Hi everyone, it’s Brittany! I spent the past week with Amanda in Nashville and we had a wonderful visit! Regardless of the circumstances, I’m always thankful to spend time hanging out with my best friend and sister in Christ. As everyone who has flown in to Nashville recently to help care for Amanda knows, she keeps quite the busy schedule of follow-up appointments, physical therapy, and dialysis. Healing is a full time job for Amanda! I am thankful that this trip Amanda is a lot stronger and I’m amazed at the difference between my last visit and now. This trip we got out of the house a bit more and attended church on Sunday and on Tuesday we lucked out with Amanda having zero appointments or medical to-do’s. Our local Nashville bestie Bev took us on an amazing little tour of Franklin, TN where we visited a couple thrift/resale shops and then had lunch downtown at Merridee’s Breadbasket. Honestly, downtown Franklin looks like a Hallmark movie and I wish we could have spent more time there. We even saw Santa walking down the street! I didn’t ask, but I’m pretty sure we were all on the nice list.
When we arrived downtown, we parked just outside the cutest little boutique and as we walked past their window displays on the way to our lunch spot, we all “oooed” and “ahhhed” over the clothes. We were shopping on a budget so we didn’t plan to go in, but on the walk back from the restaurant to the car, Bev suggested we take a peek inside. What happened next will be a highlight of the trip for me. First the store was beautifully curated (think Anthropologie meets Altar’d State) with the most beautiful Christian music playing over the speakers. We took our time walking around the store and admiring all the beautiful things and amazing fixtures. Bev and Amanda wandered ahead while I was distracted by several amazing scripture wall hangings and then I stumbled upon a room built in the middle of the store filled with brown hanging tags. I stepped in and quickly realized it was a prayer room and the thousands of craft paper tags hanging on the wall were filled with prayer requests. I immediately felt the weight of the Holy Spirit moving in the space and tears filled my eyes. I thought to myself, this is a holy place, this small spot inside a boutique in Franklin, TN and I was in awe of the Lord. I immediately went to find Amanda and Bev and told them about it and informed them we all needed to go and write down our prayers and so we did.
There was a sign in the prayer room that informed us we could leave a prayer and also take a prayer (to pray for someone else). I took one with me and at the end of this blog post, I’ll share the prayer request so y’all can pray with me. After we finished writing our prayers down, a lady named Gina greeted us and asked where we were from. I piped up first and answered, “Bandera, Texas, Cowboy Capital of the World, or at least that’s what they say.” I quickly followed up with, “It’s right outside of San Antonio,” because no one outside of Texas has known where Bandera is. Gina said, “Oh I know exactly where that is!” Gina proceeded to share with us that she recently relocated to Nashville from Kerrville, that she attended church in Boerne, and that as a child she grew up in Medina which is right outside of Bandera. Gina had an amazing testimony of God answering her prayers in a moment of despair and hopelessness, with God directing her path straight to Nashville in the way most of us wish to hear from God – giant flashing signs! Well not exactly, but a Word from God through a friend was literally, “Nashville” and “a boutique there,” to which God’s perfect timing aligned with a trip to Nashville for a wedding and Gina seeing a job posting at the very same boutique we were all standing in, to which Gina applied for and was hired on the spot. Her obedience was key but what a beautiful testimony of God’s love and willingness to work for our good. Romans 8:28 comes to mind, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” After Gina shared her testimony with us, Amanda shared a bit about where she was from and why she is here in Nashville and Bev shared as well. Gina then asked if we could pray and standing in that beautiful little holy place, Gina prayed the most beautiful prayer with us. I love how Gina started her prayer with so much thankfulness, thanking God so many specific blessings and answered prayers. She then prayed over us – two requests stick out in my memory, prayers for clarity and healing. All three of us were moved to tears as the Holy Spirit continued to move in that beautiful prayer room. Afterward we visited a bit more with Gina and learned that the prayer room had been in existence for 6 years now and last year it had 24,000 prayer requests! Wow, just wow! No wonder this little space felt like a Holy place to me. This experience also came the day after I shared with Amanda that I felt led to encourage her to read Mark 5:26-34 NLT:
“She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.””
There’s something so beautiful about the faithfulness of that woman. It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by our circumstances and the data of this world, so much so that we forget to be faithful. I’ve encouraged Amanda a few times recently – when talking about her kidneys and laying out the facts, she ended her recap to me and others with the likelihood of a kidney transplant. How could she not? It’s what all the doctors and facts and statistics of this world are pointing to. But we serve a BIG God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) Regardless of what we see here on earth we must have hope in God’s plan. We must press forward through the crowd, stretching ourselves, and reaching out in faith to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment.
At Sunday’s service, Amanda and I heard Pastor Tim preach on Advent, with the first teaching being on Hope. He shared with us the worldly definition of hope (a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen) and then he shared with us the Biblical definition: “Hope is confident expectation rooted in the faithfulness of God.” How do we do that? Pastor Tim had some advice for us: Remember, Rely, Refuse, and Rest. He shared, “We remember God’s promises. We rely on God’s faithfulness. We refuse to place our hope in other things. We rest in Jesus.”
Please pray with me in confident expectation for the healing of Amanda’s kidneys and full restoration of her heart and body. We remember and are thankful for how far God has brought Amanda and how much healing He has already provided her. We rely on God’s promises and His love for Amanda, Barkley, and each and every one of us. May God continue to show us His power and authority over worldly things. I pray God will continue to be glorified in this situation. And in the waiting and the healing, we pray for Amanda to rest and find peace in the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!
Please also pray with me at the request of Slade’s mother who placed a prayer tag for her son in the prayer room at Philanthropy In Franklin, TN. She wrote, “Please pray for my son, Slade. He needs God’s strength to overcome his addiction to alcohol. He needs to lay it all down at God’s feet and let God fight his battles. When we are weak, God is strong! Amen.” I also ask that we pray for God to send an abundance of spiritual laborers to cross Slade’s path and minister to him, as it is through Jesus Christ alone that we receive God’s salvation and heavenly healing.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you dear readers! May God bless each and every one of you! As always I’m so thankful for all of your prayers and contributions to Amanda and Barkley’s journey to healing. And I would like to give a special shout out to Lurinda who generously shared her Southwest miles to book flights for our group of ladies who filled in to care for Amanda while Barkley was hard at work. It was a huge blessing and I pray that God will bless Lurinda and her family ten-fold for her generosity.
Finally, if you have a prayer request, big or small, please drop it in the comments on this post so we can all pray for each other and make this small corner of the internet a Holy place as well! Thank you!
Sunday’s Service (11/30/25) Pastor Tim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_sNbREf4G8
Link to Amanda’s GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d1d520e89
Philanthropy in Franklin, TN: https://philanthropyfranklin.com/
Merridee’s Breadbasket in Franklin, TN: https://www.merridees.com/
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