God Still Performs Miracles

This past weekend was a struggle for Ben & I. One of our close friends was electrocuted while he was at work. He got 10,000 volts of electricity throughout his body. It crossed his heart. We were terrified that we were going to lose a friend & we were devastated. 

The only thing that we knew to do was to fall down at God's feet & pray. We reached out to everyone we knew to reach out to & asked for prayers. Christian is 19, & just shy of being married for a year. He & his wife have been through a lot already & we begged God to get them through this.

We knew that a lot of times, people die from 120 volts of electricity & Christian had 10,000 volts go through his body. We knew the odds. But we prayed anyways. We knew our God was a God of miracles.

Christian was put on a ventilator & placed in a hypothermic state to rest his body so that his body could begin healing itself. We knew that those 36 hours were crucial to his case. We desperately prayed for healing or a miracle or anything at this point.

The first time that the doctors tried to wake him up, Christian fought his restraints & fought the ventilator so they had to put him back under & wait to try again. We were all nervous, but knew that by him fighting he was at least there in some way.

That night? Christian woke up. He responded to commands. He was able to answer questions nonverbally. He knew everyone that was in the room with him.

I was in the Springbrooke Pool parking lot when Ben told me. I shouted for joy. I praised God.

God woke our friend up. God worked a *miracle* in Christian's life.

Christian is continuing to make progress & God is continuing to move in all of our lives through this.

Right now he & his family & friends need continued prayer. While he's making progress, he still has a ways to go before he's completely healed. But God has proved that He isn't done with Christian yet & that He still has some awesome plans for him.

A woman spoke a prophesy over their lives in the waiting room. It was yet another sign from God that He's got some huge plans for him.

At the end of all of this, I am just so thankful that my friend is still alive & that God is moving mountains for Him. He is showing His faithfulness to us all. He is showing that He truly is the Great Physician. I am so in love with my father.

"...Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20.

xoxo
S.Graciebelle

A Girl With a Huge Dream

I think that I've written this post at least three times now trying to find the best way to talk about this person & the dream she is chasing. I started out simply asking for everyone's help, but I wanted this post to be more than just asking for help for my friend. There's so much more to her & her dream than that. So I decided to tell you guys about my friend & just let God do the work from there.

I've known this beautiful girl since we were both in high school. She is a year below me but she has some incredible faith in God & is an absolutely brilliant young woman. I was blessed to see her begin to flourish in God my last year in youth group, & then watched from afar as her relationship with God continued to grow. She began to attend a newer church in our area called High Praises & it seems like her faith in God & her relationship with God took a complete 180 change. It was so encouraging to see God & the Holy Spirit at work like that. Her life change was a testimony in itself.

I finally got to hang out with this girl again during a young adult group meeting with our old church. It was immediately evident to me that the changes I had seen from afar were the real deal & that made my heart so happy. Spending time with her & the other young women & men at that dinner did a lot for my heart & really encouraged me in my own faith.

Recently, this young woman has been given an incredible opportunity. God has opened a huge door for her & she is running through this door headfirst & completely relying on Him & trusting in Him. He has called her to further her education in becoming a disciple of God. He has given her a place in the Patmos Reality Discipleship program this fall. He has placed everything out neatly in front of her. But He has given her one obstacle that requires her entire faith & trust in Him. He has given her one task that she has to complete that requires her to open up to others & seek help from her brothers & sisters in Christ.

She needs to raise a significant amount of money by July 13th. She needs to raise $2,625 by July 13th. If I were in her shoes, I would be so stressed & would feel completely at odds. That's two weeks to raise so much money! I wouldn't even know where to begin. But that's the thing with this young woman. Instead of freaking out, she is completely & totally trusting in God. She isn't relying on herself. She is using the gifts that God has given her to raise money & then leaving the rest up to Him. She's asking for help. She feels that God is leading her to become a full on disciple of God & that the place He is leading her is Patmos.

So I've told you about this wonderful young woman. Now, it is time for me to introduce her to you.

Her name is Alex Tietjen.

She is a beautiful woman of God with so many talents & one of the biggest hearts I've ever been blessed to come into contact with.

She needs some help. I'm asking that you take a little time & just ask God if He is leading you to help Alex out. She has a GoFundMe page that you can donate at. But you can also use the talents that God has given you to help her out. Maybe you can play guitar & sing really well. You can go play outside & then take tips & then give those tips to Alex's dream. Maybe you're an awesome artist. Create something & use the commission that you get to help Alex get to where God is leading her. Maybe you can cook or bake, or maybe you're really good at cleaning houses or washing cars. You can do anything that God leads you to do to help Alex out.

If you can help, it would mean the absolute world to Alex. It would mean a great deal to me as well. I want to see Alex go far in her discipleship journey with God. I want to see her accomplish the dreams that God has given her.

Just think about whether or not you want to help Alex.

xoxo

S.Graciebelle