Prayer Requests from Ryan’s Family
I got a note with this saying that requests 1 and 2 have already been answered. But these prayer requests for the Robertson family are the aftermath of Ryan’s passing and where the family stands now with so much going on. I know there’s a bunch of you that have been praying for Ryan and his family and I forward these prayer requests on.
Ryan is finally out of pain and his faith has been made sight. There are days I truly envy that kid.
I am going to try to make this short, because my “To Do” list today is way longer than I can handle. But Rob and I have some prayer requests that we’d like to ask you to lift up before our God on our behalf, if you think of us. They are NOT in any order of importance…I am just going to bang them out as they come to mind.
1. Somehow, the things that were in Ryan’s bedside table did not make it home to our house…or at least, we cannot find them. There were a lot of family and dear friends helping us load up his room after he died, and in his bedside table were his hearing aids, and a soft CD case full of CD’s that were Ryan and my favorite CD’s…all the music we both loved together…about 15 CD’s…and we’re not sure what else is missing. We are both feeling stressed about this, because both of these items hold a great deal of sentimental value to us…and we’d really like to find them.
2. Lindsey lost her Bible…her best Bible…the black leather one that she used all through Torrey Honors Institute, on the night of Ryan’s memorial service, and though we’ve checked the church many times since, we haven’t found it. It has ALL her notes from 4 years of college in it…again, this is something that we’d really, really like to find.
3. Please pray for wisdom for me…Rob and I are truly both feeling like the shock of Ryan’s death is just now wearing off, and the grief is only starting to set in. I am supposed to start back to work on September 1, but I cannot begin to imagine that. We will have only been home a week since returning from Biola. But we don’t know how Lake Washington School District would view another delay, and we have no idea how we are going to pay August’s bills, much less September’s, without my income. Please pray that God will make me ready to go back to work, if that is what I need to do, or that He will provide another way.
4. Please pray for Riley…he is excited about Biola, but is NOT excited about leaving our family right now, while he is grieving so much. The timing is very, very hard. Please pray that God will provide the right mentors, and some deep, Christ-centered friendships with guys who can meet him where he is at…and, most of all, that he will continue to be drawn near to Christ as he transitions to life at Biola.
5. The girls are also really grieving. Please pray for both Lindsey and Larissa…they are both deeply hurting, but like Riley, are turning to God in their pain. Larissa has a counselor here, but we need to find grief counselors for both Lindsey and Riley in California…so that is a need, as well.
6. Please pray for Ryan’s friends who have no hope in God, and who are grieving without ANY peace that they will see Ryan again. Pray especially for his roommate Ron, his ex-boyfriend Devin, and all his friends from his “using” years who are really struggling with Ryan’s death.
7. Rob and I are going to try to be very intentional about taking a walk, or going for a bike ride together every day, to make sure that we have time to talk during this intense time. Please pray that we will make this a priority…and that God will bless our time.
8. We have so many decisions left to make and things to do in regard to Ryan…and they weigh heavily on me, in particular. We haven’t selected his plot, thought about the headstone, looked at the guestbook, gone through his things, received the death certificate, written letters to the doctors and nurses who meant so much to us, etc, etc, etc. There are so many things that are emotional and will take God’s grace to get through. We also have a lot of journaling we want to do. And I am trying to let go and not stress about the hundreds of unanswered e-mails and FaceBook messages sitting on my laptop.
9. Please pray that God will strengthen and comfort us as we go to Biola as a family of five, instead of as a family of six. This is going to be painful…especially since the last two times we were there, Ryan was with us. We will miss him so very, very much. But we know Jesus will be with us in the middle of the missing.
10. Please pray that we will continue to put Christ first, above all else, no matter what comes. And that we will stay unified as a family…and that our first priority will be to remember that this is GOD’S STORY…and He has a plan to glorify Himself…and to make us more like Him…and we have to just trust and obey, one day at a time, like we have been doing for years.
I found Ryan’s tribute page on Facebook. I never met him, and I only started keeping track of his struggle towards the end. Still, as I went through the pictures, it made me weep, and I pray that his family finds peace, solace, and Christ through all of this.
It’s been quite the ordeal. The numbers have been through the roof. It’s ordinary to get days where there are 300-400 distinct hits for people looking for Ryan David Robertson. He was quite the guy and there but for the grace of God, his experiences could have been ours.