Pray Saints...

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO SHARE THIS WITH YOUR CHILDREN, THIS ONE SHOULD NOT BE SHARED IN IT'S ENTIRETY AND WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT AHEAD OF TIME. Thank you however, for involving them in this and making them a prayerful part of these children's lives. I believe God hears their prayers best because they come from such pure places. I just want to protect their little hearts and this one will be hard for even the adults in the bunch.

Well as one of my very dear friends, (and as a sidenote one of the funniest and most delightful people I know) says, when she really means she wants it to be..."so pray saints." I've heard her say it when we're giving her a hard time about the love of her life that she's found within the past year and we're asking her about a wedding date...with the sweetest grin on her face overjoyed cause she doesn't know if she can wait another day to spend her life with this sweet guy, "well pray saints." I've heard her use the phrase in reference to the conference we all get to be privileged to be a part of in our area, called Women of Purpose, when she really wants us to know that she really feels deeply about something, "so let's pray saints." I have grown to love the phrase, I heard it first from her, but it resonated with me. I think I like the word "saints" maybe it's what does it to me. Regardless I find myself every once in a while saying to myself gonna need a "pray saints" day. I smile thinking of Brenda as she says it and the heart from which she says it.

I say all of that to tell you that tomorrow it's gonna be a "pray saints" day. As we've shared before we've taken in some tough cases this time. God has prepared us up to this point, perhaps spoiled is a better word, and we've had fairly easy moments with these kiddo's. Not always delightful and didn't always feel easy at the time, but whewww we know now that we've been spoiled.

Tomorrow we go to court with 3 of our kids we just took in for the trial of their 19 year old brother who has molested both the 9 year old, Pamela, and the 5 year old Daniela. We've spent the past several days watching Daniela have what we believe to be flashbacks which have been horrible, horrendous, scary, and painful to watch and I cannot imagine how painful to endure. She looks as though she is fighting someone to get free. I'll leave all the details out cause they're just hard, but I feel convicted to share some of them in the hopes that even though reading this across a computer screen you might know these things are so REAL and might be called to pray in some very heartfelt and deep yearning kind of ways. So tomorrow this 9, 8, and 5 year old will walk into a courtroom to tell the truth about their life and they're so scared. We talked to them for a while tonight and told them they must tell the truth so that this can be a part of the past and they can have a new future, but talk about difficult. Up until now, no one has spoken about the fact that he's hurt Daniela too and only Pamela knows about it. She didn't tell anyone in an effort to protect her little sister. So tomorrow the truth will come out and they'll have to tell it and in a sense relive it.

Please hear this from the deepest places in my soul..."PLEASE PRAY SAINTS!!" They need your prayers. Pray that Satan's hold over this family would be released and that these sweet children might be set free. Please pray that tomorrow ends the torture and begins the steps toward freedom that a child should be able to enjoy. Please pray that the Healer would show up in the most tangible beautiful ways and be balm for these aching hearts and open wounds. Pray for them first, but please pray for us as well that we might be His hands and His heart. Please pray that we'll hear when He speaks and we'll walk so closely in His footsteps that they look as though they are one. We need His wisdom so desperately and we would love if you'd cry out for it with us...for us!!

It's a "pray saints" day my friends. So let's rally around the throne and lift up 3 kiddo's who need all God's saints to gather at the foot of the cross. I'll meet you there, first thing in the morning!!

Blessings dear ones!!