Merry Christmas!!!

 Tonight, I am 33 years old in Christ.

Christmas Eve 1989- I was 5 years old. My dad was my pastor, and I had been in church since before I was born. We had a rule in our house, once in bed, no coming back downstairs. That night, I could feel the conviction of God, although I didn't know what it was at that time. I afraid. I knew that sin was all the bad things I had done like lying, fighting, disobeying..., and I knew that there was punishment for sin, death in Hell. My dad may have preached about Hell in church on that night. All I know is I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about my sin.

 

I quietly slipped downstairs and stood at the doorway to the living room watching my dad as he sat in the light of the Christmas tree. He finally looked up and said, "What do you need?" I didn't say anything, I just went and crawled into his lap. He then started asking me questions, and I told him I needed to get saved. He explained everything I knew by heart from church. he then asked me if I understood I was a sinner. I shook my head yes. He asked if I believed Jesus died for my sin, and I said yes. He then told me that if I wanted to ask Jesus to forgive my sin and save me, I could pray and tell Jesus. I bowed my head and prayed. I don't remember what I said, but I do remember that my heart felt light, and I wasn't afraid to go to sleep.

 

Today, I passed out 75 loaves of gingerbread to our neighborhood. Everyone who accepted the breads, which was all but one person, were so happy and thankful. The one who didn't accept the read was a lady who lost her husband in October. She told me she wasn't doing anything Christmasy because she didn't want to think about it without her husband. Please pray that I can be blessing to her and win her to Christ. Each loaf of bread had a tract and a short Christmas story and plan of salvation with it.

 

Tomorrow, we will have a carol sing at our church. Please pray we have a good attendance, and that we have visitors.

Tis the Season to be Jolly

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas season even through difficulties they may be facing. So far, we have had two light snows, but we may be getting a heavier snow this weekend. While I am not a fan of the usually extremely long, cold winters of Maine, I do like snow. This year, I decorated our porches and tree outside with lights and garland. I will be putting up a manger scene banner when it arrives. We have had our Christmas tree decorated since October, but that was so my mom could celebrate with my brother's family while they were here.

We held our annual children's Christmas play this past Sunday. Each year, I choose a theme for the play even though it is always the same, simple story of Christ's birth taken from Scripture. This year's theme was Have You Any Room For Jesus. There were mishaps for me and interruptions, but the kids did fabulous as always. We had 12 visitors, and 9 of those were first timers. The spirit was great among the people. Please pray that some of these visitors will return for other services. 6 of the visitors were from group homes for people with disabilities. While some of our regular members were missing, God sent us the ones we compelled from the hedges, the halt and hurting.

Mom held our annual Ladies' Christmas party last night, and we had 12 ladies attend. The spirit was great, and the night was full of laughter. At the end, some shared testimonies. It was a nice time of fellowship. 

The 20th is fast approaching, and on that day, we need everyone who will to pray for God to work some mighty miracles. Satan is working overtime to destroy families because he knows his time is short. Pray that truth will be upheld and for Satan to be bound.

If all continues to go well, I should be in Puerto Rico starting in March. I will finish out the last 9 weeks of school for a friend who is getting married. After that, I hope to begin preparing for trips to England and Europe. Again, if all goes well, I hope to be headed there by the end of next year.

Baby Joel continues to do well. He had another heart cath today, and he had a stent put in to the artery which was narrow. He is just about to walking stage, and knows quite a few words including my name. :-) Yep, this aunt was pretty proud that he said my name before Mimi or Grandpa.

Blessings to all who support me and pray for me.

Thanksgiving Vacay

 My parents and I finally got away to see baby Colton, my parents 22nd grandchild. He is 9 months old already and is full of life and smiles. He started walking holding on to things, and he has so far said Mama, grandpa, and I love you. I'm trying to teach him to say coffee, one of the most important words in the English language. :-) It's been fun being with my sister, Jacqueline, and her husband, Phil. We have stayed up late every night playing games and talking. Tonight Phil deep fried a turkey which turned out amazing. My aunt and her son came, and we enjoyed a good time of fellowship and food. Thursday, we will spend Thanksgiving with my aunt and her family, and then we fly out of Nashville on Thursday night. 

With the many burdens we have dealt with over the last year, and the many more to deal with when we get home, this vacation has been a respite. Please keep us in prayer as we have some very important things to deal with in the near future. Please pray truth will be known and that God will intervene on behalf of some children. We need some very definite miracles.

We will be holding our children's Christmas play on December 11. Please pray that all the kids will know their lines, and please pray that their parents will attend. We are praying for souls to be saved because of this.

Baby JJ has a heart cath coming up, so please pray all is well. Keep my mom in prayer too as we continue to monitor her health and try to help her heal her hip.

Baby JJ!

 Baby JJ is doing so great! The doctors are still amazed that he came home 11 days after such extensive surgery. He had a post op appointment yesterday, and the doctors were very pleased. He is already standing, and today he said my name. He has a CT scan and heart cath coming up to check on the narrow vein he has to make sure the blood is flowing like it needs to.

Please keep my cousin Charlotte in prayer. She has cancer. She had a good appointment for her second opinion, and the doctor wants her to keep doing chemo without radiation. 

Several other family members are having various surgeries in the next few weeks. Prayers would be appreciated.

I am asking for special prayer for  an extreme unspoken request. Only by God's power can this situation be remedied. If only man's words and wisdom are relied on, the devastation for years to come will be extensive.

Please continue to pray for my mom's health. She is set to begin therapy again in a week or so. She will again be starting over because of not having therapy for  five weeks as she recovered from surgery.

Please pray that the 200+ tracts and flyers that we passed out in our town on Halloween  will bring in much fruit. 

There is much unrest in the world. Violence in Colombia, China threatening Taiwan, N. Korea testing missiles, Russia still fighting in Ukraine, hurricanes and flooding in Belize. Please keep the missionaries in prayer.

Due to all the trials our family has gone and is going through, and because my brother's family visited, my mom decided to start decorating early for Christmas. We usually wait until Thanksgiving. Today I decorated our porch and put some lights in our tree outside. It was nice to do a little something out of our routine. Sometimes a little change can brighten up a day.

Health Updates and Requests

I apologize that I have not posted an update sooner. I thought I had done one right after Joel's surgery, but either it didn't save or I posted it somewhere else and forgot to post here.

 

Update on baby Joel-  Because Joel was thriving so well, the doctors continued to delay his second surgery in hopes that his heart would grow and he would have good weight gain before surgery. They finally scheduled his surgery on October 4. The surgery not only required a partial Glenn procedure for the left hypoplastic heart syndrome, but it also required rerouting a vein which wrapped the heart instead of just entering at the correct point. Joel also had two of the same artery coming from his brain. The spliced those two arteries together, and the second one flows by gravity instead of pumping into the lungs. The bands placed in the first surgery were also removed. Joel did very well through the 9 hour surgery. They kept him open for awhile and did a heart cath to make sure everything was flowing right. The heart cath showed one vein to the lungs that did not reinflate all the way after the bands were removed, so a stent was put in. Joel was then moved to PICU and his chest, though still open, was covered with a large bandage. This was a precaution in case he had any emergencies and needed to go back to surgery. Within a couple of days, Joel's chest was closed. He continued to thrive, and most of his tubes, IVs... were removed within  a week. The doctor's had said a 4-5 week stay was the least amount of time Joel would be in the hospital, but on October 15, just 11 days after surgery, Joel came home! he is doing very well, and other than some precautions about not being on his stomach and not lifting him under the arms, he is able to live a normal life. Thank you for all the prayers. We know it is because of the prayers that Joel is doing so well. Continue to pray he has no setbacks.

My mom was doing better with the therapy for her torn muscles and chipped hip bone, but three weeks ago through strange circumstances, she ended up having an emergency appendectomy. She still has a couple weeks of recovery to go. Please pray that she will heal properly with no complications.

My oldest brother, Josh, rides a motorcycle for funeral processions for vets. About two weeks ago, he was riding, and something flew up from the road and hit his hand. He assumed it was a wasp or something because his hand swelled. Within a few days it was very infected. He finally went to the hospital when his entire arm was inflamed and he lost feeling in the hand. The doctor had to cut the finger that was hit and part of the hand to release the infection. After sending the infected tissue off for analysis and putting Josh on strong antibiotics, the results of the tissue analysis revealed that Josh had a staph infection and MRSA. The antibiotics the doctor put Josh on had already begun working on the MRSA, and Josh's body began to respond to them. The doctor kept him for observation a few days, and sent him home with strong antibiotics and careful cleansing instructions. He will be off work for a month. Please pray he continues to heal and that God provides for his family during this time.

Now that Joel has come through surgery, I am just watching to see how my mom's health is doing before beginning flight bookings for some missions trips. There is a possibility I will end up in Puerto Rico for the end of the school year if my mom's health improves and a few other things fall into place. Please pray that the world stays open and travel remains possible.

I have an extremely important unspoken request. Continuous prayer would be appreciated as the answer may take a  lengthy amount of time to come.

 

Prayers Needed

 My mom has suffered another health setback. On Sunday, September 25, she had an emergency appendectomy. It is a long recovery process. Please pray the pain will ease, and that she will have no complications.

My 8 month old nephew, Joel, will be having his second open heart surgery on Tuesday, October 4. He has left hypoplastic syndrome which will be repaired along with extra veins that will be rerouted, veins that wrap the heart that will be rerouted, and a narrow aortic arch which will be expanded. Please pray all goes well with no complications during surgery, and please pray his recovery is quick.

My sister Joy had a miscarriage a few days ago. Please pray for her in regards to this and some unspoken things.

Please continue to pray that I can begin traveling again. Mom's health is the main reason I have not begun traveling.

Fall Is Upon Us.

Where does the time go? I cannot believe it has been over a month since I posted an update. Life seems to happen and move too quickly these days. During the last week of August, we began to see a bit of color in the leaves. Soon the countryside will be covered with the colors of fall. We have already had cold enough temperatures in the night and early mornings that I am sleeping with blankets. I believe we are going to have a long cold winter.

Last Sunday, we began our kids program Anchor Adventures again. We are working hard to regain some of the kids we have lost since the program was closed down for the winter and because I was staying with my sister most of the spring. Please pray that our kids will again become faithful, and that they will get a burden to reach their friends and family with the Gospel.

We finally took out a wall which was hindering growth in our downstairs auditorium. I am praying that the empty chairs will push our members to get out and bring in people to fill them. It is sad that so many Christians allowed their practices of faithful church attendance and soulwinning to slacken because of covid. If anything there should have been an urge to tell others about Christ because of the fear of death being on everyone's minds.

My sister's baby has been doing pretty well, but weight gain has been a huge hurdle. After trying several formulas and finally finding one that seemed to work, the government control on the formula has caused her issues in being able to always get what he needs. Please pray he continues to gain weight and do well. They still haven't met about his second surgery, and my prayer is that by the time they do, his heart will have grown what he needs. God is a God of miracles, and I believe this could happen if God allows it to.

A month or so ago, my 18 year old cousin Charlotte was diagnosed with lymphoma. Please pray that her treatments work and for wisdom and strength for her and her family.

My mom's health is still the same. Please pray that her heart rate and blood pressure will even out. Pray also that her hip will heal so that she can regain strength and mobility.

Please pray for me as I look to possible heading out on a series of trips in either the spring or summer. I am waiting for answers and healing for my mom and nephew before heading out.