Dear Friends,
As we continue to be in the midst of a whirlwind of crises and challenges I think it is only right and fitting to express my thanksgiving to our Lord and Savior for His sustaining grace and the depth of love He has shown through so many. As we have gone through these last several months (and honestly continue to go through them), the Lord has provided many people who have loved us, cared for us and met practical needs. Beyond that, we have known that a great many people have prayed for us fervently and faithfully and we know that we have been sustained by God's grace in answer to many prayers. So I want to thank the Lord and also thank each of you who have read these blogs and specifically prayed for me and my dear family.
Although this in no way diminishes anyone's acts of service, I would like to take a moment to specifically thank one person whom God used to minister to me personally. He is a personal friend who also served as one of our summer interns at the church. His name is Cody Wilde. Cody is finished up his undergraduate degrees in Minneapolis and said he would stop by while I was in town for Grace's pacemaker surgery.
With Jennifer in the hospital in Fargo on bed rest with our third pregnancy and no one able to travel with me I knew that there would be a deep sense of "aloneness" while anticipating the surgery and waiting for it to be completed at Children's Hospital. On one level I knew it wasn't a major surgery but emotionally it was difficult having had so many things go wrong the last time and a two day stay at Children's Hospital in San Diego turned into almost two weeks in the neonatal intensive care.
Cody stopped over the evening before the surgery and hung out in the hotel with me keeping me company as Grace was going to bed. He offered to stop by the following morning after Grace was taken back into surgery. After walking with Grace into the surgical room and watching my little girl be put under, Cody was there in the waiting room to hang out with me.
We talked a little bit about the surgery and a host of other topics. When Grace came out of recovery and we were able to go up to the room Cody graciously went with us. He spent the day there just hanging out, talking, and helping like there wasn't anything else in the world that he needed to do. He stayed there until it was time for us to go to bed. In a sense it was nothing but to me his being there was everything. Not through anything he said or did, but just his being there with me was a reminder of God's grace and goodness and in a very real sense God's answer to many prayers for us by you.
The surgery went great and we found out the day before that one of the delicate aspects was not needed after all. But the emotional drain of anticipation and the stark reality of driving your child across the state alone to have surgery was difficult. I was reminded once again of the mystery of ministry to others. Most often it isn't what we say or do that has the most lasting impact, but our willingness to be there, to really be there for another person that makes the difference.
I have many people to thank and I hope to be able to effectively do that over the coming weeks but I didn't want to miss this opportunity to thank one person specifically for making a difference in my life at a very straining time.
Thank you Cody for being there for me.
Your friend,
Dave
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