Perimeter United - Shattered People United in Covenant

God came to my rescue through the Perimeter School covenant community.

By ANGIE GUE, PERIMETER SCHOOL MOM AND SCHOOL MINISTRY TEAM MEMBER

Shattered. That’s the best word to adequately describe my state in 2013. 

My stroke occurred during a freak wakeboarding incident. The twins were 10, Grace was 2, and Lanie was 11 months. I lost the use of the left side of my body. I lived in the hospital, in-patient rehab, physical therapy center, and at home left to deal with my broken condition. 

I spent my first Mother’s Day as Lanie’s mom in a bed at Glancy Rehab unable to give myself to her. It was one of the saddest days of my life.

I lived with frustration. My body couldn’t do what my brain told it to do. This wasn’t me. It wasn’t my body or my brain. I hated it. I was so mad. I became severely depressed due to the lack of progress and a future I was forced to endure. 

The physical stuff was horrible. However, the “brain fog” nearly drove me over the edge. I was more than broken. I was shattered . . . 

God intervened

Alex and I were relatively new to Perimeter School. He’s from Ohio, and I’m a Michigander. Both of our families remain there, and our community was limited in Atlanta.

This is where my life changed. God intervened in my brokenness . . . well, my “shatteredness.” 

God tapped on a lot of shoulders. Most of them were Perimeter School families, and those Perimeter School families didn’t ignore God’s call. They became the hands and feet of our Savior. They came to my rescue. They saw me at my worst and intervened at their best. 

I’ve never seen so much food. Specifically, I’ve never seen so many casseroles . . . even with my Baptist background. 

Carpool? Check. Playdates? Check. Help with homework? Check. Encouraging calls? Check. Walking with me through the darkness? Check.

This is what covenant means

Wait. Oh, I get it now. This is what covenant means! Alex and I knew all the right things to say regarding the covenant. I mean, we had to. That’s what Perimeter School is about, right? But, we didn’t truly know what it meant.

If I’m honest with myself, it took my shatteredness, God’s grace, and the covenant family of Perimeter School to show me what covenant really is:

It’s the healthy body of Christ putting the broken body of Christ on their shoulders. I was the great beneficiary. I was loved. I was served. I was esteemed. 

And why? Because I was shattered. God came to my rescue through His people, the Perimeter School covenant community.

PERIMETER UNITED

Fast forward seven years. I’m so thankful to be where I am in my recovery! The twins are 17, Grace is 9, and Lanie is 8. I’m joyful. I’m healthy. I’m excited. Tremors from the stroke remain, but I’m doing great!

Alex and I have been serving on the School Ministry Team for three years now. It has been our hope and prayer that we’d be able to LIVE THE COVENANT to our Perimeter School family the way that we saw so many do for us. My prayer has been that we would have a voice, a microphone, maybe even a megaphone to shout this from the rooftops. 

Maybe that’s why I’m writing this now, simply as an encouragement to run to each other. My role on School Ministry Team has been to serve on the shepherding committee. I have had the privilege of walking alongside some other families in our school who are facing trauma or heartache. I don’t think I would have been able to fill this role in quite the same way if I had not gone through my own season of darkness.

But isn’t that what Scripture tell us about hard times? As 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves our comforted by God.”

Get in the muck. Hurt with the hurting. Celebrate victories. Provide grace to each other. We’re all a mess. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t waste this opportunity to live the covenant that you signed up for. Do unto others what the Perimeter School covenant family did for me. 

Shattered? Yes. But today, my prayer is that we would be . . . UNITED!