Inheritance in the saints

Submitted by Sue…

This past week we sent off Joohye at the airport to go to Texas for her T cell transplant treatment, and I was really amazed at how not only has God really been watching over her, but he gave us the opportunity to collectively experience how awesome he is as a whole church.  As we all prayed for her together, we got to experience together God showing himself to be someone who loves her dearly, who has the power to do the impossible, and who really will hear and answer our prayers.  As we met her family at the airport I remembered bringing on her birthday dozens of cards from the Joyland kids and gifts from Joytown, including a bracelet that read, “We Love You Joohye” and I was overwhelmed with gratitude thinking how, because of God we can all participate in loving her together and lifting her up in prayer as a community.  So many people were at the airport and most of them were seeing Joohye for the first time that morning.  She was excited to finally be able to go on this trip, and that morning she got to see just a small portion of all the faces of the people who have been praying for her even though they have never met, all smiling back at her and waving her goodbye.  It was such a beautiful picture how, we might have seemed like just a random assortment of people who would otherwise have nothing to do with each other, yet because we all share the same God we got to share this in this wonderful joy together.

Submitted by Jeannie…

This morning, I experienced a bit of what Apostle Paul describes in Ephesians 1 as “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”as about 50 of us gathered at the airport to see little Joohye off, a 4th grader from our Joyland Department, whom many of us have never met. I think her parents and older sister were shocked and delighted at the same time to see the sizable group waiting for them as they were about to board the plane to go to Texas for Joohye’s t-cell treatment.  This is something we’ve been praying for for months now.  And Joyland kids, youth teachers, Joyland teachers, college students, and the rest of us just members of the same congregation who have been praying for her, gathered to encourage her as she went off.  She was wiping away her tears of gratitude after the prayer and was all smiles as she received the care packages for the flight and the stay there.  I’m just so thankful that because of the Gospel, I am connected to this family and can experience God’s incomparably great power together.