We Can't Stress This Enough!

There’s a good chance that you’ve taken a questionnaire to measure the Holmes and Strahe Stress Scale, even if you didn’t know what it was called. It’s that test that measures stressful life events, such as death of a spouse, injury, etc… You add up all of the events you’ve experienced in the past year and are told how likely you are to become ill. Trish took the questionnaire with a counselor following the kidnapping. She learned that her “ordinary” life - before factoring in kidnappings and such - is enough to put her in the danger zone. Currently, there are enough out of the ordinary things going on to make Trish realize this is a GREAT time for a prayer request blog post!

Here are a few of the ways you can be praying for the Sowers family:

• Please pray for the safety of everyone involved in the backpack trip. This includes the people who are on the road and those who are back home in Honduras. There are a lot of people in different places doing different things. When Russell is traveling, Iris is left with all of the parenting duties. When Kelsea is gone, Trish is left to handle extra website tasks. Normally, Trish has help from Katie Henry, who works in the office in Florida, but recently Katie has been dealing with the threat of Hurricane Dorian. 

• Allen and Trish's daughter, Rachel, miscarried about six weeks ago. When she went for her six-week post-miscarriage checkup, the doctor found a mass on one of her ovaries. She is looking at surgery, but there is no way of knowing how complex it will be until she on the operating table. The possibility of cancer has been mentioned. 

•  Bethany (Boo) is getting married in less than a month, with all the stress and preparations involved in this. Rachel is the matron of honor. Please pray for the details, as well as for Rachel’s health and recovery, so that she can be part of this special day. (Rachel's surgery is now scheduled for tomorrow, 9/10.)

• Please pray for Ben. It’s not easy being a teenager and Ben’s normal teen issues are compounded by a history of trauma. Things have been a bit rocky recently.

• Trish is having some anxiety centered around the kidnapping. Trish wants to stress that she knows this is an emotional response rather than a sign of an increased danger. Still, she is feeling vulnerable and can use your prayers.

• While everything else is going on, Trish is also busily packing everything she and Allen own, in preparation for their upcoming move. They’ve lived in the warehouse for ten years. During that time, Trish intentionally purchased things she wanted for her big, new house. Since she will not be moving into a big, new house, that’s forcing her to make a lot of decisions as she packs.

Downsizing is stressful in and of itself. Packing is stressful. Packing with a looming deadline is extra stressful. Trish has to have everything packed before she leaves for Bethany’s wedding. She’s trying to plan ahead so that she'll be able to find things (like sheets and coffee essentials) when she and Allen return home in December.

Because just downsizing and packing isn’t enough to deal with, Trish is also having to make all of the purchases of things that will need to be on the annual shipping container--like curtains and rods for the new house. She’s also making a list of the food and family Christmas presents that will need to be ordered and purchased.

For the time being, it’s probably best for Trish to not complete the stress scale questionnaire. There will be time for that when life returns to “ordinary”. Oh, wait…

 - posted by Christi