Grateful for Diocesan Family

Hi friends!  On Trinity Sunday, while I was still in the rehab facility, the New Testament reading was Romans 5:1-5. Verses 3-5 seemed to make sense of what I was going through at that time. Paul was making a bold statement about what those who were justified by faith in Jesus Christ could expect. He was boasting about several things based on his faith. He said in verse three that “we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and endurance produces hope, and hope never disappoints us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Hope never disappoints us.

During my time in rehab, a number of people came to visit and we shared prayers.

Hope was the common thread.

I want to thank all of you for being part of my Hope Team.

There were four or five days when it was not a certainty that I would live, but through the prayers of people all over the diocese, you brought hope alive for me and my family.  This was not a conditional hope. Your prayers were HOPE as a verb driven by our shared belief that hope never disappoints because we all believe in the love brought to us by the Holy Spirit.  I am grateful for your combined hope for me.

I am also grateful that I can report that my body did not sustain any disabling effects from my ordeal.

My heart was not damaged. My eyes and teeth were not affected. And my mental capacity is not diminished. However, I have had to relearn how to do all the physical abilities which I took for granted, but if you saw me today, you would not think anything had happened to me.

We ask your prayers as we continue seeking answers for why this extreme ear infection happened and how we can prevent a recurrence.  I do not currently have an ear and nose doctor that I trust.  I also ask for your loving and hopeful support as we live through the emotional toll left by this near-death experience.

We could also use your prayers as we discern our next steps in finding a loving church community in which to worship, and perhaps to serve, as well as finding an appropriate new home in which to begin the next stage of our journey together.

I am grateful for my diocesan family.

Susan Green