Surrounded by Love (Part 2)

The story continues:

The consultant came and spoke to Michael and I, she was very straight honest and took the time to answer all our questions. Apologies to anyone with any medical knowledge, but she told us that there was a big tear in the aorta artery which was leaking blood into the sack around the heart and once that was full, the heart would basically drown and stop.  She confirmed that there was nothing they could do, apart from make her comfortable while we waited the inevitable.

I'd been keeping Nancy up to date with text messages from mums bedside, so once I'd brought Ruth and the kids up to date, I sent her a text. She immediately said that she would share it with the guys at ngm and they would pray for us all.  A short while later, we got a call from Lonnie to say that the car had failed the MOT and that it was going to cost about £500 to get it sorted. We felt that this wasn't something we could really deal with at the time, so I just sent Nancy a quick text to say please pray for wisdom for us. She immediately came back and said that she'd posted on Facebook about our situation and asked for people to pray for us. Within about 5 minutes, I got a message from her to say that a friend of hers was sending £50, then about 15 minutes later I was told that this lady had increased her gift to £100. 5 minutes later another message, that a couple were giving us £50. About 20 minutes later, we were told that a further £100 had been promised and that someone had praying for us and felt they had a word from God for us "be still and know I am God". 

All the time I was receiving these messages, we were all sitting round mums bedside. My phone was in my hand and kept vibrating, I'd have a quick look and pass it to Ruth. It was av really weird feeling, to be in the sad position we were, but to know that a) God cared about everything - including the car & b) that people who didn't even know us, we're willing to just give us money. On receipt of that word, we contacted Lonnie and said give the garage the go ahead to do the work.

A few hours later, we received another message from Nancy to say that someone in Spain had contacted her with a word for us. They'd been praying for us and had been given the very same word  "be still and know I am God".  A nice little reminder, in case we'd forgotten. 

The following morning, I had a text conversation with Nancy while we were on the way to hospital about the whole situation. She promised that when all the ngm staff got together that morning to pray and worship, that they would continue to pray for us all. We felt a sense of peace going into the hospital, knowing that we were loved and cared for! Hey, we had half the money we needed! Well, a couple of hours later, we had another message to say that someone had suggested to the rest of the team that they hold a collection for us and they collected just over £100.

While all this was going on, family and friends were coming and going. Mum seemed to be doing really well, she felt up to a nurse giving her a wash and change of clothes and she asked Ruth to comb her hair and she had some lunch. We popped out to have a bit of lunch ourselves and had just got back on the ward when one of the doctors came to have a chat. He asked mum if she realised how ill she was, she said yes and explained her understanding of the situation. He confirmed what she said was right and he started to say that there was nothing more they could do apart from to make comfortable and he asked her whether she wanted to stay in hospital or if she'd prefer to go home. I was holding her hand and suddenly you could see in her face the realisation that she understood the situation. She said that she had a pain in her chest, my older brother ran off to try and find my younger brother who'd gone out for some lunch. The doctor said he'd be back in a minute and disappeared as well, leaving me holding mums hand, as she died. It was very quick in the end.

Surrounded by Love (Part 1)

 Doreen Tiffany
21/11/32 - 18/03/14

Sunday 16th March, will be etched in my mind forever. We were on a high after the previous days 'A Day in His Presence' event and had gone out for a quiet lunch in Bristol, when I received a call during  lunch from my older brother (David) to say that mum had been rushed into hospital early
that morning, but she seemed fine and they were just doing lots of tests. He said not to worry, as it would take a couple of days to do the tests and to get the results. Later that evening, I got a call from my younger brother (Michael/Rev Tiff) in Taunton to say that he'd had a call from our sister (Helen), who was at the hospital and had been told by a consultant that mum only had a very short time left to live and that they recommended that any family living away should think of travelling home to see her.

While I was calling Nancy to let her know that we were going to travel up North, Ruth was on the
phone to our ngm colleague and great friend Jill, who agreed to move into our flat while we were away (in our role as caretakers, we have to ensure that someone is on site overnight at all times).  Next we called Rachel and Josh to let them know what had happened, they both said that they wanted to go up as well, so Josh started looking at train times from London.

To make things a little more complicated, our car was booked in for a service and it's MOT at the garage in Kidderminster who've looked after our car for years. Lonnie was off shift on the Monday & Tuesday, so he said we could drop the car off with him and take his car and he would take ours to the garage for us.

So we arranged for my brother Michael to drive up from Taunton to us and then at about 10:30pm, we all left Thornbury in our car and drove to Kidderminster to swap cars. Rachel joined us and we finally got on the road again just before mid-night. Thankfully the roads were clear and we made
good time, arriving in Sherburn at about 2:30 to stay at mums flat. We didn't get much sleep (I tried
to sleep in an arm chair - not to be advised!) and were all up early to call the hospital. They reported she'd had a reasonable night and they said we could go in anytime, there were no visiting restrictions
for us.

We had a quick coffee and hit the road again, heading into York hospital and quickly found our way on to the ward and found mum in good spirits. Ruth went out to meet Josh at the station.

To be continued.

A Day in His Presence

During the preparation for the Spiritual Health Weekends, the ngm family felt a clear calling to go deeper with God as a group and as individuals.  We felt a calling to step into the deeper water, into the waves, where we had to rely on God and not be able to just put our feet on the floor. This was encapsulated by the Amanda Cook (Bethel Church in US) song 'You Make Me Brave'.

During the weekends, we saw God do some amazing miracles, including a lady who'd had years of abuse from a partner and had scars all up her arms. She never showed her arms to anyone as she was so ashamed by them. She came forward for prayer for healing and was prayed for by Nancy and another lady. Nancy said that you could feel the scars through her clothing, they were raised and very noticeable. After receiving prayer she said that she felt God was healing her and by the next morning all the marks were gone - she came and showed her arms to Nancy. Nancy said that they were really smooth and soft.

As a result of this type of miracle and words of knowledge that members of the team we're getting for ladies, it was felt that we should organise an event in Thornbury and invite others to join us on the journey - hence A Day in His Presence.

We shared a little of this journey with our home Church, when we were invited back in February to speak a bit about what we are involved in and Derek felt it right to offer free places to all the Leadership Team at Bewdley.  Unfortunately, due to it being relatively short notice, none of the LT were able to come, but we were thrilled to be contacted by John and Di Rhodes asking if there were tickets available.

We are holding another similar event on Saturday 14th June. It's going to be slightly different, in that we've got Carl Wills, a prophetic speaker joining us. We heard him speak and give prophetic words at an ngm weekend away at the beginning of January and we can't wait to hear him again.  We are again offering members of the LT at BBC the opportunity to join us as our guests, as it would be a great opportunity for them to spend time together as a group with God, where they can worship together and sit back and take in.