A Difficult Time

I (Katy) am writing today to share with you some sad news. Earlier this evening Craig’s sister, Ashley, passed away. She leaves behind two daughters, a grandson, and many other family members. The cause of Ashley’s death is not yet known, an autopsy will be performed soon. No services have been scheduled yet but will likely be in Memphis. I will keep you updated as I know more.

Some of you already know that Craig’s dad  has been struggling for some time with complications from a serious spinal cord injury about 10 years ago. Josiah and I returned to the US on February 14 in order to care for him for a few weeks leading up to and through his surgery on February 27. We are with him in Nashville now.

Craig and Elijah will be leaving Vanuatu on Friday and joining us here in Nashville on Saturday, after which we will travel by car to be with his mother and other family members in West Tennessee. We will all be making the journey back to Vanuatu March 7-10 although we will be traveling separately until we reach Brisbane; we were unable to book Craig and Elijah onto the flights that Josiah and I already had scheduled.

Please pray for our family:
-Ask God for peace and comfort for Craig and all of his family, especially for his mother and for Ashley’s 2 daughters.
-Please pray for Craig and Elijah as they travel, that their trip would be safe and uneventful and that God would provide rest for them.
-Pray that God would be glorified through this tragedy of Ashley’s death and that it would result in salvation for others
-Please pray for Craig’s dad as he awaits surgery on Monday. The surgery will be extensive and the recovery process will be long.
-Pray for our boys as they adjust to this temporary stay in the US, pray also that they would be patient and understanding as our attention is divided.
-As we work to grieve with Craig’s mom over the death of his sister and also care for his dad throughout this surgery our family will likely be apart. Please pray for support for both of us and pray that we would be a support to the rest of the family.
-Please pray for Craig’s dad, Brant, that his surgery would go well and that his mobility would improve because of it.
-After the surgery Brant will need about 6 weeks of in-patient rehab. Please pray with us that a bed will be available for him at his preferred rehab facility.
-Pray that God would give us grace and patience for each other, for the boys, and for everyone else we come in contact with. Please ask that our words and actions would glorify him.
-Please pray for Craig as he rearranges the VISTA schedule since he will now be missing the first week of the upcoming module. Pray also for our teammates, Ryan and Jordan Kopke, as they will be teaching at VISTA for the first time, now without an experienced teammate there to mentor them.

I’m sure there are more that I am forgetting but we trust that God will be present in all of this. Thank you for praying with us.

*To clarify, Ashley is Craig’s half-sister, the daughter of his mother but not of his father.