Prayer Request

Good Afternoon to all our Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you all well.

As most of you know these last few weeks have been brutal for me physically. I have battled constant seizures, muscle pain, and weakness. Many times I can offer some idea of why I'm experiencing a downturn or flare up but there seems to be no rhyme or reason. I'm experiencing one of the most difficult times I've ever gone through.

With that, as most of you know I've been forced to miss far more of our services than I'd ever want to miss. I don't ever want to miss if the truth be known! I want all of you to know that I don't take any of that lightly. Each and every absence grieves me and weighs on my heart like an anvil. I desire nothing but the best and greatest for our sweet church. I still hold great dreams and desires for us and want nothing more but to be a part of all that God is doing and going to do.

I don't begin to understand why I have to go through what I am experiencing. I do not possess God's understanding or the knowledge of all that He is trying to do in our lives. I do trust that He is firmly seated on His throne and I possess an unshakable knowledge that He loves each of us and that all of this will work to the furtherance of His will and our ultimate good.

I write this to ask you selfishly for your very special prayer. I covet them like I've rarely coveted them before. I am physically beyond what I can take. The near constant seizures have left me broken, the pain has left me shaken, and the weakness has simply left me exhausted. My heart and firm faith tells me that I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing. I am forced to wonder in my mind though, how long is too long if I cannot be the pastor that our church needs. I have always promised and I reiterate again that I will never make a hasty decision to step down or resign. I do not intend to now. However, I must make a decision in the long term as to what is best for our church. If I am a hindrance than I don't want to be. If the church will be stronger and better able to fulfill her mission without me as her pastor than I must come to that decision.

I need your prayers for a few things. First and foremost, I continue to ask your prayers for healing. I accept God's plan for my life but it does not mean that I or we cannot ask Him for a miracle. I am desperate for just that. Nine years I have fought this disease. Three years we've known its identity, Lyme Disease. I simply don't know how my body can take much more. I am weary and physically broken. I beg you for your prayers like never before.

Second, I ask you to pray for wisdom for me and our church family. I don't believe that I am forced to make any hasty decision. Not a single church member has been anything but supportive. I do believe that decisions must eventually be made regarding what is best for the church and we will all need His wisdom to make those choices wisely.

Lastly, I selfishly ask your prayers for my family. The unknown of the future and the constant state of them living through and watching me suffer takes its toll. Carrie and Zachary see my pain and suffering and I know it weighs on them. They like so many of you do not fully understand what God is doing sometimes but trust that somehow He is in all of this. Little Samuel is so in tune and picks up the littlest signs of how I feel. He has learned far too soon and all too well to see the signs that "Daddy don't feel good". Sometimes when the seizures leave me in the floor, he is afraid and scared for his Daddy. He doesn't understand. If the time comes that we decide to step down, we are faced with a huge burden of lost income and though our trust in God is absolute, in our flesh and human weakness we carry the fear of the unknown and it isn't easy.

I hope and pray that I will be with my beloved church family in the morning. As always if it is within my power, I will be with you and serve you to the utmost of my ability. My love, my heart, and my prayers are always with you. I love you all. I pray nothing but God's continued grace and blessings on the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Texarkana. I love you. Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.

In His Service,

Micah

* On a final note, I will be with First Baptist Church of Kildare, Texas tomorrow evening. My dear friend Virgil Ragland is their pastor and I will be his guest speaker. Please pray for that service and pray that I will be physically able to give God my best. Thanks again for all of your love and prayers.

--
Pastor Micah J. Mauldin
New Beginnings Baptist Church
Texarkana, USA

www.nbbctexarkana.blogspot.com