A tribute to a couple of brave parents... [nb. I have fixed the broken link]

Please keep Mark and Teresa Streckfuss in your prayers. Their sixth (do I have that right?) child is about to be born any day now. Mark and Teresa were in my "Walk through the Scriptures" class for Anima Education in Ballarat recently. So was the unborn one.

The new child will be their sixth, but two of their children are already with the Lord. You can read the story of Benedict and Charlotte and of their parents' courage on this webpage.

I especially noted the quotation Teresa and Mark have on their website from Cardinal Newman:

God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it - if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust in Him. Whatever, wherever I am. I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me - still He knows what he is about.