Clouds of Witnesses

“since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every earthly care and… run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” Hebrews 12: 1-2.

On the techy front:

I have been trying to transfer some old posts from other blogs to this one. If you use Blogger, you will notice on your posting template that there is a link called "post options" (on the bottom). If you open the link, you will find that you can edit the date. So I've been adding the posts AND matching them to their original dates (for ex, May 10 2006).

Google Reader seems to be able to deal with this and doesn't make these old posts show up as new ones on the reader. So far, at least.... but I don't know about Bloglines and other readers. So if a bunch of "new" posts show up on this blog, they aren't really new. Sigh... anyway, I hope the transition isn't very annoying.

Closer to my heart:

Also, please say some prayers for young Michael who is on the top of my sidebar. Michael's mama and auntie are two of the sweetest people I know. I have known them online for years and years; they have been a blessing to so many people, many more than they probably know. They prayed our Aidan Michael through some of his worst hospital episodes. Aidan was according to one PICU attending physician "way out in the stratosphere of medical miracles"; I believe it was because of the prayers of the cyber-community, which can truly be a "cloud of witnesses"; and I am praying for a miracle for Sabine's Michael now. The news has already been encouraging. He wasn't showing any hopeful signs at all, and has progressed to moving and responding to his mother's voice. (edited to add -- and taking half his breaths on his own without the ventilator, from what I've recently heard -- another good sign!)

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.