Thursday, January 11, 2007
When the bough breaks.....
I am sorry not to have written anything here for so long!
One reason is because I had some very sad and totally unexpected news just before Christmas: my best friend and faithful prayer partner Ali Whyte, who had been like a sister to me, died in her sleep at only 42, apparently from pneumonia and heart failure. Getting accurate and up-to-date information about her death has been difficult for various reasons, not least the fact that she had been living in Toronto for the past few months and was planning to live there permanently. Neither she nor I were in contact with her immediate family in the UK, and the news of her death reached me via two lovely online friends on MSN Messenger, who live in Australia - thank God for the Internet!
Ali was very happy at TACF, the "Toronto Blessing" church, and was finding a level of healing and acceptance there that I had never known her to find in any church in her native Britain. I am very grateful to all at that fellowship who made her so welcome, and held a special memorial service for her last week.
I have been "knocked for six" by Ali's death, not least because she more than anyone else knew all about the complex and difficult family situation I am in, and followed the Holy Spirit's leading to intercede for me when I most needed it. Looking back now, I can see that the Lord had been preparing me for her loss, by encouraging me (and her) to depend less on one another and more on our Father in Heaven for our comfort and salvation.
Ali's prayers for the healing of my heart and home situation had not apparently been answered before her "promotion to Glory", as her old fellow-soldiers in the Salvation Army would put it....however, the Lord reminded me of the scripture in Revelation that mentions the prayers of the saints being there before God like a huge bowl of incense, outside of time and earthly limitations. I have sought specific prayer from a ministry specialising in bereavement and other forms of loss - and feel the Lord is saying that He will surely do for me just as much as He did for Ali during the latter part of her lifetime on earth.
One specific promise from the Book of Job which Ali held onto was that the Lord would take her out of the jaws of destruction and seat her at a table laden with choicest food and drink! She had suffered from hormonal problems and diabetes during much of her life, and also from an eating disorder - and did receive a lot of healing of all these conditions in her last few months. Now of course, she is enjoying the best feast of all, the marriage supper of the Lamb in Heaven!!
One reason is because I had some very sad and totally unexpected news just before Christmas: my best friend and faithful prayer partner Ali Whyte, who had been like a sister to me, died in her sleep at only 42, apparently from pneumonia and heart failure. Getting accurate and up-to-date information about her death has been difficult for various reasons, not least the fact that she had been living in Toronto for the past few months and was planning to live there permanently. Neither she nor I were in contact with her immediate family in the UK, and the news of her death reached me via two lovely online friends on MSN Messenger, who live in Australia - thank God for the Internet!
Ali was very happy at TACF, the "Toronto Blessing" church, and was finding a level of healing and acceptance there that I had never known her to find in any church in her native Britain. I am very grateful to all at that fellowship who made her so welcome, and held a special memorial service for her last week.
I have been "knocked for six" by Ali's death, not least because she more than anyone else knew all about the complex and difficult family situation I am in, and followed the Holy Spirit's leading to intercede for me when I most needed it. Looking back now, I can see that the Lord had been preparing me for her loss, by encouraging me (and her) to depend less on one another and more on our Father in Heaven for our comfort and salvation.
Ali's prayers for the healing of my heart and home situation had not apparently been answered before her "promotion to Glory", as her old fellow-soldiers in the Salvation Army would put it....however, the Lord reminded me of the scripture in Revelation that mentions the prayers of the saints being there before God like a huge bowl of incense, outside of time and earthly limitations. I have sought specific prayer from a ministry specialising in bereavement and other forms of loss - and feel the Lord is saying that He will surely do for me just as much as He did for Ali during the latter part of her lifetime on earth.
One specific promise from the Book of Job which Ali held onto was that the Lord would take her out of the jaws of destruction and seat her at a table laden with choicest food and drink! She had suffered from hormonal problems and diabetes during much of her life, and also from an eating disorder - and did receive a lot of healing of all these conditions in her last few months. Now of course, she is enjoying the best feast of all, the marriage supper of the Lamb in Heaven!!
