answered prayer

The following is an excerpt from our NSV newsletter ... I love it ...

A few years ago I got a call from someone in our community who was living out of his car in a Wal-Mart parking lot. To avoid using his real name, we‟ll call him Jim. Jim was in his late twenties and needed help with food. We had him come out to some of our Saturday Morning Missions to serve with us and earn some free food. He was more than happy to help. He eventually jumped into the Northstar community, even bringing his girlfriend, (well call her…) Natalie with him. Unable to live with his girlfriend, Jim was taken in by a family at Northstar that had room for Jim in their home. This Northstar family was in a mission group at the time, and someone else in their mission group heard about Jim‟s situation and offered Jim a job. Things were working out. Sure, ups and down followed, but more folks in the mission group jumped into the mission of loving Jim and Natalie. Even when they moved down to Kentucky, the mission group was there to help.

So…years of friendship followed that one phone call that Jim made to Nothstar. But for what? For a job and temporary shelter? Was it all just for those few days that mission group helped him and Natalie move to Kentucky? Not at all. It was for much more. A month ago, Natalie, having recently given birth to hers and Jim's first child, came down with flu-like conditions. It got bad and Natalie was in the hospital.

She was in a coma, on a respirator, and the doctor‟s said at one point that she had only 12 hours to live. Things had gone terribly wrong.

The Northstar mission group was in Jim and Natalie's life for this very moment. Jim and Natalie have always had reservations about God. But now, it was clear that God was the only hope Jim had in saving Natalie. The mission group took on the task of communicating this to Jim during the desperate time. Day after day during the Christmas break, and even on Christmas day, the mission group got together to pray for Natalie.

Those 12 hours eventually passed. And another. And another.

The doctors had been wrong. Natalie pulled through. She was going to live. Jim, stunned, found himself with something new moving in his heart and head. It was hope, belief, and a little bit of faith, growing more every second.

There's a miracle within every answered prayer. And within this story, there's an amazing mission group that should really be proud of themselves. I wish I had the time to tell you everything about this story and the people who have faithfully followed the Lord during this journey with Jim and Natalie. The ridiculous love that moves mountains can also save lives, bring hope, and restore the light to the darkest caverns we crawl. And what inspires me the most about this mission group is that they were willing to crawl anywhere with Jim and Natalie, all to honor the Lord.