Pray for Camen Thompson — An Update

Last year I posted several requests for a friend of a friend who had been involved in a mowing accident.  She is paralyzed and lives life on wheels.  She and her husband, Terry, still need our prayers as they heal and recover, but the testimony of their lives that day changed my life.  The tender love, regard, looks, assistance, the “quiet strength” being built in them is so much deeper than many of us will ever know.  Though there are bad days, tough challenges, and frustrating problems…Carmen was more beautiful than I have ever seen her, even in her tears, there was an authenticity and hope that rings out every time I look at the pictures.  It touched me so deeply, in fact, that it’s taken me a few days to blog about it.

To lighten the mood, we all danced to “Dancing Queen”, and little girls paraded in, greeting us in their dress-up clothes, since it was a Women’s Day Event.  They showered us with boas, and smiles flooded the room.

Her message was “it’s okay to be walking around with an open wound.  It’s okay to cry.  It’s okay to not have it all worked out and be all completely happy and thankful if that’s not where you are yet.  That’s the goal.  We have the hope of the word of God.  He was there for us yesterday, He is here with us today, and He will get us through our tomorrows.  There are days I want to crawl up in my bed and pull the covers over my head and eat chocolate all day.  And some days, I do.  But, I know I can’t stay there.  And the next day, I say to myself, ‘It’s time to start the hour long process of getting dressed today.’”

She quoted in a voice I wish you could hear, the first few verses of the gospel of John.  Her husband is leading a group of men to memorize, I think she said, the entire gospel, small chunks at a time.  They ar5e in the 4th or 5th book now.  But, in her own voice, she quoted these first verses of the gospel of John (favorites of mine) in a tone of…what what it?  Reverence and respect and awe…I will never forget it.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. {Her voice began to crack with the weight of understanding she had gained} The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

Read the entire story of Carmen’s accident and see photos.  There are also some great ebay auction items listed toward their support. (Carmen did not have insurance at the time of her accident, being dropped by her insurance provider as a result of melanoma.)