Psalm 150

"Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens, Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tamborine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."

Praise God.

Rejoice with the Willis family (happy tears also allowed!) and offer your prayers of thanksgiving and praise to our Heavenly Father.

Rachel Willis has celebrated her 18th birthday this last week.

Seventeen and a half years ago, the church family joined together in prayer and prayed for a very sick baby. Practical care and loving support were also offered to a young family in shock.

We were that family. Many of you will know something of the difficult journey we have been on, and continue to be on, and we thank you so very much for walking alongside us and for your continued prayers.

For those of you who are not aware, Rachel suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at home when she was 7 months of age. After a prolonged resuscitation of an hour, Dr's discovered she had a very rare cardiac tumour, which required surgical removal and implants to aid cardiac function.

Further arrests, more major surgery, regular and emergency admissions and life threatening infections and deteriorating heart function followed. There were so many occasions when we were too scared to even think a few hours ahead, let alone years. As a result, every achievement, every milestone, every birthday Rachel has celebrated has been appreciated so very much more with thankful hearts and not taken for granted.

Celebrating Rachel's 18th birthday has given us the opportunity to reflect afresh on all that we have been blessed with and all that we are thankful for.

Praise God for paramedics and ambulance crews, for A&E and PICU staff,  for specialist surgeons and anaethetists, for an excellent cardiac unit on our doorstep, and for all those who work in that department, especially on Ocean Ward. Praise God for the technology available which enables Rachel's heart to keep beating and which will shock her heart if an arrythmia occurs.

Praise God for the many medications available which support the body to function as it should and for those involved in the research and production of these. (If you don't need daily medication then praise God for that as well!)

Praise God our Creator for those working in medical research and for those involved in the amazing area of DNA sequencing. If there is any doubt, we really are fearfully and wonderfully made.

We also praise God for SENCo's and support staff who have helped Rachel at school and for those who continue to support her at college.

We thank God for surrounding us with friends and a church family who love us, who pray for us, who have walked alongside through the difficult times, who have offered hugs when words fail (obviously when that was allowed!) and who have shared in times of rejoicing and celebration. We thank God for all of you.

A party would have been nice to enable us to celebrate together but restrictions mean we could only invite two guests....not quite the party we imagined! But let's celebrate together with thankful hearts, thanking God for His faithfulness to us.

A Veggietales song from Madame Blueberry comes to mind, (worth a look on YouTube- we love the Veggietale Christian movies)

"For a thankful heart is a happy heart, that's why we say thanks everyday!"

Thank you again for your continued prayers and support, they are still very much appreciated, but today rejoice with us!

Rachel is 18!

With love from

Paula, Jonathan, Matt and Rachel xx