Merry Christmas All!

It’s been perhaps the strangest Christmas season ever, but "different" is good, yes? And I love remembering the birth of heaven – in the person of Jesus – on earth; is that cool, or what! We miss Corrie (our first Christmas without her; she’s celebrating in Germany), and our “kids” aren’t so “kid” any more. Has anyone told you they grow up quickly? Dang!

We’re still in transition, of course. The number of crises is down: Charlie’s estate is more or less closed; we’re just waiting on some paperwork on title transfer of the car. The tree on the house is pretty much done; we’re just negotiating with the insurance company about how much they’re going to pay us, but it’ll still work out OK. In fact, the insurance money may cover the cost of Charlie’s estate, and that would be cool.

I’m losing my assistant at work (Beth is taking a job in massage therapy: she has a license, and she’s ready for it!), and our Sue & I are feeling like our grace to be “in transition” about church is running out, so we’re expecting a change on that front as well. We’re building great relationships with several churches in the area. Please keep praying for GloryHouse; it seems like there’s some tough stuff going on there.

May your 2008 be more than you have hoped for, and may your challenges with 2007 be gone, except for the lessons and foundations they’ve left for your future! Thanks for your prayers!

Snows in December

Welcome to December. The snow is a nice change! TJ wishes it would stay for weeks. The rest of us are glad it's relatively short termed.

We're kind of wrapping up the details of Charlie's estate. There are some terribly lagging details: the title of the car is more difficult than we expected; please pray for an expedited process. We still have decisions to make about some of Charlie's "stuff" too.

Sue's mom is more a focus of our attentions now. She's still at home, still has 24-hour in-home care, and it's still expensive. Sue is finding means to pay for it; her mom has no idea how hard her daughter is working on her behalf! Sue is wonderful! She's wrestling with reverse mortgage details, government agency obstacles, bank bureaucracies, and still maintaining a family, a job and a life! She's so cool!

We've nearly finished cleaning up from the fallen tree; there remain but a few details. The most daunting will be to finish raking up all the leaves (under the snow, before they kill the grass), but those aren't huge issues. I've submitted the claim to the insurance company, and now we're praying for a quick and easy resolution.

Corrie is wrestling with finding the will of God (and the provision of God) in Germany. Boy, that's familiar! Josiah is wrestling with the changes from "adolescence" to "adulthood." That's a rough transition for anyone! TJ is working hard to finish high school; she's been asked to apply for a job in her idea of heaven: the local library, so we're praying for favor there!

Thanks for your prayers. You rock!

Home Again

We're back in Olympia. We have some recommendations to make:

· If you need to go to Los Angeles, fly, don’t drive. It’s a honkin’ long drive! Two days at 9 or 10 hours a day.

· If you have to drive, drive something comfortable. You’ll be sitting for a long time.

· And drive with someone you love: you’ll be spending a long time with them.

· If you have to tow something, use a truck with a diesel engine if you can. We’ve been so impressed with this truck (my dad’s) on this trip.

· Time your drive to miss the Portland rush hour. Dang! They know how to have traffic jams!

· Redding is a great place to stop as a halfway point. It’s almost exactly halfway between Olympia and LA, and there’s a wonderful church there.

· There’s a coffee shop in the church’s lobby that makes great coffee. They have this five-shot thing called Nancy Cobb’s Barnburner or something. That’ll put hair on your chest. You probably want to make sure you want hair on your chest first.

· It’s wonderful to travel with the grace of God. His presence is really cool, and all kinds of problems almost happen instead of actually happen.

So we’re home. We have missed our kids, and we’ve already had several sock fights. My son was remarkably eager to install the larger TV into the living room with the video games and the DVD player. My daughter the craftsperson is excited about the tools and supplies we brought home – and almost went into apoplexy over the gold leaf!

We have a lot of work to do with the things from the estate. We have even more to do to help Sue’s mom deal with her finances. She really has spent all she has on staying in her home, and we’re working on other options now, mostly other options for her to stay at home, not a group home of some sort. She’s definitely getting stronger, but – contrary to her own perceptions – she is not getting strong enough to be on her own again. That could be an interesting conversation when she thinks she’s strong enough to be on her own, and nobody else sees it that way. . .

She’s also recovering from another infection, a doozie that’s resistant to all oral antibiotics, so she’s going to the hospital every day for a week to get her antibiotics intravenously.

We’re also praying for more people to help with the care-giving so Sue doesn’t have to respond to every little thing every time something is out of the normal. She’s pretty worn out.

It seems that FeedBurner isn’t sending out my updates recently, and hasn’t been for a little while. You might visit the website for the last few posts. I’ll send these out manually until I have a chance to figure that beastie out.

You’re a wonderful blessing!

David

Finishing up in Los Angeles

We’ve just finished a couple of very challenging days in Pasadena. We’ve been down here going through Charlie’s things. He was 70 years old, a very gifted interior decorator, and rather a tormented man.

We’ve been going through his possessions, throwing away some things, taking a whole lot of things to Goodwill (three truckloads), and packing up the rest. We’re hauling his damaged car home, and both the car and the pickup are full of stuff.

It’s been really emotional for Sue: “Oh! I remember that!” Much crying. Much weariness working many many hours.

And much grace from God. Rather like walking in warm footsteps: every step we took had had God’s foot there seconds before.

We’re learning so much about trusting God. It’s really cool. Stuff goes wrong, yes, but He’s quick to point out the “way of escape.” After one load-up place today, I noted we had more extra space than I expected. I thought it odd: God’s more efficient than that. The next stop had quite a lot more stuff we needed to load (two table saws! Bunches of tools). It fit perfectly. Freakily perfectly.

And something weird had happened with our cell phone account: we have a couple hundred extra minutes, so we can keep in touch with our family. Cool.

Much visiting with people remembering Charlie (or, as he was known here, “Chuck”). Many tears.Good tears of remembrance.

We're leaving very early tomorrow morning, provided we wake up in time, to head north. Hoping to beat the crowds out of town.

Thanks for your prayers!

Greetings from California

Did you know that California has weird freeways?

We’ve made it to Los Angeles. It’s already been an adventure, and we’re tired, but we’re glad to be here. We ended up driving my father’s diesel truck, and we’re towing Rick Thale’s car dolly. That’s been interesting; more in a minute.

We’ve seen:

• Sue starting our trip with the flu. We considered changing the schedule, but decided not to (with her blessing!)
• An overturned logging truck (yesterday) that blocked all northbound lanes of I-5. I was stunned at the percentage of trucks to cars (about 80% trucks!)
• An extended time in the Alabaster house in Redding (oooh, we liked that!)
• Sue & I have had a wonderful time together, talking and laughing and listening to interesting things. We’ve listened to several sermons, to Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s on First” sketch, to several science fiction short stories (from Escape Pod; I recommend "Squonk the Dragon" and "Nightfall")
• A wonderful visit with friends in Redding, where we borrowed a guest room for the night. I got sick in the night and couldn’t enjoy any of Sherry’s spectacular coffee this morning. Darn it!
• The truck has driven wonderfully, but for about an hour this morning, the cruise control wasn’t working. We prayed for it, and filled the gas tanks (yet again!), and since then, it’s worked perfectly. Thanks, folks, for letting us use it!
• The car dolly wobbles quite a lot. At one point – driving 65 mph through central California – one of the taillights rattled off, and apparently hit a car’s windshield. An uninsured car’s windshield. Sigh. Now we get to deal with insurance issues. (A good place to pray, eh?)
• Since the taillight was gone, the dolly was illegal to drive. So we stopped at an auto parts store in Woodland, CA (where the heck is that?) and worked on replacing the light for a couple of hours, but we couldn’t make it work.
• Since we needed to get magnetic towing lights to pull the car, we went looking for a U-Haul place. But first for lunch, and when we were checking out, the lady asked, “Did you find everything?” and Sue pops out with “No, we need a U-haul place!” and she gave us directions to the biggest and the best U-Haul place I’ve ever seen. They sold us the lights for what I was expecting to pay for renting them, and helped us get them connected. Then he went above and beyond, and found the problem (a blown fuse in a weird place), and gave us a replacement fuse, and everything works again.
• The freeways in California in the night are full of trucks in a hurry. Dang!

It is certainly being an adventure. I was just thinking that in the days of covered wagons, this trip would have taken three months. No wonder I’m tired, and I’m going to bed. Tomorrow, we start meeting people. Yikes. There are a lot of folks we need favor with, and a whole lot of decisions to make.

And we’ve got a lot of packing to do. The goal is to head out early Sunday, heading for points north. We'll see how that goes.

More news as we get the chance. Thanks for your prayers!

Heading to California

It's been kind of the opposite of "Hurry up and wait!" as we've been waiting, trying to figure out the details, and it seems that they've all of a sudden come together.

There are still some details to come together, but it appears that we're heading to California on Wednesday (tomorrow, as I write this). It turns out that it's considerably less costly for us to drive down and back, perhaps half the cost, and at least twice the flexibility.

We're still praying for the details to come together regarding access to the storage facility, connections with several of his friends, and little details like a place to stay while we're there. And we're praying for a safe, smooth drive, for our kids while we're gone, and for Sue's nerves about the trip.

At this point, it looks like we'll be gone most of a week; we'll stay with friends in Redding, which happens to be the mid-point of the trip. Cool. Two days driving, two days in LA, two days driving back.

We're also praying for the myriad of decisions we'll need to make while we're down there. There's a whole lot of information that we don't have, that will affect our actions.

In one sense, there's a fair bit of conflicted emotion: this is a great deal of hassle (the unknowns, the work, the time away, how many other things?) for a beloved brother who's gone. In another sense, there's a fair bit of a sense of adventure as the trip will certainly be an exercise in trusting God rather than trusting ourselves. I guess we aren't as adventurous as we were when we were younger. Good thing God is every bit as faithful as He was when we followed Him to Hawaii, the Philippines, Canada, Germany!

November Begins

Well, this week has certainly been interesting. Uh... that's both positive and negative.

On the negative side are only the practical details of our lives and the responsibilities there. Yeah, there's a whole lot going on, and so what if it's overwhelming. Yep, it's true.

But on the positive side: we're getting to watch God's hand at work; we're privileged to rely on His strength. We have the honor of saying with the Apostle: "When I am weak, then I am strong!"

Do you know, the Bible is actually true! That is so wonderful!

So the situation is still odd: Sue's mom is at home with in-home caregivers and we need to figure out a way to pay for that. (Do you know anyone who wants to buy a 1973 Cutlass Supreme with low miles?). The more urgent issue is that her in-home care – which she desperately needs – has eliminated any solitude she had, and she had gotten very used to solitude.

We’re still trying to figure things out regarding Charlie’s estate in California. We can’t get the car shipped up her for technical reasons, so we have to fly down there, but now the storage unit people are getting weird. Please pray for a smooth path there. We really want to meet his friends and finish the details of his life and death.

The tree is almost gone from our yard. We’re hoping to finish it off this weekend between the rain showers. The insurance company is being nice so far, but then they haven’t written a check yet either. We’re looking forward to a peaceful and equitable resolution; if they pay for our time as they said they would, it may cover the trip to California.

Sue & I are withdrawing from just about everything we’ve been doing; we’re being husband/wife, we’re being parents, we’re worshipping regularly, and we’re maintaining a few friendships, and everything else has pretty much gone by the wayside. It’s so odd not being responsible for this and that in the worship services we attend. Our marriage relationship, for example, is growing in new ways, and our relationship with our teenagers is actually pretty good! They’re wonderful people, you know!

Thanks so much for your prayers! You’re keeping us alive, and on task.

The End of October

We've come to the end of October. Thanks for your prayers this month!

Our family celebrated Christmas this last weekend, and it was wonderful! We actually took the top of the tree that fell on our house the week before, and used it for our Christmas Tree. Josiah had to work that morning, so we had "Christmas Morning" in the afternoon, and it was a wonderful family time. Then we had The Big Breakfast, which is part of our tradition, and we invited teenage friends with us to go play Frisbee Golf at the Highways Department buildings near the capitol building. And rather than having a big turkey dinner, we had a Mediterranean Pizza for dinner.

Corrie leaves for Germany on Monday. Yikes. And it's on a one-way ticket. Yikes again! She believes that Germany is where God is calling her, and she's holding out for a job (and a work visa) over there; please pray to that end: we don't want her to be gone, but if she's hearing God say this, we want to support her in it! If you'd like to be on her monthly mailing list, you can email her at angelschild77@hotmail.com.

I need to either fly to California and drive a vehicle back, or pay to have it delivered. Looking for wisdom here. This would not replace another trip later, of course. Sigh. I'm getting to meet (by phone) some of Charlie's ("Chuck" as he was known in California) friends in California. Neat folks.

Sue's mom is back home; I said that last time, didn't I? She has 24/7 in-home care, which means we're facing some substantial financial mountains, though we have confidence that God has a plan for that. There are regular visits to the doctors, of course. Please pray for relationships: between Sue, her mother, and the caregivers. As you might imagine, the issues there are significant enough that tension wants to creep in.

We finally got the tree cut off the stump: it's bigger than my dad's pro-grade chainsaw. We're still cutting it up. We need folks to help work on the tree, and we need the use of a pretty hefty chipper for the limbs. We think we have a home for the firewood, but if you know someone who may want some of the compost from the chipper, please let us know.

Sue & I are stretched pretty thin. Frankly, we have a lot to cope with. We're trying to let go of most everything else and focus on our family right now: that and work, and not much else. Your prayers are the difference between coping and not coping. Thank you!

The pace is picking up again

The pace is picking up again, which stretches us again.

Sue’s mom improved enough in the past week that the doctor released her to go home. So she’s at home now, with 24-hour a day in-home care. It’s costly, but a long-term care facility isn’t really an option in her mind. It seems that the move has stirred up a fair bit of gossip, most of which targets Sue. That’s hard, so we pray for Sue’s strength and for the end of the gossip.

Regarding Charlie’s estate, things are coming to a head. We’ve been counting on help from his friends in California, which isn’t working out nearly as well as we wanted. One or both of us will probably have to travel to LA shortly; since I have the vacation time, it’ll probably be me. We’re finding the Pasadena police to be very helpful, though there are some other organizations to be far less helpful. We’re praying for advocates at the mini-storage and at the impound lot where his car is. Please also pray for our finances: this is cleaning us out fast!

The tree in our back yard is on the ground; we’re putting in what time we can every day to cut it into firewood lengths (that seems the best way to dispose of it: give away the firewood), and pile up the branches. We’ve put in about 50 hours (we’re keeping track) and I’m thinking we’re halfway done. The (small) hole in the roof is fixed; we’re working on fence and gutters. And we have yet to finalize arrangements with the insurance company.

Overall, our spirits are doing well, though things go up and down in waves. Right now, TJ is feeling the heat the most; we’re praying for strength in her.

We’re celebrating Christmas early this year: this weekend. Corrie will be heading back to Germany (on a one-way ticket L) shortly, and we wanted to share the holiday with her. So we took a piece of the tree from the roof, mounted it in a chunk of firewood, and we’re calling it our “Christmas tree”. I refer to it also as our “Lemonade tree” (“When life gives you lemons…”).

Thanks for your prayers!

Sore Muscles

We’ve gotten the major portion of the tree off of the house. Dang, that’s been a lot of work. My daughter Corrie (from Germany) described it this way:

We (that is, my family and anyone else who's come over to help) have put most of today, and yesterday, and the day before, into clearing up the yard and getting rid of excess, or dangerously unstable, branches and getting rained on. Afterwards, we were obliged to help ourselves to a pint of ice cream (hey, we deserved it!), pizza, and some stout... since American beer is terrible.

We had some interesting things happen. First, it appears that the damage to the house is limited mostly to a busted gutter and one or two broken shingles. We had just put a layer of plywood on the roof before re-roofing, and that probably kept the tree out of Corrie’s bed. We’re checking for hidden damage, but so far, it’s encouraging.

Second, while we were cutting the tree down, my friend Bill slipped and wrenched his back pretty badly. He tried to keep working (he’s like that) and it seemed to me that it got worse, to the point that he couldn’t bend over to pick up his chainsaw, and if he could, he couldn’t have used it. Meanwhile SteveO and I were telling stories about the good things God has been doing. So we grab Bill and pray for his back.

As we said “Amen,” I asked him how his back felt. He said, “It’s fine,” bent over and picked up his chainsaw and went back to work. The pain was completely gone, and stayed gone the rest of the day. Yay God!

We’re also thankful for God’s protection. Two of the very large logs basically exploded as I touched the chainsaw to them; one missed my foot by an inch. We had been working under those giants for a few days, climbing them to get at limbs (and just ‘cuz it’s fun); I guess they were ready to come down any minute. Sure glad they didn’t until we cut them back from the roof and cleared out space underneath.

Sue’s mom is getting stronger in the convalescent home, but she hasn’t been convalescing as well as Medicare thinks she should, so they want to discharge her tomorrow. Janet has improved (in our opinion) quite a lot in the last couple of days. We attribute it to getting her off of some pretty strong drugs, to getting her hearing aids fixed (I was amazed: the audiologist came to the home to fix the aids!), and perhaps to a realization that she needs to improve if she’s going to stay there.

Sue has asked for a re-evaluation in light of these changes. We’re praying for a better evaluation, as Janet clearly can’t go back home by herself right now. So on the one hand, we’re praying for her to stay in the home, and on the other hand, we’re trying to plan for her discharge.

I’m afraid that Charlie’s estate has suffered from a lack of attention in all this. Sue & I were trying to plan for some of the more urgent aspects last night on our date night. We’re going to need people down there – Charlie’s friends whom we don’t know – to help with some of this.

And while you’re praying, please pray for our rest, including our sleep. Neither of us is sleeping as we need to; I’ve gotten 4 hours a night recently, and it doesn’t seem to be enough. I’m not quite falling asleep at work. On the good side, however, we’re feeling like (mostly) we’re handling the stress better than we were a week or three ago. Again, thanks for your prayers.

Christmas is this weekend, before Corrie flies back to Germany. We’ve loved having her here, and we don’t know when she’s coming back: she’s on a one-way ticket this time. Sigh.

What else can happen?

That sounds a little dramatic, and I guess we feel like we’re in a soap opera. We had a windstorm today. We have a 40’ plum tree in our back yard (with our treehouse in it L) that’s leaning from the last storm. We expected it to go down, but it’s aimed at the garden, and this is October, so nothing serious is going to happen.

But no! The neighbor had a perfectly healthy 100’ tall tree in their back yard. We actually hated that tree: every spring, it would drip weird sap on Sue’s wildflower garden and kill half the plants there. Well, our plum tree stayed up (it’s leaning a little more), but their big tall tree landed on top of our house. It tore the gutter off, and the top was beyond the peak of the roof (the brand new roof! We just replaced it last month!).

It’s kinda weird, though. The damage is really pretty minimal, which is hard to explain. The new roof may have prevented more damage (it included a half inch of plywood under the new shingles), but mostly we figure, this shot mostly missed us. Scared us though.

Sue’s mom is weaker, but with her hearing aids working, she’s able to communicate better, and her attitude is perking up. She’s still not eating, so she’s really weak. She’s really grieving over Charlie. I don’t even really know how to ask you to pray. Just pray, please.

Charlie’s estate is the toughest to cope with, and that’s probably because I’m really not used to being completely ignorant of how to deal with something, and we are here. We think we have a plan of attack, but we could really use prayer for both wisdom and encouragement. It’s easy – frighteningly easy – to be overwhelmed in this.

And Josiah has just announced that he wants to go to Australia on a school program. Next month. For ten weeks. Sheesh.

And please rejoice with us that the fallen tree did so little damage. That is so cool.

Tuesday Update

It's been a few days since I updated this; it's been a busy couple of days. I won't bore you with all the details, though I'm amazed at how many there are.

We have three categories of issues we're working on dealing with. (I'm a teacher; I can break anything down to three points!)

1) Helping Sue's Mom, who's still in the convalescent home, but is not improving like we want her to.

2) Dealing with Charlie's death; he had no will, and he lived and died in California, and we're completely ignorant, so this is both frighteningly expensive and stunningly complicated.

3) The care and feeding of our own souls, both individually, as a couple and the family we lead. Our daughter from Germany is visiting, so it's wonderful and complicated; our own souls are being stretched, so it's wonderful that we're growing, but it's painful to grow, and our marriage relationship is having to carry more weight than ever before.

I'm afraid that a whole lot of outside duties and relationships and people and ideas are having to fall by the wayside as we concentrate our limited energies on these three. We miss our old church, but we're glad to not have those responsibilities on us right now.

Thanks so much for your prayers. We need wisdom to identify the priority tasks, courage to let the lower priorities slide, compassion where it is called for, boldness where that is required, and wisdom to administrate people, money and tasks. Oh, and we want to grow as much as we can in this season: we want to thrive, to come out stronger and wiser and kinder, not just survive. Your prayers help us get there! Thank you!

Learning about cremation

I haven’t updated things for a couple of days; it’s been a little hectic. Sue, of course, is grieving. I hope it isn’t irreverent to say this, but it’s cool to watch the steel developing in her spirit as she grieves. She’s such an incredible lady! She says she’s beginning to feel things again.

We’re learning about cremation services (Charlie asked to be cremated), about the legal system in California, and about grief: more, actually, than we ever wanted to know. I ran into some people who are really helpful and sincere, and some others that could make a killing selling used cars! Dang!

We’re getting to deal with all this because the relative that was going to be handling all of that has turned it over to us. We’re completely overwhelmed, but the reality is that it does make sense for us to take the lead in this. Sigh. We're meeting with him tonight to swap information and strategies.

Grandma Janet has her ears back: her hearing aids have been fixed and she can communicate with the rest of the world again; hoping to visit her again tonight. Sue got to spend some extended time with her yesterday; wheeled her down to the in-facility salon to get her hair done. She looks tired

Thanks again for keeping us in your prayers. We've heard - email, phone, replies on this blog - from many folks who are praying for us. We always share those notes, and we're thankful for every prayer. Thank you.

Charlie's Gone

OK, I'm going to say it again: Thank you so much for your prayers.

We got word yesterday at about 6:00 that Sue's brother had just died. We were not expecting it so soon; though we were preparing ourselves for the news, it was still a blow to Sue. He died quietly, just kind of slowed down on his breathing until he stopped altogether.

So we went to church to worship. It was an excellent choice, actually. A couple of folks prayed for Sue while she was worshiping (thanks guys!). Afterwards, we went to Mother Joseph's to tell Sue's mom. That was hard, and not just because her hearing aids were out for repair; we wept together for a while. Then we went home and wept for a while.

Thanks for your prayers, particularly for Sue. She's responding really well, but it's still tough for her. And we (mostly spelled "she") still needs to stay involved in planning for Janet's recovery. The nursing staff is saying, "We don't think she's going back to her house this time." That's not going to settle with her, and she's already taking a number of hits.

We need strength; we're getting it, thanks to your prayers, but we still need it. We need direction, we need wisdom, and maybe most of all, we need to see things from God's perspective. And Janet needs grace, needs clarity to see her options and choose wisely, and to trust God well for those options. Thanks for supporting us!

Sue and Anxiety/Stress

OK, this is cool. I wanted to hesitate on reporting it until it had at least a little time to be seen. Sue's anxiety - that heart-pounding, mind-numbing stuff that paralyzes - suddenly vanished about 2:40 on Sunday afternoon. It's real. Things have not let up, but her peace, while tempered by the surroundings, is real. Yay God! That's exactly what we've been praying for.

Her part of the decision about Charlie was not overwhelming. She says, "That's not my decision; I'm just giving voice to his own decision." She wept for a few hours, and then we played Balderdash as a family. (You haven't played Balderdash until you've played it with my family! ROFL!) Very comforting!

Sue is still stunningly weak. A week without eating and hardly sleeping does that. She's catching up.

Mike is going to look into getting set up as Conservator for Charlie. That means he'll be the point man on Charlie's situation, interacting with doctors, banks, police, etc. Mike is great.

My mom ("The Mom Who Rocks") has been staying in touch with Sue's mom. Her hearing aids have failed, so she's fiddling with that. Yesterday, Janet said, "You know, today's the first day I really haven't felt well."

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Change in Direction

I just got word. They're pulling the plug on Charlie. Probably won't be quick.

Ouch.

Mike is back in town

Mike is back from LA. He didn't find all that he was looking for, though he did "talk with" Charlie a couple of times. He doesn't see change in Charlie, though the doctors are saying "some progress" over "the past several days."

It seems that Charlie wasn't the best record-keeper. (Who among us is?). It's hard to find all the records when we don't know even where to look. Mike is a good detective, but there's only so much he can do.

Sue saw the doctor today; Doctor says "you need to eat" and that's why she's so weary she can't do anything; she hasn't eaten for five days.

Still praying for wisdom, direction, that kind of stuff.

Perspective

Uh... I've probably not been clear about the perspective question.

Yes, this is a tough season for us. Yes, we're terrifically concerned about the people around us that are (or should be) in the hospital. Yes, we hurt, both for them and for ourselves.

But we're aware that God is up to something. While He's got some things that we really want Him to do in Janet's health, in Dayton's health, in Charlie's health. But in addition to that, He's using those circumstances to forge something in us. We don't like the process, but we're looking forward to what (or "whatever") it is that He's building in us.

So we're tired, we're hurting, but we're not dying! Well, yes, we're dying, but we're working on that. We're just not dying. If that makes any sense at all.

Again, thanks so very much for your prayers!

Sunday Sunday

Well, it's complicated. Sue is going to see the doctor tomorrow about the 'flu or about her stress and symptoms thereof.

We haven't heard from Mike in Southern California with news about Charlie and his stroke. Awaiting a reply to voice mail.

Grandma Janet is stabilizing, but she still doesn't understand why Sue isn't there taking care of her. She does appreciate fresh fruit, though.

I just had a conversation with a good friend who was lying on his couch, literally listening to his lungs fill up with his own blood, determined that either God was going to heal him or take him home. The problem is that after I talked with him for 20 minutes or so (trying to persuade him that a hospital was a good idea), he began to make sense.

I don't need lunacy like this. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Saturday Morning

Because of our flu, Sue & I haven't visited Janet for two days, and Janet's hearing doesn't let her use the telephone, so we've been out of touch. My mom (Elsa; she rocks!) has been by to visit.

Janet was up and sitting, and the two grandma's shared an apple and conversation. Janet asked about Charlie (see the last post for that info). The interesting thing was that she had no real memory of the past week, during which she was transfered from the hospital to the convalescence center. She's having very vivid dreams that are disturbing.

I had asked for prayer for Janet and her beligerance in conversation with the medical staff. It appears that we're seeing marked improvement there.

We're also seeing real improvement in Sue's coping capacity. It was a tough night, but in the end she got some good sleep. Coping with demanding and stressful circumstances have never been Sue's strong points, frankly. She's one of the most caring individuals I've ever known, and because she cares so fiercely, when people she loves are hurting, it hurts her a lot too. How do you pray for that? "God make her care less?" I don't think so. God's giving her some strategies on the subject, in the realm of not taking responsibility for things that she can't control, and He's giving her a couple of specific places to give her attention in this growing season. I'll let her tell those stories when she's ready.

Suffice it to say that your prayers are having the desired effect: God is changing stuff in answer to your prayers (and ours). We know we're facing an uphill battle, but those are the ones with the treasures at the top. Thanks for helping us up the hill! You are wonderful!

Friday Night

There's actually a fair bit of new news now. First, the 'flu is really clobbering Sue, and it's lowering her defenses to the stress and/or anxiety of the whole picture. We're feeling like in the midst of all the crud, there's a breakthrough to be had for her.

Mike is in LA, and his job there is rapidly coming to resemble that of a private eye, and he's really accomplished a lot in his first hours there. He's seen Charlie (who is known as "Chuck" in California) and met with his doctor and with his social worker. Charlie is not looking good. The doctors are saying he's "showing some improvement" over the past couple of days, but he's not looking real good now. He made some noises, and it may have been intended to be speech, but it wasn't recognizable. He can move his right arm around, but that doesn't mean he can use it productively.

Guys, this is scary for Sue & me. This is her brother, my brother-in-law. This is a pretty ugly situation, scary, unfamiliar, dark, unknown. We don't know what to do with this, and with all the sickness in our house (Sue & me with the 'flu, two girls w/ wisdom teeth, and Sue's stress), and the challenges surrounding Sue's mom (Sue is the front line on this one), it's hard for us to press forward into Charlie's situation. I'm not saying we're discouraged, though we skirt the edges of it, and have to fight it off; it's more that we just don't have the resources to go very far into this. I sure am thankful for mike.

Mike also got permission from the police to get into Charlie's car, to get his possessions out of it. The car can't be driven now, though the issue is only a busted up tire and rim; that's probably not for this trip. He found Charlie's wallet and an address book there, both of which have clues for the next phase.

The biggest issue so far is that nobody has the legal right to do anything for Charlie. He has no wife nor kids; nobody has power of attorney, and therefore, there are several things that he must do himself, except he can't. Decisions about his medical care, about where he goes when the hospital has done all they can, about getting the car, about banking things, a storage facilty, and no doubt dozens of other things.

Please pray for clear direction for Mike, for encouragement for the whole family (there's more I'm not saying), for favor with government and medical officials. Please also pray for Charlie's friends: they're remarkably helpful, particularly Ken. Please also pray for wisdom to see the real lessons behind all the circumstances.

You guys rock. thanks!

Mike is in LA

Well, Sue's nephew (and Charlie's nephew) Mike is now in LA; he's just landed, so we don't have any news yet, and probably won't have any until well into tomorrow. He left in a hurry, so there's a lot of information-shuffling that needs to go on.

I've been talking with people in the Pasadena Police Department, who seemed for a while to have lost the records on Charlie's accident and his car, but they eventually found that information, and if Mike's cell phone voice mail works as advertised, then he'll have loads of names and phone numbers to sift through, including the phone number of a sympathetic lieutenant in in the PPD Traffic department.

Sue, meantime, is in the full throes of both the flu and the stress from many of her favorite people being in hospitals across the west coast. She is (and has been) one of my heroes, but she's having a rough go on this. I can tell you, I'm not sure I'd do as well as she, were our roles reversed. She rocks!

Please continue to pray for Sue, for her capacity to walk in God's strength, and to see from His perspective, for clear direction, and for quick healing from this stinkin' flu bug !! Please pray for Sue's mom, Janet, for good and healthy communications with both family and the facility she's in, and for the right progress in her recovery. I'm not even sure how to ask you to pray for Charlie; just please pray for him. If you have some strong impressions, please let me know. Please pray for Corrie & TJ who are (or will be by tomorrow) recovering from wisdom teeth surgery.

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Update on Grandma Janet

Not much news on Charlie today; Mike heads down to LA today to be eyes and ears for us, and to be our face to him. Hope to hear more soon. We're really concerned about Charlie. We're not used to having someone this sick, this alone, this far away.

Grandma Janet is the local excitement. The convalescent home called today; she's being "belligerent". She says, "I won't tell you another thing unless Susan is here." Sigh. I guess those are the perks for making it to 91, though it's "not a good sign." She still wants to be in her own house. She hasn't said it, but I think she just doesn't want to have to be 91 years old in her own house.

Sue is coping with overwhelmedness. One daughter is recovering from her wisdom teeth operation; the other is recovering from the flu and will be getting her wisdom teeth out on Friday. Sue herself is now fighting the flu and she hasn't slept more than a token amount for the past couple of nights. Me too. This is getting a little bit out of hand.

I had a long talk with a friend recently. No, we're not the only ones going through a lot of grief right now, and no, this isn't an indication that we're screwing up our lives or our choices. This is just what's going on right now. Ask for prayer.

Oh, wait. That's what we're doing. That's what this website is about (www.dmclain.com). I'm re-activating a few of the email addresses (the ones that I recognize) so that when we post fresh info on the site, you should get a copy in your email, provided I did it right. You can always unsubscribe (see the bottom of the email).

But thanks for praying for us. You're great! Thanks!

Update from

Boy, it's hard getting information out of a southern California.

Charlie is still slowly making improvements. He's gone from being pretty well completely out of it to following instructions, answering simple questions. He's even got some movement on his left side, which was thought to be paralyzed.

Mike (Charlie & Sue's nephew) is going down to LA on Thursday; he'll be the family's eyes on how Charlie's doing, and he'll be the family to Charlie.

A decision has been made to go ahead and give Charlie the feeding tube on Wednesday, though there's a chance that a neurologist could overrule that if he believes Charlie can't recover well. Charlie has said he doesn't want to be on tubes and wires.

Can you hear the sigh of relief from our house?

Thanks for praying!!

Tuesday Update

First, thanks for your prayers, for us, for Sue's mom, for her brother, and for the overall circumstances.

Sue's mom is hurting, but we can identify most of those things. There are some little things (the hospital lost her clothes) and some bigger ones (something - meds, age, infection? - is making her thinking unclear). And she's grieving for Charlie.

Sue's brother, Charlie, is in real trouble. He's been in the hospital for 8 days, and he's progressed to the point where he can mumble his name. They've been feeding him through a tube in his nose, but it's time to change that. They were planning to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach, but they realized that this crosses some sort of boundary, and they need to make a decision: do we go to extreme measures to keep him alive, or do they let him go.

Sue & I are having a real hard time knowing how to cope with this, and of course, it's hitting Sue hardest. How do we respond? What can we do to help? So we pray. We follow as much path as we can see, and we work hard to keep our eyes where they belong.

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Praying for Clarity

We've been asking for clearer communication, and we're getting it. Charlie's doctor in LA called Sue personally to give her the strait scoop. The situation is not pretty, but we're finding ourselves encouraged in the whole conversation: bleakness is fading away and hopefulness is replacing it, though it's going to be a tough fight.

Apparently there are a couple of different kinds of strokes; Charlie has had the kind that appears to be less debilitating. He is awake (but groggy), he's becoming more alert, and he's working on communicating with the medical staff, though the damage is severe enough to make that difficult. Half of his body is recuperating faster than the other half (I can't remember which right now). Please pray for solid, remarkable, and quick recovery. If nothing else, Charlie needs to make peace with God.

Unusually, we are having difficulty connecting with Mike who is flying to LA. He may be mid-travels. He'll be in the thickest part of this; we're praying for clarity, compassion, and really smooth connections.

Please pray for clarity for Janet, Sue's mom, as well. The combination of her drugs and her infection and maybe her age have made for a tenuous distinction between reality and fantasy. That needs to clear up in order to deal with health issues more directly.

Interestingly, I have been talking with a number of otherwise peaceable young ladies who have found themselves angry about this whole situation, and have taken a spiritually pugnacious stance in prayer. (I love it! I'm very thankful!) More interesting, Sue & are hearing some particular strategic prayer direction in some surprising directions. We're hoping to have some time this evening - after all the connecting and discussing and communicating to - go after the specific directions God has given us.

One word of correction: in my daughter's vision, the phrase "I'm on it!" from God was apparently not etched in a golden ticket; it was in the 60% cacao dark chocolate itself (the details were in the vision); the golden ticket was someone's interpretation. We must be precise with revelation, mustn't we?

Again, thanks for your prayers!!

A New Hope

First and foremost, thanks for your prayers! We have updates, and they're good.

* Sue's mom is out of the hospital. She's in a convalescent home, which means that she's there to convalesce. She's not the least bit strong. She's a little confused, but her history gives us reason to question whether some of her drugs (antibiotics?) are doing that.

* We did break the news about Charlie's stroke/condition to Sue's mom. There were some complications, mostly because we needed to tell her at about the same time she moved out of the hospital, and the confusion made for some distractions. We were afraid she'd freak, but she didn't. She asked us to leave the room while she wept for a while (IMHO: the best possible response); when we came back, she asked us to pray with her for him (Wow!) Thanks for your prayers!

* We have (well, Sue has) finally heard from the hospital in Pasadena. She "just happened" to get a nurse that was remarkably helpful, and the nurse had good news. Charlie is no longer described as "nonresponsive." Now they're saying, "He's hard to rouse," which means that he can be roused and is in fact being roused. He's being fed by a tube, which means that he is being fed! We consider this hopeful. We're praying for a miraculous recovery!

* Sue is not going to travel to California; her mom (and others) need her here. Her nephew (and Charlie's nephew) Mike will be traveling to Pasadena/LA. We're praying for clean arrangements, favor with the hospital, the police, and whomever.... One prayer already answered: we know a place where he can stay; it turns out the hospital has a hostel-type thing right next to the hospital where he can stay.

Thanks again for your prayers. They're making a difference!

One more thing.

Oh, yeah. Sue & TJ were praying while I was visiting Janet in the hospital. They were laying out before God all the places where the enemy has been stealing, and they were claiming seven times restitution (per Proverbs). TJ was detailing the restitution she was asking for.

We've taught her when she's praying to look to see if God gives her something in reply. Today, He gave her (in a vision) a very rich bar of very dark chocolate (her favorite); when she unwrapped the wrapper, there was a gold ticket (think Willy Wonka) but this one said, "I'm on it!"

I love it!

A little prayer covering would be appropriate, I think.

Things are getting out of hand down here. We're getting a lot of challenges, particularly Sue is.

* I've been sick: was yesterday particularly.
* TJ is seriously sick. Flu-ish stuff. She's been throwing up a whole lot.
* Our dog (well, in all honesty, Sue's dog) died this week. Actually, she had him put down: he was so old and weak he couldn't feed himself, and had a bunch of other problems. That hurt her tremendously.
* Her oldest brother (Dayton) is suffering from dementia and is pretty incapacitated. He's 21 years older than Sue.
* Her mom (Janet) went into the hospital on Monday. She should have been out in a couple of days (bladder infection), but she's still there. And she's stunningly weak.
* We got a call this evening that Sue's other brother, Charlie, brother had a stroke on Tuesday, I think it was. He was taken to the hospital, but he wasn't even identified until Thursday or Friday when his friends were looking for him. It's very serious: he's completely non-responsive, though they've taken him out of ICU. Charlie is the brother that has been closest to Sue. He's 19 years older than Sue.
* Sue's trying to figure out how to tell her mom about it. From my perspective, it looks like this brother (Charlie) has been Janet's favorite; we're not sure how she'll take it, particularly considering her weakness already.

So we're feeling the heat. It's being a good opportunity for us (especially Sue & TJ) to go after stuff in prayer; we like that. But she's running on empty in two or three departments.

Thanks for praying!

After The End

OK, the subscriptions are done, but as I said, I may post updates from time to time.

This is a prayer request from Trevor on behalf of some of his team members. Thanks for your prayers.

--------

For those of you who know Daniel & Terry Vallieres, last night their daughter in law Becky and 3 of their grandchildren were rushed into the hospital with food poisoning and are now on IV therapy. They are is serious conditions and their son Dan is stuck up north working and can't get down to them in Dawson Creek and feels very helpless.

Please for this young family that God would heal all of them.

Trevor

A Fitting End

I think it's time that we wrap up this phase of this blog. It started out about a week-long trip for three guys to pass the Jesus People torch on to a new generation, and it ended up being the lifeline (figuratively and literally) for our team leader, Trevor Macpherson.

(Wild hare: it might be interesting to read through some of the old posts to review how serious this was, and how much your prayers changed our world and Trevor's life!)

Trevor is at home now, recuperating. He's completely "back" mentally, but not all the way back physically; the same physical tasks take more out of him, but that's what "recuperation" is all about. That's also our final prayer request: that his recuperation will be quick and complete.

I'm going to stop updating this site for now. I will no doubt use the site and/or the blog for another purpose at another time, but we'll call this the end of the Summer of Love Prayer Update.

Let me say it one more time, from Trevor, Todd and myself: thank you so much for your prayers over the past six weeks. You've had a very real impact on all three of us, and we all agree that your prayers kept Trevor alive when the enemy and the infection had decided to kill him. There were times when it seemed like the doctors said one thing, and the intercessors said another thing, and every time, the prayers of the saints prevailed, and the doctors changed their minds.

A technical note: There are a number of folks who are subscribed to this list; after this post has cleared FeedBurner's launch chutes, I will be deactivating those subscriptions. Should this same team (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) do this again, I may re-activate your names, and this post. If you'd rather not, there are instructions with this emailed posting to completely unsubscribe or delete the feed. (If that's complicated, just email me, and I'll do it for you: admclain(at)gmail.com.)

Again, thanks for being part of an incredible adventure with us!

Trevor, Todd & David

Trevor is Home From the Hospital

Greetings prayer warriors

Tues. morning was my last IV antibiotic and with all of the tests coming back clean, I was released in the afternoon. It is just sooooooo nice to be home and out of the hospital (33 days all together).

Right now my main goal has been to take over the all of the daily care of Grace and give Judy and Becky a much needed break. However, at this time that takes most of my strength and energy to do, so even though I really want to personally thank each one of you, who not only prayed, but got others to pray for me and sent encouraging emails and even finances to help meet those needs not covered by our travel insurance.

So I am sending out this group email to once more thank all of you for your prayers and support and hopefully over the next week or two I'll be able to get in touch with you.

Trevor

Macpherson Update

Hi again Prayer Warriors

Although, I was suppose to get out of the hospital this past week, they discovered that I had developed a new infection and so on Tues. night they took me off of the original antibiotic and started me on a new intervenes antibiotic called Vancomycin, which they believe will deal with the new bug. Since then, my incision has been looking better each day and I am finished the antibiotics on Mon.and if everything is still improving, I will be out for good. As it is now, I need to be in the hospital at 10am and 10pm each day to be hooked up to the antibiotics, so for the last three days they have been letting me out on day passes, so I can be home to help out with some of Grace's care as Judy, Becky and Matt have been taking turns looking after her and they and they are all getting pretty weary. It has been great to be home, please pray that everything will go right and I will be out on Mon.

Judy

As well as looking after Grace, all of my other responsibilities have fallen on her shoulders as well and she is feeling a little bit overwhelmed and could really use your prayers for strength and His peace.

Becky

Had to postponed her Australia plans because of my hospital stay, but has now revamped them and Lord willing will be leaving her present job and moving to Australia in the middle of Oct. for 4 months, to work and travel. She asks for prayer for wisdom in this transition and to be able to find a good place to stay and a great job while down there.

Matt, Evie, Bella and Adeleh

Just found out that Matt's work visa for the States may take a fair bit longer than they were originally told. There is still a possibility of it happening soon, if they are accepted in the "financial hardship" category, which means that they will expedite the application and they might still be able to get down there within a good time period. So please pray that when they apply the will be received.

Jesse and Kristi

Are both finishing their masters degrees in Feb. and then will be moving home for quite a long time. They have really enjoyed their years of travel, but are now really looking forward to settling down. Please pray for God's blessing in both of their lives.

Grace

Had a wonderful time this summer with her summer intervener, Laura. They went on numerous field trips on the Handy Dart, during their 5 hours each day. It was also a real blessing because when I ended up in the hospital, Becky was able to change Laura's time schedule around and she did a number of 10 hour days, during the time while Matt was working and then he took over when he got home. Please pray for Grace's on going health.

In His Saving Grip

Trevor

Other Updates: Randy Emerson

The other person I'd asked you to pray for was Pastor Randy Emerson from Cloverdale Christian Fellowship. Here's an update from his wife Chris:

Thanks David,

I guess you didn't hear (I thought it was sent out) - Randy's heart returned to normal heart rate (after 8 days of "running a marathon day and night" as his doctor said, the day after we returned home from our church family camp. It was scary at times - He could have been in the hospital during the whole camp time, but Randy really believed the Lord told him to keep going, keep believing, and wait..... A hard one to follow because there was lots of advice, but God was faithful to His word. Randy was only going to follow normal procedure if God told him to -

So we praised the Lord.

And we are praising the Lord for Trevor and we will continue to stand against the agenda of the enemy.

We all sure love that guy - and I have sure appreciated your emails and how they were worded..... Well done!

Many, many blessings!

Chris

Other Updates: Sharon & Ramona

I had asked for prayer for Sharon & Ramona, also from the Summer of Love Convergence in San Francisco. It always bugs me when people ask for prayer, but never share the answers:

Some of you already know, but many of you do not...Ramona and I are back in WA. Our trip was so good, but so exhausting! We are so glad to be back. Thank you all for your prayers, you don't know how much they are needed!

We've been back for a couple of weeks now, but neither of us has had the time to sit and write. Ramona was hit with a sickness while we were in San Francisco, and she lost her voice for 3 weeks! I took off camping for a week, to get away and recouperate a little, but I also was taken with sickness, and so that wasn't much of a getaway. We are both still fighting this sickness, but at least we don't feel miserable anymore, and Ramona has her voice back, as of yesterday....not strong, but it's there.

We ended up getting an email from some people we met in Hawaii a few days ago. They were at the Sea-Tac airport...stuck, with no where to go, and not knowing anyone around here...not to mention they have no money. They have a flight out of here on Sept. 12th, but it was going to cost way to much to change it, so they're here till then. We made some phone calls, found a place for them (and us with them) to stay, and went and got them. Tomorrow we are on our way to Spokane for 4 days, for the Healing Rooms Conference, and they're going with us. Ramona and I feel so good about it all, it's just so interesting how God works. They are a newlywed couple, Matt and Jenny, and Jenny is from Scotland, and just so much fun to listen to! :) I love her accent!

Gosh, we are both so tired from all this, and we've both had our little breakdowns, but God is our strength, and He's not going to give us more than we can handle. It has really been a time of trusting Him, and it's stretched us in many ways. We still need a LOT of miracles to happen, and please, if you could, keep praying for us, we really need it!

Thank you all! You're a blessing!

Sharon Rose & Ramona Michelle

A New Infection

Over the weekend, Trevor’s wound got red all around it. For a while, the redness increased, then it decreased when it was prayed for (Trevor had several visitors this weekend; that was great!).

Trevor says, “I’m growing something else:” some other kind of infection is growing in his wound, and particularly along where he was stitched up. So they’ll try some other kind of antibiotic to address this new infection.

Other than this new infection, he could go home. In fact, he may anyway: there is the possibility of him going home, and them treating Trevor as outpatient. At this point, it would involve two IV infusions daily, though they’re willing to discuss oral antibiotics as well.

I gotta say, it sounded like Trevor is tired of being in the hospital. He’s been hospitalized for almost 4 weeks now, and he’s so close to being home (he’s like 5 minutes from home) that he can taste it, but he’s not home.

Sounds like exactly the right job for prayer. Let’s pray for a quick resolution to the infection, for a quick release to home, and for oral antibiotics that will work effectively (and side-effect free) to finish off this last infection!

Thanks again for your faithful prayers!

Good News From Trevor

Dear Intercessors and Prayer Warriors,

I am still in the hospital, but I have some good news:

1. We are now grandparents for a 2nd time. At 10:53pm on August 27th, Evie gave birth to Adeleh Joy Macpherson, a beautiful 6lbs9oz little girl. On Wednesday night they came up for a visit and she is just so cute.

2. Think of my wound as a long canyon and up until now they have been talking about waiting until the Wound Vac machine helped to fill the inside of the canyon and then put a skin graph across the top. This would take weeks or maybe months. But the surgeon here at Surrey Memorial said because the sides of the wound were movable enough, that the 2 sides could be brought together and joined across the top with stitches. So, I had an operation on Wednesday, and as long as it doesn't get infected I could be going home sometime next week -YEAH!

3. I realized why this was such a scary experience for me, it is because I am used to being in the front of battle with something to do, when under attack. But this time I was totally out of it and needed to count on others in this, to step in and pray me through it. I have heard from people that I was on prayer lists all over the world and Dave said that some days there were over 200 hits a day of people checking the blog site to see how to pray.

Again I thank each of you for being that part of the Body of Christ that was used by God to save my life.

Post Operative

Trevor has been operated upon. I wonder sometimes if the doctors can feel God moving them to do the things that we pray for. It's been interesting how many times in this blog, I've asked y'all to pray, and then in the next day or two, I post the how God has answered that prayer. It's so cool!

The operation went well. The ongoing prayer issue, of course, is infection: if the wound gets infected, they have to "tear it all out and start over." It's a little more complicated because they had to leave a drain in, and it's possible that an infection could bypass the skin's protection by entering through the drain. So we pray it won't!

Trevor tells me that the way that they were able to do the surgery was much simpler than they planned originally. As I said, the change was successful, but doing it this way has cut at least weeks, and possibly months, off of the healing process and possibly off of his hospital stay. As it stands now, he may be home as fast as next week.

Thanks for watching over him in prayer!

Praying for the Surgery

Trevor's wound is pretty substantial; it will require surgery to close it. In fact, until this morning, they were talking about skin grafts to close it, but the rate of his healing is so remarkable, that they don't expect to need the skin grafts. In fact, there are a number of folks that are coming by to look at Trevor, just to savor the high-speed healing process. It seems that Trevor has "a bit of a will" (which is a fine, strapping understatement), and his determination to be well appears to be helping him heal quickly. That and the prayers of the saints!!

Trevor told me that when he left the hospital in San Francisco, they took him out through the emergency department, as it has the best street access. But when he went through, all the nurses in ER that were part of his treatment clustered around: "You're going home already?" We love the power of God to heal!

So they added Trevor to "the slate" of surgeries for tomorrow. However, he can be "bumped" by an emergency surgery, so we're praying "No bumping, please." If we miss this time, we're not sure what the next option is; the doctor will be going on holiday for a while.

Another topic for prayer is infection. They'll leave a drain in the wound when they sew it shut, but infection is always a possibility. If there's no infection, he can go home perhaps as fast as next week. If there is an infection, that will be delayed, perhaps significantly, as they cut the wound open again and go to work all over again. That's not an acceptable alternative.

A final note for today: Trevor & Judy are grandparents again. Matthew & Evie have 6 pounds, 11 ounces of Adelaide to be a sister to Isabella. You should hear the pride in his voice!

An Update from Trevor!

Dear Intercessors,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers. They are literally one of
the reasons I am alive today. I am not sure if you all were able to check
out the blog web site (put together by David Mclain), so here is what
happened, in a nutshell:

Aug 7 - On our way down to the conference in San Fran. I became aware that I
had an infected bug bite on my right side. Twice during the drive down I
stopped to put a hot water and salt compress on it, hoping to draw out the
infection.

Aug 8 - I wasn't feeling very well, so during the day instead of going with
David & Todd to scout out the area, I stayed back at the hostel and rested.
That night after I spoke on the panel, I was not feeling well at all and
left the meeting hall half way through to lay down. During the night I was
having problems breathing.

Aug 9 - In the early morning (between 5-7am) I asked Dave if he could please
take me to the hospital. We went to Saint Francis Memorial, which was 4
blocks away. We went into Emergency and I remember walking in and giving my
medical cards and being lead into a treatment room, and then I passed out.

The next thing I remember is 5 days later, having the intubation tube pulled
from my throat and being told that I had come extremely close to death. They
had kept me in a semi coma for those 5 days. I am told that this is what
happened during those days:

Aug 9 (afternoon) - Doctors were trying to determine what type of infection
I had, they did a CT Scan on me and multiple blood tests. One of the tests
came back saying that the infection had spread into my blood. My daughter
Rebecca was told by the ER manager to fly down to San Fran as soon as
possible, as they did not expect me to make it through the night. My kidneys
were shutting down, almost non-functioning at the time. I was rushed in to
surgery and a portion of my right side was removed, as it had become
severely infected and was now just dead tissue, and they were trying to stop
the infection from growing further.

They were treating me for tick bite fever and a general antibiotic for the
infection, but were unaware that my daughter Grace had just tested positive
for a Streptococcus infection on her skin. Once the doctors found this out
they started me on a full array of antibiotics specifically for this.

Aug 10 - My vitals had been erratic all night and continued to worry the
doctors throughout the day. My heart rate nearly reached 200bpm, blood
pressure at one point was 180/160, and temperature was consistently high. My
organs were all starting to shut down and my lungs were on the verge of
developing pneumonia. It was not looking good. The doctors were not sure if
they should attempt more surgery, or just wait to see how the antibiotics
worked.

Aug 11 - Doctors were still contemplating more surgery, but keep it as a
last resort. They were trying to determine if the infection had spread to
the fascial layer of my skin (this is the layer just before muscles and
organs). If so then it had become necrotizing fasciitis (commonly known as
the "flesh-eating bacteria") and they were not sure if they could keep up
with the infection before it over took me. My wife Judy arrived and laid
hands on me and prayed for my recovery, my vitals gradually begin to improve
throughout the day, my heart rate getting down to 120.

Aug 12 - The doctors are checking my surgical wound every few hours to
monitor growth of the infection, it has slowed down and they are hoping not
to do any more surgery. My vitals are getting better throughout the day, but
it is still a rollercoaster ride. The doctors confirm that the infection has
touched the fascial layer but do not think it has penetrated *into* the
layer (this is crucial).

Aug 13 - At this point the doctors decide not to do another surgery, as my
vitals are getting better and the infection growth has slowed down enough
that the antibiotics should be able to stop it completely. They remove the
intubation tube. and I wake up not knowing how close I was to not making it.

Aug 14 to present - The gradual process of healing begins, keeping me
hydrated, full of antibiotics and getting complete wound care to keep it
clean and free of bacteria. It might take awhile to fully heal, but it is
much better than the alternative.

Again I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your prayers
and support. It has made all of the difference.

I hope to be able to write you all again soon.

In His Grip,

Trevor

Trevor is back in Canada!

Trevor is indeed in Canada, in the hospital near his house. Rebecca tells me that he's very glad to be close to home, but he just got set up there Saturday, and he's already antsy to get out.

In reality, his wound has flared back up again in the move: some inflammation. I didn't get the impression that the infection was flaring up, just the redness, tenderness and swelling. On the other hand, I forgot to ask in more detail: please pray as you feel led.

And we finally have gotten the Macpherson van back to them in BC. Some friends were coming up from Portland this weekend, and they stopped to pick it up. We're getting close to "back to normal." Just need to get Trevor prayed out of the hospital.

Thanks for your faithfulness and encaouragement!!

Please Pray for Randy Emerson

Trevor also asks for prayer for his friend and mine, Randy Emerson, pastor of Cloverdale Christian Fellowship. We don't know much at this point, but it appears that his thyroid is acting up in a way that is causing problems with his heart, and he may have to be hospitalized as well. Please pray for his thyroid and his heart to come into submission with their original design and for peace. Might want to pray for the leadership of the church while we're at it.

You're a blessing!

They're going home!

I spoke to Trevor last night. He's going home!

The doctors in SF and BC have finally connected, and arrangements are being made for his return to BC. He'll be transferred to a hospital in BC, in fact, it's only about 5 minutes from his home. Even better, the doctor he'll be working with appears to be the same one that treated a previous issue with him, and who knows him.

Yet another answer to prayer. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Trevor and Judy are both feeling a great sense of relief!

Trevor and Judy are Restless

When I spoke with them this afternoon, both Judy and Trevor were very eager to go home. Judy says Trevor is about ready to walk home!

There has been missed communication between the Canadian doctor and the American one: they keep playing phone tag. Please pray that they'll keep up the game of tag until they actually connect, because Trevor's not going anywhere until they do.

Both Trevor and Judy sounded in good spirits. Trevor is getting stronger. The original plan was to transfer him to a Canadian hospital. Now (and this may be because of the delay), there's a chance that they'll be able to transfer him directly to in-home care. Woo hoo!

Trevor is back among the living!!

Wow! I just got off the phone with Trevor.

I spoke with him – through Rebecca – three or four days ago, and the docs were amazed that he was strong enough to sit in the chair, but he wasn’t strong enough to talk on the phone. This evening, however, was different.

I’m sure it wasn’t the whole story, but he sounded great! He was strong, energetic, even enthusiastic! I was amazed!

He shared some things with me, however, that made me stop and sober up. Guys, this has been a series of miracles for him. I didn’t realize how close he was to being gone. When the hospital called Rebecca and Judy and asked them to come down to SF, it was to say goodbye! Dang! They didn’t expect him to get up from that hospital bed; his organs had begun to shut down, and they didn’t have a handle on the infection yet. In fact, when Rebecca got there, she had information that they used to make the correct diagnosis, and begin overcoming the infection.

When Trevor decided that he needed to go to the hospital, we just checked with the desk at the hostel, and took him to the closest one. When we walked in, the ER waiting room was empty. In Canada (where Trevor’s from), the ER room would have 20 or 30 folks in it, so he though (he tells me), “What have I gotten myself into? Is this place safe for me? We just went to the closest hospital, we didn’t ask for the good one!” And that was the last thing he remembers for five or six days.

We knew the infection was fierce. Apparently, it was fiercer than we knew. I reported some days ago that it spread horizontally, but not vertically, not far down into his body. That is unusual for this kind of infection. In fact, if it had gone one layer deeper, it would have gotten into that layer between skin and muscles (is it the “lymph system”?) and spread all over his body from there. The only thing that kept it from being described as a “flesh eating bacteria” was the unusual fact that it never got to that depth.

He’s still not completely well, however he’s well enough to be transferred to a hospital in his hometown in BC. He’s well enough to be very grateful for everyone who prayed, and everyone who passed the news and the prayer needs on to their own networks as well.

Prayer is clearly the only reason Trevor survived this episode. In fact, when Judy arrived, she and Rebecca laid hands on the unconscious Trevor and rebuked stuff. They report that it was rather like in Star Trek, when all the meters over the guy’s head suddenly move to a relatively normal setting as they inject their 24^th century miracle medicine: Many (or all) of Trevor’s vital signs suddenly came back into alignment: for example, his heart rate dropped from 200 BPM to around a hundred BPM. The nurse’s eyes got real big, and asked, “What happened??” Rebecca just pointed at Judy, who still had hands on Trevor, praying. “Oh. Prayer!”

It was great! It turns out, as reported before, that the hospital that “just happened” to be 4 blocks away was indeed the best possible place for him. Even the name was significant: Trevor is in Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, in the city of Saint Francis (San Francisco is the Spanish name for him), and Saint Francis is one of Trevor’s heroes (that’s my word); his life has been influenced by Saint Francis for years.

Thanks so much for your prayers. You’re the reason Trevor’s alive today!