Josiah Berger's Life to Life Celebration
Josiah's celebration service was a beautiful tribute to Josiah and to God's power, grace and faithfulness. We've only just begun to see what God is going to do. Thank you to all who attended in person and watched over the Internet. And a very special thanks to everyone who's been praying for the Berger family this week.
Click here to watch the service: http://gracechapel.net/teaching/index.html?p=detail&id=205
9:00am Tuesday:
The Service will be held at 4:00pm CDT (GMT -5).
As mentioned in the email yesterday, we expect a full-house this afternoon. We know many of you are planning on arriving early, but we ask that you do not arrive before 3pm. Grace Christian Academy dismisses at 2:45pm and we would like to ensure the safety of the children by not having extra traffic (both cars and people) around until they depart. Thank you for understanding.
Many people have asked about attire for this afternoon. There is no need to dress up. This service is completely casual, just like our Sunday morning services.
If you arrive and there are no available seats in the Sanctuary or overflow rooms, you can tune your car radio into FM station 89.9 and hear the live service.
7:25pm Monday: We will not be streaming the service directly from our site as we typically do on Sunday mornings. Instead we will redirect you to our streaming video service provider. Here is the URL for the service. You may wish to bookmark it now in case high traffic causes the Grace Chapel site to be hard to reach:
(URL removed)
Driving directions are available here.
We expect a completely full house, so the service will also be streamed over the Internet. We apologize for the technical issues we experienced during Sunday's service and expect to have those issues resolved Tuesday. If possible, we'll post a direct link to the video stream soon so that you can bookmark it in the event the site is difficult to reach on Tuesday. Late-breaking information can also be found on our Twitter feed.
Childcare will not be provided for the service, so please make alternate arrangements for your children. If you do bring your children, we ask that you sit in the Fellowship Hall or one of the youth rooms. As Pastor Jim asked yesterday, please give the Berger family their space tomorrow. They are so grateful for your love and support and we will have plenty of opportunity to love on them in the coming weeks.
Thank you Grace Chapel for your love, kindness, support, understanding and being others centered.
10:00pm Saturday: Sunday morning services will be held tomorrow at 9:00am and 11:00am. We anticipate a large crowd, so the service will also be broadcast live over the internet at 11:00am CST here at gracechapel.net. Just navigate to the Home Page of the site at (or shortly before) 11:00am. We encourage as many as possible to tune in.
We have also set up The Josiah Berger Memorial Fund at Pinnacle Bank of Franklin. This fund will benefit organ donation.
A Facebook post from Josiah’s sister Heather reads, “Josiah changed 77 lives today and literally GAVE life to 5 that wouldnt have survived otherwise. sometimes miracles happen in ways that we dont expect, but the miracle still happened.”
10:00pm Friday: Sarah and I wish to thank everyone for your unequalled love and support. We have fought the good fight of faith, prayed without ceasing and trusted Jesus. Now, we have the joy of realizing our Josiah is in heaven. We take great pride and joy in Siah's decision to donate his organs. Siah will now live on in heaven and earth. Hallelujah forever!
To God be the glory!
—Pastor Steve
1:30pm Friday:
We need more of the same. Don't stop praying! Josiah's condition has not changed and we are still praying with everything we have for God to do a miracle in Josiah David Berger's life. As requested last night, please do not go to the hospital. The church will be open until 2:30pm for prayer. After that, we encourage you to pray where you are at or gather in public areas such as Pinkerton Park. Stand in the gap!!!
9:00pm Thursday: There has been no change in Josiah’s condition since the 1pm update. Please continue to ask God to show His face in this situation. We are still praying for a miracle and please don’t stop.
The entire Berger family are overwhelmed with the amount of support they have had over the past few days, both locally at the hospital and all around the globe through prayer. We do ask that no one but immediate family come to the hospital tomorrow so they can have some time alone with Josiah. The church sanctuary will be open tomorrow from 8:30am – 2:30pm for anyone who would like to have an unstructured prayer time. We thank you for your cooperation with this.
Pray, Pray, Pray!!!
4:19PM CDT Thursday: Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Due to the huge crowd, no more visitors are being allowed at Vanderbilt Medical Center. If you'd like to pray corporately, the Grace Chapel Sanctuary will be open until 5pm for anyone who wants to come and pray for Josiah and the Bergers.
Pastor Steve's son Josiah, (19) was involved in a motor vehicle crash late Tuesday night. He is in the Intensive Care Unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with a fractured skull and his condition is life threatening. He has not yet regained consciousness.
Pastor Jim had this to say:
"There has been a great time of worship and outpouring of prayer in the lobby here at the hospital. The doctors have given a pessimistic report, but we continue to pray, believe, and trust God for miracles."
Pastor Steve had this to say about his son:
"No outward change YET, but it's coming in Jesus Name!!! OVERWHELMED by the support from around the world, tears of gratitude! There's a miracle to apprehend, let's GO!!!"
Please continue to pray for Josiah's healing, and thank you for your overwhelming support. We will keep this post updated with the latest information in the hours and days to come.