Garden Prayer Walk

Yesterday, Sunday July 29th, two ladies in our church opened their gardens for an afternoon of prayer and support for us. It was a beautiful day filled with friends, prayer and encouragement. I wrote a prayer request sheet with scriptures for people to use as a guide throughout the afternoon. I am reproducing it here for those who are interested in specific and current prayer needs.

Garden Prayer Walk
July 29, 2007

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and your bones will be strong. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58: 11

Thank you for coming to the Garden Prayer Walk today. Feel free to walk through one or both gardens and stay as long as you wish. Pray alone or with others. Stay a short time or a long time. Here are a few notes we hope will help you pray specifically.

Brief History:
John was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in September 2004. He received 39 fractions of radiation that fall. He gradually improved with each month. Beginning in July 2005 through January 2007 John worked to get grand mal seizures under control. His last seizure was January 10, 2007, however since then he has experienced decreasing energy and migrating physical pain. In May he was diagnosed with aggressive metastatic cancer to the bones in his cervical spine, ribs and hip. This summer he received 14 fractions of radiation to the spine and ribs in order to take pressure off of the spine and lungs which was causing increasing numbness in his left hand and shortness of breath. Over the past 2.5 years John has lost 45 pounds, one inch of height, flexibility, strength and stamina. It is difficult for him to stand, sit, walk, lift and play with the children. The neuro-oncologist has two options for treatment from which we may choose. The first is an aggressive chemotherapy that has severe side-effects and a less than 10% chance of alleviating the cancer’s growth. The second is a clinical trial for which there is no supportive literature. We will love and serve Almighty God no matter what unfolds, but we humbly ask for John’s complete healing. Thank you for joining your prayers with ours for John’s life, health and peace.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15

Prayer for John:
 Complete healing, removal of all cancerous cells from his body, blood and bones
 Regeneration of bones and strengthening of bones to prevent breaks
 Wisdom regarding what treatment to pursue
 Health of John’s other systems as they carry the consequences of the disease and the treatments: calcium leakage to blood, kidney function, etc.
 Wisdom about what to eat. John has an increasing sense that he should eat very little meat and mostly fresh fruits and vegetables.
 Financial provision for medications, supplement, tests, physicians, etc.
 Opportunities to get away with Margie for prayer and connection
 That God would be glorified by John’s testimony through suffering and/or healing. That as John follows the Lord he will receive wisdom about how he should invest the years of life he is given.

In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth. I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak. I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands; Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I have cried out to you; Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD. Psalm 31

Prayer for Margie
 Faith, hope and love
 Freedom from fear
 Physical strength and health, rest and sleep: As John is increasingly unable to do physical tasks, Margie needs the strength to lift, get up with the children, etc.
 Courage to hope and remain connected to John
 Faith to collaborate with the Holy Spirit in how to pray, encourage, minister and help John
 Perseverance in starting each day with prayers of faith and disciplines of worship.
 Patience and peace, a quiet heart from which to parent during tremendous stress.
 Energy for life and joy, setting the tone of the home for the children to be at peace.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Mathew 6: 25-34

Prayer for Charlotte and Josiah
 Freedom from fear
 Ways to connect with Daddy that are not jumping, bouncing, running, etc.
 Summer fun and joyful life
 Know the love and support of the community of faith
 That they will know God carried them through this trial. We pray they will say with Job, “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.” Job 42: 5.
 Ability to express questions or concerns as they come up.

Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table. Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD. May you live to see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. Psalm 128

Thank you for coming to the garden to pray for us today.