praying for Kate

Do you remember this sweet girl?

photo source

I posted about her last year - but she's all over blogland, so you've probably seen her cute picture and heard her story all over.

I still follow her Caringbridge site- and have been following her through this past 18 months when their journey began. She was diagnosed with cancer after finding a massive brain tumor.  She had a long and slow fight -but she was winning the battel!  Nearly 8 months ago she finished treatments, then started Kindergarten, and has been living life as close to normal as possible. All along, with the fear that this cancer would attack again...waiting for the next MRI to reveal their reality.  The MRI was on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

Later that day - the post was one of the most difficult to read.

Kate's latest MRI showed that there are new spots on her brain.

You can read the post her parents wrote here.  It will hurt - I'm warning you.

The McCrae family needs all the prayers they can get.

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Will you also continue to pray for our niece Sydney?  The journey Dave's brother and sister-in-law are on is FAR from over and still FAR from easy.

She continues chemo treatments and they have been struggling with finding the right ones for her.
She has had some bad bad reactions to some of them - a few times it got VERY VERY scary.

She's had to be hospitalized because of it.  She's back at home now - and they have a new schedule and plan for the treatments.  But the newest plan requires her to be hospitalized every 2 weeks for 2-3 days at a time.  You can follow their journal entries here.

This storm that Jason and Stacy are going through is so heavy and scary.  Their lives have been turned upside down because of cancer. 

But we thank God that although our family is facing a storm like this...Sydney is still here and so very strong! 

I was reminded as I was reading yesterday, of Peter stepping out of the boat, while the storm raged around him, and asked Jesus that if it was really him, he would make him walk on the water towards him.

Peter did just that - by the power of Jesus, he walked on the water with his eyes fixed on Him.

But the second he took his eyes off, and focused on the crashing waves and raging winds, he began to sink.

It's so easy to allow ourselves to become focused on the storms around us.  They mess with our emotions and our physical, mental and emotional state.  But the Lord promises that if we will trust in Him, and keep our eyes on Him alone, He will give us all we need to walk through the storm, on TOP of the water.

Walking on the water is something we could NEVER do alone. It's completely beyond our human ability. It was one of the many miracles Jesus performed while walking this earth.

Sometimes the storms that life brings us leaves us feeling that we just can't do it, it's beyond our strength and ability.  We need a miracle.

But no matter how terrifying and disastrous the storm around us is, our Savior will get us through it.

All we have to do is turn our eyes upon Jesus.

A few other points I took from this story...

*When the disciples first noticed someone out on the water they though it was a ghost - the didn't recognize Jesus.  Sometimes we don't recognize the Lord when he comes to us in the middle of our "storms".

*Peter doesn't begin to sink until he starts looking around at the wind and the waves. Taking our eyes off Jesus, and focusing on the difficult circumstances will cause us to sink. But when we cry out to Jesus, he catches us by the hand and raises us above the seemingly impossible surroundings.

*Peter starts out with good intentions, but his faith weakens. This does not, however, cause him to fail.

Peter, even in his fear and inability to understand, cries out to the Lord, the only one who can help him.

The storms we face in this world can be disastrous and rip all our strength from us.  Whether it be job-loss, troubled marriages, death of a child or loved one, or even the more every-day type storms like difficult children, being hurt by others, and being controlled by sinful habits - through all of these storms we can have such peace knowing that our Lord is standing in front of us and all we have to do is fix our eyes on Him and keep walking towards Him.

The McCrae family cried out verses to God to bring Kate through this fire with not a hair on her head singed....

"...When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Isaiah 43:2

 

We began praying this verse for Sydney too.  That she would walk through this fire and come out unburned, with not a trace of fire or smoke on her body.  And I love that after reading the story of Peter, this verse fits right in again.  But our pray is not just for Sydney and's God's healing hand and protection over her, but for Jason and Stacy too - that as they pass through these waters, that they will know God is with them, and that because He is with them, the waters will not sweep over them. 

 

 Though the storm rages, Peace can be found in the middle.