Ebenezer Dinner
During my pregnancy with Joel, I was intensely frightened at times. Weeks 11 and 16 were the worst, those being the weeks at which I lost babies before. When I became pregnant with Joel, several people told me they felt burdened by the Lord to pray for me every single day. Those people were Gary and Kim Bull, Craig and Barb Rogers, Jacob and Kathy Wilson, and my friend Barb Loutzenhiser.
When I delivered this bouncing baby brick--I mean this beautiful, bubbly boy of 9 pounds 3 ounces, I had no idea that the first five weeks of his life would be the hardest of mine. During delivery, I ruptured all my pelvic ligaments, which broke off bits of bone at the SI joints (where the spine meets the hips). A very rare occurrence, it was identified by an orthodpedist as Postpartum Pubic Diastasis. The result was the inability to walk normally or care for this baby except to nurse him and cuddle him. Occasionally I had the strength to change his diaper. I won't go into the details of recovery in this post, but that time of intense suffering and drawing close to the Lord my Healer became one to celebrate.
I decided to invite the people who had been so faithful to pray for me and also my parents who took such good care of me. Referring to the stone of remembrance in the Old Testament, an ebenezer (meaning "thus far hath the Lord helped us"), Paul and I and the kids put together an Ebenezer Brunch. It was many months after Joel's birth, but it was special. After our al fresco brunch of sausage casserole, blueberry waffles, and fresh fruit compote, we gathered in the living room . I read aloud the thanks I had written to God, mentioning each of these strong prayer warriors by name and how they specifically ministered to me in my fear, my pain, my joy.
Our care group is going to do a similar thing. At 4 pm on the first Saturday in April, we are meeting at Mitzy's. She will teach us a gourmet dish of spinach, chicken and proscuitto wrapped in a puff pastry. Stephanie will show us a gourmet salad. Therese will do fresh buttered asparagus, and I will try to remember how I made a chocolate-pecan torte so that I can "teach" it to the gals.
The single men and our husbands are invited to join us for this fancy feast at 7 pm. During our meal, or soon after, Lauren will open the log-- the care group's prayer log, in which Lauren has been faithful to record all our requests at each care group meeting. We will hear a long list of answers to prayers. We will laugh and cry. We will rejoice in God's goodness. We will lift our Ebenezer to him.
I can hardly wait!
When I delivered this bouncing baby brick--I mean this beautiful, bubbly boy of 9 pounds 3 ounces, I had no idea that the first five weeks of his life would be the hardest of mine. During delivery, I ruptured all my pelvic ligaments, which broke off bits of bone at the SI joints (where the spine meets the hips). A very rare occurrence, it was identified by an orthodpedist as Postpartum Pubic Diastasis. The result was the inability to walk normally or care for this baby except to nurse him and cuddle him. Occasionally I had the strength to change his diaper. I won't go into the details of recovery in this post, but that time of intense suffering and drawing close to the Lord my Healer became one to celebrate.
I decided to invite the people who had been so faithful to pray for me and also my parents who took such good care of me. Referring to the stone of remembrance in the Old Testament, an ebenezer (meaning "thus far hath the Lord helped us"), Paul and I and the kids put together an Ebenezer Brunch. It was many months after Joel's birth, but it was special. After our al fresco brunch of sausage casserole, blueberry waffles, and fresh fruit compote, we gathered in the living room . I read aloud the thanks I had written to God, mentioning each of these strong prayer warriors by name and how they specifically ministered to me in my fear, my pain, my joy.
Our care group is going to do a similar thing. At 4 pm on the first Saturday in April, we are meeting at Mitzy's. She will teach us a gourmet dish of spinach, chicken and proscuitto wrapped in a puff pastry. Stephanie will show us a gourmet salad. Therese will do fresh buttered asparagus, and I will try to remember how I made a chocolate-pecan torte so that I can "teach" it to the gals.
The single men and our husbands are invited to join us for this fancy feast at 7 pm. During our meal, or soon after, Lauren will open the log-- the care group's prayer log, in which Lauren has been faithful to record all our requests at each care group meeting. We will hear a long list of answers to prayers. We will laugh and cry. We will rejoice in God's goodness. We will lift our Ebenezer to him.
I can hardly wait!
posted by Zoanna at
1:18 PM
1 Comments:
What a NEAT idea!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home