Weeping

I wept during the first leg of my flight home from the Middle East.  As I was boarding the plane, I had received a text telling me that a 7 year old boy, the oldest son of one of our key leaders there, had suddenly died just 5 hours after showing a mild fever.  This boy had sweetly shared his first quiet time with me just a couple of weeks ago.  I was flooded with memories of our own son’s sickness and death. 
 
It turns out that their son died from a very contagious form of meningitis, and the previous weekend he had been on a family retreat with our entire country team.  As I write this, everyone on the team is taking their families to their doctors seeking antibiotics to protect them from this deadly disease.  This, on top of grieving this sweet boy’s death. 
 
Please pray for extraordinary peace, protection and power for our brothers and sisters there… an extra dose of that peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), natural and supernatural protection from the spread of this disease (Numbers 16:48) and the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of their depleting exhaustion (2 Corinthians 12:9).   Our key leaders there have been getting only 2-3 hours sleep a night since this crisis began. 
 
Prayer Update:  I am rejoicing over how God showed up and strengthened the new national leadership team that I was with last weekend.  Thanks for praying.  This was only the 2nd meeting of the youngest and largest team of nationals we’ve ever had leading this work.  In the past, they have just come under the leadership of their elders.  Now they are being empowered by those elders to lead.  Their eager faith crackled like fire.