From Bear to Africa - Help and Hope

Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago I received a FB friend request from Lee. I typically check out anyone who wants to be a FB friend, and try to determine the connection. It didn’t take me log to realize that Lee and I are both members of that club no one wants to join. About nine months ago Lee’s daughter and her boyfriend were in a terrible car accident. Samantha’s boyfriend died at the scene, Sam lived a short time after the accident. Since their deaths, Lee and her husband Michael strive to walk by faith in this terrible pathway but found themselves struggling to do so. I reached out to Lee to offer my heartfelt love and grief for her family and she responded with the message below. With her permission, I share it with you.

Though she is very complimentary toward my book, Treasures in Darkness, that’s not why I am sharing this. Lee’s story is a picture of what MARKINC is all about. I’m hoping that this message will encourage many of you to see the impact MARKINC is having in the lives of real people and move you to help us reach our $10,000 Matching Gift Goal. We are almost there. Your gift could be what puts us over the top. You can learn more about the Matching Gift here. You can also check out the past several blog posts where I take readers behind the scenes of MARKINC, asking that if any of our resources have encouraged you in your own faith walk, that you prayerfully consider helping us continue to offer the help and hope of Jesus to hurting people. I’ve never asked blog subscribers or Daily Treasure subscribers for financial support and I don’t expect to do so frequently. But this ask is an opportunity to give back and in so doing, have your gift doubled AND offer help and hope to people like Lee and her family. We are tiny but our God is mighty and through His touch on MARKINC, He connected a grieving mother in Africa to me, in Bear, Delaware. Your gifts help make  moments such as this happen. Please prayerfully consider what God wants you to give, no gift is too small. If you are already a MARKINC supporter, THANK YOU, your fingerprints are all over Lee’s story and the many others who are also facing deep suffering who have found help and hope in our resources that point hurting hearts to Jesus.

Lee’s Story – Help and Hope

Click to listen to MARKINC's interview with Nancy Guthrie

“My sister in law bought your book Treasures in Darkness for me and it is the best book I have read. Besides my Bible it is the book I will go back to again and again. I have read all of the Christian books I can find on grief and child loss over the past nine months but when I read your book I was amazed by how it was like reading my own thoughts and feelings over this terribly hard time. I cried and smiled and felt some hope…I shared bits of your story with my husband Michael and he also related so much to it. He is the Deputy Headmaster of a Christian school and he felt the same as Chuck did about preaching. How was he going to continue to be a good role model to the school kids and our own son when he felt so broken and let down? We also listened to the interview where you and Chuck share your story and we really appreciated your honesty about how you felt. We feel like everyone in our school and church community expect us to respond with great faith to our daughter’s death. Instead we feel disappointed, angry and confused….we have to go to His Word daily for help to rebuild our view of God and correct our misunderstanding of His promises. The most important lesson we have learned is that His Word is eternal and His promises are not always for life here but for eternity. I have just finished reading your book Treasures of Faith and it encouraged me to keep on keeping on. I even went to get my haircut yesterday, first time in a year. I listened to the talk between you and Nancy Guthrie as well and that really helped me understand why it is so difficult for me to be physically intimate with my husband. I am truly so grateful that you have been obedient to what God has asked you to do with your grief…to go deeper into His Word and use what he has taught you to help others. Reading  your books and joining MARKINC has been a huge help to me. I look forward to getting your Daily Treasure devotion emails and listening to the podcasts on your site. I think about Mark every day and I hope that because God knows that you and I have connected here on earth that He will allow Mark and Samantha to meet each other in heaven. I love the thought of our forever young children knowing each other there and cheering us on from above. There is a song called "Home" by Chris Tomlin that has become my favorite song and just a good reminder to me about where we are all heading. We long for heaven but we know we need to do whatever God has for us here to do for the rest of our days. Knowing that God is sovereign is my biggest comfort and  knowing that only He has life and death in His hands is what sets me free from the guilt I feel of my daughter going through death before me and the feeling that we should have done something different that day of the accident. I have realized that as parents, no matter what the circumstances, we will have feelings of despair and guilt to work through…We send Chuck and you our love, appreciation and gratitude. Thank you so much. Lee”

Official Music Video for "Home" by Chris Tomlin

This morning we just received another cry for help from parents whose only son was shot by a jealous man. They found us through MARKINC Ministries. Your gifts can help us continue to reach broken people across the globe with the help and hope that only Jesus gives. Or maybe you know someone who is in the midst of darkness and needs to find that hope they are so desperately searching for, you can point them to MARKINC so that they too can hear how someone further down the path is calling back to them in a way that helps turn their hearts toward Jesus.

If MARKINC resources have encouraged you, please help us offer that same encouragement to others by giving now!

Treasured by Him,

Sharon

P.S. If you subscribe to both the Treasures of Encouragement blog and Daily Treasure devotional I apologize that you are getting two emails with the exact same message! But perhaps the repetition will feel like a nudge to give!