We continue to find it a great privilege to be caring for Martha here, in the anguish of watching her body become increasingly frail and weak, in the joy of knowing that she will soon be with her Lord, and in the experiencing of grace and peace to all three of us which truly passes all understanding.
We are very grateful that she has been able to remain in her own home here and we are also immensely grateful for your prayers and many expressions of love and comfort. Please continue to pray that our Lord will bring her very soon into His healing presence and for grace and peace while she waits.
In His grip, her parents
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tears from Two Rivers-Reflections by Martha's Dad
Standing behind Him weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, Luke 7, verse 38. Whenever the Lord draws close, we respond with awe and wonder falling down as did John on the Isle of Patmos. More often than not we respond also with weeping as did the woman forgiven when the Spirit comes and Jesus is present. We sense anew that our Rescuer and Defender is near. Tears of gratitude flow as a great river of joy and thanksgiving.
So it is for us when our love for Martha consciously mingles with the sight of her disabling symptoms of cancer, both within the Holy Spirit’s palpable embrace and reassurances. Sweet destructions within the Sovereign’s intentions for Paradise soon to be realized for another of His own.
All His breakers and waves wash over, Psalm 42, verse 7, Martha and each of us holding her hands…some of us physically present, others a thousand miles distant. All caught in the love enabled purposes of God as His waves wash over.
A second great river of tears has its source in watching the destruction of Martha’s body: more feeble mobility, progressive weightlessness and energy loss and words and expressions that grow scarce, barely connecting us together. A grain of wheat dying into the ground wrapped and safe in the Jesus promise of new life and greater fruit bearing, John 12, verse 24.
This river also remembers a little blonde girl with a big smile and enough spunk to climb toy shelves six feet from the floor wiping them clean of all they possessed. Not to be forgotten however are the scores of lives drawn into the Savior’s loving embrace by her recently exercised gifts of bold love, transparency and words of courage ‘It is what it is’, as she trusts the One who was the first grain of wheat to go into the ground and die that others might truly live.
Two rivers, one of gratitude and thanksgiving born under grace given by our only Rescuer and Defender; one river born of the earth and our humanity, made up of grief, mourning and transient loss. Rivers that mingle and join, flow into one and take us to the very gates of the City of God
Friday, February 25, 2011
Coming Softly-Reflections by Martha's Dad-Friday, February 25, 2011
Almost imperceptibly, silently and singing songs of praise they come softly among us bringing their message of His holiness and comforting assurance. How many are you? Do you carry, or are you creating, a faintly heard sound of familiar hymnody?
Resting in the promises of the One who is all in all; resting and listening for His next orchestrations, we wait.
Love you and love you too exchanged with whispers and tender cheek brushings; these the bold sounds and highest expressions in the surrounding silences we inhabit and rest in as we attend always to the gentle words of Jesus.
Gathered in retreat mode to pray, we listen and read His eternal Words aloud, enriched by His imperative to be still and know that He is God, the Awesome One among us by His spirit, ever attentive to our needs spoken and unspoken as we journey together with Martha from this world to the door of the next.
We drop our busy hands, still our doubting hearts and listen for His words of true and perfect healing for the diminishing one we keep vigil with. Martha’s thin spoken ‘Moms’ in the darkness of the night, monitor whispers of her love needs, soon satisfied by the alert one who gave her birth, alert even then to her first whispers and now the more. Behind her ministrations of love and service stands Jesus whose grace strengthens and encourages.
Coming softly, coming faithfully, the heavenly host will soon carry Martha home. Expectantly, all eyes are turned heavenward from whence cometh our help, from the same Lord and Father of all the saints who promises that ‘blessed are they who do His commandments, that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter in by the gates into the city’ Rev 22, verse 14. Maranatha.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Updates: Etsy and Me
Okay, I don’t feel right about posting updates about my Etsy shop on here, so my siblings developed a public Facebook page for me that will be a good way to keep in touch with what is going on with the shop and when new artwork is posted.
My siblings have been hard at work and they have been posting new artwork on a regular basis.
Ways to access the Etsy shop:
---You can click on the orange Etsy button on the right side of this page, while you’re on the Etsy page you could add it to your favorites list so you don’t “lose it.”
--- If you are on Facebook already, you can go HERE, sign in, and then “like” my page. After you like my page, it will show you in your news feed when new art is added to the Etsy shop.
For His children and for those who are ministering to them.
Martha
P.S. I am getting very, very weak and I think Jesus is coming for me very, very, soon. Thank you for all of your love and prayers and support for me and my family and friends.
My siblings have been hard at work and they have been posting new artwork on a regular basis.
Ways to access the Etsy shop:
---You can click on the orange Etsy button on the right side of this page, while you’re on the Etsy page you could add it to your favorites list so you don’t “lose it.”
--- If you are on Facebook already, you can go HERE, sign in, and then “like” my page. After you like my page, it will show you in your news feed when new art is added to the Etsy shop.
For His children and for those who are ministering to them.
Martha
P.S. I am getting very, very weak and I think Jesus is coming for me very, very, soon. Thank you for all of your love and prayers and support for me and my family and friends.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Praise God for your Prayers and encouragement! EDITED
Here are two updates, one from my parents, and a short one from me.
Parents:
Thank God for your continued prayer support and many expressions of love and encouragement!
This past Sunday was glorious. Martha’s pastor gathered a small group from her church to come to her home.
It was a very special time to sing the music which Martha chose in (Jan. 2010) for her memorial service, hear encouragement from Hebrews, and administer the membership vows to her for joining the local church (she had never been able to complete the membership class due to scheduling and illness conflicts), and to take Communion.
How lovely it was to hear this precious bride of Christ say “I do,” again, and again, in response to her vows of commitment to Jesus and to His body in this local church! And what a joy to be reminded that she belongs to Him and not to us (much as we love her)!
Martha has been significantly weaker and sleepier each day, and communication is taking more effort. Please continue to pray for her relief from various discomforts and soon perfect healing in His presence.
On Sunday, in the early morning hours, probably around 4:30-5 am, Martha called us because she was extremely cold and could not stop shaking, so we wrapped her in more blankets, held her and prayed and read Psalms for probably an hour before she was warm enough to sleep again…she has had many challenges with her internal thermostat before but never for so long. Several hours later she was too warm.
Sunday night’s testimony makes it ever clearer that Jesus is using Martha for His kingdom purposes and, though she is in the midst of this ‘story’ right now, it is ultimately not about her, us or her church but all about our all-sufficient and only God, our Savior, “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy.” (Jude 24-5).
Rejoicing in His grip and Love! Martha’s Parents
From Martha:
My wonderful nurse said today that she would not be surprised if she got "the call" from my family any time now because of physical symptoms that she can see clearly by looking at me, and because of these crazy symptoms I’ve been having. I'm ready.
I had a startlingly difficult experience last night that indicates tremendous progress of the cancer.
Meanwhile my caretakers with Hospice and my parents continue to be just incredible.
Meanwhile God, even in times like last night’s difficulty, is keeping me in His peace and protecting me with His grace.
In His grip, Martha
Parents:
Thank God for your continued prayer support and many expressions of love and encouragement!
This past Sunday was glorious. Martha’s pastor gathered a small group from her church to come to her home.
It was a very special time to sing the music which Martha chose in (Jan. 2010) for her memorial service, hear encouragement from Hebrews, and administer the membership vows to her for joining the local church (she had never been able to complete the membership class due to scheduling and illness conflicts), and to take Communion.
How lovely it was to hear this precious bride of Christ say “I do,” again, and again, in response to her vows of commitment to Jesus and to His body in this local church! And what a joy to be reminded that she belongs to Him and not to us (much as we love her)!
Martha has been significantly weaker and sleepier each day, and communication is taking more effort. Please continue to pray for her relief from various discomforts and soon perfect healing in His presence.
On Sunday, in the early morning hours, probably around 4:30-5 am, Martha called us because she was extremely cold and could not stop shaking, so we wrapped her in more blankets, held her and prayed and read Psalms for probably an hour before she was warm enough to sleep again…she has had many challenges with her internal thermostat before but never for so long. Several hours later she was too warm.
Sunday night’s testimony makes it ever clearer that Jesus is using Martha for His kingdom purposes and, though she is in the midst of this ‘story’ right now, it is ultimately not about her, us or her church but all about our all-sufficient and only God, our Savior, “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy.” (Jude 24-5).
Rejoicing in His grip and Love! Martha’s Parents
From Martha:
My wonderful nurse said today that she would not be surprised if she got "the call" from my family any time now because of physical symptoms that she can see clearly by looking at me, and because of these crazy symptoms I’ve been having. I'm ready.
I had a startlingly difficult experience last night that indicates tremendous progress of the cancer.
Meanwhile my caretakers with Hospice and my parents continue to be just incredible.
Meanwhile God, even in times like last night’s difficulty, is keeping me in His peace and protecting me with His grace.
In His grip, Martha
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Nearing LIFE
Well, my body appears to be well into the last stages of “life” and it’s definitely preparing to Transition to Life sometime soon.
If you read the Hospice info (http://www.hospicenet.org/html/preparing_for.html) on end stages of physical shut down, you know that sleeping a whole lot more is one of the stages, as is not having energy to talk much or to participate in conversations, as is saying goodbye to people--for the last time before we meet again in Heaven, as is decreased food and water intake....
I am easing peacefully into lying in bed drifting in out of being awake and asleep for most of each day. This is a new change as of the last couple days. I like it.
If you asked me what I did all day, I’d say hang out with my parents who are helping me tremendously, take medicine, sleep, and lie in bed. I either lie in my own bed or in a nice hospital bed that moves up and down by a handheld controller.
I only really get up to use the restroom or to move locations... Since I wretched so hard that something low down in my spine popped, walking has been very painful and difficult, as has changing clothes and a lot of other things. But I'll be done soon and I'll be able to walk perfectly in what will have seemed like the blink of an eye.
It is hard to find energy to write a blog post. I don’t know how many more I will be able to write, as much as I would like to continue to demystify this process by documenting it for other people.
There is a very clear sense of God’s peace in my home, with my parents, and with me. It is a precious treasure and we are very thankful for it.
God is keeping me in His grace during this waiting time... But I am still very curious, and have a strong feeling of excitement and anticipation, about what my Transition, Heaven, and Jesus will be like.
In His Grip, Martha
If you read the Hospice info (http://www.hospicenet.org/html/preparing_for.html) on end stages of physical shut down, you know that sleeping a whole lot more is one of the stages, as is not having energy to talk much or to participate in conversations, as is saying goodbye to people--for the last time before we meet again in Heaven, as is decreased food and water intake....
I am easing peacefully into lying in bed drifting in out of being awake and asleep for most of each day. This is a new change as of the last couple days. I like it.
If you asked me what I did all day, I’d say hang out with my parents who are helping me tremendously, take medicine, sleep, and lie in bed. I either lie in my own bed or in a nice hospital bed that moves up and down by a handheld controller.
I only really get up to use the restroom or to move locations... Since I wretched so hard that something low down in my spine popped, walking has been very painful and difficult, as has changing clothes and a lot of other things. But I'll be done soon and I'll be able to walk perfectly in what will have seemed like the blink of an eye.
It is hard to find energy to write a blog post. I don’t know how many more I will be able to write, as much as I would like to continue to demystify this process by documenting it for other people.
There is a very clear sense of God’s peace in my home, with my parents, and with me. It is a precious treasure and we are very thankful for it.
God is keeping me in His grace during this waiting time... But I am still very curious, and have a strong feeling of excitement and anticipation, about what my Transition, Heaven, and Jesus will be like.
In His Grip, Martha
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