Dear Family & Friends,
“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you.” II Cor. 1:3-5
Each of us goes through many different struggles and trials in life. Some are more difficult and painful than others, but when trusting in Christ comfort comes to us through His Spirit, the Word of God, and His people. Christ can even use the knowledge of this world to bring some comfort as well. Once we have gone through some trouble and received comfort and possibly wisdom as well we have the responsibility to share what we received with others. This is the economy of the Church. We as His disciples and members of His Church are blessed and are to share the blessings we have with each other and with the world around us. We are then a witness as well as a blessing at the same time. Pray that we learn to be good at sharing God’s blessings with others and therefore bring comfort to those who need it.
Today we just want to share about our teammates Chris & Samantha Sanford. This past Thursday we picked up their three children in anticipation of Sam having a C-section on Friday morning. She did have her C-section as planned and little Benjamin was born. Benjamin was having a very difficult time breathing. It was determined that Benjamin was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. This allowed his intestines to move up into his chest cavity constraining the development of one of his lungs. Late on Friday Benjam
in had a surgery to connect his heart to a device that acts as his lungs to get oxygen into his blood. He is now waiting to have surgery to move everything to the right position and fix the hernia. This surgery is scheduled for Monday. The dangerous part of having this surgery is the possible loss of blood. While he is on the device for his lungs he cannot have coagulants.
As you can imagine there are details that have been left out. There have been times of grave concern for Benjamin, especially since he had to be transported by ambulance to a bigger hospital about 2 hours north of where he was born. His mom has only seen pictures of him so far. His dad is with him in Taipei and missing the rest of the family while he waits between visiting hours. In the midst of all of this God has been so gracious. There are people in Lo-tung staying with Sam. Some of our team will be going to help as well. Two of our team men went up to see Chris on Friday night in Taipei. God arranged for a couple that are good friends with Chris and Sam to be in Taipei on Friday and nearby the hospital. A local pastor with whom Chris works in Lo-tung has an apartment in area of the hospital where Benjamin is being treated. They can use the apartment as long as needed. Beyond all this people have contacted the Sanfords of testimonies of how well their children had grown since having their surgery. All and all God has been faithful every step of the way. Please pray for this precious family as they continue to live for Jesus and follow Him!
Thank you for praying.
God Bless,
John & Cheryl
Please join us in praying for the whole Sanford family.
1. Pray for Benjamin as he has surgery on Monday and his lungs develop.
2. Pray for Samantha as she recovers from her C-section, is waiting to see her baby of the first time, and is missing her other three children.
3. Pray for Chris as he tries to manage everything for Benjamin and make plans for relocating everyone to Taipei temporarily.
4. Pray for Hosanna, Rebekah, & Josiah as they are missing their parents and want to meet baby Benjamin.
Posted on March 5th, 2017 by dunns
Filed under: Uncategorized