God's story in Austin

The last blog I posted was about my brother Austin, you can read it here to get an update on his stay living with us.

Austin lived with us for a month, he had struggles but I have never seen more miracles in my life than I did during this last month. We would stay up late most nights just talking about God, Christ, and how much He loved Austin. It was so amazing to see how much God worked in Austin's heart over this last month. In the beginning of his stay with us Austin began to acknowledged a Higher Power, but by the end of the month, we were sharing about Christ again and read in 1 John 5 with him. It looked like a light bulb went off in his head, and he said, "I can understand this now."

Austin never prayed a prayer of salvation that night, but I know how faithful my God is, and I KNOW that he spared Austin's life during SO many other suicide attempts so that Austin could have that month to know and understand God, and he did.

Saturday night was our best friends wedding. Tim & I & Gracie were all apart of the wedding party. My parents came down and attended the wedding with my brother. At the reception right before Austin left, I grabbed Gracelyn from him and told him I loved him and good bye. That was the last time I ever spoke to him.

Sunday afternoon we realized some money missing from our account and saw it got transferred into Austins account in the middle of the night. We began our search for him. The police tracked his phone to Springfield, IL so Monday morning (4th of July) my parents headed back down from Rockford to go with us to search for Austin.

We took 2 separate cars so that we would be able to cover more ground. Tim & I drove around, and spotted his car. Tim ran over and found him passed away. I will forever be grateful that Tim held me so that I would not see my brother in this way. I will never forget the screams I heard from my mom, or the look I witnessed on my dad's face.

As horrifying as this day was, I can still see God's hand in the story. Sparing his life so many other times just until Austin would have the opportunity to hear and learn about God. I am in such awe of my God and so thankful for the opportunity.

As I sat in the detectives office he was interviewing me about my relationship with my brother. I began to pour out the story of how God worked and what He did to spare Austin life during other attempts just so he would know Him. I told him about God and how much he did during Austin's stay with us. The detective looked at me with tears in his eyes, shut the recorder off, and said, "In my line of work, I struggle everyday with how there could be a God with how much hurt and pain there is in the world. But listening to you, I truly believe what you are saying, and how God worked."

God is going to take this horrible tragic event, and turn it for His goodness and His glory. What an AMAZING God we serve!!

So now, in my pain and tears, I choose to have God bring me down the journey of grief, because I do not want to do it on my own. May God receive ALL Glory.