I will praise you in this storm...

Hannah Sullivan left this life and entered Heaven on Thursday at 2:25 pm. She will now be eternally healed...free of the awful disease that has taken her away from those who love her so desperately. We are left to now change from praying for Hannah, who no longer needs our prayers, but now pray for those she leaves behind. Brad, Jill and Bethany will need our prayers for the days, weeks, months and years to come. There will be so many milestones to bear without their precious Hannah and I can't even begin to imagine how they will bear it, but I know they will do it with their usual grace and faith in the Lord to get them through. Though I can't imagine going through what they have gone through this past year..even more so, I can't imagine going through it without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope everyone who reads this knows him as their personal savior. I hope you all know the Jesus that has brought the Sullivan's through this past year and will get them through the years to come. If you don't, I hope you will find me or someone who does and ask how you can have that kind of relationship with Him. The Sullivan's spoke often of Hannah's Storm and what it meant to their family. It was a great comfort to them. The song "I Will Praise You in this Storm" by Casting Crowns was especially comforting to them. Here it is...




God bless,
Sherri

Carson's Salvation

Well, coming home Sunday night from church the kids and I were discussing salvation and about security of the believer...Gracen has a friend that goes to another denomination than we do and she has been asking a lot of questions about what they believe. I was muddling my way through answering them the best I could when Carson starts crying and says that he doesn't think he is saved and that he hasn't thought he was for a while now. He says that every Sunday when Bro. Robert says "If you died today do you know if you would go to Heaven?" that he doesn't know for sure if he will or not and that he's afraid he won't. I asked him if he remembers getting saved and he says he remembers telling me he got saved, remembers that he knew how he was saved and all of that, that he was baptized afterwards, but he doesn't remember actually praying and asking Jesus into his heart. I asked him if he remembered what he had told me that night when he told me he had already been saved (this was back when he was 6) He said sortave..he remembered that he told me that he had been saved at VBS closing in May..it was now August...but now he doesn't really remember if he actually prayed and asked Jesus into his heart. He thinks maybe he just knew how but he never really did it. Of course Gracen chimed in and told all about how she remembers where she was, Kidz Kamp when she was 7, and gave her entire story and what she prayed, etc. I told him that it didn't take exact words or a certain prayer exactly but that it did mean that you should know that you believed that Jesus died for your sins on the cross, that you asked him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and live there forever and that no one could ever take that away from you just like we had been talking about with Gracen's questions. I didn't want to "convince" him he was saved if he wasn't and I didn't want to do the opposite so I just tried to tell him the basics in as simple way as I could. Anyway, I asked him if he was comfortable with the fact that he had done that and that he had asked Jesus into his heart and he said, no, he didn't think so. He just didn't remember doing it. He just remembered all the other stuff. I told him we could pull over right there and take care of it but that it was up to him and he said let's do it when we get home. I was glad so that Marty could be there, too. We got home and Marty asked him about it and he told Marty the same thing so we prayed together as a family and Carson prayed and asked Jesus into his heart. Afterwards, I asked him how he felt about it and he said much better. He seemed very relieved. He said he had been worrying about it for a while.

I really have worried about Carson's experience the first time..worried that he would look back and doubt it b/c then, when he was 6, he insisted that he didn't need to pray and ask Jesus into his heart at the time b/c he had already done it and I think he had all the mental ability b/c he's always understood everything so much earlier than most that he understood it so he thought well, I did it, but now looking back he's not sure he really meant it and at 9 doesn't really remember actually doing it..he just remembers telling me, then talking about it and answering all the questions b/c he did know all the answers and then getting baptized. I don't know whether he was saved then or not..maybe he was and he's just doubting it now...I really don't know. BUT, I believe he knows it now and that is the assurance that I want him to have. Whether he was before or not is really not an issue for me, it is that he now has whatever it was he was needing. Thank the Lord!! With the last week of so much sadness surrounding Hannah and my heavy heart and burden for her and her family, this did so much to lift my spirit. I still am burdened for the Sullivan's, but it was a bright spot in an otherwise depressing week.

Sullivan family

Today has just been one of those days. I know everyone has them. One of those days where you just want to go home and get in the bed, but you can't. You have to work, talk to friends, do things you don't want to do..all while your mind is somewhere else. Yesterday Brad, Jill, Hannah and Bethany Sullivan received devastating news..news that we have all been fearful would come. Through email updates on our prayer chain we've been kept updated on Hannah's condition as she has battled a glioblastoma, an agressive brain tumor, for about a year. Marty and Brad knew each other from college at OBU and so when we became aware of Hannah's brain tumor through our church's prayer requests we were burdened for their family. During the past year, our church has been blessed tremendously by the testimony of the Sullivan family. They have been a true demonstration of faith in the face of every parents worst nightmare. During this time every email update has always ended with "God is good." No matter if they were giving positive test results or a good day for Hannah or as in this last email on Monday where they shared the devastating news that without miraculous intervention that the doctor told them that Hannah's time on earth would likely be very short..they still continued to give glory to God and end with "God is good!" It seems so unfair that such tragedy would happen to such a Godly family, but we don't know the reason for these things and we can only trust that God will be and has been glorified through the testimony and life of Hannah Sullivan this far. No matter if she has years, months, weeks or days to come...she and her family have most definitely glorified God through their lives. They are a true testimony of faith that I aspire to have in the face of adversity. Brad spoke at church when their family came and gave their testimony and he shared that he wanted to use his experience to reach out to others that might be experiencing Cancer or other tragedies in their life. I spoke to him on the phone in November for about an hour when we had just found out that our friend's daughter, Brittany, had been diagnosed with Leukemia and I had emailed Brad and asked if he might talk to Tommy, Brittany's dad...through whatever means he had time or felt like he could do. Brad called me that night to get all the details and we spent a good while talking about his and Jill's experience with Hannah's diagnosis and I will never forget that conversation. Their desire to use their heartache to reach out to someone else was so heartfelt and unselfish. I can truly say that I believe that Brad, Jill, Hannah and Bethany have allowed us to see God through them. I know that if, as Jill has said, that God chooses to take Hannah home to live with Him that Brad and Jill will be okay. It won't be easy and they will spend the rest of their lives loving Hannah and I can't imagine how a parent survives it myself, but after seeing God use them this year I know that God is good and he is and will continue to hold the Sullivan family close in his arms. In the meantime, I'm still praying for that miraculous intervention!

Have a blessed night,
Sherri