When friends let you down........................

In Mark 2: 1-11 we read of one of the many miracles that Jesus performed when He was on earth. We see four friends taking a paralytic man and letting him down on a stretcher through the roof of a building right in front of Jesus while He was teaching the people.

This week I personally experienced this when some eighteen or so friends and brothers came together to pray over me for healing as we can read in James 5, Mark 16 and other Bible passages. They let me down as it were, holding the ropes to bring me at the feet of Jesus in prayer. This was the second time they had organized a gathering like this, just for me. I felt greatly encouraged and blessed and continue to look to Christ in faith. It is difficult to put the experience into words but I believe with all my heart that God will bless this time of prayer in more than one way for me and those who were present. My hope is in Christ and I will continue to call to our great Physician as the blind Bartimaeus did "Son of David, have mercy on me!" I want to thank you all for coming out to pray over me.

As I layed awake for several hours during the night after this prayer meeting I relived it once again. Looking at the ceiling in the dark I could picture my friends standing around the hole in the roof holding the ropes of the stretcher I was laying on and praying for me as I laid at Jesus feet. It was a precious time of quiet, peace and prayer.

Monday was the first day I stayed home from work, feeling too sick and drained of energy from the Chemotherapy treatments. It makes me nauseated and it is very difficult to eat. Every food I once loved has turned into a plate of food I can hardly eat. My taste and smell have changed dramatically and each day it appears foods are added to the list that I use to love but now taste bad. Today it was bananas which suddenly tasted way too sweet, now they don’t taste good at all. So far I have managed to keep my weight, however it is barely, I am afraid if this keeps up that my weight will slip a little, something I can’t really afford very well. So I eat and stuff it in and try to keep eating. Food looks good until it lands on my plate, then the picture changes.

This week my brother from Holland came to visit me. It was good to see each other again and to speak of our hope in Christ, our struggles but above all our blessings.

I don’t know how the coming days and weeks will go and wonder if I will be able to go back to work soon. I also need to rest because it does me much good, I can feel that in my body.

Thank you again for upholding me in your prayers.
John

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.