It's a date!

There's nothing like a day out on the water

1. Life jackets...check.

2. Wake board...check.

3. Boat in the water...check.

It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday in July, and it was time to celebrate the end of a 16 year struggle. When the boat took off Christopher popped up on his wake board, and the party began. I pulled out my camera and began documenting every flip, twist, and turn.

He loves to ride the wake!

It was a surreal moment. There were NO more worries about feeding tubes becoming dislocated or getting infected. There were NO more worries about Christopher getting dehydrated or having enough energy to ride the wake board as much as he wanted to. There were just NO more worries at all! All the worry had been replaced with a sense of closure, and I spent the rest of that day just marveling through the lens of my camera at the miracle God had done.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who was profoundly impacted by the events of that day and the miracles that had made it all possible. My son, Michael, had been there too. He had been watching Christopher ride the wake, and the miraculous events that had brought us to this moment had not been lost on him.

That next morning Michael left for work. It seemed like just your average, ordinary Monday, but behind the scenes God was setting the stage for His next great work. God was whispering to Michael, and something began to change inside him as the Holy Spirit stirred.

Later that day I received a text message from Michael telling me that he had been thinking that maybe Bruce Van Natta and Kim could pray for him. I became VERY excited when I read the text! I immediately sent a text message back to Michael telling him that I would set it up right away, but my excitement quickly vanished when I read the next text message that Michael sent to me. It said..."I told you that I was just thinking about it"

I had spoken to Bruce about Michael several times. I had shared with him that Michael suffered from Bi-polar disorder, and I asked him if he had ever prayed for anyone with Bi-polar before. He explained to me that he had prayed for people with Bi-polar disorder, BUT that it was important that Michael asked for prayer himself, on his own. It needed to be his idea. Michael needed to ask. He had to want it on his own. He warned me not to pressure him.

When I read Michael's first text message, I was very tempted to point out the obvious...look at your brother, take a chance, what do you have to lose? Then Bruce's words came back to me. I decided to heed his advice, so I sent a text message back to Michael telling him to let me know when he was ready.

For an entire week nothing more was said about it. Michael didn't bring it up, and I was silent on the subject. Although, I will admit that it wasn't easy for me to keep quiet. There were moments I wanted to just scream it out, but I didn't. I agreed with Bruce. This was between Michael and God.

I had no idea how long it would take, or if Michael would ever even come to the conclusion that praying for healing was something he wanted to do. Luckily, it didn't take long for the jury to come back on that one. After Michael left for work that next Monday morning (a week later), he sent me the text message that would change the course of his life. It was just two little words, but they were very powerful..."I'm ready."

It's a date...August 5, 2012

That was enough for me! I was dialing my phone so fast that you would have thought my fingers were on fire. In the space of just a few minutes I had it all scheduled. Bruce Van Natta would skype in (from Wisconsin where he lives) that next Sunday, and Kim would physically be at our house to pray for Michael.

It was a date. August 5th was about to become another anniversary date for our family to celebrate. Now all that was left to do was to invite our close relatives over to pray with us. I wanted them there to witness, participate, and be blessed by the miracle that I felt in my heart that God was going to do. As it turned out, none of us would be disappointed. God had a plan, and we all were going to be a part of it.

 If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

More tomorrow...