Dear Friends and Family,
I feel it's right at this point to say thank you for reading and following our story. Knowing that you are supporting and praying for us is a huge encouragement.
The operation is three weeks from today and so I wanted to use this post to write our specific prayer requests; for the next few weeks leading up to the operation, the operation itself and for the recovery.
One of our biggest prayer requests for the next few weeks is REST!
This is really important on so many levels. Firstly, Owen has been told that it is really vital that he remain as rested as possible in order to prevent the risk of more seizures and that he must be rested for the operation itself.
Here's where the challenge lies...Quinn and Jonah!
So Jonah has always been a bit of a challenge on the sleep front! A combination of teething and growth spurts (which seems to be a constant state!!) have meant that sleep has just never been guaranteed with him!
Quinn was once an amazing sleeper, we were incredibly blessed with her as a baby. Since Jonah was born however, things have taken a turn for the worse, and more recently since all this has been going on I think this has definitely been an area of spiritual attack.
This last week particularly has been hard going with Quinn having picked up a virus that gave her a horrible cough that made her sick. Between being up with Quinn in the night while she was being ill and Jonah waking at 4.30am we got next to no sleep.
I'm not telling you this for sympathy, I'm telling you this because I really feel that if we hadn't been able to get away for a night on Friday and catch up on some sleep that Owen would have been at risk of having a seizure due to exhaustion. The timing of that night away and the prompting to book it absolutely felt led by God.
So, the prayer request here is that Quinn and Jonah sleep long and deep through the night, every night. Also, for good health and a protection against illness for all of us and a supernatural rest and relaxation leading up to the operation.
Our second prayer request is for complete peace and trust in God for all that lies ahead. That our hearts and minds be protected from the evil one. That the joy of the Lord would be our strength when we're tempted to listen to the lies and fall in to fear.
Thirdly, as we think about the operation, our prayer is that the tumour itself would be a completely self contained mass. That it would not be connected with the brain but that it would just be a mass sitting by itself, therefore enabling the surgeon to simply remove it without any concern over cutting into Owen's brain and causing potential damage.
Another prayer point regarding the surgery is that it will be the best it can be, that Owen will have the operation, be in overnight, come home and recover. That there will be no complications or unforeseen circumstances. That his recovery will be quick and uneventful.
Finally, we ask that you pray we keep our eyes fixed on the Lighthouse, that we wouldn't forget what we felt from the beginning, that this is about more than just us. That we are in His hands and He is using this for something amazing.
I think these are our main prayer needs. Once again, thank you for your on going prayer and support.
What a season we're in. As we face the changing of the seasons I pray you may see God at work in the details of your lives also.
Much love
Rachael xx
Thursday 29 September 2016
Tuesday 20 September 2016
A High Place in the Desert
Dear Friends and Family,
At the end of my last post I said I wanted to tell you about a word, a prophecy (knowledge about the future) I suppose, that I was given 11 years ago by a man I didn't even know.
Over the years I have gone back to it and read it but never felt that it was quite the right time yet. Earlier in the summer I came back to it again and it suddenly made sense. It felt right for now and what we're going through. It is also partly where the name of this blog comes from, On Wings Like Eagles.
I wondered if I should share the whole thing with you, but I have decided to as it may encourage someone. So here it is....
"The Lord is burdened with a huge love for you and He wants to pour it on to you so that you soak in His love-you simply need to take a step into his presence.
He has cared for you and nurtured you all your life (even if you were unaware of it). He holds you cupped in his hands, a small bird fully feathered and ready to fly, but just needing his reassurance. The Lord holds you high and launches you into the sky, because he knows you are ready, he has confidence in you and he is with you-He wants you to soar on the wings of an eagle. There are no limits!
As the Lord releases you into the air from a high place in the desert you are able to gain height and to use the thermals to soar-this helps you to see from afar the lush vegetation and the promise of new life."
He also gave this verse, Psalm 73:23-26
"Yet I still belong to you; you are holding my right hand. You will keep
on guiding me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.
Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on
earth. My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains
the strength of my heart, he is mine forever."
There are couple of aspects of this that I want to talk about. Firstly, when I read this over the years I never really paid attention to the fact that he writes about being released from "a high place in the desert". Actually this is quite an important detail! If you describe a time of life as a desert time we can assume that it was hard and long and exhausting. It is in this desert time that we are in right now that God has chosen to pour out his love on me, on us, in a whole new way. It is in this desert time that he is reassuring me that I am ready for what he has planned for me and releasing me into it. We are where we are supposed to be. He is taking us to a high place so we can get a sense of being a part of something bigger.
There have been stretches of time where I have felt knocked down and a sense of being attacked over the last few months. A feeling of needing to be on my guard and praying at all times for protection over us all. But despite feeling attacked and exhausted with it all I have never once doubted God's love and protection over us. His hand in this and that all will be well in the end. But even though I have that trust and faith, my body and emotions don't always get the memo that they can be calm and relax! My body can be tense and my emotions can go haywire if I don't focus on Jesus.
I would absolutely describe this as a desert time. A hard and exhausting life experience with hard lessons to learn.
Secondly, "My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart, he is mine forever." He is my strength, my joy, my peace, my Lord, friend and Father all at once. Clearly I forget this at times and try to go it alone, this never goes well for me!
But when I fix my eyes back on Him I am able to do so much more. I can be joyful in tough times, I can be who he has made me to be and I can see the bigger picture. I can bring myself into line with His plans and know that they are good.
He is doing an awful lot in our lives at the moment and it all feels part of the same story even if we can't fully see how it all connects.
But I guess what I want to finish with is this; don't limit God. Don't look at your earthly circumstances and be discouraged by them because God is already there, he's already acting on your behalf. Seek His joy and His strength and be excited about how he's going to use what you're going through. I couldn't have understood His love and joy if I hadn't first experienced this fear and sadness of our circumstances. Expect big things of Him. Expect miracles!
Wow, I so needed to write this post to bring myself back in to a place of joy and contentment in God. This blog malarkey is brilliant at bringing me back in to an attitude of gratitude!
So I will leave it here, and again if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I pray this all makes some sense and isn't just ramblings!
Have a marvellous week!
Blessings and much love to you all.
Rachael xx
At the end of my last post I said I wanted to tell you about a word, a prophecy (knowledge about the future) I suppose, that I was given 11 years ago by a man I didn't even know.
Over the years I have gone back to it and read it but never felt that it was quite the right time yet. Earlier in the summer I came back to it again and it suddenly made sense. It felt right for now and what we're going through. It is also partly where the name of this blog comes from, On Wings Like Eagles.
I wondered if I should share the whole thing with you, but I have decided to as it may encourage someone. So here it is....
"The Lord is burdened with a huge love for you and He wants to pour it on to you so that you soak in His love-you simply need to take a step into his presence.
He has cared for you and nurtured you all your life (even if you were unaware of it). He holds you cupped in his hands, a small bird fully feathered and ready to fly, but just needing his reassurance. The Lord holds you high and launches you into the sky, because he knows you are ready, he has confidence in you and he is with you-He wants you to soar on the wings of an eagle. There are no limits!
As the Lord releases you into the air from a high place in the desert you are able to gain height and to use the thermals to soar-this helps you to see from afar the lush vegetation and the promise of new life."
He also gave this verse, Psalm 73:23-26
"Yet I still belong to you; you are holding my right hand. You will keep
on guiding me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.
Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on
earth. My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains
the strength of my heart, he is mine forever."
There are couple of aspects of this that I want to talk about. Firstly, when I read this over the years I never really paid attention to the fact that he writes about being released from "a high place in the desert". Actually this is quite an important detail! If you describe a time of life as a desert time we can assume that it was hard and long and exhausting. It is in this desert time that we are in right now that God has chosen to pour out his love on me, on us, in a whole new way. It is in this desert time that he is reassuring me that I am ready for what he has planned for me and releasing me into it. We are where we are supposed to be. He is taking us to a high place so we can get a sense of being a part of something bigger.
There have been stretches of time where I have felt knocked down and a sense of being attacked over the last few months. A feeling of needing to be on my guard and praying at all times for protection over us all. But despite feeling attacked and exhausted with it all I have never once doubted God's love and protection over us. His hand in this and that all will be well in the end. But even though I have that trust and faith, my body and emotions don't always get the memo that they can be calm and relax! My body can be tense and my emotions can go haywire if I don't focus on Jesus.
I would absolutely describe this as a desert time. A hard and exhausting life experience with hard lessons to learn.
Secondly, "My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart, he is mine forever." He is my strength, my joy, my peace, my Lord, friend and Father all at once. Clearly I forget this at times and try to go it alone, this never goes well for me!
But when I fix my eyes back on Him I am able to do so much more. I can be joyful in tough times, I can be who he has made me to be and I can see the bigger picture. I can bring myself into line with His plans and know that they are good.
He is doing an awful lot in our lives at the moment and it all feels part of the same story even if we can't fully see how it all connects.
But I guess what I want to finish with is this; don't limit God. Don't look at your earthly circumstances and be discouraged by them because God is already there, he's already acting on your behalf. Seek His joy and His strength and be excited about how he's going to use what you're going through. I couldn't have understood His love and joy if I hadn't first experienced this fear and sadness of our circumstances. Expect big things of Him. Expect miracles!
Wow, I so needed to write this post to bring myself back in to a place of joy and contentment in God. This blog malarkey is brilliant at bringing me back in to an attitude of gratitude!
So I will leave it here, and again if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I pray this all makes some sense and isn't just ramblings!
Have a marvellous week!
Blessings and much love to you all.
Rachael xx
Monday 12 September 2016
Encounter
Dear All,
I hope you are all well and enjoying the beginning of the change of seasons. There's something quite comforting about beginning to exchange flip flops for proper shoes! Or is that just me!?
Anyway! Onwards!
The summer has been a time of waiting and patience (or at least learning to be more patient!). Waiting for scan dates for tests and for an operation date. (For those of you who haven't read the last post we do now know that the operation will be on the 20th October.)
At that first appointment at John Radcliffe Hospital Owen was given the impression that all the scans would be done quite quickly through July and August and that we would then be given an operation date quite soon after they were complete and the results reviewed.
We finally received a letter to say that his first scan at John Radcliffe (his other scan was arranged through Royal Berkshire Hospital.), would be on 21st July, we only received the letter on the 18th. So again having waited a long time for the letter there wasn't long to wait for the actual appointment.
The day of the appointment Owen was thankfully given lifts to and from the hospital with a friend from church and his sister. I took Quinn and Jonah for a walk into town by the canal. I felt quite calm about the scan, I wasn't fearful. Praise God! But I was tired! Drained.
As we arrived into town and walked onto the high street from the canal right in front of me was a group of people with banners saying "Jesus Loves You!"
Now ordinarily I wonder a little bit about how effective this approach is at opening up meaningful conversations with people. On this occasion I felt quite curious about who they were, and if I would recognise anyone. As I was thinking this I was approached by a man (who I think was one of the leaders of the group) and a woman. One of the first things he said to me was "Do you believe in healing?". To which my reply was, "Funny you should say that!"
I explained what was happening and that Owen was having his MRI scan right at that moment and that we were praying for healing. They prayed for us right there and then. What a blessing!
He asked if he could take my number so that he could message me encouragement and so I could update them with prayer points.
Giving your number to complete strangers is mostly considered to be a bit stupid but it felt right to give it to them. As a group they were stepping out in faith by reaching out to people in town and offering to pray with them. The circumstances of them praying for us in that exact moment made them a part of the story and I hope to be able to bless them with news of how their faithful prayers have been answered. Funnily enough I received a message from Jose yesterday asking how we were doing! Which reminds me, I really must reply....!
As we've waited for each new piece of information and each scan we've had those moments of impatience, as you would expect anyone to have in this kind of situation. What I think is important though is not just that we are learning patience, but that God is absolutely in control of every detail and every date. Had the scan been on any other day that group of people would not have been in town and I would never have met them. As it happens they were only visiting for a week and on retreat at St Cassian's in Kintbury. They were only in town for that one day. But the encouragement I received from them and their prayers in that moment were just what was needed and absolutely showed how God was acting in the details, pouring out his blessings.
It's truly amazing how many people God has used and spoken through in this story, from as far back as 11 years ago. People we know, and those we don't. Words of knowledge, wisdom, prophecy and encouragement.
I want to tell you about the word of knowledge I was given 11 years ago...but that will have to wait until next time!
I want to leave you with this verse;
"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Blessings and Much Love
Rachael xx
Wednesday 7 September 2016
Dear Friends and Family (and friends of friends and family!)
I hope this finds you all well.
I wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little about the prayers that we have already seen answered during the last few months.
One of the biggest prayers I had from the start was that I would forget. That the image I had in my head of Owen during his seizures and how he looked in the hospital on the Friday night would just be completely erased from my memory. Each time we saw people for the first time since it happened we obviously found ourselves in a position of retelling the story. Each time I recounted what had happened those images just came flooding back into my head. Horrid! The scariest thing I've ever seen being repeated over and over in my head.
Those who were praying for us, I so appreciate your prayers on this. I can now tell people what happened without seeing it in my mind's eye. I can recall the facts, and I feel the emotion of the moment, but without the horror of the image. Praise the Lord!!
When I read back over messages that I sent various people on the Friday night my prayer request was for a distinct lack of fear. I needed to be calm, peaceful and strong for Owen. God absolutely answered those prayers! There is no other explanation (in my mind!) for my calmness, especially in those first days. It was not only strange given our circumstances but also completely uncharacteristic! I've been known to be a worrier in the past! But my prayer now is that I don't forget God's goodness in this, that for the future I know God's love will carry me through all that life throws at me. "Who am I to worry when the King of kings and the Lord of lords is working on our behalf!"
Owen's biggest prayer requests in that first week were for answers. For a timescale for treatment. For a feeling for himself of God's reassurance that all would be well.
We received the answers we needed from that first appointment at John Radcliffe that I told you about in the last letter. To know that it was definitely a tumour, that it wasn't cancer and that there was a definite course of action gave Owen (us!) the answers we needed.
A timescale for treatment has only been answered more recently. As some of you will know, last week we received a date for the operation. 20th October. Although sometimes this feels like a long way off given we originally expected a date sometime in late August or early September, we know that ultimately the timing of the operation is in God's hands and that the doctors are confident that Owen does not need to be rushed through for the operation. We now have something to work towards.
Owen's feeling of encouragement from God that it would all be fine in the end came at our church away day. The speaker that day was a visiting speaker, and he talked of the greatness of God. He spoke of miracles he had witnessed and how God had revealed himself. Of how God had given him faith for those miracles. What a perfect subject for the day! The greatness of God and the miracles he performs to this day! Reassurance that God was right at the centre of this and that he would act. That all would be well.
" And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose," Romans 8:28.
I realise that for some of you this may all sound a bit crazy. That we're convinced of answered prayer because that's what we want to believe. I understand that. All I can say, and make of this what you will, is that I have felt , and so has Owen, a sense of God being so close to us throughout this. His love, his protection, his hand on the little details. I hope that this is coming through in all the posts that I have written and will write because I absolutely want to give God the glory for all that he has done. All those little positives, the answered prayer and the sense of being carried through, they speak of God's goodness. I trust him for every step of the way, his hand is mighty to save!
Thank you for reading and I pray for a blessed week ahead for you all.
Much love
Rachel xx
I hope this finds you all well.
I wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little about the prayers that we have already seen answered during the last few months.
One of the biggest prayers I had from the start was that I would forget. That the image I had in my head of Owen during his seizures and how he looked in the hospital on the Friday night would just be completely erased from my memory. Each time we saw people for the first time since it happened we obviously found ourselves in a position of retelling the story. Each time I recounted what had happened those images just came flooding back into my head. Horrid! The scariest thing I've ever seen being repeated over and over in my head.
Those who were praying for us, I so appreciate your prayers on this. I can now tell people what happened without seeing it in my mind's eye. I can recall the facts, and I feel the emotion of the moment, but without the horror of the image. Praise the Lord!!
When I read back over messages that I sent various people on the Friday night my prayer request was for a distinct lack of fear. I needed to be calm, peaceful and strong for Owen. God absolutely answered those prayers! There is no other explanation (in my mind!) for my calmness, especially in those first days. It was not only strange given our circumstances but also completely uncharacteristic! I've been known to be a worrier in the past! But my prayer now is that I don't forget God's goodness in this, that for the future I know God's love will carry me through all that life throws at me. "Who am I to worry when the King of kings and the Lord of lords is working on our behalf!"
Owen's biggest prayer requests in that first week were for answers. For a timescale for treatment. For a feeling for himself of God's reassurance that all would be well.
We received the answers we needed from that first appointment at John Radcliffe that I told you about in the last letter. To know that it was definitely a tumour, that it wasn't cancer and that there was a definite course of action gave Owen (us!) the answers we needed.
A timescale for treatment has only been answered more recently. As some of you will know, last week we received a date for the operation. 20th October. Although sometimes this feels like a long way off given we originally expected a date sometime in late August or early September, we know that ultimately the timing of the operation is in God's hands and that the doctors are confident that Owen does not need to be rushed through for the operation. We now have something to work towards.
Owen's feeling of encouragement from God that it would all be fine in the end came at our church away day. The speaker that day was a visiting speaker, and he talked of the greatness of God. He spoke of miracles he had witnessed and how God had revealed himself. Of how God had given him faith for those miracles. What a perfect subject for the day! The greatness of God and the miracles he performs to this day! Reassurance that God was right at the centre of this and that he would act. That all would be well.
" And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose," Romans 8:28.
I realise that for some of you this may all sound a bit crazy. That we're convinced of answered prayer because that's what we want to believe. I understand that. All I can say, and make of this what you will, is that I have felt , and so has Owen, a sense of God being so close to us throughout this. His love, his protection, his hand on the little details. I hope that this is coming through in all the posts that I have written and will write because I absolutely want to give God the glory for all that he has done. All those little positives, the answered prayer and the sense of being carried through, they speak of God's goodness. I trust him for every step of the way, his hand is mighty to save!
Thank you for reading and I pray for a blessed week ahead for you all.
Much love
Rachel xx
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