One of our 2012 alumni students, Emily Maurits, came back for a visit to our school last week to share her experience supporting her sister after being given a serious medical diagnosis. Emily has written about her journey in a book entitled Two Sisters and a Brain Tumour.
She shared about walking with God through hard times, both challenging and encouraging the secondary students from God's word. Here is an excerpt:
Two sisters and a Brain Tumour is the story of how I was forced to live out this faith when the rubber hit the road. It’s the story of 3 months of me saying ‘maybe’ in the face of unending difficulty, in the face of what could have been my sister’s death. Maybe. Maybe God hasn’t finished with her yet. Maybe he will work this for good. I can’t see how – but maybe – maybe.
This book has a happy ending. An incredibly brilliant, joyous ending of how God can, and does, do miracles. Yet not all the stories in my life have an ending like this. Not all the stories of your life have an ending like this, as I’m sure you all know. That’s why I wanted to write this one down, to remind myself, to remind us all, that God works in and through circumstances which are awful and hard and full of loss. We might not always understand or see that clearly, not yet, but that does not make it any less true. And because God works like this, we can ask him to give us the strength to say ‘maybe’.
And to keep saying it, regardless of what reality looks like, because God’s work is not limited to pulling justice and goodness out of what we see around us. No, he pulls miracles and meaning out of what we do not see. That’s what he did at the cross, and that’s what he continues to do.
And today, when the next difficulty comes around the corner, as they continue to do in this world, I often find that my ‘maybe’ has turned to ‘yes’. Yes, God will work through this – I don’t know how, I can’t see how – but yes, good will come. Yes, God does answer prayer. Yes, God does make suffering worthwhile.
The secondary library has copies of Emily's book available for students to borrow, as well as copies of her first book Thomas Clarkson: The Giant with One Idea. Should you wish to purchase your own, please visit Emily's website.
We want to thank Emily for coming along to share this important message with our community.
Mrs Kathryn Breen
Assistant Head of Secondary
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