Prayer Request

On Sunday, 9/30, my brother-in-law Lenier suffered from cardiac arrest before going into the pulpit as a guest pastor at a church in Rockingham, NC. I received a phone call from my sister, Denise, while I was sitting in church service at our church here in Wilmington.  When I stepped out to take the call, all I could understand was her screaming "Dani, he's not breathing, he has no pulse, he's blue" over and over again and "Stop the church service, stop them, everybody needs to pray right now" over and over.  It was the worst phone call I've ever gotten in my life. 

Although Lenier is technically my brother in law, he is more like a Dad to me.  I have known him since I was 16 years old.  He was the pastor of the church that I began attending after my dad committed suicide, the pastor that helped me cope with that terrible loss and the anger that I had towards God for "allowing" that to happen.  This man holds a huge part of my heart.  Not to mention he's the best husband to my sister and a wonderful father to his 3 grown children and my beautiful nephew, Jackson. This man is special to a lot of people, and we weren't ready to let him go. 

Over the past week, God has shown up, and he has given us our miracle.  As of this morning, Lenier is doing great!  He is talking and eating on his own.  He's ready to come home.  He wants to see Jackson (I brought Jackson home with me and he's been staying with us since 10/1).  They are running more tests and will likely do surgery the end of this week or the first of the next; we are still waiting to hear what that surgery will include (pacemaker and/or defibrillator). 

Please continue to keep him in your prayers as the Dr's determine their course of action.  Please continue to pray for my sister, as she is staying up there with him, away from her beloved baby (whom she has never before been away from).  Pray for strength for the entire family as there are some who have still not been able to get home (Lenier's oldest son, Justin, was serving our country in Afghanistan when this happened, they are trying to get him home, hopefully by tomorrow, 10/5).  And pray that God continues to bless Lenier with great test results and the strength to come home. 

A collage that one of the youth in our church made for Lenier's hospital room :)