OK… this is the cutest thing ever! Brent's love of Hockey has impacted Kiara in ways we'll never fully understand. This Video will help explain what I'm getting at.
Oh Canada – Perfomed by Kiara!!
PS. you can send all encouragements, concerns, and comments to Brent and Carlee via email.
Today I received incredibly sad news… my little sister is dying.
They've done some tests and found cancer through out her body. Due to the fact that she's already incredibly frail from previous treatment, there's nothing they can do. She is at home and will live out the rest of her life with her family and friends. I've talked to her and to Chris, and they are both having a hard time on the one hand, but have a deep peace on the other. I too have a peace that is filing my broken heart. In fact, I feel as if God has been readying me for this day for a couple weeks. He's given me a heart of intercession, and in that place has quited my spirit and given me ears to hear him. I have to say, He is very real to me right now, and I'm incredibly grateful for that.
Jayda and I are close… I love her deeply, and I know she loves me. I will pray for her healing until it no longer makes sense. That said, I feel a real permission from God spend this season saying goodbye. My prayers for Jayda, Chris, and Ezekiel is that they will have an incredibly rich time together as a family over the next number of weeks and months. My heart is filled with prayers for them that can't yet find words (I need to grab a guitar.)
I Thank you all for your prayers, and pray that God will lead me as I live this very unfamiliar season of life. I pray for a blessing over relationship, and for a deep intimacy with the Father. Most of all I pray that God would hold Jayda close tonight (and the rest of her family, myself included.) Ang wrote a comment on my previous entry in which she mentioned that God had shown her "Heaven was kissing Earth", and that really resonated with my spirit. I pray that reality would be obvious to us more and more each day.
Well, Janna and I are in the Land of Living Skies right now (aka – Saskatchewan). Janna's grandmother passed away this week, and so we've come for the funeral. We're really glad that we could both get away for the week and come… what we didn't know is that God had much more in store for this trip. When we arrived in Regina (via westjet) my brother in law picked us up. He told us that they would be receiving biopsy results from a lump they'd found in Jayda's breast the next day. Our being here with them meant that we were able to pray with them, and receive the bad news together. Jayda's cancer is back.
Our main desire over this past couple years has been to really share this journey with my sister and her family. That can be hard given the geographical distance between us. I'm so thankful to God that we could be here with them this week. I recently read a powerful devotional by Henri Nouwen in which he speaks to the necessary co-existence of joy and sorrow in our lives. To live a full life we must truly live in both the sorrows and joys that it brings. Ultimately, Henri points out that we can't have one without the other.
This week is turning out to be a major lesson in this reality. I feel immense sorrow both personally, and for my sister and Chris. AT the very same time, I'm filled with joy by the love we have for each other, and by God's divine hand in the smallest details surrounding yesterdays life altering news. Most amazing to me is the intense intercession that God had lead me to earlier this week (not knowing that my sisters situation would become such a major concern.) The song that I recorded has been ringing in my head, and coming from my lips non-stop.
God, thank you for the peace you bring to our lives, and for your presence… it is truly life giving. I thank you God for your divine intervention in the everyday moments of life. I thank you that though you've called us to impossible tensions, you walk with them with us making the impossible possible. I pray your healing, and for your life.
Father, Have Your Way.
Chad
Thank you everyone for your prayers… your love and friendship is a gift.
This week was a heavy one in some respects. I heard from a number of friends and family members about life situations that have deeply moved me to pray. My heart goes out to the Dueck family, the Maier family, the Westby's, my Mom and Dad, and Janna's family. This week has been a potent example of the co-existence of joy and sorrow in this life. On the one hand there is the obvious sorrow of sickness, loss, and death, yet on the other there is the incredible joy of friendship, family, and knowing that this life is shared.
In the midst of my prayers I was prompted to record a song that very clearly captures what God has been laying on my heart. This song was first written back in September while praying for a friend. Since then it's grown into a deep cry for God's Kingdom power. I believe that God can heal. I believe that He speaks. And I believe that He can bring freedom (not only to the physical but also to the our minds, our souls, and ultimately our spirits.) I invite you to download, copy, email, and use this song to facilitate prayer in your own lives and situations. One thing is sure, we need a saviour, and this week that has become increasingly evident to me.
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Restore by Chad Block
'Recorded on a day when our need for Christ's Kingdom was especially evident'
We pray Lord Your Freedom
We pray Lord Your blood
We pray Lord Your healing
In the name of Your son
We pray for revival, Let it start in me
Break down these prison walls, I will run free
Come to dry places, With Your life and breathe
Wind of the Spirit, Come blow over me
c2007 cbmusic
In response to Daniels comment, and to document a momentous occassion, I thought I'd post some pics of the mamoth steak I ate while in Calgary.
This bad boy weighed in at a whopping 24ounzes (better known as 2 pounds)! I have to say there is something to that 'Alberta Beef' thing. I can't find a good piece of meat out here to save my life. I suppose that's why, given the opportunity at the Keg that night, I dove into the largest piece of meat I have ever and will ever eat.
Thanks for the memories Daniel.
Well, we've been home now for a little over a week. To top it off, it's just the two of us for a while. The past 4-5 weeks we've either been at some one's house, or we've had people here. It's been an amazing time with friends, but it's good to have some down time for a bit.
The one thing that is hitting me this past couple days, is how much still needs to die in me. Coming back from our time away I realized how deeply I am impacted by the fast pace of cities like Kelowna and Calgary. I lived at that pace for so long, that I found myself defaulting back to my old ways at a scary pace. Now that I'm home, I'm slowly working to recapture that place of rest that I'd just started to touch the surface of before we left at the beginning of April.
Coming to the Island, and to this new way of life, my desire was to become a 'man of rest'. I know that I naturally am that, but have learned to live a very different life over that past 10-12 years. My prayer is that the next couple of weeks and months can continue to be a deep lesson in rest. I am committed to cultivating solitude, patience, silence, and prayer. I want to continue down the sabbatical path of this year, and to find on the other side that I've grown, changed, and come closer to God's heart. I woke up this morning singing an old worship song "All to Jesus – I surrender – all to Him I freely give – I will ever – love and trust Him – in His presence – daily live".
Janna keeps reminding me of God's faithfulness. He has always been there, and He has always cared for me. He has brought us here, and he will continue what He's started. This week I'm looking for a job, and in many ways the process is flying in the face of rest. It's funny how quickly we begin to worry and become anxious. It doesn't take long before we're fighting fear. All of it I surrender today knowing that I still have a long way to go, and that's ok.