Saturday, April 14, 2007

God is on the Move (no pun intended)

I know I said I would not post much until after we went to training in May, but who was I to think that God could not move on our behalf until WE were ready?

Two weeks ago, a couple from church (that we had just met 10 weeks earlier) handed us an envelope with a letter that said they had been praying for us and felt led to give this small donation to our ministry. Inside was a check for $1,200.00!! WOW! We have never been in this kind of position before, and it is extremely humbling. We are so grateful for those that are praying for us!

God also continues to work in the hearts of our children. Jonathan & Samuel seem to be excited about our new venture. David however, has been........Well, let's just say it's been overwhelming at times. I heard him say to someone that he is never going to say he is moving to Arkansas, but just visiting for an extended time. : )

Remember in the last post, I wrote how David wrote out his feelings about Arkansas after much crying and frustration? Well, we had probably talked back and forth for over an hour that day. It was very difficult for him to see any good in all of this. One thing I tried to show him was all the stories in the Bible of great men who had gone through many trials and how God used them for great things. I asked him if knowing those stories gave him ANY hope, in which he responded, "No, not really". I could not reassure him enough that his sadness was normal and crying is O.K., but if you know me at all, you know I can get passionate about saying things that my God is not able to do. It upset me that he felt that God COULD NOT change how he felt. I asked him if ANYTHING is impossible with God, and he said no. All that conversation is what brought out the last line in his thoughts about moving, the one where he says he will pray for God to help him. Before that, he just refused to even ask.

Yesterday, David had a Bible project to do, in which he had to read the story of when Peter walked on the water and write a story about the event as if HE were there in the boat that day on the Sea of Galilee. This is what he wrote:

"I am terrified! The waves batter the boat. A hole is in the boat. Water is leaking in and hurricane force winds blow hard ready to end our lives.

What's this? Someone's walking on water. Who could it be, a ghost? Who else could it be?

'It is I' , Jesus said. 'Come', he said to Peter. Peter went but lost faith and fell. Jesus helped him up, then said, 'You of little faith'. I felt a sense of peace knowing Jesus was with us. I understand that Peter lost faith. It's not easy to trust God with so much. I would have asked God to give me the faith.

I am in a really hard situation of having to move to Arkansas. I will pray for God to give me faith in Him. Looking back, it seems so easy, but it's not. The fact that Peter's lack of faith to trust Jesus to help him walk on the water, is already written down for us. So I always think that if I had to walk on water I would trust God. However, Peter did not have an example of walking on water. Therefore, it would have been harder for him. I completely understand, and pray if that happened to me, that God would give me the faith to trust Him.

I thank God for giving us this example in the Bible. It is helping me to have faith in Him to help me live with moving to Arkansas. It gives me a sense of peace that God will do a miracle there. I pray that anyone going through a difficult time will look at this example and look to God to help them."

We were pretty blown away with it. This is no small feat. This is miraculous. If you know anything about autism, transition is NOT easy. This truly is a work of God. We are committed to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and to teach our children the same. Sometimes they get it and sometimes they don't. But we are learning that ultimately God is in control, and if you've seen the movie, "Facing The Giants", "we praise Him when we win, and we praise Him when we lose". God is still God even when our circumstances don't go the way we want them to. We've been experiencing that as a married couple for 14 years. But we have hope in a God that never changes. And for that WE PRAISE HIM!

Thank you Lord for being our unchanging Rock on which we stand!...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing the miracles of God through David! HE is able! This encourages us to keep praying. It makes us a part of your hoorays!! Give that boy a publisher. And a hug from me! I am going to miss him dearly!
Love ya,
KK

Anonymous said...

Yes, um, ahhhhh, hello cooke family...ahh, again..., well..., i'll just come out and shoot straight with ya, this is earl wigglesniffenhonner from family life, and ah, i don't think you guys are getting it. It is of course your final decision, but i feel you folks were great, but that you ought to stay there in that fort myers place and be close to those Tim and Kelley people that you told us so much about. They seem great too, and we would all feel sad seeing you away from them. And that tim guy, what a great looking guy, huh? wow, he should be a model or something. Probably the best looking guy ever. What a lucky lady that kelley is.

ken wigglesnippenhoffer
(this person has a right to remain fictional)