Monday #1: crying and praying (will you join me?)

Dear friends and readers, if you are praying people, would you please consider these needs that are breaking my heart this morning?

Fellow blog mom Julia just wrote about three needs, the first of which I had been following, but the last two new to me, and so grievous.  The first is little Connor, recently adopted by Lorraine over at All Are Precious In His Sight, who was rushed to the hospital last week and who has finally been diagnosed with salmonella in his bloodstream.  This poor little guy, who was so neglected in the orphanage, has finally found a loving family and is starting to grow and thrive, but now is in dire physical state. 

Second are things happening involving orphans in a part of Easten Europe in a region where the officials are corrupt and hard-hearted and don't want the children to be adopted.  Julia's post gives some details, but the bottom line is that the immediate fates of three children now hang in the balance.  One is a little boy whose family is there to adopt him--and might be turned away!  The other two Julia advocated for in this post.  Please follow that link to see the faces of the sweet boys who are so adoptable, that desperately want families, who have a good chance of getting them, unless the officials in charge of adoptions in their regions refuse to let them go.  Friends, I am so not someone who sees Satan lurking behind every misfortune or hindrance, but there are times when evil forces seem to be so apparent, I can almost feel them or see them at work.  After reading so many adoption stories over the years, there are so many times when it seems like Satan is viciously, creatively, methodically at work.  Esp. there are areas of the world that seem to be more prone to evil forces, places where humans do everything in their power to mistreat unwanted children and keep Love from coming in and changing lives for the better.  Places Christians come home from and tell about a spiritual heaviness and best-laid-plans continually, perversely going awry.  The trouble is so prevalent, so consistent in different families' stories, that patterns seem to emerge.  Parts of Eastern Europe--and other places in the world--seem to be under darkness, and for whatever reason God is allowing evil to rein for a short while. 

Third is a tragedy that just befell the son of a woman who is devoted to helping rescue those same orphans--and the timing just does not seem a coincidence. How thorough and creative Satan can be, in his efforts to tear apart families and thwart the spread of love.  This is from Julia's post:

From my friend Renee EMERGENCY PRAYER REQUEST: Please repost- we need every prayer warrior we know praying- our very wonderful facilitator, who has been helping us navigate this tricky adoption and fighting for our ability to adopt C in addition to M & R- her only son, just a preteen, fell out of a tree yesterday in a remote village in our region and was knocked unconscious- it split his head open. He was transported to the hospital here in region- very very bad, the only decent hospital is many hours drive away across bumpy bad road to the capitol city- here in region he had a "Craniostomy" if I heard correctly- some type of brain surgery. He has not still regained consciousness and the doctors can not say at this point if he will even live, much less if he will ever regain full function. It is literally life and death!!!!!! The hospitals are so bad here that the US EMbassy recommends an emergency evacuation to Germany if you get sick- yet this boy had surgery here in region :( :( :( It literally will take a miracle for this child to live- please please please join me in prayer, call your churches, call your prayer chains in your school groups- his name is Nikita- he is their pride and joy, a wonderful young man. We were with them all day yesterday, it happened while he was at a relatives. I just got a call from our sweet facilitator from Emma's adoption begging us to pray- they know our GOD works miracles.

HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!!

Oh, but Lord, please raise up your body of believers to cry out against evil, to raise up those who are trying to be lights in those dark regions.  Please let yourself be glorified through the miraculous overcoming of evil--do not let those corrupt officials  have their way and keep these children doomed to a life of neglect and imprisonment.  Please do not let the Deceiver use this young man's life as one more tool to thwart the rescue of these and other orphans.  Please save his life, and prove that it does not matter how badly one is hurt or how terrible the hospital is, that YOU are the Great Physician and can overcome anything to heal, to repair, to restore.  We have seen you work miracles over and over to rescue children in your name--I plead with you to not let these children be casualties of Darkness.  Please change the hearts of the officials to make them set these children free, and the other children under their "care" in this region.  Please heal this damaged young man, completely.  Please do these things in such a way that everyone who witnesses them and hears about them sees fully that you did them--that you stretched out your hand and acted according to your unfailing love and mercy and justice and goodness. 

Friends, I know these things about God are true--I have seen over and over in my life that He is real, He is active in the world today, He hears, He cares, He responds to the prayers of those who love Him and call upon His name.  I know we cannot comprehend His ways, and so how He chooses to heal, to save, to redeem might not look good to us--might not be the way we want it to end up.  But this morning, I am praying for how I do want it to end up, trusting that He will allow it if it is Good and will do otherwise if His way is Better.

Oh, Lord, show  yourself in these stories!  Pour out your love upon these people, who spend every day working for love, sacrificing for love, trusting you in everything.  Please hear our prayers and answer out of your Might, your Grace, your Faithfulness.