Hello to One and All,
I am so sorry that I have not written in so many days. We really have been trying to get our lives to a place of normalcy. The hard part is understanding how this can ever be “Normal”. I know that our Savior has a plan for each of us and is walking hand and hand with each of us in a very special way, I honestly cannot imagine how my life would have been affected if I did not have the promises from God that He would never leave me nor forsake me. My heart goes out to those that have loved ones that do not know our Savior for they simply have not the hope that i hold onto so dearly and that hope is in Jesus Christ. That because I have placed my faith and trust in Him as did My Love Ferrol, I will one day be reunited with her in Heaven. Thank you God for your promise from 1 Thes 4:13-17.
Well, please allow me to catch up on what God has been doing in our lives. I have been answering some of the many and I mean 100’s of cards that folks have sent to our family. We cannot thank you enough for the encouraging words that have been expressed thought the many cards we have received. On Thursday last week, we received some cards from one of our churches that had their clubbers send notes of encouragement to us. The very first card was a Golden Nugget from God. The little girls card read this way ” Hello Noah, I am sorry to hear about your mom, I know what you are going through kind of, my dad died and i got over it, but I still miss him. I am ten years old and will be praying for you”. WOW! What a heart! When I cannot seem to find the words to say to my precious Angel Noah, God sends the very words that brought a comfort to him that I could not. Noah looked at me and said: Her dad died? I said yes and he just kind of glanced up at me as if to say, she really knows what I am going through. It was a moment I shall never forget. Thank you God for speaking to Noah through this little girl.
I may not have told you about a Pastor named Bobby Joiner from Winter Jam but please let me tell you he is an amazing man of God. If you remember my email about going to the Winter Jam with Goldie and speaking to Eddie Carswell from New Song Fame. Eddie was busy at the concert but wanted to pray with me about our families recent sufferings. I left the concert to come home when Mercy Me had begun to sing their last song ” I Love you Lord”. Late that night I got an email from Pastor Bobby wondering why I had left the concert early because at the end of the night Eddie had told him that He had to find me so that they could pray for me and in fact called my name out to come up on stage for them to pray with me. Wow! What a guy! How does someone like me warrant the prayers from a group of men like them I asked myself as I read the email. Today I was reminded that the Kindred Spirit is what drew us together and this was just the beginning of a new found friendship between Pastor Bobby and myself.
Well, we emailed back and forth and he found the emails that I had been sending out everyone to be quite helpful to himself and then asked me to consider coming to the Southaven WinterJam as his special guest and to please bring Noah along that he had to meet us. Of course we were chomping at the bit to join him. So off we were to Southaven on Sunday and after a bit of a Security Guard Scare ( aka Barney Fife) in the back by the busses where we were to meet Pastor Bobby and frustrations by Goldie as she looked for his phone number in my emails, pastor Bobby answered his phone and came to Noah and myself and got us to enter through the back gate after all. When we went inside and found our seats backstage right next to the huge Sound board we were so excited. We met “Mandissa” and introduced ourselves to her. She was so sweet and nice and a powerful performer. God knew what he was doing when he set her vocal cords up for sure.
Next we walked up on stage to watch the guys from BMX. I must say I almost offered to get one of them bikes and show them how I used to, you know, in the old day with my Banana Seat Bike and Chopper front tire, but I thought Nah! Better leave it for the kids of today. We came off of the stage and met with Eddie Carswell from New Song. This was neat because he was the conduit to all of this happening. He simply listened the prayer request of a hurting husband, just a passing 15 second discussion yet the Holy Spirit pricked his heart and told him he had to locate us. WOW! PTL! for folks that are sensitive to the Holy Spirits prompting.
I know this is long and I promise I will not tell every little detail, but if you know me, the flowers along the path are just as important as the forest all around us. So we gave them all some of our Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies we had baked from the Doughboys Recipe and then at the end of the night after Mercy Me began to walk off the stage, Tony Nolan the Evangelist, who I might add did an outstanding job of sharing the Gospel. So many folks stood up when they were prompted after the message, if you have placed your faith and trust in God in order to go to Heaven, tonight boldly stand up and share this news with others. PTL! I saw folks crying in the stands because for the first time in their lives, their hearts were clean. Their sin had been wiped away with the blood of Jesus Christ. He died for them and now the scales had been scraped from their eyes and for the first time they were able to focus in clearly as to who Jesus Christ really is. How awesome a ministry Winter Jam is.
Now, on to wrapping this up. Tony and his lovely wife took Noah and to stand outside the dressing room of Mercy Me and there they came from the back of the stage. All of them stopped in the hallway, obviously tired from the trip and the song set they had just poured their heart and soul into and now, well now they are taking the time to stop and talk to Noah and Me? How i felt was just indescribable. I honestly fell like a Giddy Little School Girl that couldn’t speak at first. ( I know men that does not sound very Manned Up but you would have thought the same admit it! Besides, I grew up with four sisters and they marked me to be like that! Thank you Sonya, Mary, Derenda, and Marsha!) I finally got my breath as they asked me what had happened to my Ferrol. Then after a few minutes of explaining what had happened the Lead Singer Bart looks at Noah and asked him if he had ever played Guitar Hero, and Noah said yes, then before we know it, into the dressing room we went and my son is playing Guitar hero with the Band Members form Mercy Me. Man! I look around and I could not believe my eyes. Bart and i mainly spoke about the last night of My Loves life and how God had been so gracious to allow us to have such a wonderful time with each other.
After his phone rang three times he went and spoke to his wife and I spoke with another member of the band. I got to tell you folks, do you remember when Ferrol invited the President of the United States to come to our conference in 2001 and then we were hit by 9-11. We received the phone call and letter from the Whitehouse explaining that he was sorry that he would not be able to attend because of the current crisis? Well 2 years later we got to shake hands with president Bush at this same civic center that I was in tonight, but for me, it doesn’t even compare to the thrill of watching some real Christian Men meet the needs of the heart of another Christian man and his son the way that Mercy Me did. What they personally did for me and my family I will never be able to thank them enough for, I can only offer to pray for them as often as I can remember to, that they would be safe as they travel, that they would put God First and their family second and all other things behind those two. I pray that God will continue to give them wisdom to write songs that bless the hearts of the listener and that through their songs many would place their faith in Christ either for salvation or for Grace to carry them through the difficult time they are facing.
I cannot tell you hard it is to even breathe at times because I miss Ferrol so much. She was my everything and I promise that I tried to love her as much as I could as hard as I could all of the time. I was not without my faults for certain, but I cannot think of a single time when I wished my wife had been a better mother to my children. Ferrol and I had a unique relationship, I miss her laugh, I miss her mischievous tricks, I miss her hugs and I miss the beautiful red hair I fell in love with in 1986 as I listened to the the song “My Lady in Red”. Oh, the pain seems so unbearable as I think of her, but what a blessing that out of all of the women in the world, God looked out to the one from a little town called “Fate” in Northern Texas and said ” This ones for you sir, you shall do great things for me if you trust Me”. Oh, how we trusted when we stepped out on faith to become missionaries. We struggled at times yes, but we trusted that God would take care of our needs and he always did and always will. Phil 4:19 promises us that.
I know that this has been far to long a writing, please know that each word in mind was as important as the next in order for me to best explain how God is meeting our needs. Continue to lift us in prayer, for we were to go to a counselor on Monday however he became ill so we will be going Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Goldie has been given permission to hire on as our office assistant in lieu of Ferrol’s home going and as of late last night she took a notepad out and began to prioritize what she wanted to clean up in the office and files that need to be filed and by the end of the night had a list of about a dozen item’s to begin working on. She is so excited to take this role on, so please pray that she will accomplish God’s will in her life through this job. And pray for me that I don’t go banana’s when she starts to discard my stuff! LOL. We love each of you within my writing. Bobby Joiner! You are a true man of God and please keep the www.jesuscafe.org letters coming. thank you all so much for loving us through the loss of our Precious Ferrol. May God richly bless and keep you all safe in His arms
PS Many of you have sent cards and letters and I am trying answer all of them but I also have some being answered by My wife’s best friend Lisa and other ladies from the church. I cannot tell you how much your words of encouragement and the funds that have been sent mean to our family, many unexpected needs have a risen and your gifts have definitely met each of these needs. We are overwhelmed each day by God’s people loving us the way they do. Oh, do not let me forget the Small Freezer that was brought to our garage and the kind ladies of our church that filled it with Casseroles and pizzas and individual desserts and individual servings of food for our family. I do not want to leave a single person out, you know who you are and more importantly, Our Savior knows who you are.
Mathew 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 and the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
We shall forever be grateful to Friendship Baptist Church for all of their help as our Home Church. Thank you each and everyone.
The Sipes Family
TJ, Goldie, Terry John, Jacob and Noah.
