Prayers for Laura

Please continue to pray for Laura. She writes:

So much has been going on. I don't even know where to start. I will recount some of it here.
The latest rounds started, I think, when two friends who are very spiritually discerning both had promptings that I needed to fill this house with praise music. The second friend dropped everything and came to visit from Seattle because the Spirit told her, "Go now." (I hadn't spoken to her for almost a year, but through all that time of not hearing from me, she had never had that prompting till last month.) One of the first things we did was to go to the Christian book store, where she selected a few praise CDs that she discerned were "must haves." Every night thereafter, for her entire visit, we took time to sit and actively listen to the music and praise God for who He was. I felt the darkness that has pervaded this house since Glenn's death lift. It seemed as if light just flowed in, and God started showing me things I hadn't been able to see previously.

Immediately, the enemy started counterattacking. Things happened in my relationships with two key people in my life that cannot be explained any other way. Confusion and accusation marked both situations. Another situation that had been a struggle in my life got very ugly. And I found out more information about the circumstances around Glenn's death that greatly increased my grief and "worst fears" about it. God gave me victory in the first three situations. The fourth is an ongoing battle.

Then two weeks later (this past Saturday), things started to fall apart around the house. It seems more than coincidence that the place of darkness transformed to light would be attacked.
Saturday morning the basement was wet. I live near a marsh, so this wasn't the first time the floor had been a little sloshy. But the "slosh" had never covered so extensive an area before, even in torrential rainfalls associated with hurricanes and snowmelt. In fact, less than a month ago a foot of snow had fallen, and the basement had remained dry. In the course of 3 days of completely dry weather conditions (no rain, no snow on the ground to melt), the basement was wetter than ever before--floors, walls, the bottoms of shelves and furniture. The basement is finished with paneling and carpeting.

What makes it challenging is that the only longterm solution that would preserve the place for resale is very labor-intensive--very expensive.

Subsquent events made me almost forget the problem in the basement. Around 9 p.m. on Saturday, I started hearing strange sounds outside the house. I investigated half-heartedly and quickly dismissed the noises as nothing more than an overactive imagination. About an hour later, a colossal explosion of glass in my bedroom, about five feet away, suggested that maybe my imagination was not the problem. I bolted in panic. The car was in an attached garage and my keys close at hand, so I drove to the only place I could think of at the time: my friends' house, about 20 minutes away.

Unfortunately, I hadn't grabbed my cell phone, and by the time I called the police from their house, the intruder had been able to make away with the only two items of "real" value to me: my wedding ring set and the necklace Glenn had given me our wedding night. I usually was wearing both. That day I had not put on either. I am thankful and surprised that nothing else was stolen. The culprit had gone through the drawers in four rooms.

By the time I got back to the house, the police were at the scene. They were quite skeptical about all the details surrounding the incident, and for the next two hours I found myself under scrutiny. They were pretty well convinced that I had staged the whole thing and were asking questions along the lines of whether I would pass a polygraph test, warning me that it was time to come clean right then or face arrest if it turned out that I was not telling the truth. They said there was absolutely no evidence that an intruder was in the house, and details down to the way the drawers were opened and the "normal patterns in burglaries" suggested a staged event rather than the "real thing." I found out later that at least one thing they used as leverage to build a case against me was a boldfaced lie.

Over the last few days, my family (who came up for a few days for my birthday celebration--such as it was!) and I have been working with detectives, making arrangements to have the window and screen replaced, cleaning glass and "dust" (or whatever they call that black stuff used to find fingerprints), calling security companies to arrange consultations for alarm system installation, talking to electricians about installing better lighting, calling pawn shops...the list goes on and on. We have also continued to find more evidence of some pretty serious attempts to break in at at least two other entry points before the bedroom window was chosen. The sounds I'd heard about an hour prior to the break in were not my imagination after all. We are working together to find the most effective method for securing the premises. Unfortunately, there is a price to pay (an expensive one!) for alarm systems and proper lighting. But I thank God for the support and comfort I find in my family!

Meanwhile, three other things have suddenly come up that are making it all the more challenging to proceed....but it is too much to try to detail in this account.

I thank the Lord for His protection. There was plenty of evidence that someone was at home, yet this did not stop the intruder. The police use this lack of likelihood factor (among many others) as leverage to point to me as the guilty party, but they have also conceded that if the perpetrator was real, he would be very dangerous if encountered. I had been moving back and forth between the bedroom and the study the whole evening. I was also spending lots of time in the basement doing laundry. And I had been planning to run some errands in the evening. If I had been downstairs, in the bedroom, or out of the house (or, worse still, coming back in the house as the event occurred), I would most certainly have had an encounter with this person. The outcome could so easily have been far worse!

All the same, I feel very vulnerable now. I feel grieved because the three remaining things that made me still feel connected to Glenn in some way (the rings, the necklace, the house he chose for me) have been taken from me. The place that had been our world the short time we were married now feels not only like a lonely place to live in alone, it feels like a very insecure place to live in alone. It feels sullied and darker than ever, just at the point when light had finally begun to take an upper hand. The scent of the person who was in the house still remains. I doubt he will ever be apprehended because the police are not taking the case very seriously--although the good news is that I sense I am no longer a suspect in the case. They have told me that the chances of recovering the jewelry are very slim.

My prayer request is for peace and light. If these events and the others I have not mentioned are attacks from the enemy, I would really like them to stop. I would especially like to not be so afraid of him! I am afraid of how he will continue to counter attack if I continue to crank up the praise music. Please pray that darkness will not take the upperhand again in this house.
I would really love for the rings to be recovered, the token of Glenn's love for me.
I would pray that the truth would be uncovered and that this person be stopped. The prime suspect in my book (as well as that of the neighbors on my street) is a neighbor who has a history of burglary, who is a verified drug user, who is basically a very dangerous character. Glenn tried to help him when he was alive, so this person has had the chance to see what was in the house. He most definitely had a chance to make his rounds the other night. I'm afraid he will come back for more.

I ask for prayers for the neighbors, for safety and light and soft hearts. They are very afraid now, and they don't know the Lord. They are also so angry that they talk about seeking revenge, about killing the man if he ever sets foot on their property again.

What I most covet prayers for is wisdom and guidance and boldness--and the Spirit's flowing in me--as I continue to talk to these neighbors! Please pray that this situation will be turned around to God's glory and that God will make a way for me to develop relationships with them that would reflect God's light and hope. In all that has happened, I hold out the hope that this is a God-given opportunity for open doors! I don't want to miss them, but I need help so that I won't miss them, on account of my own weakness!!