SEPTEMBER 2016 NEWSLETTER

FROM PASTOR MEYER’S DESK: Back on July 24 Pastor Perry preached a sermon here that dealt with the subject of prayer.  Earlier that week he had asked me for some specific answers to prayer that different people in our church had received recently, so I shared a couple of them with him.  But the day before he preached that sermon my cousin Bill Meyer, who lives in Virginia and works for the CIA, sent me an email which he also sent out to a lot of other family members and friends detailing some amazing answers to prayer that he had experienced recently.  Before I get to what he wrote, let me give you a little background on what he’s been going through.

Bill’s parents are my Uncle Scott and Aunt Eunice.  Scott was really my dad’s step-brother, but I’ve always known him as my uncle.  Scott and Eunice have lived in Creve Coeur, Missouri for about the past 40 years and are getting up there in years.  I believe Scott is 88 and Eunice is 94.  Both of them are showing some major signs of the aging process. While Scott is failing physically, Eunice is deteriorating mentally.  So their 2 sons, Bill and Rick, both of whom live in Virginia, have had their hands full trying to find a place or places for them to live because they can’t stay in their home anymore.

Well, a few weeks ago both Bill and Rick spent some time away from their jobs taking care of all this.  But things were not happening as quickly as they’d hoped and Rick had to return to his job.  Bill stayed another week or so and continued the search.  Both Bill and Rick are praying men who love the Lord and who love their parents and who had asked family members and friends to be praying for them as they sought to make the best decisions for their mom and dad.  And oh would they ever need the power of prayer as you’ll see in the following email that I received from Bill.  He wrote:

Hi everybody:  You all have been praying for us. Sometimes, when you do so, you may wonder how things are going. Here are several instances where I can see that your prayers made a HUGE DIFFERENCE to Rick and me, and for Mom and Dad.  Thank you so much, again, for your prayers:

#1.  My very first morning in St. Louis, as I drove out to start looking for assisted living places, I noticed that my tire pressure light came on.  I stopped, and sure enough, a tire was about to go flat.  So I pulled back into the driveway, put on the spare and called around to get it fixed.  Firestone said it would take 2 days!  Fortunately, I had remembered another car fixup place nearby, limped over there on my spare, and they had me fixed up and on the road in 30 minutes.  Big hassle…then prayer answered.

#2.  After looking at 3-4 assisted living places for both Mom and Dad together, I soon realized that his declining health meant he needed more care. Nothing really sang.  Then I visited a place right in Creve Coeur, literally less than a mile from Mom and Dad’s home as the crow flies.  The people were friendly and it seemed well run.  And they had THREE nice rooms to pick from–no waiting lists like a few other places.  BINGO:  Mom’s new home fell into place.  Prayer answered, even if it meant Mom and Dad could not be together.

#3.  But Mom has never lived alone.  And she worried about that.  BINGO: Her first day there, Yvonne, a nice lady from South Africa befriended her.  Yvonne had only been there 4-5 days herself, and she noticed Mom alone.  They now dine together, play bingo together, watch TV and movies together, and do other activities.  A blessing.   Prayer answered.

#4.  Dad has to go to the bathroom every 30 – 60 minutes. This is a huge hassle.  In his 2 weeks of rehab, after 6 days in the hospital with a catheter, he had to SHARE a bathroom.  The guy he had to share it with was 96, and had bigtime problems, sometimes staying in the bathroom AN HOUR OR MORE.  That meant big-time frustration for Dad. As we looked for a more permanent skilled nursing home for Dad, EVERY ROOM was a dual room, with shared bathrooms.  At Laclede Groves, at least he could get on the waiting list for a private room with a private bathroom.  Well, before we had even agreed to move there, I got a call from the Laclede rep:  A PERFECT PRIVATE ROOM had just opened up.  Like “Magic.”  We took it, and that is where Dad is.  It takes him about 10 seconds to get to his own private bathroom now, the most important factor in his comfort.  BINGO. Prayer answered.

#5.  OK, last one.  You get the idea.  After 26 days of constant racing around, and TWO WEEKS of Rick also racing around, on the night before my last one in St. Louis, in almost utter exhaustion, MOM and DAD’s air conditioning stopped working.  It was 97 degrees outside, and in the 80s inside.  I still had to organize what stuff to take home, shred documents, etc.  I called Rick, and he reminded me that some guy at Mom and Dad’s church was an A/C guy.  I looked through Dad’s old bills, found one, and gave the gentleman a call at 7:30 am on Thursday morning.  By 9:30, he had come over, found the problem (a dead capacitor), and fixed it. This was the LAST DAY he was in town for a week–he and his wife were leaving for Vegas and Bryce/Zion Canyons the next morning. Random luck?  You tell me!  I see the hand of God and your prayers throughout…

In utter thankfulness for your prayers and friendship, I remain your devoted fans and friend,

Thank you, dear friends!

Bill

I can’t read that without tears in my eyes as it bears so much evidence of how deeply and passionately God cares about the biggest and smallest details of our lives, from a flat tire to what we’re going to do with our aging parents.  He truly is an awesome God!  Now granted, He doesn’t always answer our prayers in such dramatic ways as Bill recounted in his email; nor does He always do it exactly the way we want Him to do it.  But as I said in a recent sermon, if you ever have doubts about God’s love for you and you question whether He is worthy of your trust and surrender, just go to the cross and behold your Savior Jesus there with arms outstretched saying to you: “You want to know how much I love you?  This is how much I love you.  I would rather die for you than live forever without you.”

So no matter what difficulties you may be dealing with in your life right now, keep on praying.  Keep on believing.  Keep on trusting.  And know that the One who made you and saved you …is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Prayerfully yours,

Pastor Meyer