Tagged: Audrey Frank

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.Luke 22:31-32 When we are tested on the very truth we declare, we really should not be surprised, but we often are. I wasn’t thinking about this on the day I met Hamida. She had traveled for days from the desert to reach our clinic, and her shyness was tangible as she sat before me, eyes averted and hands fluttering nervously in her lap. The flowing orange melhfa she wore barely covered the ugly scar that dripped down her face. “My mother-in-law did it with boiling oil,” she murmured, pulling aside the cloth to… Read More

Among other things, mercy is a womb.  A mother’s womb is meant to be a safe place, a sanctuary where new life can begin. An unhurried space, a quiet shelter. A protected refuge where growth happens at exactly the right pace. A nourishing haven, marked by rhythms of rest and movement, development and health. And at the right time, from this wonderful place, birth happens and the world is changed. In Hebrew, this place is called rāham (also transliterated as rachem or rechem). Rāhem is a homonym, the same word for both womb and mercy. How interesting that one word means both womb and mercy. Womb is well understood in the English language. Mercy, on the other hand, can be a somewhat opaque concept declared… Read More

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.Luke 5:15-16 Withdrawing may seem a strange subject during a global pandemic when humans are already withdrawn across the world. But in some ways, forced physical withdrawal has fostered the opposite effect: a frenzied drawing near in non-physical ways. Texting, tweeting, Tik-Toking, You-Tubing, Zooming, and FaceTiming are at an all-time high. But the relief digital platforms offer during a time of social distancing is quickly fading. We are physically distancing, but not truly social distancing. Social engagement is thriving, and not necessarily in healthy ways.  Social media has become a cesspool teeming one minute… Read More

Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.Hosea 6:1 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.Job 5:18 I unwrapped the thick bandage slowly, carefully. As it unraveled deeper, closer to the wounds, I could see the blood, my child’s blood, staining the fabric, sticking. The familiar, tingling tunnel vision started and I took a deep breath. I could not faint this time.  Body, don’t betray me. I need to be strong.  I steadied my hands and got to work. You see, in the process of healing the deepest wounds, they must be tended daily. They must… Read More

for sw, my safest person The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.Psalm 93:3-4, NKJV I watched the helicopter rise from the hospital helipad, each thunderous throb of its propellers coursing through my body like a terrible shockwave. We were sitting in a beautiful garden outside the hospital while our son slept on the tenth floor. The sun shone warmly and a magnificent hydrangea bush nodded in the gentle breeze beside us. But I was not present. I was in the dark, standing on a lonely platform looking up into the night sky seven… Read More

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.Isaiah 26:3 Behind every life-changing, heart-gripping event, there is a story beneath the story. It is sometimes never told, at least to the crowds. Rachel Saint, missionary to the jungle peoples of Ecuador, told the story beneath the story of the martyrdom of her brother Nate Saint along with four other missionaries on January 8, 1956. In Ethel Wallace's gem-of-a-book The Dayuma Story, we learn those tragic events that captured the world’s attention and inspired countless missionaries really began in the place of prayer. It began in the private, quiet place of a young, single woman seeking the Lord’s leading in her life. No one could have imagined the journey that would arise… Read More

For my only true Father in heaven on Father's Day God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.Genesis 1:27 We all have a Father, and we were made to look like Him. When we know who He is, we will know who we are. It was almost Halloween, and my mother asked me to climb up in the attic to find the plastic jack-o-lanterns we always toted around to collect candy. I was flattered by her request. I had never been trusted to go into the attic before. My sister and I had been severely warned never to go there for fear of stepping in the wrong spot and crashing through the… Read More

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.Zechariah 4:10 I lay there in the dark, alert and ready to leap out of bed at any given second. The sound of the rat running back and forth on the bedpost inches from my head had me frozen in place, immobilized and afraid to breathe. What on earth is he carrying in his mouth with such dedication? I wondered to myself.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Scratch, scramble, swoosh, slip, patter-patter-patter over my head. Again. And again.  He was very busy and paid me no mind whatsoever.  All of my senses, however, were completely trained upon his every move. I was trying very hard not to scream. Turning my… Read More

Run and tell his disciples, even Peter, that he is risen.Mark 16:7 Even Peter. How curious that the angel sitting in the empty tomb on the Morning of all mornings would emphasize the disciple who denied Jesus in his darkest hour. The angel was a servant messenger of the Most High God, and he was doing just what the Master had instructed. His words conveyed Jesus’ heart. Do not forget Peter especially. He needs to know He is still loved. Times of fear and panic cause people to act in ways contrary to their deepest beliefs. Patriots abandon the battle. Mothers walk away from their babies. Fathers leave their families. Disciples deny their Lord. Jesus knows and understands. He loved us before we loved Him… Read More

"Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."Mark 11:22-23 I have a list in my journal titled, “Mountain, Go Throw Yourself Into the Sea.” Underneath is a long line of things I cannot control, cannot possibly budge on my own, impossible things. I have given them to Jesus, the One who makes the impossible Possible. I have replaced my to-do lists with He-Can-Do. There are things I can… Read More