Prayers for the Week – Remembering Dustin

Hello my friends, and thank you for joining us in our prayers for the week post.  Today we are remembering a young man, not quite four years old, who was lost to a severe form of childhood cancer this week.  His name is Dustin, and we rejoice in knowing that he is no longer in pain, no longer suffers, and as his mom, Kelly, wrote, is now CANCER FREE!  However, his passing has left a great big gaping whole in the hearts of his parents, his brothers, his aunt and uncle and cousins and every other family member.  We have been praying for our buddy Dustin and his family for 20 months now, and at this stage, our prayers now shift to just his family, for God’s Peace, Comfort, and Strength to descend upon this family in their severe time of need.  God’s hand has been on this family all this time, I believe, and it is obvious to me because of how many people have rallied behind Dustin and prayed for him.  God has spread His Word through Dustin, and that young man — well, that young man has a beautiful crown on his head this very day.

My friends, this has been a hard week for so many, so please remember Dustin, remember his family, and please, read the rest of these prayer requests and praises, and remember them as well in your prayers.  If you have any prayer requests that you would like for us to pray for you, please leave them in the comments, or on Facebook, or email them to me, something, somehow, someway — leave them so that we can pray for you.  Thank you everyone.

Prayer Requests and Praises…

• Our first prayer request is for my friend Joyce, who has had a horrifying experience happen to her family.  Here is what she wrote on Facebook:
  

  my beautiful great Aunt Ruby was murdered last night. someone broke into her home and shot her. our family needs prayers and love at this time

  Please pray for their Peace, Strength, and that whomever did this to her Aunt would be found and brought to justice. We live in such a fallen world — this is just one more example of that. Thank you for your prayers.

  • Yesterday was the funeral for her Aunt Ruby. Please lift them all up in prayer for God’s Peace, Comfort, Strength, and understanding to descend upon them in this time of sorrow and tragedy.
• Yesterday was the Celebration of Life for Dustin.  At that time, I wrote this request.  Please pray for the family of my dear friend Beth, for her brother Jeff and his wife Kelly, and for all of their families as they Celebrate the Life of Dustin today. I know that he is in a better place, but the tears — well, the tears of that family and of all of us are real and it hurts. May Jeff and Kelly know God’s Peace and realize in time how blessed they are to have a child that touched the lives of so many people that they have never even met.
  • In addition to our prayer requests here, I’m adding in some of the comments to a special Magical Blogorail post we wrote in honor of Dustin.  Here is what one of my friends wrote:  With a very heavy heart I lift up the wonderful life of Dustin.  To my friend Beth and her family, know I”m praying and praying hard for each of you.  May God be with you in the coming days, weeks, months and years.  Love to you all.
  • My friend Donna wrote: So teriibly sad to lose this beautiful light.  Beth, your Magical Blogorail family holds you tight.
  • My sister Robin also commented — here is what she wrote: There are no words… praying God’s comfort for all of you.
  • Another friend Donna wrote also: Beth, my heart is broken for Jeff and Kelly, as well as your entire family.  Please know we are all here for you if you need anything at all.  {hugs} Thanks for putting this into words for all of us Mike.  Beautifully written. 
  • Magical Blogorail reader Alison wrote her thoughts also: So sorry for you loss.  Thinking of you and yours here in Georgia.  
  • Lastly, I put into words as best I could what I was thinking: It was my honor to be able to put my thoughts into word for this post.  Having a 12 year old daughter, and seeing the struggles that she went through at birth was hard — but I can’t imagine what our life would be like without Sophie in it.  Cindy and I and all of our family grieve with the Pickel and Doda families today, and send our love across the miles to them.
• In addition to Dustin and Ruby, we also have a lot of prayers to lift up for the people that were on the plane that crashed in Asia.  I confess that I don’t know all that much about it, but there were a lot of lives lost, and today I’m praying for the families left behind, for the salvation of those that were on the plane, and for God’s Peace, Comfort, and Strength to descend upon all of the families and friends.  It is a devastating thing to lose a loved one so quickly and unexpectedly, and I can’t imagine the grief that is going through those families.
• My friend Stephanie wrote about her husband’s grandfather on our Facebook page last week — we had included him in our prayer request post last week.  Here is what she wrote:  Hi Mike! I just wanted to let you know that my husband’s grandfather passed away this morning. Although we mourn his passing, we find comfort in knowing that he is with the Lord and happy to be reunited with the love of his life. Thank you for your prayers!  Please be with Stephanie and all her family as they mourn her husband’s grandfather’s passing.  They are taking comfort in knowing he is with our Lord, but it still hurts them, so lift them up this week please.
• We do have a praise today!  It’s not all tears and broken hearts.  Yesterday we went to my wife’s niece’s wedding!  It was a lovely ceremony on the shores of the Bay River, and it was a glorious day after all the winter weather earlier in the week, and we all had a great time.  Congratulations to Sarah and Michael, and may they have many years of love, happiness, and wedded bliss!
• Also, last week Sophie came down with the flu, and was down and out for much of the week.  However, her fever broke on Wednesday night, and on Thursday it was gone also, so she was able to go back to school on Friday!  Thank you for those that prayed for her, they helped a great deal.
• Lastly, I ask that you pray for all the unknown prayer requests — for those requests that we don’t know about.  We know, though, that God knows them all, so we pray for them so that He would hear our prayers.

Each week I come to you with the prayer requests that I have heard and been asked to pray for, and each week you do so faithfully.  For that, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I am grateful.  Thank you for keeping this going, for praying for each of these requests, for lifting up these praises, and for turning our cares and worries over to the Lord so that He would do His Will with them.  Thank you, my friends, and thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers.  We close with the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us our Daily Bread,
And forgive us our Trespasses,
as we forgive those who Trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory,
Forever and ever. Amen.

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