God's Megaphone

C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." If you are or have ever been a student of Mr. Scheele's, you know about his quote of the day. Well, this is Mrs. Scheele's quote of the month. And, it's a good one. Every year on Thanksgiving, our church does a Thanksgiving service where there is an open mic time. People can stand up and tell what God has done in their lives that year and give thanks to God. And, every time it's people that have had a really hard year that get up to the mic and thank God for his comfort, peace, healing, provision, etc. Why is that? Because it's in the darkness that we most long for the light. We are so thankful for the light now more than ever. What looks like a tragedy by the world's standards is what God is using to refine us and strengthen our faith in Him. It's just like God to do things in a way that is contrary to how us humans would do it. And here's the thing...it works. I have heard of cancer survivors saying they missed having cancer because they never felt closer to God than during that time. We are feeling that closeness now and it's beautiful. God has shown up in a thousand ways through His people. We've gotten meals, cards, phone calls, texts, written out prayers, messages, comments on different posts (we are reading them all, THANK YOU!), flowers, baked goods, gift cards, a recliner, monetary support, taking our boys for a day of fun, car rides for our kids, former students showing up at our house with a 30 minutes video for Nathan that was created with messages of encouragement from former students and current faculty, and so much more. We've been overwhelmed by the amount of love and support we've received. God has shown up in specific Scripture we are reading. God has shown up in our devotionals. God has shown up in so many songs. God has shown up in a book given by a friend. God has shown up in so many hugs. God has shown up in tears. (He collects them after all. Awesome, right?!) God has shown up in peace in our hearts. God has shown up in comfort in our spirits. God has shown up and given us so much hope. Do you see Him? He's there. He's always there. Just sometimes we need the megaphone of pain and suffering to wake us up and remind us. Nathan is officially over the hiccups! We feel like we've seen and endured enough hiccups for a lifetime, so we weren't sad to see them go and we'll be happy to never see them again. Nathan is officially off of the steroid that caused him hiccups and is on a new steroid with seemingly no side effects thus far. Nathan is still dealing with the aftermath of the hiccups as his ribs are still extremely painful. Please pray for his ribs to heal and the pain to subside. Nathan reacted last week to one of his medicines and got welts on his neck and face. They put him on a steroid and that calmed the reaction down. Yesterday they gave the same medicine (with a lot of steroid) and that seemed to help. The medicine he is reacting to is one that is staple in treating myeloma, so please pray that he can stay on it and that his reactions to the medicine won't get worse. Please continue to pray for the treatment to be effective in killing off the myeloma and that he will eventually get to the point where he can have a bone marrow transplant. Nathan has been in his classroom getting ready for the past 2 days. Please continue to pray for strength and endurance for the school year. Pray for his students. He loves them so much and wants the best for them. This year feels a little unpredictable, but we are hoping and praying for another great year. I also wanted you to know that Nathan is preaching at Visalia Christian Reformed Church THIS Sunday at 8:00am & 10:30am. You are welcome to attend in person or you can watch the livestream by going to: youtube.com/live/F1KzwKdDbT0?feature=share (You will be able to use this link to watch at a later time as well.) Thank you again for ALL the ways you are continuing to love and support our family. We continue to be amazed by God's goodness to us by giving us each one of you.