This is the manuscript taken from Bonnie’s notes…
Our family moved to AZ 6 years ago and little did we know the village of friends that God would build and provide for us. I came across a little poem written by a gentleman in 400 AD and he describes the importance and value of friends:
“Such is friendship, that through it we love places and seasons; for all flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them, so friends impart favor even to the places where they dwell. With friends even poverty is pleasant; it would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than that we should be without friends.”
When I think about the family and friends that will come together to worship and also to support and encourage our family it’s overwhelming. We have received so many blessings in the last several months and experienced seeing a village of friends and family come along side of us has been a gift of God. I do need to say that it is not because of my wonderful communication skills, but because of Juno’s love of staying connected to so many of you. He says its a gift!!! I don’t know how he ever survived without a computer:).
The blessings our family has experienced the last several months has been wonderful. Several months ago Juno asked me about having meals provided and my first response was, “no, we’ll be fine.” But, between Rita Puckett (Core of MPCC) and Juno we were signed up and what a blessing that has been. It seems like a family makes a meal for us on just the days I really need the help. The help with rides to my IV treatments, and other doctor appointments has been so helpful. God says He will provide for all of our needs and He has.
McKenzie has also been a blessing. Our previous summers we would enjoy getting dressed up and going to lunch and then a little shopping, but this summer that just could not happen. This is what McKenzie did on her own. While she was working, Mckenzie ordered and Kathryn picked up my favorite sandwich from Cheesecake Factory, with sugar-free cheesecake, texted me “don’t eat lunch”, and delivered it to me.
And then there’s my wonderful husband, Juno. He is attentive to my every need, even in the middle of the night when I need something to drink. He gets my tea ready every morning, does 3 loads of laundry before 8 am and keeps the kitchen picked up and clean.
I have also been blessed with so many friends praying for me. From Grace Community Church and Mountain Park, the prayer intercessors have been so faithful in praying for me. I love each one of them for their faithfulness. There’s a verse that one of the prayer intercessors gave me when I first started my IV treatments. “God holds us in His righteous right hand…………………….and even when life doesn’t make sense – God is still holding us in His righteous right hand and He is in control of each one of our lives and we can sing the song “How Great Thou Art”.
I want to finish with this story: I attended a weekend seminar on a Friday night, feeling discouraged, singing “How Great Thou Art”, and in a breath prayer I said, “Lord, please show me how great You really are because I don’t see how great You are and I don’t feel how great You are.” I kept singing and completely forgot about the prayer I had just said.
Sunday night of that same week-end was a busy one. McKenzie and her friend Kathryn were busy getting ready for their first day of high school on Monday am. Kathryn spent the night, in the morning getting ready with McKenzie, taking the first day of school pictures, and we were on our way. I was driving, Juno was going with us to start out an exciting morning. We were going west on 202, not in a hurry, plenty of time, not drinking coffee, going the speed limit of 65, got off the highway onto Kyrene. I took a second to look for the blind spot and when I turned back the traffic from the exit ramp was backing up onto the highway and the truck in front of me had come to a complete stop. I swerved to the left because I was not able to stop in time, traffic on left so swerved to right, the brakes locked up and the car was thrown onto the 202 in the midst of the morning rush hour traffic. In seconds we were at a stop with the car in the middle lane, facing east, and looking up I see 1 car, 2 semi’s, with a third coming behind bouncing from its braking. All was quiet, the trucks were stopped all in a row – the Lord and angels held hands and no one was going past that line. Not one vehicle was around us. I turned the car around, drove to the curb and asked Juno to drive. A couple of hours later, during quiet time, the Lord said to me, “That’s how great I am. I have your life in my gracious right hand and I am in complete control of your life.”