Joey's dad, Joe Maksim, has been in the ICU at Baylor, where he was sleeping under heavy sedation (and I mean, like, comatose), struggling with complications from COPD, pneumonia, and a stroke he had earlier in the week. From what I understand, the doctors took Joey and his mother, Joan, aside yesterday and told them that Mr. Maksim probably won't make it through the weekend.
Tragically, Mr. Maksim passed away this afternoon.
Please get everyone who will to pray for comfort, healing, hope, restoration, trust, faith, and peace for the Maksims and those close to them. This is gonna be a dark valley, but God is good, and He'll be faithful to see them through it.
..........
On Thursday night, our college & career group decided to use the time we usually take to do our Bible study to instead visit the Maksim family at the hospital. So something like 10 of us piled into one of the church vans and started for Baylor in Dallas.
We got there and spent the evening in the waiting room. For the first half-hour or so, we just visited with each other. It all felt very....polite.
Soon enough, we got down to business.
Everybody in the room--not just those of us who were there for the Maksims, but a couple of other families with loved ones in the ICU as well--stood up and formed a circle. There were maybe 20 of us altoghether. Each of us took another's hand and prepared for battle.
As we were getting ready to dive into eager intercession, one of the other ladies in the room--a charismatic black woman, scarcely 5 feet tall, but full of (very vocal) spirit--stopped us, because she wanted to make sure that we were all in "agreement with the Spirit". We all agreed that each of us calls on the Name of Jesus, God's only begotten Son, who came to earth for our wrongdoing....suffered a cruel death on the cross on our behalf...and conquered death so we could have victory over sin and the influence of this world. We all agreed that Jesus told us that He is our Healer, and that we believe He is who He said He is.
And then we began.
We praised God for His perfect will, His mercy, His sovreignty, and His goodness. We thanked Him for His power, His might, His wisdom, and for the beautiful plan He was working out in this situation. We acknowledged that, ultimately, we want His will to be accomplished through this situation, and that it was the cry of our collective heart that His will would include Mr. Maksim's healing and complete recovery. We asked Him for comfort, peace, hope, and rest for Joey and Mrs. Maksim. We called on the Lord for mercy on every patient who was represented in that room, and we prayed hard.
I don't know about everyone else, but at least for me, one of the most poignant moments that night was when Caleb began to pray.
Caleb is a kind, shy, soft-spoken student from Korea, here in the states to study English so he can get a good job back home.
When Caleb talks, his speech is slow, his conversation is polite, his voice is quiet and a little unsure. So much of himself seems defined by reserve and maybe a sort of innocence. He has a thick, thick accent, and he says my name like, "Esh-el-ey".
In his simple, broken English, Caleb prayed. He praised God, and he asked Him to "please...ahh...cure Joey's father. Make him better. And....praying in my own language..." and Caleb began to pray in Korean. In that moment, Caleb took on a totally different demanor. His voice became fervent...passionate...with such determined and eager sincerity...
It really was beautiful.
We called on the Name of the Lord for what felt like a beautifully long time...it seemed like maybe an hour, but maybe it wasn't...
When we had all finished and said "amen", I looked around the room...there was a fire kindled that night. The faces of the people in that unit were markedly different. We were encouraged. We were sobered.
We felt God.
Then the spirited woman began to speak, addressing the entire room, especially our college group. This woman had a fire in her belly that didn't look like it would ever go out. She spoke with fervor, and spirit, and sincerity. It was near amusing, the wide-eyed looks on some of the faces of the naive baptist kids, who were unaccustomed to seeing a woman preach, prophesy, and speak in tongues before a group like that...and with so little ceremony! She just started talking...said whatever was impressed on her heart, whatever felt important to say...she kept talking, ignored three phone calls, didn't sit for a minute...she must've preached for 30 minutes, maybe longer.
We left the hospital very strongly impressed with the weight and the volume of the whole evening. I still hear some of them talking about it, days later. God was there in our midst that night.
..........
On a rather different note...
We had to cross a couple of streets and cover some sidewalk to get to and from the ICU. We were walking on a stretch of sidewalk, and approached a large metal grate that I guessed was over a sewer or something. Well, I was toward the back of the group, and thought nothing of following my blue jean-clad friends right over the grate. And so I did. But, as I stepped forward, I discovered, much to my horror and incredible embarrassment, that it was NOT a grate made to cover a sewer, but was, in fact, an air vent.
Yeah.
And just as the thought occurred to my friend Steven, "Oh, isn't Ashley wearing a skirt today? Maybe someone should tell her about that vent," he and the rest of the party heard me shriek as the skirt shot up and my pride was shot down. I was just dying. Think Marylin Monroe, but not sexy....just humiliated.
My hands immediately went to trying to keep things covered. After a couple of seconds of frantic keep-the-skirt-from-flying-ing, the thought dawned on me: "Hey Ashley, why don't you move OFF the vent?!?" So I took immediate action....and stumbled into the bushes.
Smooth.
Yeah...I pretty much died. Laura teased me...Steven has already informed me that he is not going to let me live this down...anybody have a nice paper bag I can throw over my head for a few days?
..........
Don't forget the Maksim family when you pray this week. They're good, sweet, godly people. Joey is an exceptional person, and he holds my highest respect...he doesn't deserve to hurt like he's going to.
Remember, loved ones, that even in tragedy, our Lord is still good, and He still works all things together for the good of those who love Him.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
~Ashley Michele~
2 comments:
Ashley,
Of course, the Maksim family will be in my prayers. We know that God always works for the good of those who love Him, even when we can't see or understand what that good can be.
It sounds like you all had an amazing experience in the hospital waiting room. I think it's great too see that God calls each of us individually and that we relate to, worship and serve him in our own individual ways. I hope that everyone there was able to see the differing styles of prayer and praise and broaden their concept of God's family and His kingdom. Too often we judge things that are different than we are used to or comfortable with instead of celebrating the diversity of those He is calling and using.
Hope you enjoyed your little "Marilyn moment," even if you were a little less poised than she might have been. Remember, she knew it was coming and had plenty of rehearsals. Otherwise she probably would have freaked out and fallen in the bushes too!
Have a wonderful day!
James
Heee Ashley. That's cute.
Sounds like an awesome evening in the hosptial. It's always kinda wierd for me to go visit people that are there, but when I think about what a comfort it was the afternoon and evenings that the Hampsters spent in the waiting room with us when Grandad was there....Yeah. God bless you all for giving that time to the family. Still praying for them!
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