Kapic is Coming!

My friend Dr. Kelly Kapic is coming to Lincoln to talk about his book God So Loved He Gave, speaking at a city-wide event at Berean Church (enter north lobby doors and head to room D-103/104) at 5:30pm on Saturday Sept. 15th and then at Grace Chapel on Sunday morning Sept. 16th for our morning services. Join us and get the word out; dinner is on us Saturday evening!

Gloria's Burial

Tanya and I, my parents and sister just returned from Chicago, from Gloria's funeral. It was wonderful to be with the entire family, and to have the Gospel so central to the entire weekend, but our hearts are very heavy as well. Here was Gloria's burial site:

"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." 

-Corinthians 15:51,52 

Gloria

Some have asked about Gloria's story and how she went from giving birth to a child to being so sick, so here is a very abrieviated explanation:

Gloria and Chad delivered a baby named Karinna, as a result of preterm labor back in mid-Feb. Baby Karinna ended up spending around 100 days in NICU, progressed and got stronger. Karinna was able to go home at the end of May. However, Gloria had developed a terrible condition called interstitial lung disease, I believe the culprit behind Karinna’s preterm labor, a condition which causes severe scarring of the lungs and eventually shuts down the body entirely. I talked to Gloria on the phone last back in April and she seemed OK at the time but evidently the condition degenerated very quickly.

Tanya and I were surprised to learn just at the end of July that Gloria was in a fairly desperate situation and on life support. The doctors tried many things to save her life, for example they tried a trach procedure a week ago to try and get oxygen to Gloria, but her condition didn't allow for the procedure to be accomplished.

Gloria was a music minister at the same church her husband Chad serves as a pastor on. You can see descriptions of both of them at: http://ncpcbetasite.publishpath.com/staffbios

Thank you for your prayers and interest.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo

My cousin Gloria passed away last night. Thank you for your prayers. This is how her CaringBridge site reads:

Gloria Hsu Pirotte
8/23/1976 - 8/21/2012
Gloria In Excelsis Deo

God's Grieving

My cousin Gloria will likely pass away today. I thought of these words of Wendell Berry's:

“Those who wish to see Him must see Him in the poor, the hungry, and hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world.... We are too tightly tangled together to be able to separate ourselves from one another either by good or by evil. We all are involved in all and any good, and in all and any evil. For any sin, we all suffer. That is why our suffering is endless. It is why God grieves and Christ’s wounds still are bleeding” (Jayber Crow, p. 295).

Prayers Needed

I just received word early this morning that my cousin Gloria Pirotte is preparing to be with the Lord this week. She may pass before Thursday but that is the day her husband Chad and her family have set to take her off of life support. Gloria will leave behind her husband, 3-yr.-old daughter Kelissa and newborn daughter Karinna. Please pray for the Pirottes.

Joy Too!

I don't have a compelling need to make things happy, when they are not (see previous post); however, I do have great news! Our 14-yr.-old foster son went to Young Life Camp a couple of weeks ago in Colorado and God got a hold of him in amazing ways. I don't fully have words for it, but Darius can barely talk about camp without tearing up. I'm grateful; we've known Darius since he was a 1-yr.-old, and I've not seen him this soft to the Lord and others since he was little. Aslan is on the move!

Update as Fall Approaches

I haven't blogged for almost 1.5 months. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the nature of my doctoral work has shifted so that my reading is a little more focused, a little less broad. However, the explanation for my 1.5 month delay is really that I haven't put much into my degree work at all as of late, having had a brutal summer of emotional toil. Here is what I wrote today to my doctoral mentor and good friend Steven Garber. I think the explanation sums up things fairly well:

"I spent 10 days up in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver which was a nice reprieve from things. Otherwise, a hard summer: buried a 28-yr.-old, a 86-yr.-old, and my 30something cousin, mother of a newborn as well as 3-yr.-old is on life support currently because of a terrible condition called interstitial lung disease. It’s pretty desperate. Good friends of ours who have raised two Nigerian girls for most of their lives (the girls are 9 & 7) lost a court case in late June for custody of the girls- the father came into the picture recently, sought custody and was awarded it; the 9-yr.-old girl is my daughter’s closest friend and the 7-yr.-old is pretty good friends with my middle son, so my kids have been broken by much of this as well. My daughter hasn’t seen her friend for three weeks now (they were used to seeing one another multiple times every week and every Sunday; just got a message today where the 9-yr.-old was reminding her “mama” to make sure and take care of her friend, my daughter, since they can’t be together right now). I haven’t blogged since early July and am just trying to stir up a little juice for our fall project. Overall, very tired and overcome by sorrow."

So prayers are appreciated. I love writing, blogging and reading, so pray for the joy (and ability) to return, for my cousin Gloria on life support and her husband Chad and family. Pray for all those grieving all around us and for Thy Kingdom to Come.

Blessings,

Mike