# Thank you, and please pray for my family.



## Braden (Sep 20, 2019)

On the 18th of September, at 8:11 PM, my son Micah Jonathan Powell was stillborn. I want to thank you all for your help in thinking through baptism and the covenants. I would like to ask for your prayer for me and my family.

You're all wonderful people. Cherish your children.

Reactions: Like 1 | Praying 17 | Sad 5


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## Scott Bushey (Sep 20, 2019)

Praying


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## JennyGeddes (Sep 20, 2019)

I’m so very sorry, Braden. I’ll be praying for you and your family.


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## Gabriel Barnes (Sep 20, 2019)

Braden said:


> On the 18th of September, at 8:11 PM, my son Micah Jonathan Powell was stillborn. I want to thank you all for your help in thinking through baptism and the covenants. I would like to ask for your prayer for me and my family.
> 
> You're all wonderful people. Cherish your children.


Brother, I must say how deeply sorry I am for your loss. Of course, our prayers are with you. My family and I had a similar experience about six months ago. I pray that the God that never sleeps and that keepeth Israel may be your enduring strength.

Our prayers are with you!

Reactions: Sad 1


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## JennyGeddes (Sep 20, 2019)

Gabriel Barnes said:


> Brother, I must say how deeply sorry I am for your loss. Of course, our prayers are with you. My family and I had a similar experience about six months ago. I pray that the God that never sleeps and that keepeth Israel maybe your enduring strength.
> 
> Our prayers are with you!




Brother, I am also sorry to hear this. You’re in my prayers as well.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Gabriel Barnes (Sep 20, 2019)

JennyGeddes said:


> Brother, I am also sorry to hear this. You’re in my prayers as well.


Thank you!

Reactions: Praying 1


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## deleteduser99 (Sep 20, 2019)

I'm so sorry! Will pray. We've lost two in the womb very early and know the pain.

It is my conviction that the children of believers dying in infancy go to glory. Your relationship with your son is only delayed, dear brother. He has seen Jesus already.

For of infants is the kingdom of God.

@Gabriel Barnes my prayers for you too.

Reactions: Like 2


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## cmt72 (Sep 20, 2019)

Braden said:


> On the 18th of September, at 8:11 PM, my son Micah Jonathan Powell was stillborn. I want to thank you all for your help in thinking through baptism and the covenants. I would like to ask for your prayer for me and my family.
> 
> You're all wonderful people. Cherish your children.


You and your family have my prayers.


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## cmt72 (Sep 20, 2019)

Gabriel Barnes said:


> Brother, I must say how deeply sorry I am for your loss. Of course, our prayers are with you. My family and I had a similar experience about six months ago. I pray that the God that never sleeps and that keepeth Israel maybe your enduring strength.
> 
> Our prayers are with you!


I am sorry for your loss. God bless you and your family.


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## OPC'n (Sep 20, 2019)

You're in my prayers.


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## Steve Curtis (Sep 20, 2019)

Praying for you now


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## SolaScriptura (Sep 20, 2019)

So sorry for your loss! I just prayed for you... I'll continue to do so as you and your wife come to mind.


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## jwithnell (Sep 20, 2019)

What heartbreaking news! In older cemeteries you'll sometimes see the note: His name is known but to God. A precious hope!

Reactions: Like 2 | Edifying 1 | Amen 1


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## gjensen (Sep 20, 2019)

I am very sorry.


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## PuritanCovenanter (Sep 20, 2019)

I am going to be buried next to my older brother who died 4 hours after his birth. I don't know what to say. It is hard.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Regi Addictissimus (Sep 20, 2019)

I am very sorry, brother. My wife and I will lift your family up in our prayers. It always breaks my heart to hear such things. We lost our first baby to a dangerous ectopic pregnancy. It took a significant toll on us. I just picked up a relevant book titled "Inheritance of Tears." It was written to help those that are grieving over miscarriages. Let me know if you need anything.

Reactions: Like 1


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## TylerRay (Sep 20, 2019)

Braden said:


> On the 18th of September, at 8:11 PM, my son Micah Jonathan Powell was stillborn. I want to thank you all for your help in thinking through baptism and the covenants. I would like to ask for your prayer for me and my family.
> 
> You're all wonderful people. Cherish your children.


This is heart breaking, Braden. You're in my prayers.


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## Pergamum (Sep 21, 2019)

“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)


My wife and I have lost 2 children (she had a tropical virus). Here are some thoughts that comforted us:

1. For me, I put all grieving out of my mind for a while. It was much easier for me to comfort Teresa and handle her when I separated my emotions for a while. She needed comfort more than I needed to grieve. I am not sure if this was healthy or not, but I think I was needed to help Teresa. A delay in grieving goes not mean that one does not love the departed; it just means that one must first tend to the living. 

2. Later, however, these emotions came back very strong in the quiet hours – especially at night - when I finally had time to think about it all. It was BETTER for me to stay busy and work and become consumed in other things for a time. About 6 months later the loss hit me hard and still does sometimes. But not all grieving is profitable, especially if one has living children and a wife that needs your help. So, I figured it was better to lose myself in helping Teresa than to experience these painful feelings myself for a while.

3. We believe all infants are saved. Every miscarriage or aborted soul is a saved soul. They are now filling up heaven.

4. We believe there are several good theological arguments for this position. The easiest one is the example of King David, who upon the death of his child said that this child would not return to him, but he would go to the child. This cannot mean merely death, for there is no comfort in merely rotting in the earth next to one’s child. King David, instead, meant heaven. David would see the child again in the Afterlife. Consider that King David’s child was uncircumcised (outside the covenant community still) and a child of adultery and yet David was still led to hope in a reunion after this life. Because of this and other verses, I believe that all infants dying in infancy are saved. No matter how unloved or unwanted on earth, no matter the awful circumstances of conception, no matter if the unborn child was a product of rape or adultery, God cares for these children and has an eternal home for them.

5. There will be a grand reunion in heaven. We will be reunited with our lost children once we arrive. We will know one another in heaven, and we will retain our personalities and our personal identities, and so we will know who they are, and they will know us. 

And heaven is a world of love. On earth our love is faulty and limited, but there we will be able to love one another fully and for all eternity. A momentary loss here will seem like a small thing once God has healed all wounds there. Then, we will have gladly lost 1,000 little ones on earth after we have experienced this sweet reunion in heaven. Each little one is an eternal soul, and we are filling up heaven even despite our sorrow. We go overseas to reach souls and yet there are little souls waiting on us in heaven to greet us.

6. We have consoled ourselves with the thought that these little ones have escaped the pains of this world. They have escaped ever doing any sin. They have escaped the pains of the earth. And now they experience no pain.

7. We try to remember with gladness that we have these two souls waiting for us, and this is better than to be sad at the loss. God gave them to us as a gift for just a little while. God gave them to us for only a few short weeks. But they are still gifts. We are still family. Their lives are still to be celebrated. We can grieve at the lost “potential” and yet the Bible tells us of the unsaved such as Judas Iscariot that it would have been better had he NEVER been born. So, Scripture says it is better to be a miscarriage than to be born and lost in sin. So, we may praise God that our little ones have escaped this fate. We need not worry about them being lost eternally even though they were lost to us physically – and that only for a short time – at such a young age.

8. When in a state of strong mind, I have been able to even praise God for these things, to thank God for the pregnancies even though they were taken from us. Not often. And sometimes I still grieve. But when my mind is right, I am able to see the perspective of eternity. That this longer life of ours is still very short even though we have been born and lived to adulthood. Compared with the length of eternity, a few months is but a little shorter than a few years or even a few decades. It is all momentary and transient in light of eternity. Heaven is our eternal home.

9. I have read that 1/4 th of all pregnancies end in natural miscarriage. And abortion kills many more. And in Papua about half of all babies die before the age of 2 in many regions. It may be that the vast majority of the inhabitants of heaven are made up of these little ones. It may be that the majority of the citizens of heaven are these little ones. And so, our little ones have much company. They are there with many small souls from Papua, little ones from Papua who have died due to lack of healthcare, or early illnesses such as malaria, or malnutrition, or even the heartbreaking abandonment which still happens sometimes to Korowai infants. God is now their Comforter. And we will meet them all one day. Every one of them who died in the womb, who died in infancy in the jungles of Papua, every one of them who was aborted. I believe we will know and love and meet each and every one of them in heaven. 

And not a single one of them will be sad.

Reactions: Like 1


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## bookslover (Sep 21, 2019)

I'm very sorry to hear about this. A young couple in our church went through this same type of loss two or three years ago.

May the Lord sustain the two of you through this time. I'll pray for you both, and remember that the Lord has His wise reasons as to why these things happen.


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## KMK (Sep 22, 2019)

So sorry to hear this. May the Lord preserve you and your wife at this time.


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## lynnie (Sep 22, 2019)

I am so very sorry and pray the Lord helps you with the grief.


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## Herald (Sep 22, 2019)

Braden, I am very sorry to hear this news. I have prayed. May you and your family know the grace and tender mercies of the Lord at this time.


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## JTB.SDG (Sep 22, 2019)

Braden said:


> On the 18th of September, at 8:11 PM, my son Micah Jonathan Powell was stillborn. I want to thank you all for your help in thinking through baptism and the covenants. I would like to ask for your prayer for me and my family.
> 
> You're all wonderful people. Cherish your children.


My heart aches for you. May Jesus uphold you.


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## EuphratesRiver (Sep 23, 2019)

Braden said:


> On the 18th of September, at 8:11 PM, my son Micah Jonathan Powell was stillborn. I want to thank you all for your help in thinking through baptism and the covenants. I would like to ask for your prayer for me and my family.
> 
> You're all wonderful people. Cherish your children.



May God comfort and encourage you and your family through this difficult time, Braden.


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