Barnes Family Update - Ken, Rachel, Jack, Luke, and Ally: January 2012

Right after New Years we heard a sermon that is going to define our year. It was the "One Thing" sermon by Darren Delaune. Here is the sermon (click here to watch the video) with some paraphrasing and shortening:

Darren asked "What's going to be different in 2012?"

¹⁸ “Forget the former things;
   do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
   Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
   and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19

What is the ONE THING you want God to do in you and through you?

Are you confident that God can do a new thing in you?

⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

He asked what is the ONE THING that is heavy on your heart and you want God to change. 2011 is gone and with this new year we need to pick ONE THING for God to fix and make better. Both Ken and I immediately thought about Luke. 2011 was a hard year for our family. It was the hardest on our marriage, Luke has had many procedures and labs and all without results that give us answers. Everything has come back normal which is great but then again we still don't know why he is still having some issues. We will get into more details about that towards the end!

Darren outlined 4 questions to ask:

1. In prayer what is the ONE THING you desire from God?

⁴ One thing I ask from the LORD,
   this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
   all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
   and to seek him in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble
   he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
   and set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27:4-5

He went on to add that there are many things you want to see changed and for God to do but if you get ONE THING right He will bless everything. The ONE THING is keeping your eyes on Jesus.

I am going to be honest. It is so easy to get wrapped up in our own situations and problems that you forget to let God handle it. Ken and I did a lot of that in 2011. We tried to run our lives without help or guidance from God. We prayed here or there, went to church, Ken read his devotionals a couple times a week but God was not the center of our marriage or lives. Ken and I each tried to run things the way we each thought was best and that led to many arguments and hurt feelings. There were many contributing factors to both of our unhappiness last year but I feel if we had focused on God then we could have overcome them easier. Ken and I are fully committed to each other and do not believe in divorce or even using the word in arguments or in jokes. Even with those beliefs we had the "I am unhappy and if it continues on this road, I do not want to live in the same house anymore" talk. We both realized how unhappy we were--not with each other--but with our attitudes and the way we had let God slip into the side lines. It has been a long road and things are not perfect but I can see that we are getting happier and we are putting a bigger effort to lean on God and keep our eyes on Him. Keeping our eyes on Him is bringing Ken and I closer together. We are far from where we want to be and still have many things to change in our lives and our relationship with God and each other but we are aware and slowly taking small steps!

We all have problems and challenges but here is the key: Who are you looking at?

Darren talked about his premature son and the challenges that they had with him. He told a story about being worn out and frustrated that things were not getting better for his son despite doing everything they could possibly do for him. He said one particular night after leaving another doctors appointment and feeling defeated he took his son's hand and prayed over him and asked God to heal his son. He felt that God said yes that He would heal his son. Darren says over the next 7 months his son continued to get worse but he continued to pray over him every night because he believed in God's healing. After about 7 months God healed his son. He didn't say if it was overnight or several week/months but he said God was faithful and healed him!

Ken and I are taking this story to heart. We believe that God is going to heal Luke. We believe that he is going to allow Luke to start eating and drinking and not throwing it all up. We believe that we will not have to depend on his feeding tube his whole life. We believe we will have the joy one day to post pictures of him and announce that it has been taken out. We believe that Luke's liver will be healed (will explain more). We pray that he doesn't have to have a biopsy of it but we believe if that has to happen that God will use that knowledge to diagnose and heal Luke. We believe! Ken and I have started praying over Jack and Luke every night. We started a bedtime routine of reading a story from a children's bible and then leading them in their own simple prayers. We will be faithful and pray for healing until God rewards our faith and then we will be faithful in praising Him and telling Luke and Jack's amazing story!

2. In your relationship with God what is the ONE THING missing?

Darren told the story about the rich and the kingdom of God (Mark 10:17-31) and how the rich man wouldn't give up his possessions to follow God. God wants ALL of your life not just one part of it.

Ken and I are committed to turning all over to God. We are still learning how but we want God as our focus and don't want anything to hinder our relationship with God and each other.

3.In your life what is the ONE THING you need to let go?

Darren talked about people needing to let go of:

past mistakes, bitterness, pain, a sin in your life, and/or addiction plus many other things.

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1:9

God is saying "Let it go!"

4. In this year what is the ONE promise you need to stand on?

Will you believe in the promises of God? Find YOUR promise in the Bible and be confident you know that you know God will keep his promises. Keep your eyes on Jesus..............

Luke's gastrointestinal doctor, Dr. F, found at his FIRST appointment that Luke's liver enzymes and labs have never been normal. He pulled Luke's records all the way back to birth and in the NICU and saw that they have always been high. You can read more about his doctor here. We have done 3-4 more sets of labs along with extensive metabolic and genetic testing to find a cause and everything has come back normal. Good for Luke but bad for finding a reason for his levels to be high. The last labs were done in December. The doctor's nurse called us and said Dr. F wanted us to come in and talk about Luke and his liver tests. We know that he wants to do a biopsy so we can try to find out the cause of his labs being high and to make sure their hasn't been any damage yet. We did have an ultrasound that showed the liver looks normal but that isn't 100% accurate regarding damage. After talking about it (and hearing above sermon), Ken and I had decided to ask for ONE more set of labs to be drawn. I felt that is what I was being led to ask for. I wanted to get one more set of labs and before we take him in to do them I wanted to ask everyone to pray that they would be normal. Dr. F agreed and so we are asking everyone to pray! I know this is going out last minute but this weekend (and maybe next weekend since Luke has a cold) we are asking our friends and family to take Luke and pray over him. You can take him away from me and privately pray over him or you can pray over us as a family. The elders of the church are going to pray over us and anoint us. We will be at church Saturday night and on Sunday 9:15 until done.Ken and I are praying for a complete healing of his liver so he doesn't have to go through ANOTHER procedure. We are fully aware that God may say no and we will have to get a biopsy but we are believing in healing one way or another. I don't know when we are taking Luke in to get more labs because we want him to be completely healthy and no colds or sickness that could effect the results. Our plans were to take him in Monday morning but he has a cold this weekend so we will wait until he is healthier. I will update the blog a couple days before we take him in so all our prayer warriors can also pray on that day and even a specific time for him. All I can say is thank you for supporting Luke with prayer his whole life. God has blessed us and done major miracles in his life and we expect more!

Rachel

(--and Ken!)

November got a little cold. The boys (especially Jack) LOVE to be outside so we bundled them up and let them play a short time.

Kevin and Ken swinging the boys

Jen and the boys

Ken's cousin Jen and her husband Kevin came to visit us a couple days before Thanksgiving. The boys always love having someone new to keep them entertained (and we do too!). It was nice (warm again) weather and we played outside and even went to the zoo. Jack "called" Jen on his play phone for about 2-3 weeks after they left. Can't wait to see them again. Jen led a little prayer time over Luke for healing of this throat for eating and for his health. We are thankful for a faithful christian family who believe in the power of prayer and constantly pray for our little men!

Thanksgiving was great. Robyn and I got a little bit of girl talk in (in between the wrangling of 4 boys!)


Ever since Thanksgiving Robyen and Unkarl (Aunt Robyn and Uncle Karl) have been who Jack likes to talk about. He knows that when we go to church that we will see Pop-Pop, MiMi, Robyen, UnKarl, Ross and Eli. Robyn has become Jack's favorite person. He sees her, squeals her name, and runs too her.