Changing the World in 800 Days

Uprising Group Day 1


So, this is officially the first post of my first blog and I'm pretty excited. I guess I'll start out by telling you a little about myself and the reason for this blog. My name is Nathanael Duran and I'm currently an intern at Grace Family Church in Tampa. I'm a part of the Uprising leadership training experience along with my 6 closest friends who are all but family to me, Savvy Selby, Chloe Crebs, Ian Hall, Amber Porter, Tyler Brooks, and Casey Bonham. Uprising is a 9 month program where we wake up each morning, work out, pray and have devotion, have classes, and work in our chosen ministries. It's been 2 months since we've started this amazing journey together and God has shown us and grown us all so much in that short amount of time, it's truly incredible. I'm not gonna spend too much time on me though because thats not what this blog is about :)

Kyle, Charley, Ezra, and Robyn Matthews

This Blog is dedicated to Ezra David Matthews and his parents Kyle and Robyn who are very dear to me. Read their story here thematthewsstory.com. Ezra is a 2 year old boy who fought cancer for over half his life with his parents by his side. He went home to our loving God on November 8th 2010. Ezra lived for exactly 800 days. Ezra's short life of 800 days reached over 100,000 people. He brought together people from 40 different countries to all stand together in faith for a miracle. He changed my life for ever and the lives of many others. I'm making this blog to document my journey and whoever else will join me as we honor his memory and show love to those who need it most, whether they be a family member a complete stranger or someone in need. My goal is to spend 800 days doing what Jesus commanded all of us to do, love each other. I hope to follow His example and the example of this amazing little boy. I'm gonna add in the amazing experience I had with God through this family to give you a little background.  

I'm sure a lot of you know about Ezra Matthews and his parents Kyle and Robyn. For those of you that don't Ezra is a 2 year old boy who has been battling neuroblastoma (a rare form of cancer) for over half of his life. I started following their story about 2 months ago when I joined the internship program at grace family church. We have an hour devotion time at 9 each morning. Well about 3 weeks ago while I was home getting ready to go to the church I just really felt God putting Ezra on my heart. I had the most urgent feeling that I needed to start praying for him, so I just started to pray in the spirit as I finished getting ready and drove to the church. When I got there I put on some music got down on my face and just started praying for this little boy and his family. In the song Hosanna there's a verse that says “show me how to love like you have loved me” and that has been something thats been on my heart and that I've been praying for lately. While I was on my knees begging God to heal this child He began to just fill my heart with this supernatural love for Ezra. I began to feel so much love for this child that I had never even met and I just started crying asking God to please please heal him of his cancer. Then I thought if I can love someone that I've never met, this much then how much more does the God who created him love him. I knew God was showing me his heart. In that moment I have never prayed so hard and with all I have more than i did then and I just wanted so badly for him to be healed and I know that God wanted that too. I emailed Kyle after that telling him of my experience and he told me that that was the day the doctors told them that Ezra was going to die. He ended up recovering from that and little by little started to improve. I was so hopeful and I just thanked God for the work he was doing in Ezra. Well yesterday morning (November 8th) at 2:45 A.M baby Ezra passed away. When I heard the news I just started weeping. I was hurt and confused. I had no idea why this happened. I'm not mad at God for what happened and I'm not going to lose faith over it I just don't understand it, but then again I can't see the big picture that he sees. I know just in my life Ezra's 2 years here has made such an impact. Through him God taught me how to love others like He loves me, he taught me what it truly means to pray and fast and petition God daily for a miracle to happen. Through Kyle and Robyn he taught me what it is to stand by God no matter what, to trust him wholeheartedly even when it gets hard and painful and ugly. I will always look to them as an example when I go through my own hard times and I will always remember baby Ezra and the love I was given for him. I know Ezra is in a better place now a place where there is no more pain or death or tears, but it still hurts and it still breaks my heart. Through it all I still know the God we serve is a merciful and loving God and that even though we may not be able to see how, he does work all things for good and for his glory. I cant wait to meet this amazing child of God in the arms of our Father.

Ezra's celebration of life

A couple days after I wrote this we had Ezra's celebration of life service. It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen to watch his dad get up on stage and sing of God's mercy for the second time at one of his son's funerals that year. I cried pretty much the whole service. At the end the Matthews challenged us all to be changed by this experience and to go out and do something about it, to love people more and to reach out to the orphans and needy more. So this is my way of doing that. I'm praying that God will give me that same supernatural love, a love that turned a stranger into a dear friend and brother, for 800 other people. I hope to keep a daily log of someone that God loved through me that day. If you feel led to join me in this challenge please post your own experiences on this blog. I'm hoping that together we can love at least one person with the love of God for every day of this challenge. Lets see if we can make the same kind of impact that Ezra made in 800 days. Lets see if together we can change this world by simply loving people for 800 days. The challenge starts Thanksgiving Day, I hope you will join me :).