Day 24 - July 9 - It's gonna get serious...
You are all waiting to hear the results of the meeting with the Valley people. You also know that the results aren't good. What you don't know is how not-good it is. I don't really know how to write this, but I'll start by relating something that happened on Sunday -
We had a number of people visiting us on Sunday afternoon, when Cherié came into the waiting room from Connor's side and said "Eric, I need you in here now". Needless to say, we ran. Turns out, Connor had suddenly asked Cherié and Joélle "Do you have your sidearms on?" It took them a bit to figure out what he was saying, but they finally got it, and verified it by asking "Did you just ask us if we had our sidearms on?" He responded "Yes. God told me you need them. It's gonna get serious." They couldn't get anything else out of him and he went back to sleep, but we prayed with and over him, asking for protection over him and the family.
Well, he was right - it's getting serious. First, we found out today that Sunday night, Connor's heart stopped while they were cleaning his trach tube, and it took chest compressions, epinephrine and atropine to get it going again. I don't really understand why we are only finding this out now, nor do I have the energy to try to find out after the meeting we had this afternoon.
During the meeting, they gave us the most hopeless prognosis I've ever heard. I don't think it's necessary to give all the details in this instance, out of concern for the boy, but as they spoke, I came to understand the meaning of the phrase "another nail in the coffin".
My brother wisely reminded me that the only thing they told us which we KNOW to be true is that they aren't moving Connor to Valley now. Also, another friend had pointed out that doctors can give diagnoses, but prognoses are only truly available from God. Then, another wise friend of Cherié's pointed out that medicos practice medicine, but healing is the province of the Great Physician.
I have been struggling to post this without sounding either full of despair (we're not) or giving the impression that we're resting comfortably in the full confidence of the grace and provision of God (we're also not). We have not thrown away the confidence of our hope, and we are struggling to accept the path God has put our feet upon. Please continue to pray - for us, for Connor, for his healing.
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posted by Eric Williamson @ 10:01 PM
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23 Comments:
We are uncertain exactly what you think Connor meant by "sidearms", but understand the news is not good. I wish I had better words to offer, but all I know to say right now is that all of you are in our prayers and we are so very sorry this has happened. It is certainly not the news we were expecting. After hearing he shrugged his shoulders, we were elated that there was new hope. This news must be unbearable, but know that we are all hear to support you in any way we can.
-Morgan Hill family
My dear friends, do not despair, we serve a mighty God, doctors are only dealing with test results, percentages, etc. God can heal without tests at 100%. We are not giving up hope or faith in God. We continue to pray that Connor's breathing will become easier, that you're in the Mobile Home Park and that Cononor will be restored completely.
Love, Hope, and Prayers
Wryes
Anonymous,
Sidearms = guns...
Connor, Eric, Cherie', and Joelle - our prayer is that the works of God would be revealed through this near overwhelming trial that you are going through. And, as the disciple whom Jesus loved recorded in his Gospel concerning the man born blind (ch 9), we pray that Jesus would heal Connor. That the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power by which He created all things and sustains all things, the power and authority by which He calmed the stormy sea and raised Lazarus from the dead would work in Connor's body and all of your hearts and spirits to re-create and heal that which has been wounded and broken - and make them whole.
Lee & Jenann
Our hearts are heavy, but we will not bow down. Please know that there are hundreds if not thousands praying for your family right now as you put one foot in front of the other. Lean on our prayers for awhile.
Sandi
God is in Control! And I think we've all been girded up with the whole Armor of God including the sidearms, We will all keep praying the Word, I don't know any better weapon, Thank you Lord for your Instruction Book and thank you Eric for sharing even though your heart is breaking, the good news is that God sees every tear and He hears us when we call, Thank you again Lord and to You be the Glory, Amen!
The term "sidearm" is familiar to me. I will choose to interpret what Connor meant because from what I see on this website and hear from his Uncle Dan, this young man has been and is a warrior for Christ...the armor of God is discussed in Ephesians Chapter 6. I have prayed that over and over tonight for Connor and all involved. Please remain faithful, vigilent and remember that "...the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." Eph6:17 Love and Peace of Christ to you.
Williamsons,
Still praying, still crying, still trusting Jesus.
Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Earnestly praying for you all...
Psalm 33: 16-22 says,
No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.
We are praying.
And we love you all.
Jeff for the Slavich family
In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
Praying daily
Aaron
Me and my family are praying for you and for Connor. We believe in praying without doubting (Mat.21:21). God can do impossible things because he is God, afterall. Doctors may know the labels and the chargin that man has created to try to explain and contain the wonders of the the human body but God knows every hair on Connors head, every cell and every part that has not yet been labeled by our feeble attempt to claim complete knowledge. He cured my husband of stage 4 lymphoma that had already gone into the bone. He has carried us through many trials and I know he is carrying you now. I am praying for you, Cherie and I am praying for Conner's complete miraculous healing, one vertebrae at a time, one cell at a time.
In the Love of Christ,
The Kendall Family at MHBC
I'm angry! I confess it. I'm angry with the medical staff for sucking the hope out of the message they had to deliver to you. I understand they have to prepare people for worst-case scenarios. But can't they at least offer the *possibility* of a better case?!
"My hope is in the LORD." The Psalmist said it over and over...and so am I saying it. I keep coming back to the fact that God made blind people to see. He caused lame people to take up their mat and walk, and gave mute people speech. He raised people from the dead! He created the universe and holds it in the palm of His hand! And He holds each one of us in His hand, as well. He is the Author of Life and only HE can say how many days are assigned to any person.
God, forgive me for my anger. I thank you that you've put Connor in the place you have and that you've sustained him thusfar through the hands of a most able medical staff. Please, LORD, heal Connor. Heal his lungs so they can breathe on their own. Protect his heart from further arrests. Stabilize his heart rate. Protect all his other organs that he may get well without further complications. Protect his spinal cord and cause the swelling to go down so feeling and movement may be restored to his entire body. And protect his mind that he may keep his thoughts firmly on you. LORD, through your son Jesus, we have the ability to approach your throne with boldness and ask what we will. So I do that now, praying that you have mercy on Connor and restore him to full health.
I pray all these things in Jesus' name...
Amen.
I just received the following email from Jill Yuen. I let her know that I'd post this in its entirety for her.
On Wed, 7/9/08, Jill Yuen wrote:
From: Jill Yuen
Subject: Connor Watch: Prayer
Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 9:32 PM
Jenann....I don't know if the Williamsons will remember us, but we attended West Hills and moved to CO. My oldest daughter, Catey was in the Christmas program as yours and Eric's daughter. We just wanted to send the following prayer...
Father God, we praise You as the Great Physician and the Lover of our souls and our bodies. Lord, we thank You for every good gift You bless us with. Father, we desire to lift Connor up to YOu and ask that You will hold him and his precious family close to Your heart. That You would give them comfort and peace. Lord, we know that You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is trained on You and we
ask that You would keep the Williamsons' minds trained on You now. We know You have a plan for Connor, a plan to prosper and not harm him, God. Help he and his family rest in that. Father, we do not know Your ways, for they are higher and more perfect than our own, but we thank You that we can trust that everything You do is because You love us and desire us to be close to You. Dependent in all ways on Your mercy. Please, Father, we petition You to breathe Your life into Connor's lungs. We ask that You would touch and heal him and cause his body to work in the perfect way You have designed it to. We ask for complete healing in the name of Jesus Christ. We ask that You would cover him in the name and blood of Jesus and move Your healing hand over his body and restore him and allow him to breathe again. You alone are God and You are mighty. We trust in You, Lord and we ask for Your favor. Please give Connor's doctors wisdom and optimism and hope. Thank You for overcoming the world that we may LIVE in You! Please, Lord, bless this family. Be near to them. Let them feel Your presence. I pray you would bind and remove any demonic influence and that the Williamsons would cast all their anxieties on You knowing You care for them. We
pray that You would equip each one in their family with the ability to overcome their fears and the temptation to despair. I pray the strength of Jesus in their life. Lord, thank You for the opportunity to draw closer to You and to the whole community You have brought together through this situation. Our trust and hope are in You alone. I ask all these things in the precious name of Jesus.....Amen.
Dear Precious Heavenly Father, we come to you in desparate prayer, Lord. We believe you have all it takes to heal Conner, we pray Lord your will be done. I praise Conner Lord for spreading your word of SIDEARMS...thanks for the warning. Lord, we give it all to you. We are burdened, scared, yet we praise your precious name. We are confident in your abilities as well as Conner's will to live. Thank you for your blessings.
Amen
Our most gracious heavenly Father: We come to you now burdened and frightened. We know that You can take all of this away from us with Your heavenly love. I pray that You be with Connor, Dear Lord, take the fear and pain from him. I pray that You be with Eric, Cherie and JoElle because I know their hearts are breaking watching Connor struggle. Give them strength to do what needs to be done. Oh Lord, please let them find peace throughout all of this. We ask, Lord, that Your will be done, and we just know that is to heal Connor. He has been such a blessing to many and thru his ordeal, he is ministering to many all over the world. Please wrap Your loving arms around all of them, including Connor's extended family, and hold them tight throughout this time. We love You and praise You....
Amen
As I have mentioned before I teach Children In Action at church on Wed. night. I have told my children about Connor and asked them to pray for him. Last night as soon as one of my kiddos walked in, he came straight to me and asked how Connor was doing. I was touched, because I knew that this young man (10) was praying daily for Connor and truly cared about him. They made some cards for Connor, which I will put in the mail today. Please know that many are praying for you today and every day. God bless you all!!
Gracious Father,
You are Awesome, Mighty, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, we cling to You, our Rock, our Fortress, our Ever-Present Hope in times of trouble. We run to You. We will rise up on wings of eagles, we will walk and not grow weary. Your strength is made perfect in our weakness. Your promises are true, You are Faithful, You know the plans You have for us, we love You. Holy Comforter, our Precious Sustainer, cradle Eric, Cherie, & Joelle in Your arms and comfort them, give them courage and strength to endure. Jehovah-Rapha, our Healer...touch Connor, I pray Your perfect will to be done in and through his life. We don't understand why things are the way they are but we are truly grateful that Your ways aren't our ways, and our ways aren't Your ways. May this precious family and friends cling to Your beautiful promises. I love You Lord, and may we stand on the words of Job..."Though the enemy slay me, I will TRUST IN YOU!" I plead the blood of Jesus over this entire situation. You are Worthy of all praise, in good and bad times, you are faithful! In Jesus name,
Amen
We love you all. I share in your sorrow of this uneasy news, but I stand in one accord with all the others and continually pray for God's will to be done and that His perfect love will sustain you through these uncertainties. Love ya,
Martha (FL)
Dearest Williamsons...
God continues to press your family's needs and concerns upon my heart... so strongly I feel as if you are my own family. My soul yearns for relief for each of you and begs for strength. I know I must cast my burdens upon Christ, and I am, but I can't get away from the sense that the reason God has laid this so strongly on my soul is that He has called me to pray, without ceasing...something I don't think I've EVER had a REAL reason to do...however now I do.
Two nights ago, as Connor was recovering from his heart failing we sang a song. This week I am at MY camp, a camp I've gone to since I was four...this is where I was saved, where I first learned about Moody and where God called me to ministry, the people here are my family. When we sang this song, the words ripped me apart, never before have they meant what they mean to me now... I am going to put the entire song. Verse three is what struck me...
Verse 1
I once was fatherless,
a stranger with no hope;
Your kindness wakened me,
Awakened me, from my sleep
Verse 2
Your love it beckons deeply,
a call to come and die.
By grace now I will come
And take this life, take your life.
Pre-chorus
Sin has lost it's power,
death has lost it's sting.
From the grave you've risen
VICTORIOUSLY!
Chorus
Into marvelous light I'm running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross, you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way
Verse 3****
My dead heart now is beating,
My deepest stains now clean.
Your breath fills up my lungs.
Now I'm free. now I'm free!
Bridge
Lift my hands and spin around,
See the light that I have found.
Oh the marvelous light
Marvelous light
Lift my hands and spin
See the light within...
I broke when I heard that verse...I have been asking the staff to pray this entire week, and asked them to pray extra hard for Connor yesterday for him to be able to move closer to home. Then Joelle sent me a text message during chapel last night, simply asking me to pray...I had to know what happened. I called Alan and he told me the news, it hit hard. But I was going to keep on praying. When I walked back into the chapel, unknown to me while I was on the phone 80 campers plus 20staff where all praying for Connor and for each of you...I began to weep as I felt the power of 100 people interceeding for each of you. They recorded the songs, message and prayer during the time last night and I am going to try to send it to you, to encourage you...we're praying for you.
DONT GIVE UP HOPE!
Connor, kids around the U.S. probably around the world are on their knees FOR YOU! We've pulled out the "fire arms"... we're giving it all we got...we love you and we're fighting for you.
God's breath will fill up your lungs...God will get your dead heart beating...I believe in this.
Love you,
Mary Glass
and the staff and campers
at Camp Ta-Pa-Win-Go
Dear Williamson Family- I do not know if you have thought of this or have had the opportunity to speak with Connor about the GLORIES of heaven. I wanted to encourage you to not think that in so doing you are giving up. When I was growing up, my mom was sick for a very long time and went to be with Jesus when I was 22. I never wanted to talk about heaven with her because I thought it showed signs of lacking faith...... Now, I wish I would have. Because of the glory set before Jesus and His knowledge that He would once again be able to be with God, He was able to endure the cross.
Hebrews 12:2- "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God."
Dear Williamson's,
I can't possibly begin to understand what you're going through, but I hope that some encouragement can be felt from knowing that my family has you all in our prayers and thoughts! We stand along side you, with the other thousands who are caring and praying for Connor and his COMPLETE healing! I pray that peace and joy be with you as you walk the path that has been placed before you. God holds you in His mighty hands. He will never leave you or forsake you.
Much love in Christ,
Jessica (North Carolina)
~The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
~Selah.~
~Psalm 24:1-6~
That meeting had to be a real blow! God is still orchestrating his will moment by moment. Don't let the evil one pull you down, or the doctor's as well. Trust solely in the Lord! Proverbs 16:1 "The plans of the heart belong to a man, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." 16:9 says, "The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps." What providence! God knows best! My prayer in addition to all the other requests is for God to grant you his peace, peace that surpasses all understanding. Perfect Peace!
Praying for you in Christ's name!
In His grip,
Krista Lewis
This was in my "inbox" this morning... thought it might be helpful...
In God We (Nearly) Trust
by Max Lucado
A few days before our wedding, Denalyn and I enjoyed and endured a sailing voyage. Milt, a Miami church friend, had invited Denalyn, her mom, and me to join him and a few others on a leisurely cruise along the Florida coast.
Initially it was just that. Leisure. We stretched out on cushions, hung feet over the side, caught some zzz’s and rays. Nice.
But then came the storm. The sky darkened, the rain started, and the flat ocean humped like a dragon’s neck. Sudden waves of water tilted the vessel up until we saw nothing but sky and then downward until we saw nothing but blue. I learned this about sailing: there is nothing swell about a swell. Tanning stopped. Napping ceased. Eyes turned first to the thunderclouds, then to the captain. We looked to Milt.
He was deliberate and decisive. He told some people where to sit, others what to do, and all of us to hang on. And we did what he said. Why? We knew he knew best. No one else knew the difference between starboard and stern. Only Milt did. We trusted him. We knew he knew.
And we knew we didn’t. Prior to the winds, we might have boasted about Boy Scout merit badges in sailing or bass-boat excursions. But once the storm hit, we shut up. (Except for Denalyn, who threw up.) We had no choice but to trust Milt. He knew what we didn’t—and he cared. The vessel was captained, not by a hireling or a stranger, but by a pal. Our safety mattered to him. So we trusted him.
Oh, that the choice were equally easy in life. Need I remind you about your westerly winds? With the speed of lightning and the force of a thunderclap, williwaws anger tranquil waters. Victims of sudden storms populate unemployment lines and ICU wards. You know the winds. You’ve felt the waves. Good-bye, smooth sailing. Hello, rough waters.
Such typhoons test our trust in the Captain. Does God know what he is doing? Can he get us out? Why did he allow the storm?
Can you say about God what I said about Milt?
I know God knows what’s best.
I know I don’t.
I know he cares.
Such words come easily when the water is calm. But when you’re looking at a wrecked car or a suspicious-looking mole, when war breaks out or thieves break in, do you trust him?
To embrace God’s sovereignty is to drink from the well of his lordship and make a sailboat-in-the-storm decision. Not in regard to Milt and the sea, but in regard to God and life. You look toward the Captain and resolve: he knows what’s best.
Hi Jill, hope you and your dear family are doing fine. Just wanted to say thank you for your prayer for Connor on this blog. I used it as one of my prayers today for him. We just need to keep praying, and trusting in our Lord to deliver Connor out of this, into full health. You guys take care in CO. Wish you were here.
In Christ,
Jeff Davis
Hello dear family
Prayer is the most powerful tool we have against the enemy and the God of the Universe cares so much about what we ask on our knees. I am praying on my knees to a powerful and strong and mighty God for Conner's healing and that God will empower him to breath, that God Himself will breath air in his lungs and give him stregth. O how I want to see God glorify Himself and He can by healing Connor. My husband was in a bad car accident 4 and half years ago, also air lifted from the site in critical condition; he suffered a traumatic brain injury and had a craniotomy done and his life was on the edge and doctors gave me no hope. Every day my heart ached listening to the medical teams, there was no hope in their prognosis and I was very angry at everything tey had to say. I prayed on my knees and asked God to show His power.
I love to sing this song with my kids "My God is so Big, so strong and so mighty, there is nothing my God cannot do for me" The power of God goes behin our understanding. My husband is well and he just finished a 4 year engeneering degree at one of the best Universities around here. In very difficult days,much like you all go through, I had to believe God and God gave me a verse in Chorintians "... do not trust the wisdom of man but the power of God..." reading this gave me hope that God could do more and He did. Praying that God will show His amazing power in Connor's life and in all of the thousands of people praying for him and following his story.
Adina Gearhart from Michigan (from Brad Williamson's church)
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