Please pray. We just heard that this morning a dear friend of ours, mother of five, Carol Poston, was hurried to the hospital for complications of Influenza Virus. It turned into Bacterial Meningitis (brain infection), and in the course of Sunday (yesterday) she went from bad to worse. At one point "Carol stopped breathing and deteriorated severely mentally." She is now at Loma Linda San Bernardino Intensive Care.
Craig and Carol were on e3 staff for many years and now pastor the Rainbow Community Church in Fallbrook, CA. Just last week they celebrated their first adoption day with their Filipino daughters. Please pray now and forward so others can pray for this precious family. Thank you!!!!!
Carol, a native of England, is a precious woman and always a joy to be around. She's wife to her husband Craig, mother to 5 beautiful adopted daughters, and she runs a weekly ministry to the women's conservation camp- a low level prison- up in Rainbow, CA. She has been a joy to know over the past 7 years.
I'll admit, when I first read this email and heard about this, not only was I heart broken, but I was mad. Lord, this doesn't make any sense! What in the world are you doing? Why Carol? Why now? What is going on?? Of course, the God of the universe doesn't have to give me an answer. He simply asked a question. "Do you trust Me?"
I resigned my heart to knowing what that meant- that no matter how little I understood, how few answers I had or would get, and no matter the outcome, yes, I trusted and will trust Him. Because regardless of circumstances, regardless of my understanding of what in the world He's doing- because there is no guarantee at this point that Carol will make it out of this, and if she does, there's no guarantee that she won't have some kind of brain damage- I know this about Him- He is good. And so today that is what I am thankful for. I'm thankful for my God who is good. I'm thankful that He knows all things. I'm thankful that He understands all things. I'm thankful that He is trustworthy. And again above all else, I'm thankful that He is good. In the midst of circumstances that make no sense, in the midst of pain and heartache, and grieving for this family, I have a God who works ALL things together for the good of those who are called according to His purposes.
This whole ordeal makes me think of people like my brother in law and my sister in law who don't know the Lord and one of their issues is with circumstances that bring pain, circumstances that are hard and seem so random- how could a good God allow this to happen? Pain happens all the time. What they're missing is the fact that God is indeed good, and it's in His goodness that I have to trust. That's what gives me comfort, is that He is good. Without that, pain is just random and painful for no reason. But with Him, with a God who is good and works things for the good, with a God who sees the big picture and who has greater understanding of all the moving parts, better than I ever could, there is purpose in the pain; there is purpose in the hard and difficult circumstances. The death of a loved one has purpose and is not just a random act that causes pain anymore- it's an event that is used for good. Yes it's a hard thing to live through and there is much pain in it, but God never said we'd have life without pain. But He uses that pain for a purpose- even when we don't understand fully what that purpose is. I may never know the purpose of what Carol is going through. I may never get it, this side of heaven, but I have hope in God. I am so thankful for a good God whom I can trust, whom I can rely, whom I can lean on fully and not worry about falling into the void of no purpose in painful circumstances. He is good. He is so very good. I do trust Him.
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