PRAY FOR TRICIA!

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

As of 6:30pm Sunday night, Duke Medical Center may have found lungs for Tricia!
If you haven’t been checking out her husband, Nathan’s, blog and have no idea what I’m talking about, please go to his blog - Confessions of a CF Husband now!!!!

As we all know from my experience, this may be a ‘dry run’. Nathan hasn’t said that the doctors have made their final decision, but I thought I’d get the word out now anyway! Please check out Nathan’s blog throughout the evening and tomorrow morning! If she does have her surgery tonight, these next several hours are crucial!!!

Love you all!
Amber N. Metz

More Ways to Help!

Some of you have asked more ways you can contribute to Breathtaking Ministries’ cause:

Here are two!

1) Cystic fibrosis

As all of you know, because of having numerous complications due to having cystic fibrosis (CF, I had to endure a double lung transplant. My heart is for seeing people come to know Christ as Savior and for them to understand God’s sovereignty even amidst human suffering, but I cannot help but also be drawn toward raising awareness for CF as well. Approximately 30,000 people in the United States currently have CF. The life expectancy has raised dramatically since I was born in 1986, but still to this day, the median life expectancy is still only 37 years of age. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people die each year, some because of lack of health care and others simply because no cure has been found for CF at this time.

On May 17, 2008 there will be a Great Strides Walk to raise money for cystic fibrosis here in Lima, OH. If you would like to be a walker and join ‘Team Breathless’ at the Ottawa Metro Park at 9:00am that day, please go to Amber's G.S. Walk homepage and click on ‘join my team’ to become walker! If you cannot attend but would still like to give a tax-deductible monetary donation toward cystic fibrosis research, please click on ‘click to donate’. Your monetary donation will go directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the leader in raising money for CF research.

I am also in touch with several different chapters of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and am praying that Breathtaking will be able to be used in the lives of thousands of people with the life-threatening illness! We can pray for a cure for CF and also that God would continue to use Breathtaking’s message to further His Kingdom.

2) Organ/Tissue donation awareness

April is national organ and tissue donation month! J I am currently in the process of getting a hold of every single newspaper here in Ohio, asking if they’d consider covering my story during the month of April to raise awareness for CF and organ donation, while also giving me the opportunity to spread the renown of Jesus Christ! J Please pray for me, as I try to get all of this accomplished in the next week or so!

As far as how you can help, please consider becoming an organ/tissue donor if you have not already done so. Donate Life America is a great website to use to learn all the facts regarding donation and also has the info you need to sign up in your particular state! If you just click on ‘commit to donation’ a page will pop up with every state in the country. Please click on your state and go from there! I can’t – and don’t want to – co hearse people into becoming donors, but I would ask that you know the facts about donation before you make your decision!!

If at any time this month (or any other time) you do decide to become an organ and tissue donor, and feel comfortable disclosing your decision, please email me and let me know!

Again, I know that organ/tissue donation awareness may not seem like a route that one can promote the Gospel through, but rest-assured, it is! The Lord has given me this tremendous testimony for a reason, and I’m trying to use it to the upmost for His glory!!

Thank you for taking time to check in on what’s happening. I hate bombarding all of your email inboxes with a bunch of emails, but I find these two matters far from frivolous! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!! J

As always, I covet your PRAYERS the most! JThank you for partnering with me!

Where Have I Been?

..Where have I been?

In the past few months, I have/ have been:

• Learning once more than this certainly is NOT about me
  
• Dealing with the fact I can't have my own children, may never be married
  
• Being a nanny to 4 children, whom I adore, while also adding two more
• Spending a lot of time at work, thanking the Lord I get to work alongside my inner circle every single day
• Spending some time away from work, so I can clear my head and continue to remember MY vision
  
• Moving out of my parents' home, something I've wanted to do again for years
  
• Spending a lot of time with the Lord, the only Constant in my life
• Dreaming new dreams again, standing in awe of Him when I see them come true for HIS glory
  
• Cherishing my time with my mentors, Buck Sutton & Heather Hall
  
• On the road a lot, feeling lonely but realizing this is the life to which I am called
  
• Hearing "I love you" from people who choose to love me for who I am
  
• Watched a close friend walk away and suddenly slowly make her way back into my life
  
• Watched another close friend leave for England, praying the answers come for him in HIS timing - not mine
  
• Cried a lot of tears, for a lot of reasons
  
• Prepared myself for the day I watch another close friend walk out of my life to enter a wonderful, Godly marriage...as well as the day I watch someone else walk out of my life to enter a marriage I pray every day doesn't happen for her sake
• Wished I had more time to spend with a friend whom I love dearly but don't see enough
  
• Watched a close friend have to walk away from a job she loved and enter a time of loneliness and refinement, while also not finding the time - again - to see her as much as I want, either
• Wondered how I ever got to where I am when I am so stupid, so needy and so small
  
• Wondered if my life will abruptly come to an end this year for His glory
• Wondered if I'll beat all the previous records and live 50 yrs.
• Experienced trying health problems and watched those close to me rally around me during them
  
• Had to be fed, carried and comforted for the first time in over two years
• Wanted to see His face more than anything else this world has to offer
• Wanted what my flesh wants more times than I'd like to admit
• Believed with all my heart that God called me for such a time as this to do something HUGE
  
• Questioned when I'm supposed to let go of something I love being involved in
  
• At the same time believed that my role has - and will continue - to change in a particular ministry
• Refined the vision of the ministry with which God has entrusted me
• Cried - again - a lot
  
• Have fought wanting to not be vulnerable with Him and others
  
• Have sought His will and then not believed He would perform it
  
• Have repented of said sin multiple times
  
• Have listen to Shane and Shane's In The Secret probably 500 times (including right now)
• Have not read a page of Breathtaking since its release
  
• Have fasted and prayed for souls to come to know Him through this book HE created
  
• Have watched Him provide for my finances in the toughest of times
• Have questioned if He would provide and then had to repent in the same breath
  
• Haven't made much sense at times, if you couldn't tell already
• Been extremely critical of what I put on paper
• Wondered if I'll always be this way
  
• Decided that I'm only publishing this because He wants me to....

Oh Father, I'm so broken once more...please make beauty from ashes once more. Make me lie down in green pastures, so that I am still and know that YOU and YOU alone are God, my Abba Father. I don't need man's praise...I just need You. Lord, be Master of my life and continue to empty me of everything I desire, everything that keeps me from You. Lord, kill me and burn within me a desire to be fueled by a passion that only comes from YOUR consuming fire. I need You, oh I need You.