Thank you to all of you who have been praying and throwing encouragement and support my way this past week. Now I have a mission for you that I hope you will want to participate in.

Eric and his family are now all very new at this Christ follower thing…obviously. Although we have passed on Bibles and some other books to help get them started, I think it would be amazing encouragement for them to hear from all the people who have been praying for them this past week.

What I would like for you to do is to ask the Lord to give you a Scripture or verse that has really encouraged you during your walk with the Lord, tell what it means to you and why, and write a short note of encouragement, support, prayer, etc. What a better way for this family to feel loved by the body of Christ. And I think it will continue to foster a desire for them to continue pursuing the Lord after 30 years of running. We all know that it is so much easier to fall back into old habits after the Lord does a work in our lives…because Satan is on the prowl to destroy this work that has begun.

If you would be willing to do this, you can email them to me at sarahweber@crccsc.org, or drop them on my desk at the office. I hope to be able to send them “care” packages with these notes over the next few weeks.

Thank you, in advance, for taking some time out to encourage this new family in Christ. I know it will mean a lot to them! (It’s easy for them to accept that we had people praying for them, but what would it be like if all that have been, made themselves known to this family) WOW!! If you have any questions, let me know. Love you all!

There are no words to describe the awesomeness of our God! No words come close. Nothing I could speak out could compare to the magnificence of what the Lord has done in the hearts and lives of our family this weekend. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers.

My mom and I have spoken every day since we found out about Eric on Wednesday. We have been praying that the Lord would clearly communicate to us what our mission was to be. During some time of prayer on Friday afternoon the Lord kept giving me the number “3″. Not understanding, I continued to press in until the Lord said, “3 will hear my message, and 3 will respond into salvation and reconciliation with me.” This was then confirmed by several others, so this became my “banner” over the weekend to come. I shared this with my mom and we chose to claim this as truth. We were officially on a mission.

My mom (Cheryl), my aunt (Paula), and myself left Spartanburg to head to Duke University Hospital early on Saturday morning. On the ride up, we spent much time in prayer and asking the Lord to use us in such a way that there was no way possible that the glory could be given to us, but that all the glory and honor would go to God. We asked the Lord to help us to speak the words He would have us say, to be living examples of Christ, and to be bold. When we got to the hospital we were AMAZED at what we were seeing! Eric was sitting in a chair, he was awake, talking, responding, and appeared as though there was nothing wrong with him other than being tired. Before I go any further, let me remind you of why this is such a miracle. On Tuesday night Eric attempted suicide. He took over 400 pills intentionally. It wasn’t something that was spontaneous, because he took the time to grind up some of the pills. By the time he got into the ER and while he was there, he had coded 7 times, and 7 times the doctors and nurses were able to get his heart beating again. Long story short, Eric had tubes down his throat, in his nose, IVs everywhere, hooked up to a bunch of machines, life support, respirators, the works. The doctors said that they couldn’t anticipate anything more than 5 minutes at a time. This was how bad he was. Over the course of the weekend several of the doctors who had worked on Eric came by to see him because they couldn’t believe he was still alive. They didn’t believe that this was the same Eric Leicht they had just known was going to die. Every one of them continued to say that Eric was a miracle. That there was no human way possible for him to be alive. Today, Eric shows no signs of any problems with his brain or mental functioning. He shows no signs of any physical problems (he has already been released from physical therapy because he can stand and walk on his own). His kidneys and other organs are now functioning properly. Other than extreme fatigue, you would never have known he was clinically dead 7 times on Tuesday night. The Lord worked his first miracle….Eric’s life.

Our family has been praying for this part of our family for years. They have been so far from God for the majority of their lives. All of us (my family included) had sort of cut ourselves off from one another. My mom, aunt, and myself knew that we were there for a purpose. We knew that it was the time for our prayers to be answered. Just as Eric had been saved for a purpose, we were there for the purpose of being vessels for the Lord, trusting that the 3 God had promised would choose salvation and reconciliation. So on Saturday we spent most of the day just building relationship with them again. We kept reminding them of how much God loved them, and that there was a divine purpose that Eric was still alive. We left late on Saturday and before we did, we asked if we could circle up and just pray over the family. It was in that moment that the Lord really prepared Rich (my uncle). He was so tender and loving, and just broken over his son and their relationship. I feel like this was the turning point for Rich. So, we left, knowing and trusting that the Lord was going to call 3 into salvation with him on Sunday. They were ripe for the Lord.

On Sunday we got to the hospital around 10:30. The Lord had given us such confirmation as we spent time with him that morning that we were to be bold, to not be fearful, but to speak words of truth. He has sent us to scripture after scripture to encourage us and to use to encourage Eric. We asked the Lord to open a door for us so that we would know when the time was right to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. We spent most of the morning encouraging them and letting them talk about where they were and how they were feeling. Around noon, Brian (Eric’s brother) and Shane (Eric’s best friend) came to visit. Shane is a new believer, he accepted Christ into his heart 4 months ago. He wasn’t sure how to tell Eric about the Lord and had been praying for Eric for awhile. He was the catalyst that shifted everything. All of us were just sitting around and talking and all of a sudden Shane took Eric’s hand in his and said, “Eric, you know I’ve got your back. But you need to go to church, you need God.” That was the very door we had been waiting for. My mom and I began to talk about how the Lord had brought us out of our own pits of sin and desperation. How the Lord can take something painful and broken, and how he can piece it back together again and make it new. We talked of how the Lord had changed our lives. We reminded him that the Lord created him and made him unique and special, and how the Lord had saved him for a purpose. We reminded him of all the people who had claimed that he was miracle. And that he couldn’t waste the life that had been returned to him by the Sovereign hand of our God who loves him so much. We began to share about how God had sent his only son to earth to live as we do, to experience the same pain and hurts we live with, and then to die in the cruelest way imaginable. That in those moments, Jesus took on the weight of our sin, that by Jesus’ death and resurrection that he now had a way back to the Father. That he had a way to be forgiven of his sin and to live anew. My mom then took Eric’s hands and asked him point-blank, “Do you want to accept Jesus into your life as your Savior?” Without hesitation his answer was “YES!” Now keep in mind, we were still believing for 3, so my mom then said, “I know that there are some of you in this room who need to know Jesus as your Savior. I am going to pray a simple prayer, and if you are ready to do that, I want you to either out loud or in your heart, pray this to the Lord.” She then led a sweet prayer of forgiveness, repentance, and acceptance of Jesus as Savior. After the prayer had ended Eric grabbed my mom into this clinging hug and just cried. HALLELUJAH!!!!! It was almost as if he was purging his soul of all the pain of his past. He literally has been healed emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. What more could we have asked for!!!! In excitement and praise we just prayed thanksgiving to the Lord for what was lost, had been found. All the while, we continued to pray that the Lord would bring forth the other 2. A few moments later, the nurses came to get Eric so that they could get a chest X-Ray, they believed he was getting pneumonia. We walked out of the hospital room. During this time, my mom grabbed onto Rich and just held tight to him. As they cried together my mom asked him, “Rich, did you ask Jesus into your heart? If you haven’t, you know that you need the Lord. He has already begun a work in you, we’ve all seen the changes these last two days.” And as he weeped, Rich answered, “Yes, Cheryl, I asked Jesus to be my Savior when you were praying.” Paula and I immediately grinned from ear to ear and thanked the Lord that another lost sheep had been brought back to the Shepherd. We laid hands on him and just prayed for his own pain, his own healing. What an amazing work the Lord has already begun. This seemingly tough, hard man was tender and compassionate and the worries and stresses and irritations of the past were no longer important…only his family was.

At that point my mom and I just looked at one another and continued to ask the Lord to show us who the third was to be and asked the Lord to give us wisdom to know what to say and how to proceed. We didn’t want to take matters in our own hands, we were just waiting for the Lord and trusting that he would keep his promise of 3. So we went down to the cafe to eat some lunch. We sat with Nancy, Paula, Shane, and Brian and just talked about the awesomeness of God’s work throughout this past week. We left our Bibles with this family, in hopes that they would begin on the right foot. By believing the word of the Lord as their help. I went into the bookstore and located some awesome books to help get this family started. After 30+ years of running from the Lord, they definitely would need a place to begin. After all this we headed back to Eric’s room and asked him if he would mind if we just read some Scriptures together. As we started reading verses in the Psalms, we began sharing with him about David. How he was called “a man after God’s own heart” and yet here he was crying out to the Lord feeling abandoned and alone, he sinned (murder, adultery, etc.) and yet he was raised up by the Lord to be the King over Israel. We wanted to keep reminding them that having Jesus as your Savior doesn’t make the world better. That they will still sin and have problems, but that there is a forgiveness and forgetness that is found in the Lord. That the Lord would equip them with what they needed for each day to come.

We knew that we were going to have to leave soon, so mom and I just kept asking the Lord to show us what to do next. The Lord responded with…just wait. As we were getting ready to leave, the family circled together, held hands, and were about to pray. We felt like Rich needed to tell his son of the decision he had made to also ask the Lord into his heart. Here is a father and son who have been estranged and angry at one another for so long. In complete brokenness and vulnerability, Rich leaned dow, grabbed his son’s hands, started weeping, and said, “Eric, I love you, and I am on this journey with you because I asked Jesus into my heart too. We’re going to change together, we’re going to church..” He then broke off because Eric had begun to weep and they just clung to one another. It was one of the most tender moments we had experienced. I looked at my mom and we continued to pray that the Lord would call his third. And sure enough within a few moments, my aunt Nancy, held Eric’s hand and said, “We’ll all be doing this together, because I accepted Jesus too.” I turned to my mom, unable to speak, held up 3 fingers. We immediately set about praising the Lord in word and song! HALLELUJAH!

We have finally seen our entire family come full circle into the family of God. My mom has been praying for 30 years to see that side of the family restored to the Lord.  As an adult, I’ve chosen to persist in prayer that we would see this come to fruition as well.  My, how the Lord answers prayer.  This had absolutely NOTHING to go with anything we did, and EVERYTHING to do with what the Lord did. Everyone on that side of the family are now believers in Christ. WOW! What an amazing God we have! He is truly the answer to our prayers, the sustainer and redeemer of our lives, the King of kings and Lord of lords! He is a mighty God!

Some other amazing things that the Lord did while we were there: a nurse must stay in Eric’s hospital room 24 hours a day (on shifts) to just monitor his heart, respiration, and all that. Several of them asked to participate with us in prayer. Isn’t that awesome! This stranger felt compelled to be a part of the changes the Lord was making in our family. The ER doctors and nurses who came by were all told of Eric’s decision to accept Christ into his life. The last sitter of the day on Sunday stood guard by the door to not allow any interruptions to take place. Isn’t it amazing how the Lord has orchestrated this whole situation, to not just touch our family’s lives by the lives of the staff at Duke.

We are just so blown away by the goodness of God! All praise and honor to Him! All glory to Him! Thank you, dear Jesus, for seeing fit to call this family back to yourself. Thank you for not giving up on them. Thank you for making yourself vulnerable to the rejection and knowing that there would be a day where they could no longer deny you. Father, we ask that you would continue to intercede on their behalf. To daily remind them that you are God, to encourage them as they begin this journey with You, to provide people to enter their lives who will be strong Christian influencers. Father I ask that you would remove any obstacles (whether people or things) that would hinder their walk with you. Father, thank you for choosing me, my mom, my aunt, and Shane as catalysts for change in Rich, Nancy, and Eric’s life. Thank you for trusting us with that mission. Help us to be diligent in encouraging them and supporting them. Lord thank you for their lives, and thank you for calling them back to You! Amen.