A Letter to Our "Church"

My precious wife wrote a beautiful letter that she had one of our shepherds read yesterday morning in our assembly. This letter represents how we feel about our extended "church" as well. So I wanted to share our thanks with so many of you:

Dear Church Family,

In February 2010, our family was dealt a blow that we never saw coming! We were devastated and absolutely broken. You were so faithful in standing with us in prayer over Jenny for healing and deliverance. You met every need we had before we even knew we needed it. Thank you.

On February 22 of last year, the darkness engulfed us as we said good-bye to our precious daughter and knew that part of us was dying as well.

While these events shocked us beyond what our minds could fathom or imagine, the Lord, in all His tenderness, had prepared us for it. He knew from the time He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs that we would bury our first-born. Although we do not believe that God “took” our daughter, we do believe He knew what the evil one would do and, in His lovingkindness, prepared us for it by placing us in this community of faith for ‘such a time as this’.

How we love Him for His provision! How we love you! And thank you for your love and support.

The Lord has used you repeatedly over the last year to pour His love, grace, and mercy into us with rich compassion. We braced for the one-year marker of this tragedy, and the Lord used you to pour into us. Your prayers over us have become treasures to our hearts.

Thank you protecting us and letting us catch our breath a bit. Please continue to pray.

We resolve to never serve another – no matter what! He is the Lord God Almighty. We are begging you to join us in that decision – that together (shoulder-to-shoulder, arm-in-arm) we will walk into the arms of Jesus. We will continue to remind each other that resurrection is real – it is what we live for! May His presence be thick around us as we wait for that day.

We absolutely love you!

Rick and Beverly Ross

“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead…ON HIM WE HAVE SET OUR HOPE THAT HE WILL CONTINUE TO DELIVER US, AS YOU HELP US BY YOUR PRAYERS.”

2 Corinthians 1: 8-11