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Luzisbornagain
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Post Number: 80
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 9:46 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Friday night I was speaking to an old friend that I grew up with in the adventist church and we were just talking and she was bored. I don't know, i wasn't planning on telling her anything about adventism or ellen g. white, but that just came up in the conversation. She was telling me she didn't believe in that lady and doesn't really know much about her either. I just started testifying of the things I found out about adventism and spoke to her about the gospel and she was just shocked and dismayed about all the things I told her that she was very interested in checking it out for herself and start investigating.

One shocking thing she told me, that a lady in the church who's been a member for a very long time and she's one of the elderly in the church said she had a dream that ellen g white was talking to her and then suddenly the voice of the devil started talking through her. My friend said that since hearing that, the lady hasn't returned to the church. I told her that the Lord sent her that dream as a warning. I was floored when my friend told me that I didn't expect to hear that at all. I felt that the Holy Spirit was guiding that conversation because she was truly touched and wanted to seek the truth. Please pray for my friend Denise so that the Lord may continue guiding her to the truth. Praise the Lord He truly is guiding His flock to Himself.

(Message edited by luzisbornagain on August 05, 2007)
River
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Post Number: 1223
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 11:29 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Luz,
I just got through praying for her and for you to know the words he would have you use.

Was weird about the elderly lady's dream, it could be the Lord making a final call to that elderly woman.
Hang in there.
River

P.S. I have had time to pray this morning as my wife has been sick so I wanted her to go, today being communion day, we have to take turns because we have an Alzheimer’s in the house.

She said “well you can go tonight” I didn’t tell her there is no church tonight because I knew she would insist I go this morning so I sort of fooled her, but she had missed quite a bit of church and I so wanted her to go.
A mass showed up on her lungs on x-rays so they ordered her in for scan, meantime we had been praying for her, Tuesday they read the scan and her lungs were clear as a bell. The Lord answers prayer.
So here I am with plenty of prayer time on my hands.
River
Mwh
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dear Lord, Jesus, I pray for Denise, that she will have her eyes opened for the real untainted Gospel of you, that she may see the truth about EGW and the other SDA distinctives and see you clearly in contrast to those. Send your servants to her, open her eyes to the sacred scriptures and move her by your spirit, I pray these things, but your will be done, amen.
Jamundson
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River , Wow...WOW
GREAT NEWS ABOUT THE MASS BEING HEALED IN YOUR WIFE..PRAISE THE NAME OF JESUS

Jay
Jeremy
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Luz,

Wow. That dream sounds very similar to a couple of dreams that two different men had during EGW's lifetime. The following quotes are from a document written by Charles Lee in 1876:


quote:

Bro. Hanson was very friendly to me before he came under Mrs. W.'s influence. The day before I started to Chicago in the fall of 1874, he felt so interested in me that he came 3 miles purposely to relate a dream to me that he had dreamt the night before, which he declared God had given him for my good. He dreamt that I went to meet Miss Deedon, now my wife, and then he saw that we got into a great trouble. But we came out of the troubles at last. About that time a short woman, dressed in black reform dress, came to him and took him by the hand and led him off. She appeared to him as an angel of light. But soon he heard a voice calling to him, saying, "Beware of whom you are lead." At the same time the woman's hand turned cold as a piece of ice in his hand, and she appeared to him as a dark demon. This is the substance of the dream he told me.

--http://www.ex-sda.com/newpage23.htm




And then he relates a second dream by another man, Mr. Ericson:


quote:

We kept quiet and appealed to God to convince them of the truth. They also sought God for light in regard to us. The second morning at the family worship they were more free with us. At the breakfast table, Bro. E. related a dream to us, that he had had during the night. He said he saw a great multitude of people looking for Christ to come. In the midst of the mass was Mrs. White. -- He had never seen her, but described her perfectly. All at once it became very dark upon the earth. He looked about him, and found but a small company in comparison with the great mass he first saw. In anxiety he cried out, "Where are they all gone?" A voice answered him, "They are all lost with Mrs. White." At that he awoke terrified.

--http://www.ex-sda.com/newpage23.htm




Jeremy
Susans
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh my...what a trio of dreams! I've never read any accounts of those dreams. Thanks so much for posting them, Jeremy!

Although, I'm really not surprised. I've believed for quite some time now that the "accompanying angel" that was with EGW for 26 years was a demon. I do believe that the angel who dictated to her what she should write was a demon.

And River, you may be right regarding it being a final call to the elderly lady. I pray for that unnamed lady.

Susan
Flyinglady
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Father in Heaven, I thank you for Jesus. Because of Him we can come to you and call you Father.
I first want to thank you for taking the mass off River's wife's lungs. Thank you for hearing and answering their prayers.
I also want to thank you for giving Luz the words to say to her SDA friend. May she come to know you and let the Holy Spirit into her life.
Thank you God for answering these prayers. As always You are always awesome.
Diana
Luzisbornagain
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 1:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow. River Praise the Lord and thanks to Him about the mass in your wife's lung is gone. What a miracle. Wow, I've never heard of those dreams about ellen g white either. I feel she was contacting a spirit guide as well. I'll try to figure out the elderly lady's name. I think I know her, but my friend didn't remember her name. We've gotta continue praying for the gospel to spread to all nations.
River
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 4:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I confess I don't understand healings in the least, when my youngest son was a baby my daughter who is next older than him and only a little girl herself picked him up from the baby bed and dropped him on his noggin causing a fracture across his skull, he could not keep his milk down so they prayed for him at church, he immediately began to hold his milk, the next week we were to take him in for more x-rays and there was no fracture at all, it was as if it had never been, the doctor called the other doctors in to compare the x-rays so the healing was very well documented.

I have seen x-rays where lung problems show up and they are much different from spots that can show up on a faulty x-ray so it is fairly easy to tell whether the x-ray film is defective.
I am sure most here have had to go through the unpleasant procedure of have to do x-rays over.

I have seen people healed when prayed for and people die just the same when prayed for or never get better.
I saw a wheel chair guy get up and walk in my church during the 70’s, his spinal cord had been injured during an automobile accident, last time I seen him you would never know he ever had such an injury.
So I do believe god heals but I am skeptical about some claimed stuff.

I am not declaring that God healed my wife because I didn’t see the x-rays but I really suspect he might have, I know she was relieved when the doctor called her and told her that her lungs were clear, that is a bit much to have to live with for a week and a half, God has healed me before and I know he has but I just don’t understand why some are healed and some are not.

I know that the power of suggestion cannot knit together a broken skull or a spinal cord.
Anybody got any ideas on why some are healed and some are not?
Anybody that doesn’t believe in healing at all?
One thing the Adventist I know believe in and that is praying for the sick.
I don’t really know whether they really believe he heals through miracles at times or through medicine only I have never ask them.
Maybe some of you formers might know how most Adventist view this in general?

River
Flyinglady
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 4:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River,
I had polio when I was a little girl, two years before the vaccine came out. I was in the hospital only 3 weeks and came out unaffected by polio. God healed me. Everyone at school and church prayed for me. They knew it was God who did it as there was no medicine for it.
Diana
River
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Post Number: 1228
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 5:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow Dianna! I am so thankful for you, I remember you saying something earlier about you having Polio.

I believe Polio affects the spinal cord doesn't it?
You are a walking testimony girl, healed from Polio, Delivered from Adventism.

I have seen the de-habilitative effect of Polio, there was a boy a class above me that had Polio.

How is the young couple you got to minister to at your church, are they still going there?

River
Jamundson
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 5:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River,
Most SDAs I have known dismiss miraculous healing as a deception of Satan. They link it with the "holy roller" churches. They do allow for the reality of healing but every time they are confronted with it they pull back with skepticism. Maybe they are so connected with the Adventist Heath system they don't want any competition

Praise God for the healings you have witnessed

Jay
Flyinglady
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 6:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River, The last time I saw that couple was a Saturday evening service. I have now switched to Sunday morning services at 9 AM. But they told me when they saw me last that they were volunteering to do various things around the church. So I am sure they are still around.
Diana
River
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Post Number: 1230
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Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 6:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well Jay, at least they allow for the reality of healing,I hold prayer with them every day seven days a week and they are always quick to pray and to submit request for prayer for themselves and others, A most sincere group of people, just people with every day lives and problems and ill's, it is such a shame that they suffer under uncertainty of Salvation, I would hate to have been raised in Adventism from childhood.
I hate the deceit but love the people, simple as that, nothing complicated about it. If we love them and leave the problems to God we learn to love by doing so. Its hard to do sometimes but with Gods help, it is entirely possible.

Dianna, that is great news. So good to hear.
River
Colleentinker
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Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 12:25 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River, I am thanking God for healing your wife. Amazing!

Most Adventists don't believe in healings from God--except through medicine—but I know God heals. I don't know why sometimes and not others—but I know He does. Diana, your polio story is an example of God's intervention. I have experienced God's healing also...and I am aware that my only appropriate response is to praise Him. Sometimes it seems that His healing might just have been a "natural" anomoly, but when I remember the circumstances, I know the results were direct answers to specific prayers. I believe one of our tempations is to doubt God's interventions. But God alone is glorified through His acts.

An example of what I mean happened years ago when I was a sophomore in college. I broke my leg after passing my final skiing test, and it was a bad break with several pieces that had to be maneuvered into place. I spent five days in the hospital on demerol every four hours during the first 3 1/2 days, and the pain still kept me awake much of the night. I broke my leg on Thursday, and Sunday evening my parents called me from Oregon for their daily check-in call to see how I was (I was in Walla Walla General Hosp.)

I remember I was an emotional wreck, tired of the pain, and worried I'd become addicted to the demerol(!). The next morning, to my surprise, I awoke to no pain. I began physical therapy that day, and from then on the only pain I had was associated with increasing use--and that would go away after awhile.

I learned when I went home that my dad had been really concerned about me, and after that phone call on Sunday night, he had prayed that God would remove my pain. I knew nothing of his personal prayer until nearly a week later. But my pain disappeared, and I didn't have to have anymore demerol shots.

I know is sounds "coincidental", but that pain was relenteless, and it just stopped.

God is good, and our appropriate response is to trust Him and to praise Him.

He is faithful!
Colleen
River
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Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 11:36 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Absolutely right Colleen our appropriate response is to praise him and trust him.
Its as simple as that. Not as easy to learn but it is simple. Casting our cares upon him for he cares for us.
River
Asurprise
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Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 2:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River; I believe that God sometimes heals us and sometimes He doesn't. He knows what's best in the long run. The one thing I know is that this life is terminal and that we have eternal life with God after this life. I think that God has saved my life a few times when I was younger, but if He hadn't I would have died an Adventist. We don't have to be afraid of His decision, whether to heal us or not :-)
Dianne
Laurie
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Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 6:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As a former adventist, I have such a completely different feeling regarding healing and other answers to prayers.

As an adventist I felt God owed me answers to prayers because I was doing the right thing, specifically keeping the sabbath. In reality, I was a terrible adventist. Ate meat, wore jewelery, went to movies, listened to rock, put my child in public school, etc, etc, etc. However, I still deep inside felt I should have an "in" with God on having my prayers answered. Well, many times they were not answered and I have gone through some very painful things in life. I blamed God for not answering my prayers. I actually cursed God at one point in my life.

Now, it's all different. I can't explain it, but it is so different. I still have unanswered prayers but I have trust and faith now that I never had before. I have no tendancy to blame God anymore and feel anger towards Him. It is very hard to explain, but I am at peace now. I pray much much more, more deep sincere prayer. I am just so much happier all the way around!

Laurie
Reb
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Posted on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 7:25 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Praise God for healing your wife, River!
River
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Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 8:21 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I have had three dreams that seemed to be more than just normal dreams.

In one dream I was in Russia, this was back during the cold war, I was at a village with a picket fence running down in front of some rather dilapidated looking houses, it was very cold, I was preparing to return home and this woman slipped something into my hand for safe keeping out of the country, I looked down and it was a little Bible. She pleaded with me "to guard it and keep it safe, it meant more than life to the people" This dream was very real to me, most times dreams are hard to remember.

A few months later I was sitting in a doctors waiting room thumbing through a national geographic magazine and here was a picture of this town in Russia, it was the same place of my dream in every detail, the same picket fence, I almost swallowed my gum.
I haven’t the foggiest idea about why this occurred.

Another dream was a sheep pen with sheep, the sheep just milling around, one of the sheep was my friend James, all of a sudden one of the normal looking sheeps hide started splitting open from his head to his belly and there was a wolf inside and he jumped on my friend James and just tore him to pieces. I was really disturbed the next day, so I went to his house and told him of the dream, I told him I felt he needed to be warned, he said “I appreciate the warning, but I am o.k.”, this was done in front of his wife and two daughters, less than a year later he left his wife and went back into alcoholism, I saw him about 2 years later and he was completely different form the person I knew before, even his eyes were different. Go figure.

The third and final dream I had was of my wife and I in some kind of threat situation where the years had advanced, the landscape was terrible, large trees in splinters, no green vegetation was left, the earth churned up, the sky was almost blood red and acrid filthy smoke filled the air, I hid my wife behind a large downed tree and we just sort of cowered there, from behind me came long large evil looking missiles which roared over head with an air splitting roar and the dream had a sense of hopelessness and finality to it. End of dream.

I have wondered about that last dream all these years, I can still recall all three dreams vividly although it has been over twenty five years.

I am not even hinting that even one of those dreams were from God, I just am not sure, I don’t put faith in dreams, not even in the ones that seemingly come true.
I just don’t know what to think, I am sharing this because of dreams mentioned, although I did take action in the dream of my friend James, I felt I owed it to him, I don’t make decisions based on dreams, I just related the dream to him.
I am happy to have left these dreams safely tucked away in the “tension” files, I take them out and look at them at times then put them back.
River
Busymom
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Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 12:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi River, I don't know what to say about your dreams. I don't have any experience interpreting dreams. I wanted to comment on healing, because it is something I have struggled with for years. When I was Adventist (I'm a nurse) and took care of people who died it was sad, but I didn't believe in eternal torment. When I left Adventism and have continued to care for people that have terminal illness, I have found it so difficult to think of people I know from talking to them that they were atheist as being in eternal torment. Leaving Adventism has made me want to be able convince people before it is too late that there is a God who loves them. Ultimately, God gives us free choice, so if they are not willing to listen there is nothing I can say.

When I was in the mountains I read a book that talked about healing. The author mentioned Hebrews 12 as an explanation of why healing does not happen sometimes. She explained that hardship is discipline and God in his love will send us sorrows sometimes. Hebrews 12:11 says discipline will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Have you heard this chapter related to healing before? I have often wondered whether losing family members at a young age was due to a lack of faith on my part, or whether I missed the Holy Spirit saying something. I do think going through difficult experiences can give us empathy for others and help us minister to others. The author also pointed out that at the end of Job, Job was asked to pray for his friends. He was giving a ministry to perform before he was blessed by God. Anyways, I continue to struggle with this subject and don't mean any offense to anyone who has a different viewpoint on healing
River
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Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 2:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Busymom,

I have not heard of anyone mention Hebrews 12:11 in particular but I have heard them use a lot of other scripture to justify a lot of stuff.

I have heard people say that the reason people weren’t healed is lack of faith, but I don’t think that flies either, I know he does heal, has healed and will continue to heal his people.

There are too many documented cases in testimony against the person who believes that miraculous healing never takes place at all, but there doesn’t seem to be much rime or method to it. That was what I was trying to say when I said I confess I don’t understand it.

I do know this, to think that people in your family dies because of your lack of faith are completely wrong headed and yet we do wonder such nonsense.
That kind of attitude takes on God like qualities that we just don’t have and a responsibility that we have no right or ability to take on.

One morning while I was sitting here having Bible study and I begin to praise him and the Holy Spirit really touched me in a strong way, and all of a sudden realized I was healed, I had been sick for several days, I stayed healed, I had not even thought of asking for healing and yet he healed me.

I thought about it and I began to wonder, the thing I know is that I felt the power and wonder of the Holy Spirit in such a strong way, does that somehow have something to do with it? I just do not know.

Now the cessation-ist he believes of course that healing stopped with the last apostles death and that those things which occurred in acts were for that day only, so for him the answer is easy, they scoff at it. He has no solid scriptural proof what ever that the things that went on in the early church ended but he happily goes on in a simplistic mindset, it extracts about 60 or 70 % of the scripture but they don’t see it that way, they are much like Adventist in that they make the scripture fit their theology.

I think God allows things to try our faith and make us strong in it, and we are able to minister to others on account of it, faith is necessary part of a Christians life, but everything is not as cut and dried as we would like it sometimes, and I think miraculous healing is one of them.

The truth is that bad things happen to good people and the little innocent ones and it saddens us immensely and a mother with a dead child can hardly be comforted, things we don’t understand go on all the time, if our faith can endure the burdens of this life then our faith is indeed strong.

I have just learned not to struggle with these questions too much although I do try my best to understand, I have had a bank of questions waiting to be answered since the day I was saved and freed from alcoholism in such a miraculous way, some have been answered and some not. Some I think I may know the answer too but still hold in tension.

The author of the book you read may have had it figured out, but I sure don’t.

A drunken driver crosses the median and head on with a family of five, a Christian family, everyone is killed outright accept one the small child, soon the small child succumbs to injuries too in spite of many prayers, do we lay that at Gods door or our lack of faith? I say it was because of sin in the world, much of what happens is because of sin in the world and we lay the blame on God I think.

So will I quit praying for the sick? No, if they die will it reduce my faith? I hope not.
So Busymom, if you have questions that you struggle with, doubts that plague you, I sure don’t fault you, I say welcome to Christianity, I think sometimes the fact that we are left to struggle with questions in itself builds our faith and strength to endure, always swimming against the currents of life, always challenged but bearing up and still being able to raise our hands in praise to God and resting in his true Sabbath of rest, trusting in him through all adversity, that is a big part of being a Christian.
River
Colleentinker
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Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 3:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, River--I believe that God asks us to trust Him. If we could figure out what and why things happen, we'd have a formula we could sort-of impose on each other (and ourselves). We'd trust the formula and our application of it.

God cannot be formulated. He Is God. And we are to trust Him and expect Him to care for us and give us Himself no matter what physical things happen.

River, thanks for sharing your dreams. I also believe that I can't draw a conclusion from them. But clearly, at least in your second dream, God helped you "know" something that put you in a position to pray/take action.

"Hold them in tension..."

Colleen
River
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Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 5:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Colleen, thanks for putting into words much of what I was trying to articulate.

QUOTE:
If we could figure out what and why things happen, we'd have a formula we could sort-of impose on each other (and ourselves). We'd trust the formula and our application of it.

God cannot be formulated. He Is God. And we are to trust Him and expect Him to care for us and give us Himself no matter what physical things happen."
(end of quote)

To often times people try to put Gods healing into a formula, they come up with scripture and write a book, just do such and such or claim such and such scripture and it will bring healing.

They come up with formulas for everything, healing, prosperity, and many other things, we can't put God in a box can we?

If I had all the formulas that people have come up with in my garage I couldn't get the door closed.
River
Honestwitness
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Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 6:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River, you wrote:

"In one dream I was in Russia, this was back during the cold war, I was at a village with a picket fence running down in front of some rather dilapidated looking houses, it was very cold, I was preparing to return home and this woman slipped something into my hand for safe keeping out of the country, I looked down and it was a little Bible. She pleaded with me "to guard it and keep it safe, it meant more than life to the people" This dream was very real to me, most times dreams are hard to remember.

A few months later I was sitting in a doctors waiting room thumbing through a national geographic magazine and here was a picture of this town in Russia, it was the same place of my dream in every detail, the same picket fence, I almost swallowed my gum. I haven’t the foggiest idea about why this occurred."

May I introduce you to a young boy from Belarus, which is a region in Russia not far from the Chernobyl disaster? He is 13 years old and comes to the US every summer and lives with my sister and her husband. His name is Eddic, but Americans call him Edward. He was born with one normal leg and foot. The other leg was just never there, but a deformed little foot grew out of his hip area.

Edward is one of a group of Russian children who have been 'adopted' by an organization that coordinates their annual visits to the US to get medical care. They are all victims of the aftermath of Chernobyl. Each summer Edward spends 7 weeks with my sister and her husband, who transport him back and forth to his doctor/hospital visits and who love him as if he were their own child. Last summer Edward had the little deformed foot surgically removed so he could wear a prosthesis.

Earlier this week, my sister sent a heart wrenching email to her prayer partners, which includes me. Here it is:

Dearest Soldiers of the Cross of Christ,

It is such a blessing to be part of each others' lives. I love praying for each of you and watching the glory of God unfold as we lift one another to the Throne.

Today I have a request. I am asking for prayer for Edward, our 13, almost 14 year old Belarussian who just returned to his home Aug. 2. I am also asking prayer for me...I am having such a hard time letting go. I find myself with tears running down my face at the slightest thought of him. This was his 6th year in our home. He stays for 7 weeks each summer. God has woven Edward deep into my heart. Edward is bright and fun. He is a great swimmer and diver. Most of you know he was born with just one leg and he comes here each summer to receive a new prothesis. Each year it gets more and more difficult for me to send him back to his home. He lives in a 2 bedroom apartment with his maternal grandparents, mother, aunt, twin brother, and 17 year old girl cousin. All the adults with whom he lives with are hopeless alcoholics. Since he is disabled he receives a pension check from the government each month. It is the equivalent of $100. He is so frustrated and angry with his mother, because whenever his check arrives she goes to the store to buy more alcohol. He said he needs clothes for school, but she cannot buy them because she "drinks" all the money. His English is getting better and better each year, so he can share more from his heart each year...which breaks my heart in return.

We had some really special times though and made some great memories. We were able be with our son and his wife during the birth of their beautiful son, and Edward was with us. Edward even held the baby just hours after he was born. We called him "Uncle Edward". While we were there, we went on a fun outing (after the baby was born). We took a ski lift up a mountain (below us were beautiful mountain flowers). We got in "sleds" with wheels on them, and slid down the mountain side in the concrete ditches poured especially for sleds. We all had so much fun.

After returning home we had to get Edward packed for his trip home to Belarus. We bought gifts for his Mom, Dad, Grandmother, and aunt. It was difficult getting ready to say goodby. He told me with tears in his eyes just a few nights before he left that he did not want to go home. He did not even want to see the faces of his relatives! When we actually got to the airport, we held up pretty well...UNTIL... just as he was leaving my side to go into the waiting area where I could not go, he had tears in his eyes and he said once again, "I don't want to see their faces!!"

They got off safely, and I went home crying. It was easier for most of the other children to go home to Belarus. They had missed their families and had even gotten homesick. Edward has never gotten homesick the 6 summers he has spent with us.

I was so delighted today because I called Belarus and got connected with Edward. It was so good to hear his voice again. It was 2pm here and 10pm there. He was watching TV. I aksed how he was and he said "fine". I asked how his Mom was and he said, "Not good". I asked if he knew where he was going to go to school yet. He does not know. Last year he was in a boarding school with his twin brother, but his prosthesis broke and no one could fix it. So he cannot go back to that school. If he stays at home and lives with all his relatives he will be miserable. SO please pray for his family to find deliverance in Christ. Pray for Edward to be drawn to read his Bible and discover more about the love of Jesus. He believes in Jesus and wears a plastic cross around his neck. He sometimes goes to the Russian Orthodox church with his paternal Grandmother. There are not many, if any, evangelical churches in his city of Brest. Pray for workers for the harvest field of Belarus. There were missionaries who had lived and worked in Minsk, Belarus, but they were recently kicked out by the government. Belarus is on the map as one of the areas of persecution that the Voice of the Martys targets for prayer. Thank you for targeting Belarus in your prayers too, and especially lifting up our Edward.

One more thought. There is a website www.lifewithoutlimbs.org. GO there NOW, you will be richly blessed. It highlights a young man who was born in Australia without arms or legs, and how he is living for Christ now, in the midst of his challenges and difficulties. I watched it after my conversation with Edward earlier today. I ordered a copy of the DVD about this man so I can mail it to Edward for his 14th birthday coming up Sept. 15th.. I am asking you to pray that the thoughts and scriptures that "Nick" shares will touch Edward.

Thanks for letting me go on and on. I love you and need you all so very much.

* * * * *

Need I say more?

Honestwitness
Flyinglady
Registered user
Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 4117
Registered: 3-2004


Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 7:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Honestwitness,
Would you like Edward to stay with you folks forever, like a son?? Because that is what I am going to pray, that some one here in the US will want to adopt him. There have been other Russian children below the age of 18 who were able to stay here because they did not want to go back to Russia.
Father in Heaven, You are the I AM and I come to you now bringing Honestwitness and Edward to you. He does so well here and being in an alcoholic environment is not good for him. So Father please arrange it that some how he can return and go to school here in the US and stay here.
Hold Edward and his adopted family-Honestwitness-in your awesome arms and let them know that you are there.
You are always awesome.
Diana
The prayer is for you and him and who ever God has in mind for him.
River
Registered user
Username: River

Post Number: 1256
Registered: 9-2006


Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 9:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Honestwitness,

No, you need not say more, after this dream, I ask my Pastors what they thought about the dream and they thought that I was to pray for the Christians of Russia perhaps, I still hold the fact of the dream in tension but I suspect they were probably right and so I will pray for Edward tonight who lives in a house destitute of the word or pretty near it.

Alcoholism is a pretty bad problem in Russia I hear.
Thanks for the story.
River
P.S. Much later, after this dream I went to listen to a Russian who held citizenship in that country and at that time he said Bibles were hard to get into Russia, this was in the 70's.

River

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