Thank you to Batya, Trish and Hannah!
The following is an excerpt from Hannah (Restorers of Zion on-line network: http://www.restorersofzion.org) for the whole communication you are welcome to visit the Restorers of Zion site:
Greetings to the Lord’s people everywhere! (and that covers a lot of ground).
Apologies for my long silence, email-wise. I had a computer meltdown just one day after my last update, and the problem took several days to untangle (the cause was never determined). Since then I have been catching up with my work and other obligations, until tonight. Thank you for all those emails checking to see if you had been dropped from the mailing list… far from being a bother, it was great to see how many are taking these updates seriously!
Meanwhile, many of you were getting some details from our brother and co-updater Tommy Waller. For those who were not getting those, or who are new to the update list –
Ami has been making steady progress, which is actually an understatement. Just one week after the long night when his very survival was in doubt, he was moved out of ICU. In spite of the shrapnel in his eye, which required a delicate operation, he can now see out of both eyes just fine. Right around the time they stopped worrying about his collapsed lung (I lost track of the progress on that), he started sitting up in a chair, out of bed, and he is now being encouraged to walk. Not only are the skin grafts working well, but one leg is unexpectedly healing without grafts.
I kind of feel for the medical team, who has been caught flat-footed by Ami’s fast, unpredictable recovery… they’re not used to having to use the word “ness” (Heb. for miracle) so many times with regard to one patient – especially one who they knew was at death’s door and in danger of losing all his limbs only 3-1/2 weeks ago.
Your prayers, letters, gifts, and especially the postcards addressed to Ami, have been giving him and his family encouragement beyond what you would imagine. And the meals have continued to come in faithfully, 3-1/2 weeks without a break, often providing more than they could eat. May the Lord bless the local cooks – from the responses of the family, it’s clear that you are feeding them with both food and love.
All this gives them strength to meet the new challenges that Ami’s progress is bringing.
He is experiencing a lot of pain from muscles that have ‘frozen up’ from disuse, from healing scabs that are pulling on sensitive skin, and from half-healed wounds (pray against infection, which is currently a danger in some of the deeper injuries). He needs several operations to recover the use of his hands (the blood vessels and nerves are mangled). The medical staff is trying to reduce the sedatives, which sometimes results in more sensitivity to pain and sleepless nights. The physical therapy is as painful as it is necessary. Fighting to get back to something called “normal” for his new body may take up to a year. An intimidating thought, as you can imagine. Can you also imagine the hard questions that must inevitably come to a 15-year-old, whose normal everyday life has suddenly spun out of control?
Struggle for a minute with the thoughts that are probably going through Ami’s mind (easy for me to imagine, having a boy nearly the same age). The loss of “only” 2 toes seems trivial in comparison with what he might have lost, and in light of all the tremendous miracles God has done for him. It’s obvious the Lord has preserved him. And yet, who can explain to Ami why God allowed anything AT ALL to happen to him – and why only to him?
We don’t dare resort to cheap, easy answers, like ”believers sometimes pay a price for their faith”, or “his parents are on the frontlines of ministry, and spiritual attacks can be expected” or “it’s okay, because all things work together for good”. None of these honestly address the question of why HE was the one injured, while all his believing friends and the rest of his family are walking around untouched (as are many other families ”on the frontlines of ministry” here). These thoughts bring dilemmas that are scary enough for an adult, let alone a teenager who is right at that precarious age when you begin questioning everything you have been told as a child.
And I personally feel that no one should be allowed to say, “Halleluyah – he’s been counted worthy to suffer for the Lord’s sake,” unless the speaker has shown they had the ability to say that when an equally horrific honor was thrust, unasked and unforeseen, upon themselves….
Pray that Ami will get his answers straight from the Lord. He is the only One who can really understand the heart-cry of a 15-year-old Israeli believer whose life has irreversibly changed without him having any say in the matter.
In short, we can’t give Ami or his family any neat answers. What we can say is simply, “We love you, we are praying for you, we are standing with you.” That’s plenty, and it means plenty.
blessings from the Land,
Hannah