IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL!

What a wonderful church service we had this morning! Milton preached for a few minutes, and then he called me to the podium to share my story. The people cried, and they laughed, and then cried again, and then I called Norma up. She's Milton's sister from North Carolina on duty playing nursemaid to this impatient patient. I introduced her by saying she has come through thyroid cancer and lung carcinoid cancer, and is doing great! An ordained minister, she shared a powerful word from the Lord. Then Julie and Jennifer shared about two minutes each, thanking our parishioners for their love and kindness to our family. Then two men shared words from the Lord for me. I will blog about them soon.

Then Mike, our music pastor, led us in It Is Well With My Soul, and I felt prompted to go to the back of the church and put my arms around the family who, four weeks ago, lost their 47-year-old mother (B.) following surgery for a benign brain tumor in the same hospital and same group of doctors I'm using.

In fact, during my time at the microphone, I had told the people, "I don't understand the ins and outs of God. I don't understand the ins and outs of healing." I looked right at B.'s family, and they were sobbing with sobs that could be heard across the sanctuary. "We have a lady who died four weeks ago," I said, "following surgery for a benign brain tumor, and my heart is grieving for them, and I don't understand all of this, but I all I know to do is to trust in God (can't remember the exact wording; it's much better than what I'm conveying here J)."

I said, "My heart has broken for B.'s family. I just don't understand."

I said, "I told our congregation on Wed. night immediately following the diagnosis at Mayo, 'If I die, I'll just see my darling mother Grace that much sooner, and if I live, I'll accomplish the things that God has put in my heart. But TODAY, I believe—no I KNOW—I'm going to live through this, and God is going to touch me. Concerning B., I can only say what I tell my kids in children's church, 'Kids, you know how much fun it is to go to Disneyworld? Anybody wanna' go to Disneyworld right now?' (Hands flying up everywhere.) 'Well, kids, going to HEAVEN is one million times better. In heaven, we won't be floating on clouds and strumming harps; we'll have things to do, and it'll be the most wonderful thing you can ever imagine or think of.' I also said, 'I tell them, you know those millions of grains of sand out on the beach (we live in a coastal town in Florida), well, our lives here on earth are only ONE grain of sand. The rest of the grains of sand are ETERNITY—forever and ever. Kids, we're going to live FOREVER, not just 70 or 80 years here on earth.'"

I hope I'm making sense. It's been a long day. I'm also getting mixed up on quote marks, for you writers out there. That irritates me.

Then, Milton asked me to sit on the front pew and asked those who had severe medical challenges to come sit beside me. Then he asked every person—probably 200 people—to come forward in a succinct manner and dip their finger in anointing oil and touch our foreheads, according to James 5:14: "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."

Boy, did I get a good ol' hot oil treatment on my hair! And my dry, redhead skin was nourished, too. Just kidding. I told them they could mess up my hair all they wanted. I told them Wednesday night, when they anointed me then, too, they could pour the whole bottle on me. I wouldn’t care. Just give me the prayers!

They whispered the most beautiful things. "You're taking this so sweetly; I just can't believe it." "God's going to heal you. When it comes to Christians, you're the gold standard." "I can't redecorate this church. Get up off your butt quickly and get back here and do it!" That, from my laughing partner, I call her. I laughed and laughed. Our church has just launched a massive project to refurbish our historic buildings, and I'm on the committee. We're about to start raising funds to fund it. Such beautiful buildings in a trendy, historic part of our city, and we want to see them refurbished, all for the purpose of winning more souls for Christ. That is our only goal.

I see this post is getting long. I'll do another one right now. Excuse typos, please!