an hour ago), and for insight for the doctors.

PLEASE encourage the Shueys!! If you know them, or even if you don't, please e-mail them, call them, or send them a card. If you want their contact info, email me for it, or send an email to me and I will immediately forward it to them.

This passage is SO relevant to them and to YOU, dear readers. Please join me in incarnating Scripture!

"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."

Second Corinthians 1:8-11

In praise of that same God-who-raises-the-dead,

~Christina