Tom beginning to paint Fellowship Hall for our Jacob's Well service!!!

My heart literally aches today. And if truth be told I can not stop crying. I know I have shared on my blog before things that have been on my heart and things that I am praying for and today I am just overwhelmed and sometimes that means I just have to type it all out. You see I have a friend, a really good friend, Tom Jordan, who is sick and I feel helpless. I ‘know” that God is with him. I “know” that so many people are praying for him at this point that it is unbelievable. I “know” that the doctors and those around him are trying to figure out what to do to make him better. I “know” that there is nothing physical that I can do for him when I am in Iowa and he is in North Carolina. I know all this but my heart doesn’t. It wants to hop on the next flight and go be with him. Even though at this point he can’t have visitors and is sedated. My heart hurts. It wants to “fix” it—to make it all better. But I can’t. And “all” I can do is pray. Now is the time that I have to place my full belief in the power of prayer! And I do believe in prayer. I believe in miracles and today I am praying for one. I am praying specifically that the doctors and health care professionals around Tom do their very best and perform a miracle today.

In life there are friends that come into your life that change you. Tom changed me. He was always there for me to be a sounding board and when I was left in NC for 10 months while we waited for the house to sell and I was by myself–Tom was there for me. I left all of my plants with him when I moved to Iowa including a 10 year old rubber tree that I had named “Paul” after my daddy because I had gotten it from my husband’s company when he died. I wouldn’t have given that to just anyone.

Tom knows my passion for smiley faces and that explains the picture above. We took on the job of painting the fellowship hall at Epworth in preparation for holding our new contemporary service – Jacob’s Well–there. And one of the first things he did was make a smiley face for me. He surprised me with a smiley mug which is in my cupboard still —and I used it today to make myself feel a little closer to this dear friend.

So today I beg you all to pray for my friend, Tom. I know he is surrounded by his family and about a zillion friends but this friend wishes she was there with him. Let’s pray for a miracle today. And believe. Because it is what Tom would do for me.