Tough week for Sunday School staff

This has been a tough week for Sunday School staff - a parent of 4 current Sunday School staff (Nathan Bauman's mom, Ron Healey's dad, Margie Nesteroff's mom, and Joe Franckewitz' mom), a parent and parent-in-law of our previous AWANA commander and Nursery Coordinator(Nancy Jeffries' mom and Carol Yockey's mother-in-law), and the husband of one of our previous Preschool Coordinators (Margie Simon's husband Rahn) have all died this week. It is a stark reminder of the brevity of life and that we do not know when we will be called home by the Lord.

I remember when my dad died. I was 29 years old and our oldest child was only a year old. We had gone to Buffalo, New York, for a family Christmas dinner on Sunday and returned to Cincinnati on Tuesday evening. My brother called on Wednesday morning to say that my dad had died of a heart attack during the night. What a shock because he seemed just fine on Sunday.

The comforting thing to me was that my dad knew the Lord and so we had peace knowing that he was in heaven. A couple verses were given to me that have stuck with me to this day. Psalm 116:15 (King James) "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." and I Timothy 4:13 "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep (have died), so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope." We do grieve even if our loved ones have gone to heaven but our grieving is not the same as those who have no hope of ever seeing their loved ones again.

Please pray with us for our Sunday School staff and their families who have had these deaths in their families this week for comfort and for peace in their grieving.

Jim's world has been turned upside down also

I mentioned how my world was turned upside down in my last blog. Today I am mentioning that Jim's world has also been turned upside down. When he first learned from the doctor on the phone back in December that the biopsies were positive for cancer, his first response was that he knows God is in control.

He added to that first comment in his prayer last week by saying to God again that He knew God was in control but added that we know this is what you have given us for now and he accepts that. That has allowed peace to remain in our house even while we are going through this time of the dreaded "C" word. It brings to mind the verse in Isaiah 26:3, "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you." We are trusting God to accomplish what He wants to in us and through us because we are trusting in Him.