Thank you to Korrie Bennett for her courageous words at our October meeting. Here they are, as written by her.
This month we focus on Hope. Hope... A word that in one of its definitions means "grounds for believing that something good may happen, or a feeling of trust". In the New Testament Jeremiah proclaims that God is "the Hope of Israel", Paul announces that "Jesus Christ is our Hope". With everything that has taken place recently I know many are having a hard time with this. We are still struggling with how to find this & move forward. I know I was. I was looking at my community, my friends, my neighbors, my children, & just having a really hard time with finding Hope & how to show my children & others it.I prayed for God to heal us, & help us & to help me & to help me help others. I prayed so much & so hard.
Then watching the news a few days later, I heard Renea's interview after her young son Jacob passed away. I heard her tell everyone how much he loved Jesus & how he had told her just days before everything that he forgives everyone & how she knew he would have already forgiven the teenager. Then, that she wanted a superhero theme for Jacob. She wanted it for the other children in his school. She wanted to give them Hope & not to be afraid, because that for many of these children this would be their first funeral & that she didn't want them to be fearful or scared. This woman who just lost her child was still showing people that she was thinking of others & even if she didn't realize it she was showing them Hope & the love of God. I can remember thinking God is truly working in this Mom & that I didn't know if I was in her position if I could be that strong.
As I was watching & listening all of a sudden an overwhelming thing came over me. Without even telling anyone what I was doing I got on Facebook & went to the Heroes4Higher page. I had seen them do things for friends' children that had & have cancer. I messaged them asking for help in granting this mom's wish. I asked thinking most likely this group couldn't do it but maybe they knew of a local one that could & wasn't sure I would even hear back & then told my husband what I had just done. We talked about it for a few minutes & then my phone rang. It was the owner & the man known as Batman. He told me a local WV reporter had asked him if he had seen what was going on & he had told them yes but didn't know a lot about it. He said before he went to go look it up something came over him to check his email & when he did he saw mine. After reading it he said He knew right then God was telling him he needed to be here & come down with the Hope Mobile & help spread God's word & Hope.
He asked me to contact someone from the family to be sure it was ok first. I wasn't sure where to start but asked God for help even in the face of resistance to let me talk to a family member. I kept pushing forward til I was able to speak to a family member & knew how crazy I must sound saying, Hi I am Korrie Bennett & I'm talking to you on behalf of Batman. I was able to get the permission from them & get them on the phone with him.
Later that night at the community service & Jacobs Balloon send off you could just feel God working. Everyone came together. There was no debate issues, police issues, race issues, nothing. It was all just one big group of everyone coming together for each other & for the Lord & praising him.
Something once again came over me there & I prayed for God to give me the right words to say as I stepped forward & spoke to Renea. As she hugged me & thanked me, once again the Lord showed me Hope. As her Aunt hugged me she asked me why & what led me to do it, so I explained. That is when what she said next floored me. She said, Honey that overwhelming feeling, that pushing you forward feeling when you normally wouldn't have, that's God, that's God speaking to you & using you & you listened.
I never thought anything like that would happen to me. While yes, I grew up in a Christian home & been saved, & seen God work through other people, I just never thought it would happen to me. Yet Here I was though & God was using me & I knew then that it can happen to anyone -- you just have to listen & be open to God. I left there understanding more & prayed for God to guide me through this & use me to do his will.
In the days that followed I saw the Lord show me & others Hope so many times. As Job 14:7 says "For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And that its tender shoots will not cease."
When traffic was threatening to keep Batman, Nightwing & the HopeMobile from making it to the calling hours, I got to witness God working in others as North Carolina sheriff's escorted them out of the state & then South Carolina Sheriffs escorted them county by county as fast as they could to get them to their hotel & then to the church. All did this because they wanted to get them there for this little boy, for his mom, for his friends, for our community all of which most of these sheriffs had never met before.
As they pulled in & we followed behind them I got to witness it again as people's faces changed from sadness & sorrow to smiles of HOPE as they seen the HopeMobile. As Batman got out of the car & spoke to the crowd you could see people change. You could see Hope start to form. While yes this was a Superhero talking, it wasn't. It was God speaking through that superhero. It was God's words. For God is our one & only true super hero. Our only true Hope.
I don't know how many times I've heard people say since all this, who knew Batman prayed & coould cry. That because of that they changed & turned to the Lord.
The next morning we got to witness another sign of Hope as we went with Batman & Nightwing to visit the Elementary & God spoke to them & called them to go to the Playground. Then again as they called my son to play on that Playground. We saw it at the service as people listened to Batman speak & the pastors. As people raised their hands saying they prayed the prayer to ask God to come in to their hearts & life & be their Lord & Savior & let themselves be rescued by God. Then at home that night hours after the service, hours after of any mention of the playground, hours after seeing anything to do with it. A picture of Jacob came on the news & my son Karter got all excited & yelled thats Jacob thats my friend I played with him today. We instantly paused the TV & asked him where. He said on the playground, Him I was on the thing {teeter totter} with Nightwing as Batman & God watched us.Then we played on the slide, & the swings & we had so much fun today. We started crying & I truly believe that Karter seen something on that Playground. As they say out of the Mouths of Babes in Matthew 21:16. Right then I felt HOPE in it's truest form. I knew then that this sweet 6 year old Godly boy who lost his life in a tragic senseless act & God was truly orchestrating everything. They were showing us all that even though they are not there in physical form, their Holy spirit is & bringing us all together & showing us how to Hope again & come out of this tragic event changed.
Hereos4higher has a few sayings & two of them have stuck with me like many others too. Tough Things Make You Stronger & Turn Pain into Power. I intend to do just those things & keep spreading Hope & teaching my children to spread Hope & God's word whereever they go. As John 14:6 says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
