Cheryl, we met briefly during the High Holidays at VBS. You told us that you would be having brain surgery in a few days, and I came up to get some more information. I have prayed for you, and my congregation (Ahavat Zion Messianic Synagogue) has prayed for you regularly. I followed you on Caring Bridge for a long time, but hadn't kept up the last few months.
I am on Caring Bridge today because two friends are now on the list. I thought while I was checking their conditions, I would see if you had left any updates. Allen is at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and Amy is at Calif Pacific Med Ctr in San Francisco. You may relate to Amy who had a brain aneurysm last week. Allen has a huge hematoma in his abdomen, DVT other places, an infection, and bile stones. Both are in places where they are (now) receiving excellent care.
If you don't mind, I will keep praying for you, anyway. I am happy to hear that you are back to work full time. Mazel Tov on the achievement. That might sound funny, to be congratulated for getting back to "normal" but it is a tribute to your fortitude and God's healing power. I may stop praying for you if I see you at second day Rosh Hashanah at VBS (my congregation only celebrates one day) or I still may continue to pray for you a while longer.
In the last four months I have had two people I know die, and another where the husband died and I know the wife. I have told you about Amy and Allen. Another member of our small congregation we learned was in need of a heart transplant, then also a kidney transplant. We prayed, and a heart and kidney showed up within two weeks. And I know or am familiar with nine people on our "chronic medical" list, who have anything from long covid, Parkinson's, and metastatic caners to Alzheimer's and spinal cord injury/paralysis. Yet, somehow I continue to wonder at how God keeps the world spinning on its axis, going around the sun, and caring for the almost nine billion people on our small planet.
Consider the fact that God didn't blow the Jewish people drown in the sea, or kill them over the golden calf. And Moshe pleaded with God not to do so. Yet Moses was not allowed into the promised land at the end of 40 years travel in the wilderness over hitting a rock with his staff. Clearly, I am not God.
I marvel at so many decisions God has made. Why accept Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's? Why one person lives and another dies of the same condition? Why He doesn't swallow up Russia, or at least Putin and his rich friends for the pain and havoc they create for others? Why the earth doesn't open up and swallow Trump?
Hebrews 11: 1-3 tells us:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Somehow, with whatever is going on in the world, in general, or within the lives of people I know, more specifically, I guess it is just faith that keeps me going. I believe that faith must be built, like patience. (I have often told people not to pray for patience, because God does not give it, He builds it in us.) We need to keep walking with God, trusting the sun to come up in the east every morning, and to go down in the west.
I am not sure why I am writing this to you, other than feeling that this is what I am supposed to be doing right now. Maybe I needed to see where my faith comes from.
As I said earlier, I will continue to pray for your full healing, and continue to pray for those on my personal and congregational Mi Shebeirach lists. Feel free to respond, but don't feel obligated to do so. I am not good at checking my personal email, but as my congregation's administrator, I do check Info@AhavatZion.org daily. Maybe you'd like to meet for coffee/tea some time.
I am on Caring Bridge today because two friends are now on the list. I thought while I was checking their conditions, I would see if you had left any updates. Allen is at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and Amy is at Calif Pacific Med Ctr in San Francisco. You may relate to Amy who had a brain aneurysm last week. Allen has a huge hematoma in his abdomen, DVT other places, an infection, and bile stones. Both are in places where they are (now) receiving excellent care.
If you don't mind, I will keep praying for you, anyway. I am happy to hear that you are back to work full time. Mazel Tov on the achievement. That might sound funny, to be congratulated for getting back to "normal" but it is a tribute to your fortitude and God's healing power. I may stop praying for you if I see you at second day Rosh Hashanah at VBS (my congregation only celebrates one day) or I still may continue to pray for you a while longer.
In the last four months I have had two people I know die, and another where the husband died and I know the wife. I have told you about Amy and Allen. Another member of our small congregation we learned was in need of a heart transplant, then also a kidney transplant. We prayed, and a heart and kidney showed up within two weeks. And I know or am familiar with nine people on our "chronic medical" list, who have anything from long covid, Parkinson's, and metastatic caners to Alzheimer's and spinal cord injury/paralysis. Yet, somehow I continue to wonder at how God keeps the world spinning on its axis, going around the sun, and caring for the almost nine billion people on our small planet.
Consider the fact that God didn't blow the Jewish people drown in the sea, or kill them over the golden calf. And Moshe pleaded with God not to do so. Yet Moses was not allowed into the promised land at the end of 40 years travel in the wilderness over hitting a rock with his staff. Clearly, I am not God.
I marvel at so many decisions God has made. Why accept Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's? Why one person lives and another dies of the same condition? Why He doesn't swallow up Russia, or at least Putin and his rich friends for the pain and havoc they create for others? Why the earth doesn't open up and swallow Trump?
Hebrews 11: 1-3 tells us:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Somehow, with whatever is going on in the world, in general, or within the lives of people I know, more specifically, I guess it is just faith that keeps me going. I believe that faith must be built, like patience. (I have often told people not to pray for patience, because God does not give it, He builds it in us.) We need to keep walking with God, trusting the sun to come up in the east every morning, and to go down in the west.
I am not sure why I am writing this to you, other than feeling that this is what I am supposed to be doing right now. Maybe I needed to see where my faith comes from.
As I said earlier, I will continue to pray for your full healing, and continue to pray for those on my personal and congregational Mi Shebeirach lists. Feel free to respond, but don't feel obligated to do so. I am not good at checking my personal email, but as my congregation's administrator, I do check Info@AhavatZion.org daily. Maybe you'd like to meet for coffee/tea some time.
Rustie Rothstein
818-644-3795