[Faith-talk] update on my friend in Iowa

[Debby Phillips]

Brandon, were you asking this of RJ or or everyone? I will tell 
you this.  I do, as a Christian believe in advocacy, but the 
person who needs the advocacy needs to be part of the process, 
ask me, or accept my invitation to help, but they must also be 
involved in the process.  Often when Jesus healed people he told 
them to pick up their mat and go home, or similar things.  Jesus 
once asked the man laying beside the pool at Bethesda, "Do you 
want to be healed?" That struck me as very interesting.  Because 
I think if that guy had said, no, I don't want to be healed, 
Jesus would have left him right where he was.  As it is, the guy 
said, "When the angels come to trouble the water I don't have 
anybody to help me into the pool." I believe in advocacy, but I 
do not believe that we should just walk roughshod over people's 
feelings and desires.  Now, when people have no voice, because 
they cannot even speak for themselves enough to say they want 
help, that's a little different.  I will tell you, without going 
into all the nasty details, that my husband's family is in the 
midst of just such a thing, and I'm involved in it as much as I 
can.  If I had my way, I'd be doing some face to face 
confrontation, and I'd probably mess everything up.  Sometimes 
you have to be careful about how you do things.  I can't just go 
in with guns blazing (not literally).  But you know what I mean.  
And I might make things worse by doing so.  So I'll do what I can 
in the background, and if I feel that the time has come to 
confront, I will.  But for now, I'm letting the process go 
forward in a legal manner.    Peace,    Debby and Neena