Updates on Alicia Hess

Alicia's family has set up a Caring Bridge site to serve with updates, provide a place to share messages, etc. They have been overwhelmed (in a good way) with all the messages and requests for updates, but it is still overwhelming and the Caring Bridge site will help in keeping things all in one place.

You can visit the site or sign up and receive email updates when an update has been posted. The site works much like a blog with some extra features.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/aliciahess

I've also placed a link over on the Blog Roll list for my regular visitors.

::pray::

Please pray for the Murphy's.

www.prayforian.com

"His eyes never slumber, and His hands never rest;

His heart never ceases to beat with love,

and His shoulders are never weary

of carrying His people's burdens."

- Charles Spurgeon

Music Monday

I recently purchased the Valley of Vision CD this past weekend. I know, I know, I must be the last person at Crossway to get it. I have yet to listen to the whole cd because I keep playing track 1, "In the Valley." It's a great song in many ways and a great song to introduce the cd. I promise I will get to the other songs....

One line keeps sticking out to me,

"So let me learn that my losses are my gain
To be broken is to heal
That the valley’s where Your power is revealed"

It makes me think of friends like the Haugherys and the Murphys who are experiencing days and nights that I can't even begin to fathom. Yet, God is sovereign and powerful and able to heal both Alivia and Ian. Please check their blogs to the left for updates. Ian is making unbelievable progress! Lord, please wake Ian up, but only in your plan and time that will bring you the most glory! Lord, please heal Alivia completely so that she won't have to undergo a transplant! Let your power be revealed again through this two individual's lives!

Toodles!

Ian Murphy

Hello friends,

Below is the link to a blog with updates on Ian Murphy.

http://www.prayforian.com/

For those of who may not know who Ian is, Ian is a member of a family who attends the Lord of Life Church in Indiana, PA. Ian completed an internship in Lancaster this past summer and some of us at CCL came in contact with him.

Please pray for him and his family. There have been some encouraging news of late, so please check out the blog. Please pray for the Indiana church as well. With this and Alivia, this church is enduring alot and that is probably an understatement.

On a side note, praise God for the ability to have blogs and be able to update friends and family from anywhere about things to pray for!

More time to pray.....

Another way to find uninterrupted time to pray for Alivia Haughery and for other things is to be stuck in the middle of a wicked thunderstorm after grocery shopping. :-) Before you keep reading, please go to Alivia's page for an important update.

So there I was in the parking lot of Giant on 23 for about an hour praying for lots of things including wisdom and safety to get home. See I'm not really good at keeping up with tthe weather and if I knew what kind of storm it would be I would not be out it in. However, God planned this nice little chunk of time for me to pray without minimal distraction and by the end of the hour, I was rejoicing in God and thanking him for his kindness to me.

As I was praying for Alivia and watching the rain and the night sky light up with streaks of lightning, I was drawn to the display of God's power and might. God is the one who makes it rain and who tells where the lightning bolts should go and He is the one who stops the rain and lightning. Later I looked up in my Bible's concordance the word lightning and was drawn to this passage in Jeremiah 10:12-14.

But God made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

It made me think of Alivia. God made Alivia with his power. Sure I know physically how babies are made, but God is the only one who is the author and the sustainer of life. He also gave, in his wisdom, Alivia to her wonderful parents and a wonderful large extended family who are caring for her. He is also the only one who can truly heal her. If you didn't read The BigWig post I sent you to above, PLEASE stop right now and read it.

Please lift this little girl up in your prayers and pray that God heals her. Please pray for James and Emily and their extended families as they all walk through this.

Thanks in advance for your prayers!

Toodles!

Request for Fasting & Praying

I know probably mostly everyone who reads this blog is aware of Alivia Haughery's health right now. For those of you who don't know Alivia, she is a little girl in our church who is very sick right now and may need a bone marrow transplant very soon in the next two weeks or so. Her mom has been keeping us up to date through her blog - http://aliviarachelhaughery32005.blogspot.com/

Please take a moment to look through the blog and get caught up with the details.

This week, my pastor, Pete Privitera encouraged everyone to fast and pray for Alivia to be healed. Here is part of an email he sent to the church family:

Hello CrossWay Church,

This is a reminder regarding our time of fasting and prayer this week for Alivia Haughery and her parents, James and Emily. As you probably know the situation has only become more difficult. Emily has, through tremendous heartache, kept us all up to date on the situation through her blog.

Please take as much time as you can this week to fast and pray. Fasting is an indication of our desperateness – and reveals just how dependant on God that we really are. Please cry out to God to heal this precious baby.

When you fast it’s a good idea to set aside the time you would normally use for eating and take that time to pray. Please pray for healing, for strength and grace for James and Emily and for wisdom and skill for the doctors. Also, you may want to read Emily’s blog to understand how to pray better.

One more note: We’re going to especially set aside a particular time to fast and pray – sundown on Saturday through sundown on Sunday. If you are at all able to fast and pray then please join us.

I know that so many of you will jump to join into this season of prayer. Thank you very much. God is always glorified when we cry out to him. He alone is worthy.

With great appreciation and affection,
Pete

As part of fasting and taking extra time this week, I will not blogging this week so that whatever time I would spend blogging could be spent praying for this little girl. If there is any update with this situation, please go to Alivia's blog for updates that will help to focus prayers.

May I encourage you to do the same and find time pockets of time, whether great or small to pray for this little girl? It could be driving in the car, while walking the dog, while you're waiting in line for something, while you're standing at a copy machine, just any amount of time that could be used to pray for Alivia.

Thanks in advance for praying...

Toodles!