From Connor's aunt

Friday, April 10, 2009

Several weeks ago I checked the stats on the connorcruse.com website. Often 400 – 500 people check up on Connor in a single day! This is an amazing number of people praying, caring, loving Connor, and just wanting to share some of Tait and Joy’s burden in a small way, if we can, even after four very long years. Sometimes, all we hope for as Joy and Tait put one foot in front of the other, is that they will hear the
sounds of our footsteps walking with them.

The funny thing is, we are all getting fed by Joy and Tait’s faith, endurance, and wisdom as we try to help them. Every time we check in we find Joy being… well... Joy, relentlessly courageous and faithful, trial after trial, disappointment after disappointment, finding God’s hand in the smallest victory, and sharing this with us.

Can you imagine the frustration Satan must feel about this family? He sends one of the most painful trials imaginable to a family and with God's help, they turn it into a graduate-level course in faith for anyone who wants to tune in.

If you were Satan, wouldn’t you keep turning up the heat? Wouldn’t you delight in the slightest sign of weariness? Tension? Fear? Wouldn’t you look for any weakness or place of entry so you could silence this message once and for all? “Shut up!” he must mutter to himself.

I often have this crazy wish for my little brother and his family. I wish we could chop this burden into a hundred tiny pieces and hand them out to all of us who would gladly take a few so this one family, this one child, would not have such a heavy burden to carry on their own. Because
even though there are hundreds, if not thousands, of us walking the journey with Joy and Tait, it’s not the same as living it, day after day, hour after hour.

It’s taking a toll, folks. Satan has the heat at a high boil. The more intense the heat the more intense our prayers must be. Joy and Tait are in the thick of it, in the trenches, and we need to climb down in there with them.

For the next several weeks we need to bathe this family with constant prayer. When I walk in their house on Easter Sunday I want to feel the Holy Spirit surrounding each of them with love and protection. I want to sense God’s power and strength throughout the house. I want to look
at each of their faces and see that they are glowing with renewal and inexplicable peace, feeling Christ right there, in their home, every minute, with them.

Will you do this? Will you also pray for each of them individually? Pray however you feel led, or for the following:

Tait, for insightful leadership and limitless hope and patience.

Joy, for relief from weariness, to hear God’s voice and feel overwhelmingly His love and never ceasing presence.

For Mackenzie, to have more 11-year-old moments and less adult moments, a return of child-like joy and trust.

For Connor, relief from pain and nausea, the return of his swagger, his belly laugh, his ability to lose himself in play, a rash that covers his body from head to toe, and for complete healing on this earth.

For Carson, lifting of the weight of fear for his best buddy, to not ever feel like the over-looked brother, and understanding beyond his years.

For Mason, to not feel lost in a family that has had one long crisis his entire life.

Let's lift up Joy, Tait and all of their children in this season of hope as they fight the good fight. Thank you in advance from the bottom of my heart--

Depending on Him--
Christie

NOTE: Joy and Connor will return to Houston Tuesday for the second treatment. There’s no
rash yet, but they said it could take up to a week or even longer.