Josie Update & Village Prayer

I cannot thank you enough for interceding for the healing of baby Josie! She is alive! And continually getting BETTER.
This is a medical amazement, isn't it? Who could heal someone with non-stop seizures, who had a total body central nervous system infection, severe purulent bacterial meningitis, blood sepsis, severe pneumonia and liver infection????

And ONLY Him. Not Buddha. Not Ancestors. Not the medicine man.
Only Jesus Christ, son of the Most High God can!!!
And that's what I want you [to continue] to pray for: the hearts of those in the village to be OPEN to the Truth.
Just last Friday, they all felt STRONGLY that Josie was about to die. Every villager left what they were doing and came and stood with Josh and Penny (Josie's parents.) And they waited.
And waited.
But Josie did NOT die.
She began to eat a little again from the bottle. Not just mama's milk, but also congee!
Amazement rippled around the village!!
The next report I heard was that Josie was now nursing directly from her mama! (And the other miracle is that Penny still has milk after so long!!)
So today, (May 26, 2105) my friends are going into the village to deliver medicines. And they will check up on how new believers Josh and Penny are doing and call the others to faith in Christ!
This will be done in their heart language. How much better could it be? Evangelism done by their own people. 
God knew.
Please join with us in holding this special time up in the village: that God will show off and that they will SEE clearly the emptiness of their sacrifices to stone and mere pictures and realize the vibrant truth of a faith in the Almighty Creator God who can HEAL!!!
All of these circumstances are truly incredible. There are precious people who have worked for decades trying to bring Truth to them...and couldn't do it. The time was not right. The barriers are thick. The villagers need to see God in action. That God is for them. And here, in this amazing display of God's glory...they are! 
Keep praying for faith in this village!

Josie and the Answered Prayer

 My dear ones, I am conflicted with many emotions and have much to share.

Here is our Josie...now on a ventilator.
Her diagnosis has gotten worse.  She now has a severe infection in her central nervous system that is caused by "severe purulent meningitis" and the infection is all throughout her blood. In spite of being on the most powerful antibiotics, the infection cannot be controlled. They are unable to stop her seizures. Doctors agree, she now has permanent brain damage.
Being in the PICU is incredibly expensive. Even with the fundraising we did, the ABUNDANT generosity of Love Without Boundaries the funds have run out. This is MORE than heartbreaking to her family and us. And probably to you as well.
The doctors feel she will not survive once she is removed from the the ventilator, however this is what is planned for tomorrow.

Only a miracle will save her now.
And I do not want to miss that...PERHAPS God will choose to miraculously heal her and she will survive out of the hospital. PERHAPS He will heal her brain damage and she will be a whole person, fully functioning. It would be an incredible thing...and HE CAN DO IT.
So please, ask for this miraculous healing. We are in a place where we all feel a sense of peace if this is NOT how God chooses to answer our prayers.
How can that be?!???
Let me tell you...
I told you that I had MANY emotions, many of them conflicting. So if those are the sad and devastating feelings, then you know they are not all sad!! 
Today, Josie's parents BOTH OF THEM have become Christians! They have understood the massive love of God for them and put their faith in Jesus Christ!
This is SUCH an answer to years and years and years of prayers! Prayers of so many! And you, you joined us in this effort and our collective storming of heaven has produced the movement of the Spirit in their hearts! 
Hallelujah...they have been born again!
They will be the first ever believers to actually live full time in this village. Pray for their growth. Pray for their strength as they are the only lights in this dark place. Pray as they are possibly going to be grieving the death of their daughter with the village watching how their new faith impacts this process. Pray for them to be like dominoes...more and more falling into the loving arms of our Jesus!
Baby Josie has ushered her parents into the Kingdom...the very same place she will most likely run to herself tomorrow.
What a life purpose!! Oh precious baby Josie, how we LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!
Prayers are needed for everyone involved as they remove her from the antibiotics, all the monitors and the ventilator and then bundle her up and head for home.
Oh, I simply cannot write this without waves of my emotion sweeping over me. These things are so difficult.
Please hold them tenderly in your prayers.

AMAZING Provision and Josie Update!!

My dear friends, you are AMAZING.
AMAZING!!!!
More than 2,200 views on the first post about baby Josie! I have had people asking me how they can help keep baby Josie at the new hospital...so I've set up a "Gofundme" account.You can give here:  I had to take it down. READ ON for WHY!!! And friends, I'm so blessed to say that there is over $1,600 waiting for her already. This is a fabulous start!!! 
What is more amazing is that Love Without Boundaries has a special program where they help impoverished families receive the medical care that is so desperately needed...and they have accounts at six hospitals in all of China. ONE OF THESE HOSPITALS IS IN THE CITY THEY ARE CURRENTLY TRAVELING TO!!!!
So...what we need to pray for now is that baby Josie will make it safely to the hospital from the train. I just heard that Josie is running a fever and vomiting. STAND IN THE GAP FOR HER!! Then, that all the contacts that need to be made in order for them to be taken into the hospital not under the normal "pay as you go" way but that they can go in under the LWB account.
So the great news is that I can close the gofundme account and you can give STRAIGHT to Love Without Boundaries in baby Josie's name. 100% of the funds will go straight to the family, no charges taken out!!! And it's a non-profit organization so your donations will be tax deductible!! PRAISE GOD!!! You can give here: Love Without Boundaries as she was just made a child who needs sponsorship for a surgery. All your funds will be given straight to her medical needs!!! And the CEO just told me that if more is given than is needed for her current care they can receive funds to reimburse the family for the $10,000 already spent!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM COVERED IN GOOSEBUMPS!!!! ONLY OUR GOD!!!!
So keep praying church, amazing AMAZING things are happening!!!
We need to get Josie to them and get some basic tests run to know what the actual diagnosis is. Then we can proceed with the family, helping them to make the best medical decisions possible with the benefit of having the LWB team behind them!!!
HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?!?!?!??!?
Praise our amazing God!!!!
(...and keep praying! She is still so fragile!)

BLOWN Clear Outta the Watta!

These are the posts a blogger LOVES to write! A post full of PRAISES!!!!

Assuming you read my post from last night, you'll delight in this picture from 10 am this morning:

This was only one of many, many donations for the three babies whose lives hang in the balance. And yes, this really was a donation from one person. (Our amazing doctor and his wife!! Love you guys, T&N!)

With everyone's generous we-love-Ugandan-babies donations, we were able to buy and fill not one but TWO extra footlockers of baby formula!!! I bought all the vitamin drops out of our entire town too! (Any idea how FUN this was for me?!?!?! I was telling everyone I saw--every cashier, every phone call, EVERYONE what God was doing!!!) HEY! We even have the overweight fees covered! ($400!!)

This all came together in less than 24 hours. Seriously.

HOW INCREDIBLE IS THAT!!!?!?

Um, ONLY GOD!!!!

Now if you remember, we are not just going to Uganda to feed babies (although I might do that sometime!!) but ALSO to adopt our little Z!!

Do you remember one week ago?

Do you?

I almost don't, because life has been a big whirlwind around here!! I posted actually only SIX days ago about our financial needs that we were facing to be able to attend this crazy God-given courtdate. (Truth be told, I am STILL in shock over that miracle!!! To read about that miracle, click here!) I talked about stepping into the water and watching God part it AFTER we step out.

I admit it, that post was motivated from a place of fear in my heart.

But fear is an interesting thing. You can have fear but still move forward. As you move forward, your fear lessens as God proves Himself to you. (Sadly, we humans want this over and over again--which is why God wants us to REMEMBER and TELL OTHERS about the miracles He performs! He wants us to TRUST HIM MORE NEXT TIME!!!)

So we stepped. And you guessed it, He parted the waters.

Our ugly giant with hair growing out of the mole on his chin...you remember him? The pricetag on his hat read $6,000. Remember?

Guess what? In 6 days time...

God has brought in a total of $6,381.13.

Wha...??????? YES!!! NOT LYING!!!!

So, as if we don't have enough things to do...we are working on this:

And we are diligently recording your names on the back...so it looks something like this:

It's a pretty cool thing.

YOU are a pretty cool thing. We are adopting a precious child from Uganda by your support, love, prayers and giving. It's truly amazing. God is doing this, we know. But YOU are responding. You are not hardening your hearts. You are choosing to act. You are not saying, "someone else will do it," but you are actively jumping into our story.

We cannot thank you enough.

And soon, I'll have tangible evidence of what all this has been for. Stay tuned!!! :)

Until then, just party on in rejoicing over God's miracles! And I'd be curious, how does our story impact you? I know I am encouraged by the stories I read on blogs of God's faithfulness! All these stories weave a stronger and stronger faith in us and we have more guts to step out in faith in what He's asking us personally to do. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment and share with us how God's faithfulness here is encouraging you there.

Let me leave you with a favorite verse of mine:

The One who calls you is faithful

       And He will do it.

                                                              1 Thessalonians 5:24

God Said to Our Mountain, "MOVE!"

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. ”

Matthew 17:20

It is with tears of joy that I sit to type out this news....

WE GOT A COURTDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and what's more amazing????

IT'S WITHIN OUR ALREADY PLANNED TRIP !!!!!!!!!!!

 OH PRAISE HIM!!!

OUR AMAZING, ALL POWERFUL, PHENOMENAL GOD WHO MOVES MOUNTAINS!!!!!!

And thank YOU for praying with us!!! What a HUGE answer to prayer!!! Hallelujah!!!

Ya know what? ...we are gonna bring home our little Z!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)