Monday, January 24, 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

This is Rebekah.

This is it. God has called my dear mom home...He has totally healed her and made her perfect! Her pain is over, no more death...total happiness. She has seen the face of her Maker and gets to worship Him in His presence.
So much has happened in this past week...so much pain but all ending in Heaven. Mom became quite weak and our nurse ordered a hospital bed so she wouldn’t have to move around. Mom wasn’t in too much pain and mentally she was all there till Thursday night. Thursday evening was the turning point. Mom began having terrible pain and started to get confused. All she wanted us to do was sing her to Heaven. This request turned into 3 nights of singing with many family members from Winsor and the US. over Skype. Mom was able to sing with us the first night, she also talked a bit...but mostly she was just asking that we sing her home and that it would be soon. Friday our nurse gave mom morphine injection to help with the pain..and mom slept all day. Anytime she woke up for a few minutes she would mention something about singing on Skype that night. That night our pastor came and we all sang again, but this time mom kept drifting of and only spoke a few words. Saturday mom was awake for a whole of 20 minutes all day...most of that was during singing(we were trying to keep her awake). She could hardly comprehend what was going on. She managed to say hello to her parents when they came on for a few minutes but that was it. Jakob and I went up to North Bay(I was singing on the worship team Sunday morning) for the night...both knowing it would probably be the last time we would ever see her. Saturday night went by peacefully. Sunday morning dawned clear, sunny and just beautiful. I went to church early for practice and dad called me saying that mom had a matter of hours to live. Her breathing had become laboured and her system was slowing down. Dad said he would call me when anything happened and told me to pass the news on to our pastor. During the worship service I was touched by the love the filled our church and that in Christ we can have joy and sing praises to Him in our deepest sorrows. After the sermon the worship team got up and we sang “Oh Victory in Jesus” and closed the service. As I walked off the stage Jakob handed me my phone and it rang. It was dad calling to say she had just taken her last few breaths. She was at peace........


Dad was here with mom all morning, already grieving, trying to confort her and prayed with her(she was sleeping). The nurse came in the morning and said mom had only a few more hours to live. This was when dad called me. For the rest of the morning things were quiet. Around 12:20 dad went to turn some music on for mom and as he did she opened her eyes...he walked over to her and she breathed her last. She got her wish...she was escorted home with music. She was called peacefully home at 12:24 Sunday afternoon..January 23.
When us kids came home from church dad had one last devotional around mom; almost every night we used to do devotions around the table after dinner and we would sing a song. We had so many beautiful moments together as a family around that table....but yesterday was one of the most beautiful. It was the most painful...but we were here in our brokenness giving God the love and glory He alone deserves. Watching my dad and both my siblings giving their all to God in this time is truly a miracle. We sang the Doxology(well tried to) and closed it off. This is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives....we don’t know what’s going to happen but we know God is in the future with open arms. We pray for strength in this time...especially for dad. He now has to take on the responsibility of both parents but is only half of who he was before. He and mom have been together for a whole of 21 years (21st anniversary would be on February 3rd), 21 years of always being there for each other.....being one. God will meet him where he is and give him all the comfort he needs.

This is the last blog to be written here. This chapter is closed but not to be forgotten. God has shown His greatness through it all. Sadly some people are bitter over her passing and I am asking you all to think of how she would take your bitterness? God is God and will do everything for His glory and our good...leading to our perfection. Thank God for this, thank Him for the pain and the joy. Being bitter will only make it worse for you. Mom knew with full assurance where she was going and she knew why she was going there. Christ was her reason to live and die. Satan has lost this battle death has been defeated and Hell can never claim her. When you reach your death bed will you be able to say the same? Will you go before Gods judgment seat and hear from Him “Well done good and faithful servant”...or will you be lost for all eternity? Heaven is a real place and she is there!!!! Hell is also real and is also forever. God is calling you....Christ died to save us and to bring us back to Himself. Do not be hardhearted. Mom lived as a great example of Christ....keep her memory alive and don’t disregard it by turning your back to her reason for living.

I will leave you all with the scripture that dad read to us yesterday
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

I have a blog that I will keep on updating. http://phoenix-with-a-heartache.blogspot.com/
We thank you all for being beside us and upholding us in prayer through this time.

In Christ and in His name alone!
Rebekah

The God on the mountain is still God in the valley....

Monday, January 17, 2011

Life Continues

Please pray for Jessica.. A few years ago we found a mass on her left elbow……the doc has been following it since than. She was sent away for a CAT scan before Christmas and last week they did an MRI on her. She is being referred to a Neurosurgeon….so we are waiting for that appointment….Again Our Trust is in the Lord!!!!!!! He has been completely fairthful til now…..

When peace like a river attended my way…….

Please continue praying…

In my Fathers hands
Miriam

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Love, Joy, Hope and Lots of Food

Its hard to pick out which pictures for the awesome dinner I should put on. We all went to Ed and Elaine’s for dinner. Ed, Christina and everyone else helped out in the preps and this time mom actually sat and ate with us....



This is where the kids were ready with full tummy to get into the gifts and of course….desert .....clean up.



The next day we got set up on Skype….its pretty cool how small world this has become…the Marton cousins were on, we spoke with several states at the same time


One of the days Adina my sister had one of her friends come over and have a photo shoot of our family.

Well, Christmas 2010 has come and gone and with joyful, ecstatic hearts we have all been so blest. Not knowing what lay ahead……but TRUE to HIS WORD, GOD DID IT AGAIN. Every thing that needed to be in place was in place…even the small detail of the truck that delivered the oxygen for me was there waiting in the driveway by the time we arrived in Windsor...... daily nursing care…with the best nurse in town…Nandor…..

Its hard to explain all the family and friends we had a chance to connect with…..basically Windsor is my birthplace…where I lived the first 20 years of my life so I had school friends, church friends and relatives all there….

The Lord has given myself and my family much…..as you probably know going through this not easy but in a sense its not hard because every day He gives us the grace we need and all that overflowing grace He comforts and prepares us for the day, the wonderful day when we get to see Him.

I can’t wait…..

In His Mighty Hands,
Miriam