I Come to the Garden...

macatacmv

Hey 3 jays, how ya doing, girl. I'm hanging in, now doing a very low calorie meal replacement diet to see if I can feel better.

Please pray, ladies, if you will, for my friend Karen (not on the boards) she is terminal now. Fading every day. Please pray for mercy!!!! She has so much grace, it is awesome!

Eph3_12

Sad day for me here.

The pastor at my church that started the day before my B/C diagnosis, is leaving. He's very young & has a wife & 2 small kids. They have felt God's call to go to India & Russell is going to help in-country pastors spread the word of Jesus.

I was worship leader when Russell came & we hit it off right away. He was just a baby then (still is) at the ripe old age of 25-now almost 30. I am older than his mother! Anyway, over the last 4 years he has been my teacher & prayer warrior as I battled cancer, the loss of my Mom, the slide of my Dad into late stage Alzheimers, near foreclosure and several other mini-crisis'. Today was his last day & as soon as he started talking about the bittersweetness of the day, I started crying & I can't seem to stop, even now, 4 hours later.

So even tho I am very happy for their impending adventure, I am very sad for myself, so I would covet your prayers.

macatacmv

prayers for you, eph, I know the feeling of losing a beloved pastor. It certainly is bittersweet. But you might also be feeling all the losses you have experienced while you have known them. Just feel the feelings and move through them. (that's my 2 cents)

chabba

You have them.  I was devistated when the Pastor who confiirmed me left our parish but he only moved 500 miles away.  To make it worse our families were friends. It just happened that when I got my first job out of college I lived only 2 hours from his new church. As long as I lived there I attended his church  at least twice a month.  As long as he lived he remained my Pastor and we stayed in touch.  He died about 10 years ago at the age of 81. 

QCA

Eph, you have my prayers too. Being a Methodist, losing a beloved pastor is not a new experience for me, but there are those pastors who really touch your heart and your soul and their loss is devastating. The one we have now, our first female minister, will be (when she eventually is sent somewhere else) a hard act to follow. She's the best minister I've ever had in my life.

Kathy

3jaysmom

eph: add my prayers to the lot. I was lucky, when my pastor left our church, he was nearby for 10 years. He helped me deal with the cancer then, but now he's not reachable. his life has taken many turns, also.

I pray often for God to watch over him in his life. I'm sure He'll do the same for your Russell.

Meece: hows my favorite "nephew" feeling?? 3jays

barbe1958

Joni, I think mac nailed it. You are re-experiencing your losses as the pastor moves on. But the pastor isn't abandoning you or your losses as you know, it will just be a different place where he remembers YOU in his prayers. Can you write to him? Use him as a pen pal? And I mean write on paper, not email, so he can hold you in his hands.

Prayers being sent for Karen who is going Home....may she continue to leave us with grace and dignity and be an example for those of us left behind that we need not fear the time of our passing.

Meece

{{{Joni}}} I can only imagine how your heart aches right now. Mac is so right, just feel the feelings.

3jays, it so comforting to have you as a prayer warrior here. Your "nephew" is doing much better. He is now staying at his own place again, but has been out here every day, just to touch bases. From the outside he appears well although he is still in pain. Tomorrow he heads to the VA to speak with the Dr. I do not know if he will be getting his bx results or not. I cannot go with him (I just can;t afford another day off since I will lose the Christmas break days this month) and asked if he could put me on speaker phone, but the dr. is in the basement of the hospital and we don't get cell coverage there.

Mac, I will pray that Karen continues her journey towards home gracefully and with minimal pain.

Thanks to each of you who are here to support each other and to share God's love with those in need.

Eph3_12

Thanks everyone!  The whole day was rough yesterday.  DD & I went over to their house yesterday afternoon around 4:30 (after I posted).  I was able to stay dry-eyed long enough to help with some cleaning, but when it was time to leave, I was a mess & honestly writing this, I am again crying.

My wise friends are right, I am sure.  I am re-feeling all the feelings over the last 4 yrs.  I will have a physical address to write & have already planned to do that.  Once they are in country, probably summer-fall 2014, I will take myself on a missions trip to India (not a place I ever thought I would go, but God works in mysterious ways) I just can't imagine not having these kids in my life.

Meece

Eph: John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

Matt got the results today, the cancer was encapsulated and has not spread. He will require regular followups and scans for the next 15 years, but the surgical removal was enough and he will need no chemo or radiation. Our God is an awesome God!

3jaysmom

Dear Father thank you for being so faithful to your children!

Congratulations, meece. Give that boy a kiss for me! 3jays

Meece

Thank you, I will.

SchoolCounselor

Thank you Lord. He is faithful!!! Wonderful news!!!!

barbe1958

Oh my God, Meece!! I have goosebumps!!! You must finally be able to breathe all the way down for the first time in weeks. What a gift to get early. Now you can celebrate the season with the focus to enjoy it. How very, very scary that cancer has touched Matt's live in yet another way, though.....must still give you adrenaline rushes of anger and fear.

sheila888

Oh Meece what a perfect Christmas present

I'm so very happy for Matt

Hugs to both of you

Sheila♥

QCA

I'm so happy for you and for Matt. Thanks be to our God's Grace and Glory!

Kathy

Eph3_12

Amem,. AMEN and yet again AMEN!! Praise God from whom ALL Blessings flow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnaH4FRvfWA

chabba

And again, Amen!

chabba

Please pray for my DH, Dick. After several months of deteriorating health and my trying to get him to go to a DR I finally got him to the Clinic today. They took his history and after about a 15 min exam they called an ambulance. He had apparently already had a damaging "silent" heart attack at some point and is a prime candidate for a major one any time. The Dr's words were "His long term prognosis is not good as things stand now."

Please pray for his health and healing and for the strength I will need to help him through this.

Eph3_12

Father God, we lift our sister Chabba up this evening, 1st & foremost, giving praise that she is our sister in your Son. We ask that you move heaven & earth to provide strength, peace & comfort for chabba as she awaits your healing for her husband Dick. We know that his life is in your hands, and we ask your will be done. I would request that chabba be able to let go and let God, Her Father, take the reins in his hands, leaving her free to lift petitions to heaven and to help nurses with hands on care. To He who is able to do much more than we ask or imagine, I praise your name & ask for healing for this family! Amen

ADJ

I agree with this prayer in Jesus' name .

barbe1958

Amen.

Dear, sweet, chabba, our hearts and prayers are with you and and Dick! May the strength of our Faith provide a blanket of peace to protect you and warm you through the long days to come.

Meece

Amen.

Lord, thank you for our sister Chabba's faith in You and that she knows You and knows how much she needs You. Please be with her and her husband during this time, giving them peace and comfort and healing.

Thank you now for answered prayers, for being steadfast even through my times of doubt, and for the times when there were only one set of footprints as you carried me. You are The Awesome God, there is no other! Amen

SchoolCounselor

Amen and Amen.

Meece

"His Eye Is On The Sparrow

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,

Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,

When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain:

I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,

For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,

And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;

Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,

When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,

I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

SchoolCounselor

this is one of my favorite songs!!!!

chabba

Just talked to DH and he is sounding so much better, more strength in is voice, not so listless. The best news of the morning is that the ER Dr. that admitted him and will be treating him through this hospitalization is my PCP and the first Dr I tried to get him in to see. He saved my life in Dec. 1999.

At the time I got sick his partner was my PCP but it was her day off so I saw Dr T. Since he was my admitting Dr he treated me through my bought with pancreatitis and I stayed with him afterwords. Any health professional around here that I've talked to since tells me he is one of the two most respected and loved Drs on the harbor. (the other is my surgeon).

Thank you for your prayers and please continue to remember us.

Meece

That is all wonderful news, Chabba. Take care of yourself during all of this, don't let yourself get run down.

chabba

DH insisted I not go into see him at the hospital today and it is probably just as well. He got a room full of visitors about noon and I'm sure they exhausted him. All of his living relatives (sister, bil, nephew, brother, sil) drove out from Olympia to see him this afternoon. The bil is particularly wearing. The brother and sil are considerate and soothing sick room visitors and hopefully will control not so dear bil.

Tomorrow he will be seeing a specialist about the edema which is not improving as expected.

Meece

May the specialist be guided by God and be able to find a solution to your DH's problem. Glad that all of his family was able to visit.