1. My cousin, Luke gets in very serious car accident.
2. Our pastor falls down an 8-foot embankment.
3. My great-aunt has a stroke.
4. My mom’s cousin has a heart attack.

It’s everything all at once and just so overwhelming. Times like this you can’t help but wonder why; I need to read The Problem of Pain again. I know we need to just have faith an know that God is in control, but at the same time I feel so helpless.

The most serious is still Luke. Bro. Crabtree is still recovering, but God has healed his major injuries. My great-aunt is doing fine, they caught it in enough time and they think that it is related to her medicine. I don’t know much about my mom’s cousin Peanut’s (yes, Peanut) heart attack, we just found out today.

Luke has been heavily sedated, basically in a medically induced coma, for just over 3 weeks now. Can you imagine losing weeks of your life? His wounds are serious, but the doctor says he’s young and it is definitely something he can recover from he just has a rocky road to get there. He’ll be in Shand’s for at least another couple weeks. We’ve been going to see him at least once a week, I wish there was some way to comfort him and that there was something we could do to help him.

Until last week the way they had him sedated, they said he might could still hear us or know that we were there, even though he wouldn’t remember later that was still comforting. And there were also reducing ever-so-often, to check if he was responsive, which he was and that’s very good to know. But the type of sedation they’re using now, they say he’s completely unaware. He has an infection called VRE and Pneumonia, but they were anticipating both, so it’s nothing unusual for his situation. His wounds are healing so that’s good. They talked about moving him into a regular room this week. We just have to keep praying! The church in Gainesville that belongs to the same organization as the one my (more immediate) family goes to has been very nice also. The youth pastor went to visit Luke and prayed for him, and they also sent a nice care package to the part of the family that is staying there. Who knows maybe it will spark an positive interest in our church for the other side of his family.

Jesus be with him, give him strength, comfort, and healing!

I’m sure most people have heard about Michael Glatze, a gay-rights leader, coming out as straight recently. But maybe you haven’t read his story on WorldNetDaily, he talks about working for magazines aimed at young gay Americans, the 16 years of his life he spent as a gay man, and how forming a relationship with God showed him the truth.
On speaking out on the gay-rights movement he says:

If I could take back some of the things I said, I would. Now I know that homosexuality is lust and pornography wrapped into one. I’ll never let anybody try to convince me otherwise, no matter how slick their tongues or how sad their story. I have seen it. I know the truth.

Full article here, it’s worth the read, really.

In lighter news, a dozen 7-Elevens across the nation have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie. dhepnar has some nice pictures from the one in Canada on Flickr, I especially like the “Thank you for loitering…” sign. A list of the altered stores can be found here. I really want to go to one, but the closest is 6 hours away. They are supposed to have special snack foods and Squishees (which I’m sure is just a regular ol’ Slurpee in a different cup, unfortunately) at all 7-Eleven locations though. Actually, I don’t even know where the nearest 7-Eleven is, I can’t even find one near me on the locator on the site.

Edit: If you go here, this flickr user has collected links to photo sets from all the different Kwik-E-Marts. And there is also a Kwik-E-Mart group on Flickr (though it only has 24 members).

There are many things I could post about, but some things make everything else seem insignificant. Yesterday I went to the funeral of a 3 year old girl; that’s not something that easily leaves the front of your thoughts.

Children’s songs should never have to be played at a funeral.

Elizabeth, a little girl my church, died Thursday after drowning in the pool at her home. I don’t believe there was a dry eye in the church during the funeral. They played children’s songs and showed a Powerpoint presentation to celebrate her life. Bro. Crabtree also read words from her parents, grandparents, and older sister (I think she’s about 8).

One part that stood out to me the best was Bro. Crabtree told how Elizabeth liked to sing and that the last song she had shared with her grandparents, on the night before her accident, was “Big House”. If you don’t know, this is a song about heaven, here’s the chorus:

Come and go with me to my father’s house.
Come and go with me to my father’s house.
It’s a big, big house with lots and lots of room.
A big, big table with lots and lots of food.
A big, big yard where we can play football.
A big, big house, it’s my father’s house.

I see that song as a great comforting gift that God gave them.