A Promise Kept: He Showed Up (Day 14 of Miracles)

This is the fourteenth post for our Write 31 Days series 31 Days of Miracles: Who is Our God. Today Karrilee Aggett shares her story. (See her bio below.)


Today is Do you believe in Miracles?

As in... real life, unexplainable, undeniable, there is no other way this happened 'but God!' miracles?

You don't need to hang out in this corner of the interwebs for long to know that I do! Wholeheartedly, I do!


When I was asked to write a guest post for a 31 Days series on Miracles, my only hesitation was which one would I write about? I believe we are called to live a naturally supernatural life. I believe God is ever for us, ever with us, and ever in us --waiting to leak out!

Because I am constantly expecting and looking for Him to show up and show off, --well, I believe because I have trained my eyes and ears and heart to seek... His promise is that I will find!

I have experienced first hand many miraculous things... answers to prayers, healings, provision, unexplainable encounters, etc. After a bit of prayer... this is the one that God highlighted for me to revisit here.

***

It was about twenty years ago that I got an urgent telephone call.

Ever since joining the church prayer team, I was used to late night calls with requests to pray.  We were asked to link together and pray for and with each other. Most often, the call would come from someone else on the team, we would pray, and I would pass it on... a chain of sorts, if you will.

This night, however, the call was coming from the hospital.

It was a friend who attended our small group and she was pregnant with her first child. Immediately my mind wandered and my heart raced, thinking, "She's not due yet!"

I answered the phone to find that she was a little frantic on the other end. I could hear all kinds of background busyness and feel the tension across the wire, her voice a bit shaky as she said, "We need you to pray!"



She had gone into labor and her baby boy was born too early. His little lungs were not yet formed and the rush of medical staff swooping in and taking charge made her new Mama heart beat with fear.  They were very concerned and took him away to run tests.

She said, "His lungs are not strong enough.  We need his lungs to be better."

She asked me to pray and to pass on the urgent need to not only our church but also to any other prayer lines that I knew of! So we prayed and I could feel a little peace saturate the anxious atmosphere. I promised her I would continue on in prayer, spreading the word and getting the Body to intercede.

I called the next name on the list and then decided to call other prayer lines as well.

I will never forget the conversation with a stranger on the other end of the line.

I called an international ministry prayer line and told the man of the prayer request and urgency of what was needed, ready to enter in to prayer with him right then and there. But he interrupted my posture to pray by asking me a clarifying question that would change the way I pray for others from that moment on.

He said, "I understand the need, but what I really want to know is where is your faith? What can you whole-heartedly believe for?"

"When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.” Matthew 18:20 The Message

He went on, "I can pray for wisdom for the doctors and that this baby would live and grow stronger and stronger as his lungs continue to develop, or I can pray for God to supernaturally give him new lungs. I have faith for either one... so where your faith rests is where we need to meet! The power of praying in agreement makes a world of difference!"

Being the crazy faith girl that I am, I said, "Oh let's pray for brand new lungs!"

And so we did.







We prayed powerfully, in unity, believing God for a miracle! Declaring and decreeing new life, new lungs, Gods breath... we said Amen and we meant it.

Maybe an hour later, the new Mama called me back in tears.

Happy tears!

She said that they ran tests and were waiting for the results but they took her newborn back for more X-rays and the nurses returned him, confused.

They showed her the first image captured of his lungs, clearly under developed and unhealthy... compared to the second set of X-rays showing two completely developed, fully functional, healthy lungs!

They said it looked like X-rays from two different babies!

Come on!

The power of agreement is so important!
It's so vital... so amazing and powerful that I've never forgotten to find the common ground in faith when praying with others for a need.

We could have prayed for wisdom for the doctors and staff and God could have still miraculously formed those lungs... but finding that point of agreement in what we are believing for made an impact on how I pray.

Do we always line up our faith? No. Of course not.
Sometimes we pray for crazy faith things and others are impacted to stretch and grow and rise up in prayer with us.

But other times we find the point of agreement and we watch and pray.  We stand in faith and we taste and see that the Lord is good!  He often starts at the point of agreement, and then purposes to bless us even more than we could ask or think!

So here's to new lungs, new levels of agreement, and new tools to take with us in prayer to unite our faith and join hands and hearts, and watch and see how God shows up and shows off!





Karrilee is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. She is a writer, reader, pray-er, photographer, artist, beach lover, laugh seeker...serving God to the best of her ability. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband where they are new empty nesters to their only girlie. They are also co-leaders of Dad's House, a new church plant in their hometown. She is passionate about diving in deeper with the Lord and inviting others to discover His love for them. Her life message is...Speak Life. Be Love. Shine On. Karrilee loves to share her heart and what the Lord is speaking to her over at Abiding Love, Abounding Grace.

You can connect with Karrilee on her blog, Abiding Love, Abounding Grace.  She is also all over Bossy Social Media (and clearly has a love/addicted relationship with it!) You can find her on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram as well!

The Pursuit of the Cross, 31 Days of Miracles

(Continued from Day One, Who is our God?) 

Day Two, by Debbie Barrow Michael

As one who has always had an awareness of God,  I have never doubted the reality of miracles. Yet, not until the early months of 2000, in my fourth decade, was I keenly conscious that God was weaving a miracle into my life.

God had recently whispered, and not very subtly to my unreceptive heart, an invitation to join Him. Even though I knew God well enough to know His Will is always best, I feared His Will would devastate my gods of Self and Comfort.

What had God whispered to my terrified soul? Although I was the mother of three children, ages 18, 16, and 11, God was unambiguous about His intention that my family adopt another child.

I pleaded with God to give me a different mission, but He refused to take no for an answer. The initial, vague theme of adoption gradually morphed into adoption of an older Russian boy. My fears increased.

The challenges of an older child, defined at that time as a child over five, with a possible history of neglect or abuse, sent me into a tailspin of dread. Surely God could find someone more willing and equipped than I for this seemingly impossible assignment!

I tried to ignore God. But He is all powerful and creative. He would not be ignored. I tried inventing alternate missions more suitable to my liking, but He made it clear, nothing short of total surrender would satisfy Him. He allowed me no peace. He interrupted my sleep, as I would wake suddenly, hearing someone, or Someone, call my name. I'd sit upright in bed, asking "What?"  But unlike young Samuel of the Bible (1 Samuel 3)  who heard God call his name, I did not answer, "Lord, I am your servant."

Still, God was determined  to transform me.

One evening, as I returned home from a self-assigned mission for God, I heard a soft plink on the wood floor. I bent down to see what had fallen. It was my cross pendant. I grabbed my chain before it fell too. But it was securely fastened around my neck. I was astounded.

I suddenly remembered the exact thing had happened six months earlier. I had thought it odd, and promptly forgot about it. That was before God had opened my eyes to His activity in my life. How many other times had God tried to reveal Himself to me, and I was blind?

How could the cross fall from its chain, with the wielded bale still intact? My husband, a scientist, assured me there must be an explanation. I removed the chain and handed him both components, chain and cross. He sat at the kitchen table as I handed him a magnifying glass. He forced a pencil into the bail, to see if it would separate at a crack in the solder, yet it held firm.

The incident defied explanation. A recently studied Bible verse echoed to me:

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5.

Now I was keenly aware of His Presence, and He was saying, and not very quietly, "PAY ATTENTION."

God answered my complaints of His interruption of my safe and comfortable life as He answered Habakkuk's complaint:

"Be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5. 

True to His Word, God extravagantly rewarded even my reluctant surrender by the most beautiful, life-transforming story only God could write for my family. It was infinitely richer than the safe and comfortable life I tried to write for myself. God allowed me to experience the powerful and astonishing ways He uses ordinary people, like me, to accomplish His divine intention that we love one another. His Love transforms us.

I share our story in But the Greatest of These isLove. 

For the month of October during our Miracles series, I have reduced the price of downloads to $2.99. All profits from my book have always gone, and will continue to go,  to orphan care.

 Debbie Barrow Michael lives in Mount Airy, Maryland, in the United States. She is an artist and writer. Her book, Butthe Greatest of These is Love, chronicles her unexpected journey with God into adoption. Her blog, Consider it All Joy, at debbiebarrowmichael.blogspot.com is filled with God Stories, even during a tragic period in her life. Her greatest desire is to know God better, and make Him "visible" to others.

Amazon downloads of But the Greatest of These is Love are reduced to $2.99 for the month of October to celebrate our Miracles blog shares on Write 31 Days.

All book profits go to orphan care.

Pure and faultless religion

On our best days, we Christians strive to line our hearts up with the heart of God. Tall order, no doubt. In our search to find the Divine Will, we cannot avoid that unambiguous verse, James 1:27, that defines pure and faultless religion as taking care of orphans in their distress. Since we don't  often encounter orphans, their uncomfortable reality is easy to avoid.

I am not an expert on adoption, but I had a crash course during our adventure described in  But the Greatest of These is Love. After that enlightenment, I cannot go back into the darkness of ignorance.

The statistics are heartbreaking. My knowledge is limited to Russian orphans, but, tragically, there is no short supply of orphans anywhere in the world.

The Russian Children Welfare Society reports,

• 740,000 orphans live in Russia, a troubling number that grows by 113,000 per year, according to UNICEF.
• Less than 3% of those children are being considered for adoption by Russian families.
• Approximately 95% are "social" orphans, meaning they have at least one living parent who has relinquished them to the negligent care of the broken state system.  
• The number of orphanages in Russia in 2012 was 2,176, up 100% in the last decade. The facilities often lack basic necessities such as heat, running water, and functional kitchens. 

According to the Russian Ministry of Education

• 1500 children leave the orphanages each year, usually at the age of 16 or 17, as they "age out" of the system, poorly equipped to function in society.
• 50% fall into a high risk category after graduation.
• 40% became involved in criminal activity.
• 10% commit suicide.
• 33% remain unemployed.
• 20% become homeless.
• Only 4% are admitted to universities.

According to the Ministries of Internal Affairs

• 2.5 million children born in Russia are homeless.
• 50% of Russian children are born into poverty.
• In the last decade, the number of children in Russia has decreased by 4 million. Over four times more abortions are recorded than live births. 
• 617,000 Russian children are disabled. Twenty babies a day are born to HIV mothers, two of which will be abandoned at birth. 
• 70% of medical equipment in hospitals are outdated or broken. 
• 60% of Russia's youth are in poor physical or psychological health.
• Only 15-20% of newborn Russian babies are considered healthy. 

These statistics paint a dismal picture of innocent children at risk—the "least of these."

Yet, God has promised that he will not leave us orphans. What is our responsibility, now that we know the facts? This knowledge becomes more important, now, with the ban on American adoptions pending in Russia. This political move will devastate the children languishing in orphanages, especially the handicapped ones, who are warehoused in asylums, left to die, starved of human contact, even those with minor physical handicaps.

I invite you to watch this heartbreaking, yet hopeful Dateline report The Boy From Baby House 10, a true, and perhaps typical account of the life of a boy in an orphanage, except Vanya is one of the few who make it out of the system, due only to a few people who took an interest in him.

If your heart is tugged to help, and it will be if you have a pulse, please consider getting involved on some level with an orphan care organization, such as Orphan Care Resources. One hundred percent of the profits of my book will be donated to some type of orphan care, including OCR and direct gifts to hosting and adopting families.

What can you do to help?

Be thankful in all things!

Consider it all joy . . .  whenever we face trials of many kinds, because testing of our faith produces many beneficial consequences, like patience, endurance, character, and hope. But the awkward reality of trials is they often involve suffering, and in spite of the benefits, there is no long line to sign up for suffering. James, the brother of Jesus, suggests our trials will produce joy in us; even so, we are much more likely to run from trials than embrace them. Run as we might, trials and suffering are as inevitable as rain.

My most interesting friends are interesting because their testimonies involve suffering. Talk to anyone who lived through unimaginable trials, and their stories of "overcoming" are tinted with joy of experiencing a  revelation of Something infinitely bigger than ourselves. 

I have a friend from my school days, back from fifth grade. After high school graduation, my contact with Ann was confined to high school reunions every five years. (Even though I live five hours away, I never miss a reunion.) One reunion, about twelve years ago, Ann was minus her left arm, all the way up to the shoulder. But an eight year battle with an aggressive cancer hadn't stolen her spirit. She was her usually bubbly self, hugging everyone with one arm, as if nothing had changed. A lot had changed for Ann.

When I finally had a moment with Ann alone, I expressed my compassion for her loss. Her words surprised me. "Debbie, it was the best thing that could have happened to me."

Now obviously, losing her arm didn't cause Ann's joy, otherwise we would all be lopping off our limbs! What I recognized in Ann was something much deeper than the tragic loss of her arm.  Something had changed Ann, for the better. She didn't have self-pity, but a hope that is other-worldly.

Now with social media, I "speak" with Ann regularly.  I had the pleasure to talk to Ann on the phone this week. Her life has been marked by trials, more than her share. And yet, there is pure joy. She speaks freely of God and her faith. And her transformed life through seemingly unbearable hardships. 

Does Ann have it all together? No. Neither do I! (If you do, we need to talk!)

For many, the deal breaker for belief in a caring, personal God, is suffering. How could a loving God allow suffering? Yet, if we didn't face trials, how could we be compassionate to others who have? How could we "feel" their pain?  Would we feel compelled to encourage others if we never needed a kind word of encouragement ourselves? Our trials and suffering bond us to one another, as well as to God.

Did God cause Ann to lose her arm, or 911, or fill-in-the-blank with your own tragedy? I don't believe God causes these incidents to punish us, but He allows them, and shows up in the pain. When we have hit rock bottom, God is always there, when often, no one else is. 

Paradoxically, the moments in our lives that bring us indescribable joy, are not the day we finally bought that dream house, or landed that lucrative job, or anything else that we might have expected to finally be the ultimate producer of joy. These moments don't last as long as we would expect, nor give us the joy we had hoped for. 

Today, consider writing your own testimony  Ponder your own personal suffering and how it changed you. 

God tells us to be thankful in all things. 

consider it all joy

Over the past ten years when I have told people our youngest son was adopted from Russia at the age of seven, their eyebrows go up. People seem intrigued by this information, and they have questions: What made us consider adoption, and why did we adopt an older boy from Russia? Did we consider the numerous candidates in the foster system?

When I respond that I didn’t choose an older boy from Russia, God chose him for me, the eyebrows go up again, but the eyes look anywhere except at me. I am thankful that I do not have to squirm under the scrutinizing gaze of cynicism coming at me from Cyberspace. I know how crazy it sounds! I am learning to answer the disembodied words from strangers. And what I am learning is that we were not the only ones who have had this mystical experience of feeling like God was drawing us toward adoption, that God was the Ultimate matchmaker, lining our family up with a perfect fit for a child who was without a family,  that adopting was something we were "supposed to do."

There are the skeptics, of course, but strangers have messaged me to say that they too are members of the "secret society of 'called' adoptive moms," a label I use in the book to describe how it felt. First against my knowledge, and later against my will, I felt God was selecting me to be the mother of one of His lost and forgotten children. So why did God chose Russia and Roma? Of course I do not know the full answer, but I suspect part of it is because Roma fits so well into our family. He kids like us, his personality is so  similar to ours, we understand each other on a higher level, and I am a strong-willed mother to a hard-headed boy! My older son said, when Roma came, that, until he could think of Roma as a brother, he would consider him an “exchange student from God.” Rearing a child sent from God is a duty not to be taken lightly! Another reason, perhaps more important in God's economy, is that during this experience, we have learned to trust that God knows what we need better than we do. God wants total surrender and obedience.

The reward for our obedience, albeit reluctant and whiny on my part, included cup-running-over joy and blessings!