He Has Overcome

So, this past week was nothing short of trying. All of us definitely felt attacked in a number of ways. From Bessie (our faithful bus) breaking down to the breaks going out on the van to the power washer quitting to a sudden death in the family of one of our participants Satan was alive and well. Despite all of these evidences of Satan's power, there are so many more that displayed God's might.

First of all, although the death of Bridgette's mother was extremely tragic, it was absolutely astonishing to see God work through that. All of the students from different backgrounds, youth groups, denominations, and races came together as one body and wept together. They were truly mourning with those who mourned though they had only met Bridgette and her dad 3 days earlier.

Beyond that, on Thursday morning after we had found out about Bridgette's mom, every one was incredibly tired and really unmotivated to be ministering at a Vacation Bible School for 100 elementary schoolers. We decided to pray long and hard before getting started simply because it was evident that we needed God's power to even make it through. We prayed that God's power would be made perfect in our weakness. We prayed for him to speak through us. We prayed that we would not get in the way, but that he would be able to use us to glorify himself. We prayed for his energy and power to get us through that day. Though I didn't realize it until that night, God answered our prayers in a mighty way. By lunch time, the group was laughing together. Our lesson that day had been about the cross. What a time to preach Christ's unending love! Right when we needed it most! God did use us to teach the children about his redemption. In the second and third grade class alone, when we explained what eternal life with Jesus was, a little girl exclaimed with a reverence beyond her years, "Wooooow!" Another girl came up after the lesson and asked, "You mean, if my aunt who died believed in Jesus and lived it, she is still alive in heaven?" And finally, another girl came up to me after the lesson and said, "Those Roman soldiers who killed Jesus...they...they didn't believe in him!" This summer has truly been teaching me the importance of "letting the little children come to Him." Jesus said the kingdom belongs to such as these. It is truly a blessing to get to work with them this summer.

Another tremendous answer to prayer occurred when my dad went in Wednesday to have a stint put in. They ended up putting three stints in, one of which reopened his native artery that had been unsuccessfully bypassed twice. There are only 5 doctors in the nation who have the ability to reopen blocked native arteries and there just happed to be one who work with the Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's who could work on my dad! Anyway, as I wrote in a previous blog, my dad's heart was functioning at 25% and they were going to have to put in the stint as well as a pacemaker with a defibrillator. However, after his surgery Wednesday, his heart is now functioning at 45%! That is better than his heart has functioned in the last 15 years since his first heart attack. The doctors did not expect it to go that well at all, but they said that since it did, they are just going to monitor his heart for the next 6 months. They are not going to put the pacemaker in or anything! What an answer to prayer! Now, on to the bladder cancer check up. :)

Anyway, like a said, although Satan was certainly trying to distract us this week through numerous trials, Jesus' faithfulness was so evident. I am so encouraged by His words, "In this world you will have trouble. But, take heart! I have overcome the world." I pray that will encourage you this week as well. Thanks for reading.

-Kelsey