Circle of Prayer

I love this card that my sister, Anneke, sent us after my diagnosis!

And we feel so carried and surrounded by prayers from people all around the world! We know some of you, and others are connected through people we know. It's a huge prayer circle and it's amazing! And it has to be the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit that is allowing us to experience this journey the way we are; for me personally, the best time of my life ever! I am living so in the moment, so at peace, so joyfully! I can't explain it. It seems so strange that now that I have cancerous tumors in my brain, I am experiencing the best time of my life ever. This can only be God's doing, and that's something I can't understand. I like to understand things and figure them out and have them make sense. This doesn't make sense to me. I'm still on a mighty big learning curve!

My second sister, Tina, died of lung cancer in 2000. Her family's situation was so different from
mine. Our children are all grown up, independent and a huge support to us! They had four very young children at the time. She loved being a mom! And now this was being taken away from her. Tina had a strong faith and found her comfort there too, but it was a difficult journey for her. She and her husband totally involved the children and kept them fully informed. They prayed, cried, and trusted together and were carried by prayer. Tina was a godly woman with a huge servant heart. She had a real ministry of sending cards and writing letters.

And when she was ill, they received a lot of cards! They would put all the cards and letters in a basket by the dinner table near the Bibles and the toaster. And then as part of the family devotions the children would take turns reading the cards to the rest of the family and then they would pray for the people who had sent them the mail. It made such an impression on me!

So now in memory of my sister, Tina, and honouring the power of prayer (which I'm still learning about) I'm trying to keep this circle of prayer going with our family by reading the cards and giving thanks and praying for each person whose notes, e-mails, and cards end up in our basket by our dinner table and thanking God and you all for all of your prayers!