Be the Church

I love to blog. And I love to read others blogs. I always seem to end up following fellow bloggers whose children are going through trials in their life. I love to pray for these families and it is amazing to me to see how people come together for families who are hurting or in need. I love seeing the church come together and be the church.
Kind of a funny saying...But, seriously God did not call us to just sit on a pew on Sunday mornings and listen about how we should help others. God calls us to act upon the needs of people. People who may not even know you are attend your church or may not even be a Christian. It makes me cry every time I see the hands and feet of God helping to supply a need.

One so called way to "be the church" literally just entered into my life. And the awesome thing is that I do not believe in "just meeting" someone. I believe there is a reason why God allows people to enter into my life. I first started praying for this family when our principal of the school asked me to lift this family into prayer. We have the Prater family in our town whose child, Dylan just found out that he has been diagnosed with a "papillary tumor in the pineal region of his brain."(Copied this from his blog) Dylan attends the elementary school where my kids go. He just finished the 4th grade. Before this morning I never really knew this family. I may have spoken to his mom occasionally at different school functions. She has two other children, daughters, and one is in my daughter Kyndal's class. I can't imagine what Kerry and her husband Mike are going through. I spoke with her briefly this morning and I can already tell we are a lot alike and we will get along great when we do "meet in person." I already love her to pieces! She is such a sweetheart and I can tell she has a strong faith.
Even though I have never been out shopping with her or have a play date with her we connected. WE are moms who want the best life for our kids. I know she is wondering why in the world is she undergoing this "test." I honestly have no answer. I do know that I can let her know that we and others are praying for her and that God knows her heart. I really don't honestly know why we must endure things in this life that we can't answer! Anyway, I also know that I can "act" to help this trial in this family's life.

One such way is to meet some needs of the family. We have such loving people at our church all I had to do is post a Facebook message and people immediately responded. That is why I love Facebook!!!! You can use it for good things! Anyway, we are collecting money for grocery gift cards for the family. You know that she is having to take time off from her job and food is expensive when families have to stay at hospitals. In the future I am hoping that we can help with childcare, household chores, whatever this family needs. But mostly pray for them!It's being the church!

If you would like to help, just shoot me an email!
They have a website set up to keep up with what is going on with Dylan. It is: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dylanprater