Thank You

We couldn’t be more grateful for our church family. They’ve been with us every step of the way. As we stepped out in faith on our first mission trip, they were with us in prayer and in person. As we ended DAY ONE of building a new church for a community in Kentucky and ended up in the ER with Mason, they were with us. We had no idea at the time that what we thought was a horrible situation was actually God opening our eyes. It’s crazy. Our whole story seems crazy. But, our church family and believers everywhere understand that we serve an amazing God. We know that’s God’s ways are unfathomable. We serve a God who understands our individual lives, our world, and His creation on a completely different level than even the smartest human being has the capacity to think. We find comfort in knowing that we couldn’t possibly understand God’s ways.

“Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.”
‭‭(Isaiah‬ ‭40:28‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

If so, he wouldn’t be worthy of our praise. We also know that God has given us the ability to talk with Him personally through the gift of prayer. As Mason’s story has been shared by more and more people, we are comforted knowing how many are praying on our behalf. We can truly feel it.

Today we were a part of something really special. Our pastor led our congregation through James 5:13-18. We physically carried out exactly what the Bible tells us, right there in those wooden pews of that beautiful white church on the hill.

“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”
(James‬ ‭5‬:‭13-18‬ NLT)

It was a sad, but sweet time of prayer and we are grateful. God heals. He healed 2000 years ago and he heals today. God perplexes doctors with His miracles. Mason’s doctors couldn’t be more perplexed with his case. We are in unknown territory as far as medical journals are concerned. But, nothing is a surprise to God.

We know that God hears our prayers and His plans are far superior to our own. We know that all prayers are subject to God’s will and we lay our requests at his feet. We pray that we can look back on this time and share in amazement the miracles God performed. We pray that through our funny, kind, silly, sweet boy God is glorified. We beg and we cry out. And, we take comfort in knowing that you all are praying with us.

Our church family, family, friends, and even strangers have come alongside us in so many ways. We can’t say thank you enough.

As much as we’d love to be able to say we don’t need help, we do. Mason will have a handful of surgeries, chemo, and continued tests and scans to see how he responds to treatment. Even on days when he feels like being at school, he may not be able to go because his immune system will be so weak. We are facing lots of time off with him and the bills are going to continue to roll in. Some wonderful friends of ours started a GoFundMe page for Mason. If you’d like to give, you can do so here:

https://www.gofundme.com/MasonCancerFund

We also need to continue prayer coverage. To sign up to pray during a specific time, go to:

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/5080d48a8a72ba13-masons

If there is something else you’d like to help with, please email our friend Julie at juliemabrey@gmail.com as she is coordinating details for us.

Tomorrow is the arteriogram.  It will be a long day at the hospital in preparation for a later surgery. Pray for comfort and peace. Pray that Mason will be able to sleep to make the day go faster.  Pray for wisdom for the procedure and no difficulties.  Pray for Alli as she continues to have the most normal routine possible even when we’re away.

Thank you just isn’t enough.