GROWING SEEDS: "Let's Get Acquainted - David & Patty Brewer"

 

"Give, and it will be given to you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. 
For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  Luke 6:38

There's just something about getting married that drops reality straight into your lap and helps one organize their priorities.  Such was the case of David and Patty Brewer. 

After dating for 12 years, they were married almost two years ago.  David, having been raised a Methodist and Patty a Baptist, they hadn't attended church since they were kids.  They decided when they said "I Do" to each other, to also say "I Will" to attending church together, and First United Methodist Church in Mt. Vernon was blessed it was our pews they chose to sit in each week.

Two months after committing their love to each other, they received the difficult news from a routine annual examination that David had Stage 4 Polycystic Kidney Disease. 

Pure Devastation. 

Because both kidneys were the size of footballs, weighing 15 pounds and invading other vital organs.....removal of both kidneys was the only option.   Their immediate families lived states away and David and Patty, reeling from the shock of this diagnosis, knew they'd be walking this journey alone. 

But God had other plans.  He provided them a church family to walk beside them through the weeks, months and years ahead as they went through surgeries, daily dialysis and hospitalizations.  As food arrived at their home to nourish them, money started coming in from anonymous members of this precious church to help with the cost of lost work and gas to and from doctor appointments.  Prayers of hope and healing are sent daily to the throne room of God with their names on them by many. 

And they looked at each other and said, "We aren't alone.....God provided us a church family that is standing right next to us."

Their journey is just beginning.  The waiting list for a kidney transplant is almost 10 years and hopefully an artificial kidney will be on the horizon in the year 2020....God willing.  And Patty....well, Patty is ready to be baptized.  She is ready and anxious to proclaim her love for Christ and the many hands and feet of Christ that sit next to her....whether in the hospital waiting room or their favorite pew at this precious church. 


** Interested in helping David and Patty?  Please contact Kathy Byrd in the church office at (903) 537-3616 or by donating to a GoFundMe account set up at www.gofundme.com/n2a4w-medical-fund