Thanks from Wayne

I would like to thank everyone for the generosity and love that they have shown me and my family. It has been amazing to see the outpouring of love. It is truly humbling, especially when you are in a position of vulnerability, facing one’s own mortality and the overwhelmingness that this life under the sun is futile.
  
In the last few days I have experienced struggles with things that I took for granted before. Things like naming the months backwards, typing a simple message of thanks, and writing my own signature, have all taken on a new level of concentration. But with the new frustrations and challenges, I have started to see life with a new focus: a focus that only adversity can provide, a focus on what is truly important and of value. 

I can honestly say that I praise God more today than I did yesterday. I can see how He is working in me to show me He is sufficient; sufficient in my struggles and sufficient in whatever happens. As Rebecca has posted before, we started out this year with one objective: to suffer for Christ’s sake. Not a futile suffering, that is too often the way of this world, but a purposeful suffering. We wanted to find ways to suffer for the persecuted church around the world, for orphans, and the least among us. Not that we were going to make a difference in their suffering, but that we would be in solidarity with their suffering for Christ. We decided that January would be a month of prayer and determination. We determined that February would be a month of eating as orphans and the poor around the world, with the understanding that just eating each day, was a step above what the poor in the world eat. But, it was our feeble attempt at suffering. For the month of March, we planned on sleeping on the floor, since most of the persecuted church does not have memory foam mattresses. God used these feeble attempts at suffering to prepare our hearts for real suffering. He had already put us in a frame of mind to be willing to suffer for His glory. I do not tell you this because I want you to see me and my family as “super-spiritual”, but because of the grace of God, His sufficiency, and His sovereignty in preparing us for this trial. 

Therefore, our wholehearted prayer request is that God be glorified through our suffering, just as He was with Christ’s suffering, regardless of the outcome. That is not to say that we don’t break down at times during the day, but it does help us keep everything in perspective that there is a bigger purpose to the trials and suffering that we are going through. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed…Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” 1 Peter 4:12-13, 19