Dear Phil,

I have been praying for Gretchan every since I first new of the problems
she's been having, drinking, drug adiction, ect for several years now. I
will continue to pray for her and for her children, and for you and Sandy.

God Bless you all.

Love in Christ,
Pat Ferguson




At 07:49 AM 10/27/03 -0700, you wrote:
>Well, to follow up, I finally went to bed last night and heard Sandy and
>Gretchen talking.  carol and Mike had gone to bed, too, so until Sandy gets
>up this morning, I won't know what Gretchen talked about.  As she talked to
>Carol, however, I was in the room and I was surprised to how much Gretchen
>admitted.  Gretchen left to use the bathroom at one point so I said to
>Carol, she is high on something right now, you know?  Carol said, You don't
>think I noticed that?  When Gretchen returned, she picked right up where she
>had left off.  I had recently given Gretchen two books to read but figured
>she wouldn't read them since she normally doesn't.  Since her car was taken
>back, she has been forced to ride the bus and she has actually been reading
>the books.  Last night she actually got the book out and read from it to us.
>Carol did a good job of circling the wagons, sort of speak, because she kept
>bringing the conversation back to what Gretchen was going to do about all
>this.  Part of this conversation was going back to the Christian counselor
>she had seen three times before and who is my prayer partner.  Gretchen
>revealed some of the progress she had made by her third prayer session but
>as so often is the case, people will back away from the truth when they see
>it for what it is worth.  Of course, when this happens, the pressure builds
>up and things get worse and for two reasons.  The enemy works harder to
>deceive the person and the Lord let's him, not because he has stopped loving
>them, but because He, the Lord, is actually in control even though the
>person, nor the enemy, thinks He is.  Perpetual prayer, and the prayer of
>agreement, as well as other factors related to prayer, makes the eternal
>difference.  My daughter still has a drinking and drug problem, which she
>freely admitted last night, so there is a very long ways to go.  Admitting
>this very fact last night was the first step.  Seeing it all as sin is the
>most important admission anyone can make and Gretchen seemed to have done
>that last night.  Gretchen's greatest concern last night seemed to be she
>wouldn't be able to even quit smoking on her own as much as she really wants
>to.  My only contribution to the conversation last night was at this point.
>Before I tell you what I said, let me point out that it is generally the
>least destructive things in a person's life which points to the true nature
>of what has caused them to react to the pain they have.  I have known that
>Gretchen's smoking was one of her very first acts at masking the pain for
>many years.  Rarely, however, will a person in denial even recognize this
>aspect of their true problem.  Anyhow, Gretchen was talking about the drugs
>and all she has done in the last few months and her smoking and everything
>she couldn't give up without help.  During her conversation, she even
>recognized that breaking her smoking habit was something that needed to be
>done because of the roots it had to the truth of the real pain the caused
>all this in the first place.  Carol carefully pointed this out to her.  I
>told her a story about the man who authored the books she was reading
>concerning his alcoholism and addiction to tobacco and how the Lord went
>about setting him free from these things.  She didn't seem to understand all
>I said so I asked her a question.  If there is a deep hidden pain which
>caused this and the Lord were to show this to you and you were able to see
>it the way the Lord sees it, do you think, once the pain was removed, you
>might lose your desire for external things to mask the pain?  She saw the
>truth of that statement so I also pointed out the guardian lie of denial
>keeping her from even seeing the basic truth of God's Word and that seemed
>to make sense to her then.  She also realized, by this point, no body in the
>room was pressuring her to give up anything because only the Lord can do the
>work.  This does not preclude, however, the possible need for drug
>intervention through rehab and the like but it depends upon how much of the
>pain can be quickly eliminated first.  If the healing process is slow, rehab
>might have to come first to get a handle on the addiction aspect.  If, on
>the other hand, she can begin the healing process through prayer and the
>areas of woundedness can be healed, the desires will diminish rapidly.  This
>part is up to Gretchen.  If she dives head first into the prayer sessions to
>locate the areas of woundedness and allows the Lord to bring truth and
>healing to those areas, she will make remarkable advancement.  If she
>doesn't, the recovery process is going to be long and painful and with many
>fall backs.  So, in short, we have just started to pray.  Keep in mind,
>Gretchen knows about echurch and she has been told many times how much
>people have prayed for her on this list alone.  It is hard for her to
>comprehend.  It has amazed Gretchen in recent days that Carol has been
>praying for her for nearly 9 years and Vicki has been praying for her even
>longer than that.  So Gretchen is aware of your prayers and so am I and I
>appreciate it.  We are at a crossroads right now so as I said, our prayers
>of agreement have just begun for Gretchen.
>
>Phil.