Spring 2008

And what a great spring it's been here in Wake Forest (even though I just picked a tic off) we've had beautiful weather, beautiful flowers blooming and our time is approaching to have our whole family together for the beach..yahoo!

Just returned from a quick week in CA to help Dana, Sue and the kids do some shopping etc and get ready to come.

Sue's condition still declines somewhat, but certainly not her spirit. She blesses us as she walks through each day with a smile on her face and praise on her lips. She was recently given a special award in San Jose for her great contribution as a wife and mother.

A song I often play on my guitar in the mornings reminds me of Sue these days:

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with thee , thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."

Also had the great fun of doing a 10K with Nicko in CA (he ran with a bud, I walked) and it was right on the beach.

Have a great day in Jesus.

LAST CA VISIT

April 18

I've been home a week now from my last CA visit. It was great because my honey got to go with me.

The highlight of the trip was a surprise 50th birthday party for Dana held at a hundred acre park with families and food galore and he totally surprising him.

It was almost as good for Sue as for Dana because she so wanted to honor him and give him a special day which is hard to do with the physical limits she has. But her great planning and her faithful friends pulled it off.

The next day Sue and I had a visit with her Lyme specialist in Malibu CA and had a great mom-daughter day being together for 14 hours (we were tired when we got home) but it was such fun.

Dr. Harris' new treatment plans for Sue:

• aggressively treat Sue for Babesia (another parasitic infection caused by ticks)
• evaluate treatment in one month, May 13th
• take Sue safely off other rigorous medicines to alleviate the difficult meds schedule
• continue on 3 antibiotics, a few natural supplements and Parkinsons meds

Prayer requests:

• pray Sue will be able to handle side effects and they won't bee too severe. (The treatment can have very bad side effects for 3-4 days. That's one way the doctors can know they are targeting the right infection.)
• continue to pray without ceasing for her healing; that our Sovereign God will answer according to His divine plan
• pray that she will not lose heart, that inwardly she will be renewed day by day, that God will give her songs in the night. 2 Cor 5:16, Ps. 42:8
• like Jabez, pray God will continue to increase her influence for his Kingdom. I Ch 4:10

Thanks for caring and praying. Last night Sue had a bad fall and had to go to ER for 5 stitches. One of her most stressful falls; when I asked Dana how he was doing he replied 'after we saw she was ok and we all quit crying, we're doing well.'

All the above followed after a large group of people prayed and fasted for Sue over a 40 day period and though we'd like to see some different anwers for Sue on His behalf we trust His love and His sovreignty in Sue's life.

Maxine

PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE!

I forgot in my eagerness to tell you about the storm and my desire to put Sue's condition at present before you, to yet Praise God for how he continues to bless this family.

As I read Kent's blog a few minutes ago when he talked about our coming year and the great challenges, blessings and heartaches (paraphrased) we can all look forward to in the coming year, I'm still reminded of the lyrics:

His Grace still amazes me...

and that's what I see happening when I think: 'how can Sue continue to have her big smile when she is so challenged to do just a little bit of life'; how can Dana keep up with his schedule and yet so patiently and lovingly serve Sue and the kids; how can the kids remain joyful and cheerful when there is/could be so much stress within their home...and it all comes back to

HIS GRACE

It is working mightily here. Please pray that it continues to and pray especially for Sue that she will do two things that the doctors can't do for her: discipline herself to get more rest (earlier to bed) which helps both her and Dana and work at keeping herself hydrated.

Bye,

Maxine

A NOTE FROM STORMY CALIFORNIA...

Yes, we've had some severe storms, in fact, for those of you who prayed about our trip to Escondido for a wedding...we didn't go. I had to make a decision about the drive and high winds, flash floods and heavy rains were predicted for our exact route down therefore I didn't feel the responsible thing to do was expose the family to those conditions for a 6 hr drive; particularly since Sue has been feeling extremely fatigued since Christmas with no reserves for that kind of a trip.

I felt bad saying no but someone had to make the call...the kids were great. Once the initial disappointment was over they turned it around and decided to 'go camping' in the living room.

Karis wanted to know if we had a tent and I said 'no, but remember when you were little all you needed were chairs and blankets to drape over them.' So the tent has been up for two days; Friday we added 5 high school boys and had a 'full house'. They roasted hot dogs in the fireplace, played cards and other board games and had a great day while it stormed like crazy outside.

We had some blood work drawn for Sue Sat. Dana thinks she's anemic although it may just be post Christmas fatigue. We all push hard during the season and Sue has no reserve to push from but she pushes anyway. She felt much better yesterday with an extra day's rest so hopefully she's on the road to some better days.

Still lots of testing, watching, trying new combinations of meds to work on the Lyme and Bartinella diseases. A friend's physician brother told here over the holidays that the infectious disease partner in their group automatically refers all Lyme cases someplace else because 'it takes such a long time to track and treat it and we just don't have/want to take the time out of our practice to do it.'

Bittersweet because it is an admission that there is lots of it around but also validates the point (made on most Lyme websites) that it isn't fast or easy to treat.

Dana did make it to the wedding so the family was represented; they were sad we couldn't come as we were but I feel it was the right thing to do. Sue said she had bathed it in prayer too and felt relieved when she heard my decision.

I've just dropped the kids off at Sunday School and come back for Sue so we can go to church. One service is what she manages best these days.

She remains active on their Missions Committee and she and Karis worked last evening to creates something special for table decorations for their conference in March; she'll share it at their meeting tomorrow evening.

Thanks for listening and God Bless You.

Maxine

UPDATE FROM CALIFORNIA...

Gene and I just returned from a pre-Christmas trip to our CA Ostbys...to take gifts, decorate the tree and enjoy hot cider and popcorn, see a beautiful musical at their church and then dash back home to get ready for Christmas here as we welcome our two east coast families for Christmas.

Thanks to you all for praying. We found Sue much the same EXCEPT she has started falling again which is really dangerous to her and so we'd like special prayer for her equilibrium and balance. As usual, she doesn't complain and has thrown herself into the joy of Christmas with her family even though everything takes her lots longer and consumes so much energy.

And while I speak about the prayer needs I don't want to overlook two great praises:

• God is so faithful to minister his Word to us when we are open to Him. The 2nd night we were in CA I woke up in the middle of the night so burdened for the needs I saw that I couldn't 'fix' and as I tossed and turned but couldn't sleep, a familiar verse from Psalms flooded my mind "Be still and know that I am God". Exactly my need, right then, to trust God for the needs, to know that God would burden people to pray for what He knows they need, to remember that He is God, I'm not and leave it there.
• Second praise, their church has set up a fund for those who have wanted to help them financially and weren't sure how (thanks Small Group for praying...it happened the next day)!

We had quite an adventure coming home; got stuck in Los Angeles, then got stuck again in Dallas..with no more flights to Raleigh so we caught a flight to D.C. and got to bed there at 2am...then today our flight to Raleigh couldn't land due to high winds; after two attempts we went to Greensborough, stayed 10 minutes, then back to Raleigh with another aborted attempt at landing and then..ONE MORE TIME...and we did it..so somewhere in my minds eye I see us trying to land 5 times at Raleigh and finally succeeding on the last attempt...a bit of a white knuckle trip but I always figure the pilot wants to get there safely as much as I do so let him do his job. He did get some big time prayer support from both Gene and I, I must admit.

We're reminded the reason for the season often, we just need to remember and do it! He's so worthy of our adoration and praise.

Maxine

PERSPECTIVE OF PRAYER

Last week in CA we were having lunch out on the deck and the sandwich plate was nearing empty with only one half of a sandwich remaining. Alisha said 'I want another half, does anyone else? Sue replied she did so Alisha sail 'I'll go in and make another sandwich for mom and I to split. Karis replied 'wait, you don't have to make another one, all you have to do is cut this one in half.' When we reminded her that this would only give Alisha and Sue a quarter of a sandwich she said 'Oh, when I eat a sandwich it's always just a half, so when I think of a whole sandwich I see it as only a half.

What does a Perspective of Prayer have to do with a tuna sandwich...obviously a good question.
Back in Wake Forest just in time for Sunday morning church, Larry preached an excellent sermon on 'Staying Sane in a Crazy Pace.' I suspect very few reading this cannot identify completely. He took us through specific parts of the gospels showing us that Christ's way, (whether it was renewing himself after great healing miracles, in sorrow as on hearing of John the Baptist's death, or before making vital decisions:choosing the Apostles) was to spend great amounts of time ALONE WITH THE FATHER...one of my favorite verses along those lines is Matthew 5:16 "but He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

So what does a Perspective of Prayer have to do with a tuna sandwich? I'm glad you asked. Websters Dictionary says on perspective 'a specific point of view in understanding or judging things or events, especially one that shows them in their true relation to one another.'

Just as Karis' perspective of a half sandwich as really being a whole was from her point of view, I find my perspective, my specific point of view in understanding or judging things or events, especially one that shows them in their true relation to one another is affected greatly by spending time with the Father and His Word, especially as much as possible first thing in the day.

An update on Sue: we've started with her 2nd new doctor and look forward to what he'll do for her..I'll let you know.

Maxine

November 2...Isn't this supposed to be Daylight Savings Weekend???

BACK IN CALIFORNIA....where the weather is beautiful, albeit a bit of fog thrown in which caused Dana's flight to be moved from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara and a longer drive for me and definitely a longer flight for him as he missed connections and had to do a "Red Eye" into Raleigh and go directly to his conference.

SUE is beginning a new treatment "Cowden Protocol", all natural regimen, and I'm hopeful to learn more about just what they see it doing in her body when we see her new doctor on Wednesday. I'll let you know.

Sue continues to bring joy to those around her as she deals with her life as it is today; in a recent testimony at a Missions Conference she shared that God had revealed to her how very much He loves her...just as she is...just as she was when she had a "fuller ministry in Indonesia", just as she will be in whatever the days ahead bring, it is the knowledge of God's great love for her ...just as she is that is so meaningful. What an important thing for each of us to dwell on...in our hearts and in our minds.

Do you ever stop to think how powerfully our minds dictate to us..our emotions...our choices...no wonder God tells us it's VITAL to renew our minds daily.

As we put His truth into our minds our perspective becomes less self centered and more God centered. Beth Moore takes it a step further asking God to invade her dream life, her thoughts when she sleeps and every closet in her brain putting His truth into the innermost parts of her mind, even those she doesn't know exist. I WANT THAT!

Have a great weekend! I'm off to walk for an hour at the beach...Half Marathon Training...not just fun (smile).

Maxine

PS....LeeinAG ..you commented a while back on my blog about doctors but I don't know how to reach you. I'm assuming you live in AG...my email is OzzBee@aol.com if you want to contact me.

M.