Christmas Miracles Week 3 – Emily Baldwin

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

We talk about here’s our king, here’s our love. And it’s among the little children, right? That we see Jesus most often revealed in the small things of life. And even Jesus himself said, do not deny or do not prohibit any of the children coming to him. And so one more time, give it up for the kiddos, the volunteers. Yeah. Great job. Well. Well, I’m Virgil Grant. I’m one of the leaders around here. I’m also the senior pastor. And I want to welcome you to East Side. We are currently in a sermon series called Christmas Miracles, and we are listening to different testimonies of people who are part of Eastside who is experiencing a Christmas miracle. But there’s still also in the process of Christmas miracles. And many of you that are here today you are standing in need of a miracle, and you are hoping and praying that God will do something. And the whole purpose of this sermon series is to remind you, first of all, that God is still in the business of doing miracles. That’s the first purpose. The second purpose is to remind you that in God’s timing, not our timing, we can receive a Christmas miracle. Now, for some of us that are here today. We prayed for a Christmas miracle, and it didn’t happen. My family did that when we were praying for my dad when he was in the hospital for 120 days in. And he didn’t make it in. But you know what? The miracle happened in God’s way and not our way. And to be honest with you, there’s a little bit of me that’s envy of the fact that he’s walking with Jesus right now, and I’m still here, you know? And but, you know, God is still the God of miracles, and he is still a good God, regardless if your miracle has come, regardless if your miracle hasn’t come, or if you are just so enthralled in your trials and tribulations, you don’t even know which way is up or which way is down. And so I want you to put your hands together, and I want you to give a warm welcome to Emily Baldwin. Emily who? So I’m going to pray for Emily, and then you know the drill. We’re going to engage. We’re going to cheer her own because we now know that the amount of courage that this takes is an incredible amount. And so I just want to make sure that we support her as she shares. So, Lord, be with Emily, continue to give her strength, give her focus, give her the ability to recall the things that she needs to recall. And Father, I just pray that you’ll give us ears to hear the message that you have for us today through Emily, your servant. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen, All right, Emily. Do it.

Well, good morning, Eastside. Thank you, Virgil. Were those children Not precious love. It makes me miss my children being that little. Like Virgil said, I’m Emily Baldwin. I have been married to Todd Baldwin. He is an elder here at East Side, and we’ve been married for 20 years. We have two teenage boys. Aiden is 16. He is a junior at Madison Southern, and Kenan is 13. He’s in seventh grade at Foley Middle School. I taught elementary school for 17 years, but now I am a stay-at-home mom. My family and I, we have been involved here at Eastside for 11 years. In 2006, we moved up here from Tennessee, and at first, we were going to church in Lexington. And about the time that Aiden was starting kindergarten, we felt God urging us to find a church here in Richmond so that we could get involved in the community where we lived. And so at that time, I had some family who attended East Side, and my cousin said, Oh, come check us out, come visit with us. So we came one Sunday morning, visited East Side, went to Life Group with them that evening, and we have just been hooked with East Side ever since. During our time here, I have served in the preschool and the children’s departments. I am on a shepherding team. I’m a generosity rock star, and I’m in just an amazing life group. I do need to say that when I started writing out my story and practicing with Virgil, he asked me to memorize the story, and I said, Nope, no way. Not going to happen. My brain does not work that way anymore, so I am going to rely heavily on my notes, and that’s fine. It just is what it is. So.

That’s how it’s going to be. Thanks, Virgil. So when I think about East Side, East Side to me and to my family, it can be summed up in just one word. And it’s the word home. We are safe, and we are loved. And as a mom, I’m just so thankful for how our church has embraced our kids, having our boys involved in our life group. When they were little, was a good model for their own life groups. Now the high school and middle school life groups are now an important part of their lives. They love Monday and Wednesday nights, and they have two great young men to disciple them, Brandon and Micah. Yes. Those two men have poured wisdom and knowledge into the lives of Aiden and Keenan. They love my boys, and I love them for it. I trust these two men with their spiritual development. I also appreciate what they have accomplished with all of the youth here at East Side. It isn’t that they have goofy game nights and special events, but it’s that they have a passion for loving on our kids here. My kids see it. They know it. They can feel it. Brandon and Micah are modeling for our young people what it means to live in a genuine community. I want my home to be a place where my kids and their friends feel safe and loved. And East Side is doing that here as well. This is a safe place and a place where we are loved. So East Side is home. I would like to challenge you to get your kids to church, whether it’s Sunday morning, Sunday nights, life groups, special events, to help your children see the importance of community. It’s made such an impact on our family, and I know it will work in yours as well. Can we just take another minute? Celebrate Brandon, Micah and Brooke, and all of our volunteers who help with the children here? So before I share my story, let me tell you what life was before my Christmas miracle? Three years ago, I was living what I thought was just a very normal, happy, and a just an easy life. I was teaching third grade here in Madison County at a school that I deeply loved. My coworkers, they were like family and my students. I love them as if they were my own. But I was that like every other mom out there rushing, rushing to get up and get your kids ready for school, rushing out the door, teaching all day, trying to do my job well. You know, get my boys home, make dinner. But let’s be real. Usually, I was picking up takeout. You know, after school dinner, you know, taking your kids to practice or church or whatever you had going on that evening. Then I would settle down, work on lesson plans, grade papers, then finally just settle in for the night, get ready to start it all over the next day. Does that sound familiar? I like to think that I was doing everything right for my family and for myself. I treated my body well. I ate healthily. I didn’t smoke or drink. I ran 3 to 5 miles every day. I didn’t run fast, but I got out there for my physical and my mental well-being. I loved running in races. And at the end of November and at the beginning of December in 2018, I ran in two races, you know, just for fun. That’s what I always did just for fun. But this brings me to my Christmas miracle. On Tuesday, December 4th, 2018. So just over three years ago, my life forever changed. I was teaching third grade, and I remember my students being just so very excited because it was the holiday season. We were finishing up our work for the morning because we had the Christmas play to go watch later. I think we had Christmas music playing. 

We’re getting ready to eat cookies, like just always great. We were so excited. While they were working, I happened to look in the mirror and noticed that my eyes were yellow. Now, I’m not a nurse, but I do know that’s not normal. I found someone to cover my class, and I went up to the office and talked with our school nurse. She took one look at me and said, Call your doctor right now. She knew me well enough to know that I would put that call off until later in the day or the next day, or the day after that. Because who has time to stop in the middle of the day to do that? But I made that call, and my doctor said, Come right now. So we made arrangements for someone to cover my class. I went back to my classroom, told my students that I was just going to run to the doctor real quick, figure out why my eyes were yellow, but that I would be right back. I grabbed my purse and left, not realizing that would be the last time that I would sit in a classroom after 17 years of teaching. This is one of the last memories that I have until about a week and a half later. I didn’t know it, but I was in the early stages of encephalopathy. Think I said that, right? It’s just a really big word yet, but it simply means it’s a condition where the toxins had built up in my brain because the liver was not clearing them from my body. It started to cause confusion, memory loss, and, eventually, a coma. So what I’m going to share with you is what has been told to me from or told to me by Todd. My family and my doctors. The next couple of days brought lots of doctor visits and lab work. Our first thoughts were maybe this was hepatitis A because, at that time, there were several outbreaks in the community at restaurants that I happened to visit. But lab work ended up showing that it was not hepatitis A, but it did show that my liver enzymes were elevated. My doctor told me to rest and stay hydrated while they reviewed my lab work and tried to figure out what was going on with my body. 

On Thursday, December six, 2018, While Todd was driving our boys to school. At this time, Aiden was in eighth grade, and Keenan was in fourth grade. I got extremely sick. Called Todd, and he rushed home and took me to the E.R. here in Richmond. The doctors here did lab work, but they did not keep me long. They had me transported by ambulance to U.K. Hospital, where Todd was met by the liver transplant team. Now, this was a shock. We knew that my liver enzymes were elevated. But to go from teaching third grade to needing a liver transplant in just a couple of days, that seemed crazy. The transplant team asked hundreds of questions. Do they eat different kinds of mushrooms, drink different kinds of tea? Did I take any supplements? How far and often did I run? They were just desperate to find a reason for my liver failure. On Friday, December 7th, I started to show physical signs of elevated ammonia levels. I couldn’t find the fork that was right in front of me. I was aggressive and had to be restrained and sedated. The transplant team started the evaluation process to see if I was a viable candidate for transplant. They knew that I was young, I had a healthy lifestyle, and I had the family support that was necessary for a transplant to be successful. By that afternoon, I was in a coma. This is just three days after my eyes turned yellow. My MELD score was 37 out of 40. The MELD score is the model for end-stage liver disease, which determines how sick you are.

The higher the number, the more urgent your case is and the more likely you are to receive a transplant. But by Friday night, I had surpassed a score of 40 and was placed on the liver transplant list as 1A status. This is reserved for people who will not live longer than a day or two without a liver transplant. Less than 1% of liver transplant candidates are status one a. On Saturday, December eighth, my family was notified around 2:45 p.m. that we had a liver for transplant. Nothing was 100% until the surgical team put their eyes on it, but they felt it would be a match. They also had to do a last-minute scan to make sure that my brain hadn’t swelled too much because they won’t use the liver on a patient who has had brain damage. I was right on the line. Thankfully, the doctors made a judgment call, and they took the gamble. My Christmas miracle happened on December 9th, 2018. It was the day that I received a second chance to live. This is a total God moment and shows the power of prayer. You see, the average weight for a liver is one year. I waited less than one day. All because of a generous gift from my organ donor. All I know about her is that she was younger than me. I have written to her family, and I hope they know what a wonderful person she was to choose the gifts, the gift of life. I woke up three days later to learn I had a liver transplant. Remember, I didn’t know any of this was going on. The doctors believe I have autoimmune hepatitis, which is a condition where the body’s own immune system attacks the liver. I don’t remember much from this time, but I do remember opening my eyes and looking around. I could tell I was in a hospital room. I was still on the ventilator. I saw Todd, and I saw my mom. So I knew I was okay. But then I kept looking around, and I didn’t see my boys. And then I quickly panicked, and my mind went to. Thinking, Oh, I’ve been in a car accident, and something has happened to them. I think I quickly realized my panic and quickly. He was like, No, the boys are fine. They’re at school. They’re fine. But he told me that I got sick very quickly and had to have a liver transplant. He said. My eyes got really big, and I just mouthed the word, Wow. So the next six months were very challenging. My colon stopped working. I had to push myself to walk. I was 60 pounds heavier because my kidneys stopped working, so I had to go on dialysis for four months. My colon has improved, and my kidneys have now improved as well. I am off dialysis, but I am still considered to have stage four kidney disease. So my team of doctors watched that lab work carefully. They watch all my lab work carefully. I have it done about every two weeks. I was in and out of the hospital battling different infections and one case of rejection. But the transplant team at U.K. has been amazing, and they really stay on top of my care. I have learned that being a transplant patient is a trade-off. Yes, I am alive, but life looks very different for me now. I like to think of it as a complicated blessing. It means taking 22 pills a day for the rest of my life. That’s so much better than the first six months when I was having to take 45 pills a day. I take three different immunosuppressant, oppressive drugs every 12 hours to keep my body from rejecting my liver. I’m tired all the time. I used to be a hugger, but now I’m just kind of not. I’m afraid of catching everything because even a simple cold could put me in the hospital for a week. I deal with some anxiety, and I don’t want to get too far away from the U.K. for fear that something might happen. This year alone, I have had six hospital stays and four surgeries for tune-ups, as they like to call it, so I can get my medicine and my body back on track. I have total mom guilt that I could be and that I should be a better mom. But I’m just not sometimes. Luckily, I’m blessed with just a wonderful family, and they get it. They understand my struggles, and they support me fully. Through all of these struggles, though, I am so, so happy I get to go cheer Keenan on at all of his soccer games. I get to watch Aiden play guitar here on stage. I get to go on dates with Todd, and I get to hang out with my family and friends. I realize this blessing, and I don’t want to take it for granted. God answers prayers differently. I’ve seen Jesus call home two of my friends in the last couple of months.

I don’t know why. I don’t know why he chooses to answer prayers for healing in different ways. I just know that I am called to recognize and respond to the way in which he answered my prayers. So I’m trying to be as present and involved as my body will let me each day. I recognize this blessing of time that he is giving me. There is no way I could have made it these last three years without the love and support of my family and my friends. I was told the waiting room was full of people praying for me and my second chance at life. When this all started, Todd reached out to Brad and Carla Perry, our life group leaders at the time, to spread the word into pray. A very simple prayer. Please save her. That was all they knew. But immediately, my church just erupted in prayer. Hundreds and hundreds of people were advocating for a miracle on my behalf. There was an army on our side, all calling on the power of God to intervene. All our people ask others to pray as well. People from California, all the way to Ireland, were advocating for my family and praying for God to move. As the situation changed and new details would emerge, this army of advocates all responded with very specific and detailed requests to God. My school family also prayed together before and after school for a whole month of healing. And a great many of these prayers for help and healing continued even after I came home. They continue even today if I have a hospital visit or get sick because my body doesn’t have an immune system. I know I have an army of people praying for me and my family. Prayer is important. It matters. It works. But my church and community, my people, they did more than just pray. They surrounded my family with support. Without me being at home. Todd needed a lot of help in the house and with our boys. My family and Todd’s family, they jumped right in, as well as Brad and Carla Perry and Beth Wilson and many, many others. I didn’t. Keenum pretty much bounced around from house to house during this time. When I finally got to come home, we learned that bringing home a transplant patient was very different than if you had the colder of or the flu. Our house had to be completely cleaned and sanitized from top to bottom because of my risk of infection. And friends from our life group and other church members jumped in to do just that. And that support continues even today. If I’m sick or we need support. All we have to do is make a single phone call, and my people jump in to help. My kids are cared for. We have a community to talk to, people to cry with us, and lift us up all by making a phone call. My church is simply there for us. I have watched my church live like God has called his church to be. We need a God to hold our hands and care for us. And he did it through his church. He continues to hold our hands through the people in his church. Community is important. I have my people, and that matters. I would like to take this time to thank the people who have loved me and my family so well during these last three years. It’s overwhelming and humbling to be loved and cared for so well, especially at times when you feel like you’re at your lowest point. My people here at Eastside have been here to pick me up. And for that, I thank you. My Christmas miracle has taught me how much I need Jesus. Every day, prayer, Bible studies, and Scripture helped me get through the tough days. My school family made T-shirts to support our family and included part of the Bible verse from.

Isaiah 40:31.

They will run and not grow weary, the former says, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint.

This verse stuck with me during my recovery and still today. And I think God has taught me a couple things through this experience. First, I think He has taught me that it’s okay to slow down. I was just so used to rushing through life just to get that job done. Like many of us are and taking care of everything. But now I have to slow down. I don’t have a choice. My body won’t let me. I even quit teaching a job that I loved so much after I realized I didn’t have the energy to be the teacher that my students would need. I could get frustrated and upset about that. And at times, I have. But God is teaching me to be content at my current pace. Slowing down is good. It isn’t a fault. I often have to stop and wait on God to strengthen me. And that’s okay. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. I might be running a whole lot slower, but I know that God will continue to renew my strength. I need to take breaks, but He renews me in all of this. Slowing down has given me some perspective. That’s the second thing. He has taught me perspective. As difficult as it was, there’s a blessing to be found in leaving my career and being forced to slow down. I’m now a stay-at-home mom to two awesome teenage boys. As soon as school ends, I pretty much run an Uber service, driving them around to sports practices, games work, hanging out with friends, worship practice, life group, you name it. But it all means more time with them. And I know that time is precious. I’ve learned to see rest as necessary and good, not as a handicap. When I’m rested, I can more, more fully participate in the life of my family. So when I need to rest, I rest. That’s it. And that’s okay. I also have a new perspective, maybe a clear one, on how much God has blessed my family. I was able to leave my career because of how He has blessed us. We didn’t have to struggle with that decision because God has always met our needs. He continues to provide for us. I see that more clearly now. My perspective is changing. I see blessings and opportunities where I might not have otherwise, and I’m so thankful for that. In all of this madness, the confusion and hurt, being tired and scared, I can now see God’s blessing. There is a blessing of permission to go slow to rest. That rest is not a sign of weakness. Rather, it is something that God grants me, and I have the blessing of perspective. I see the way God is working in and around me more clearly than ever before. Outward looks hide my inner struggles a lot, and some days can be really challenging. But I’m learning that God uses these trials to make me aware of how much I need him, and He gives me all I need to make it one day at a time. So for all of us who suffer with heartache, pain, or invisible diseases, we know that life can be challenging. But God ask us to lean into Him and let him use our suffering to gain understanding and compassion for others to see how he meets us there, to encourage others to see all the blessings that we do have and to look forward to that incredible day when we will meet him face to face in heaven, free of all this worldly pain and hardship. God is so good. I am here today, and I can’t thank God and my organ donor enough for saving my life. I want to finish with a challenge that’s very important to me, and it only takes one minute. I want to challenge you to give the blessing of life to someone else. Some stranger who is hopeless, whose family is scared, who is completely out of options. 

I want to challenge you to become an organ donor. What legacy will you leave behind when Jesus calls you to heaven? You know, for some people, it might. You might be lucky enough to leave behind a ton of money and give that away. But for some people. Maybe your legacy is in the beating heart of a young teenager who can go on to live a full life. Or maybe your legacy is in the kidneys that keep a young father from going through dialysis every week. Or maybe your legacy is in a liver, giving selflessly to a wife and a mother of two. Your legacy can be in the hopes and dreams of a family made whole by your selflessness. Each person who signs up to be a donor could save up to eight lives and restore the health of over 75 other people. What a powerful gift. Will you sign up today? You can do that right now. It just takes one minute. At registermeky.org, Thank you.

 You can be seated. Well, I don’t know about you. But I was sitting down here on the front row. Just tears in my eyes. You know, she said that God is good. And there’s this belief. This attitude. Satan has just put into the world’s system that if you become a Christian if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you will no longer have any trials or death or tribulations or troubles. Those things would be perfect. But the Bible never says that anywhere. What it does mean is that if you invite Jesus into your heart that you have peace. You have his strength with you, whatever you may be facing. And Emily so clearly articulated that force. Right that God’s been with her. God is good. God can be trusted. And some of you that are here this morning. Is that? You’ve lost perspective, you’ve lost the goodness of God, you’ve lost and have forgotten about the grace and the mercy of God. And God brought you here to remind you that no matter what you’re facing right now at this moment, for some of you, you’ve got a rebellious child, even heard from him in a season. For some of you, you’ve got broken relationships, some of you, you’ve got financial stress. For some of you, your marriage is hanging on by a thread. And in the midst of all that, God is for you. God is with you, and God is in you. And see, we say this all the time. We go. How do people who don’t know cross ever make it through a major life event? And the Apostle Paul, he gives us some words about this in Philippians chapter four, verses 1112 and 13. He says I’m not saying all of this because I’m in need. Paul says For I have learned to be content here to learn contentment and learning contentment in whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be a need to know what it is to have plenty. I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. He says Because I’ve learned that contentment is trusting and believing in the heart, in the goodness of God. And he says Because God is on my side. He says, this I can do all of this through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. And you know what? As these holidays are approaching quickly, less than a week now, right? That God. Can strengthen you, God can help you, God can help you to be present in the moment and help you to see his goodness and give you perspective. And so this morning, would you please stand with us?

 In Matthew 1344, Jesus says heaven is like. And I want to pause there because if Jesus starts a sentence that way, we would all really want to pay attention, he says. Heaven is like a man in a field who finds a treasure, and then he buries that treasure and goes and sells everything he has so he can buy the field. Now, what does it mean there? To me, in that metaphor, Jesus is saying that this man’s possessions are the things of the world, and the treasure in the field are the things of God on this side of eternity. And the cool thing is my perspective here at East Side, we’ve got a lot of that stuff already going on in our ministries. If these ministries have touched you, just let me know. Winter Wonderland recently. What do you guys think about that? That was awesome. Families are coming together and free events for Christmas. What about man camp? Has anybody been a man camp before? Yeah, man, camp touched your heart. We’ve got the girls in Guatemala, the Prince of Peace home for girls. The local food bank. You know, they limited me on time because I could keep going on this. But the thing is, your job is not finished, right? And so our leaders came to us a month or two ago, and they said, we’ve got three ministries that God put on our heart for us to pick up. First, we want to do a special needs ministry and have that support in our church. Second, we want to do a limited preschool for all the babies that are coming around to decide. I’m contributing to that myself. And then, and then third, we’re going to open back up with the feed my starving children. And here’s the thing, is that that first ministry, the special needs ministry, is something that’s near and dear to my heart. And the reason, as many of you might know, I have a brother with disabilities. And so my family knows what it feels like to go to a place and be cast aside or not have supports, not have an inclusive environment. So the fact that we’re going to have a supportive environment for families to come if they need extra support or care, that is just like the coolest thing. And I’m so glad that God’s put that on us, that on our hearts. So we want you to be a part of that. We want you to be the man in the field who is investing in this treasure. And we’re doing that through the end of the year Fund. My wife and I have had a scheduled conversation this week. We’re going to specifically talk about this. We’re going to pray over this. I’m going to ask you to do the same thing, whether it’s with yourself or with your spouse, but more importantly, with God. Just look at your current generosity. We’ve got a link on the screen. It’s Eastsideky.Church/end of the year. And I want you to go to that link and do one of the one of three things. If you’re not doing generosity yet in one shape or another, just set up for some sort of systematic gift, let it go behind the scenes, and just be a part of this. Or if you’re already doing it, step it up monthly, or maybe give a lump sum if that’s what you’re called to do. But we want you guys to be a part of this treasure that we’re investing in this further ministry that we’re going to be a part of Eastside. And so God. Thank you for just such an amazing December in ministry here at our church. Thank you for the bravery of the people who have been up on this stage, sharing their testimonies, sharing their miracles and their perspective, God of your Grace, and what that means to them and their families. Thank you for your gift to Jesus, and Christmas is coming around this happy time of year. I want to pray for intentionality in our lives. God, during this season, especially with this end-of-the-year fund and these new ministries, we’re reaching out trying to grow your kingdom. God, I pray that as we talk with you, you speak to us and give us direction on what makes the most sense as far as how we’re going to connect with this treasure that we can have of your kingdom here on earth. God, So be with us in the season. We love you, and we praise God in your holy name. Amen.

Jesus. The sweetest name on earth. Thank you for being here today. Aren’t you glad that you showed up today, huh? Would you? One more time. Would you give it up for Heather? Andrew Abbott? Does the Napier and Emily Baldwin or their great custom owners? Yeah. Thank you. So, as a reminder, you know, with Emily, if you come up and say hi or whatever, no hugs, none of that. You know, just for her own safety. And I just want to remind you that the last two weekends have been incredible. We had 1500 people show up for Winter Wonderland. Yeah. We had hundreds, hundreds of guests. But our team of power elves, we called them. They discovered 111 people and formed a relationship with them of 111 people who said, you know what? We don’t have a church home. We’re looking for one. And we’re already in conversation with them, inviting them back. So they might be here this morning. But even though we had a tremendous winter wonderland, Christmas is not quite over on Friday. We have two Christmas Eve services. They’re going to be identical, one at 12, one at five. Hope that you and your family will make plans to be here at one of those services. They’re going to be incredible. And we’ve been practicing and working hard and planning hard. So make sure that you come and be a part of that on Friday. Okay. So I’m going to say a prayer, a prayer of blessing over you, and then you’re dismissed. Father, what a blessing to be the pastor of such wonderful and great people. Father. It is an honor. It is a pleasure to do life with these individuals in these families. And, Father, I thank you for their sacrifices of their time and their talents and treasures and plans. And Father, I thank you for your willingness just to embrace new ministries and to have a heart for our community. And father. Thank you for their kindness. But most of all, thank you for the love that they have for you and for one another. And may your blessing, may your grace, and mercy be poured out on these individuals. I pray all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless. Have a great day.