One of my favorite songs has a line that says, "Come out of sadness, from wherever you've been, come broken-hearted, let rescue begin.... Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can't heal."
Heaven is on my mind.
A few days ago, beautiful Jessa went to be with Jesus.
Jessa arrived at our home six months ago, a stranger whom we had prayed for. She had met our bonus-daughter Clarence in YWAM last year, and wanted to come and visit us for a while.
Jessa's26 years of life had been marked with heart-ache and brokenness; Her father had been murdered when she was young, her mother abandoned her, extended family had abused her, and throughout a four year battle with Leukemia, they had all let go of her.
There was anger, deep and gaping wounds, and so much hurt. She had given her life to Jesus a few years ago, but struggled with releasing forgiveness over those who had hurt her so badly.
Over the past six months, we gently loved her, showed her God's Father heart, and invited her to work through the layers of pain and wounds from her past. She began to break chains of bondage, and face the things that had happened. She called Francis and I her parents, and we loved her as our daughter.
Along with Clarence, we walked beside her, fighting hard for healing of her heart, mind, and body. We were so thankful that much of her medical care could be done in our home, where she had IV therapy, Chemo injections, and Oxygen. She could no longer walk, and we carried her to the bathroom to bathe her and carried her to the living room so she could watch the kids play.
The days were spent worshiping, interceding, and speaking blessing and life over her. We all pressed-in to God's heart and prayed for miraculous healing of not just her heart and mind, but her body from cancer. We have seen Him heal so many times, we know that He does.
But as the last month unfurled, I saw her spirit change as her body weakened.
She shared last week that she was ready to go be with Jesus... she wanted rest from all of this. She chose forgiveness and releases every person that had hurt her, and wrote them messages. She repented to us for the anger that had poured out of her hurting heart. Jesus healed her heart.,her spirit softened and was marked with incredible peace.
As I prayed, I surrendered my will, and asked God to either heal her miraculously, or take her home.
Two hours before her death, I sat on her bed with her head in my lap and kissed her sweet head.
"You're my baby girl and I am so proud of you," I whispered, "You've run this race well, and you can rest."
God healed her by taking her home.
We had her memorial service and Burial this week, and it was filled with worship. There is peace, because Jesus is our Hope, the anchor of our souls.
I can hear Paul's words echoing in my head from 2 Corinthians 5:
"Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. These homes will not be buildings that someone has made, but they are in heaven and will last forever. 2 While we are here on earth, we sigh because we want to live in that heavenly home... These tents we now live in are like a heavy burden, and we groan. But we don’t do this just because we want to leave these bodies that will die. It is because we want to change them for bodies that will never die. 5 God is the one who makes all of this possible. He has given us his Spirit to make us certain that he will do it. "
Tents are never built to be a permanent home.. They sag, and leak, they tear and fall apart. The wind blows them away. They are temporary.
When we are done with our short stay in a tent, we pull-up the stakes from the ground, fold up the tent and put it away, because we go to our real home.
The last several months, the tent stakes were being pulled-up from Jessa's tent. slowly, arduously, one at a time. I could hear those stakes coming out of the ground, I could see it.
These hearts of ours were not made to be separated from those we love- we were made to continue, to love without end, to be in relationship that spans eternity. It's our Father's DNA written into us.
So when the tent-stakes begin to come out of the ground, we try feverishly, frantically to pound them back in, to patch the tent, to steady the leaning sides.
We long for heaven because we were made for it, and so often we get to bring heaven down and see healing, albeit temporary, of these wasting-away tents. I'll always pray for healing.
But this time, God showed us His gentle love and whispered to our hearts that He was doing the deep and lasting healing in Jessa's heart, soul, spirit, and that the temporary healing of her body was not going to happen here and now. He wanted to bring her to His rest and give her unspeakable joy right now.
Heaven did come down in so many ways, and in the ways we did not see it yet, built an even greater longing for what is to come. We're caught in the constant tension of the Kindgom of heaven, that is here right now, and also not yet.
God folded up the tent gently and took her hand.....Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal.
I'm thinking back over these months with a smile and hot tears on my face, peace filling all the spaces.
I am so thankful that God gave us a life of welcoming the strangers, thankful that He stops us and captures our attention with His whisper when He says, "This one. Love this one".
Our lives are changed in beautiful ways because we stopped and realized the honor of loving this One.
I'm thankful that He's changing my heart from pursuing my agenda for the kingdom, to listening to His thoughts.... I'm grateful for how our plans are interrupted. I'm thankful for the honor of loving and serving someone so they can taste the love of a family. Often, God's plan is the thing that interrupts our plan and side-tracks us. The thing that takes your time when you were on your way to doing something else. He wants us to hold all things lightly and be quick to surrender and listen. This is when we see the glorious and beautiful things unfold. This is when we get to see heaven come down.
Thank you to all who prayed for and gave for Jessa.... we're so grateful. You were her family too. She left a big family behind. Please pray for Jessa's boyfriend, Adrian. He was planning to marry her and is devastated by her death. We are praying that he comes to relationship with Jesus through her death... He will come back soon and stay with us as he processes through his grief.
Now we continue going deeper with the beautiful relationships God has given to us; our living room home fellowship on Sundays is bursting at the seams, with growth and life. Bible study groups throughout the week, Francis is in the mountains daily, walking beside pastors and Mangyan brothers and sisters, and discipling, treating broken bodies, encouraging hearts. He serves like Jesus..
We are still buying truckloads of rice to give away every few week, because there are still so many that are hungry. Our team is doing community health-care, checkups, education, and discipleship.
We are also asking for your prayers as we follow God's leading and choose which land to purchase so we can begin building our maternity and ministry center soon! We're excited to step out in wild faith and see what God is doing.
We pray for you all so often, and thank God for you- the team of witnesses, encouragers, intercessors, and givers that hold us up. We feel your prayers. Thank you.....we're so grateful for you! I'm praying for you today, that you will be filled with fresh revelations of His love for you, and then go out and love the one He puts in your path.
Grace and Peace,
Francis, Leah, Julia, Avea, and Justice Daytec