April 29, 2007
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Faith
We have a young pastor in our Church named Nic. He and Doug, our senior pastor, take turns preaching at the 3 services we have each week.
Doug has been our pastor for about 10 years, but Nic has only been here about 3. He preaches really great sermons that make us think and use our brains in ways that we haven’t since we got out of school! And sometimes I have commented that he is just way over my head with some of his ideas.
Recently he came to our Bible Study class to share with us some of his vast knowledge about Islam and his wife, Alexi came another day to share with us her knowledge about Judaism. I found them to be very, very intelligent and also very, very nice.
In his sermon today Nic was talking about what a great and blessed life he has….a good job, a great wife and 2 beautiful little girls. And in the last month they discovered that the newest baby Alexi is carrying will be a boy. Also in the last month they discovered that this son of theirs, if he lives to be born, will be severely handicapped. Both his feet are clubbed and his arms have also been damaged. He will be mentally handicapped as well and will spend his life in a wheelchair.
I cannot imagine what they are going through. Most of us know that at some point, our children will become adults and leave home to make new lives for themselves out in the world. They now know that this child, if God allows him to live at all, will always be dependent on them for his most basic needs.
And yet, in his sermon, Nic talked strongly about the need to count the blessings in his life. Including this one. God doesn’t want us to suffer, but sometimes, when things like this happen, He will help us through and in then end we will be so much stronger, both in our selves and in our faith.
What a powerful message from a man with such a powerful faith in God. Please keep Nic and Alexi in your prayers.
Comments (5)
he must have been the one that was there when I went with you and Holley?? I loved him – i told Holley just the other day that i enjoyed going to church with y’all that day.
I will pray for them- that baby belongs to God and God can and does perform miracles all the time!
I’ve thought SO many times about how I would handle finding out that I was going to have a handicapped child. I just can’t imagine. That’s definitely one of those situations that God has to take a person through.
But Michelle is totally right – our God is a miracle God!
Either way, it sounds like Nic & Alexi are prepared, which says a LOT about their faith.
Yes, Michelle, he is the one that was preaching that day. And it does seem that he and his wife are both strong enough in their faith to deal with this without blaming God or thinking it’s some type of punishment.
It was interesting to me that when he was speaking about it, he actually said that one of the things they talked about was abortion. They obviously rejected that idea and he made it clear to the congregation that he is not God and does not have the right to assume the duty of deciding life or death like God does. Hopefully that sent a strong message to anyone in the congregation who sees abortion as a solution and at the same times shows them the Godly way to deal with this type of thing.
I’m sure that they appreciate all the prayers. Wouldn’t it be great if this little guy were to be born whole and completely well? But at the same time, I think there are so many lessons to be learned by dealing with the handicapped, so only God knows what’s best, right?
My sister, being an RN, strongly supports the use of sonograms, to determine what condition a pre-born child is in. I can appreciate that. But there are many who will use that information to terminate an unwanted, “imperfect” baby. So it’s kinda like Diana says: “Why get one if you plan to keep your child no matter what?” She is a very strong believer in avoiding abortion except in the most dire of circumstances, because that decision should be left to God. Personally, the only time I ever confronted the abortion situation, the doctor was wrong on his timing, and now I couldn’t be more thankful to the Lord for how it all turned out! So this one-time supporter of “anytime, anyplace, any reason” abortion……. no longer is.
I admire that couple’s strength in all of this.
Sonograms can be very important. I know that some people misuse them, but they are one of the best tools doctors have of diagnosing problems so they can be prepared to repair at birth, or even before birth sometimes. There are a lot more reasons to get a sonogram than not.
They didn’t have sonograms when I was carrying Holley, but they did do an x-ray and determined that she was going to be born breech….butt first. If they hadn’t known that and I had tried to give birth to her naturally, I would probably be writing a whole different xanga….it would be one about how to raise a handicapped child because a great deal of breech births result in cerebral palsy!
So please respectfully tell Diana that in many cases, problems can be prevented if they are know about ahead of time.